Monday
1 John 3.16-17 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?”
These two verses provide a chain of logic that makes compassion and generous self-giving an obligation, not an option. For the Christian believer, the cross of Jesus is the highest index of what love for others looks like. That word pity means empathy, to feel for someone so that their pain and struggle becomes a compelling argument for us to help them, out of a love and compassion that originates in God.
Tuesday
1 John 3.18 “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”
Children of God show the characteristics of the Father. Ten times John uses the affectionate family name to encourage obedience. Love may begin with emotion and thought, but it is fulfilled in action. Love is at its most convincing in our actions and behaviour towards those we say we love. Yes love is announced and confided in our words; but words are only proven and made convincing when they are made actual and visible. Love is practical; it only comes true when we behave in a loving way.
Wednesday
1 John 3.19 “This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us.”!
How do we come before God with confidence and without embarrassment? By living in the truth of Christ, and in the light and love of God. John keeps coming back to these three things – truth, light, love. Belonging to the truth, knowing Christ the truth and aligning our lives with Him as we seek to follow faithfully in his steps. That is where peace is found. And yes, we often enough sin, lose our way, step outside the truth that is the heart and soul of our lives. At such times our heart condemns us. But John, like the good pastor he is, knows how to break that double bind of felt failure.
Thursday
1 John 3.20 “For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”
This is one of the most telling words of pastoral wisdom in the entire New Testament. We have an Advocate with the Father; Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins; God is greater than our conscience; he knows our failures, our guilt, and our repentance. He also knows the life of faith and love we try so hard to live in Christ. God knows our worst, and our best. When we sin our heart condemns us; but God is greater than our inner sorrow, shame and guilt. He knows everything, the whole convoluted mess is fully known, and yet, “He is faithful and just and cleanses from all unrighteousness.” God is the great repairer of broken hearts, and broken egos!
Friday
1 John 3.21 “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God.”
Confidence before God is quite a mild translation. Bold is the stronger word, and means the freedom to speak freely. “Bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown through Christ my own!” Apostle John is now giving a dressing room team talk! A winning attitude, mental strength, mutual encouragement, recovered motivation – confidence before God is all of these. John is seeking to instil a renewal of faith, a strengthening of love, and a new grasp of the truth as it is in Jesus.
Saturday
1 John 3.22 “We have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.” (Part 1)
This is an astonishing verse! Apostle John is apparently taking Jesus literally: “You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it…I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” We all struggle with the experience of praying, sometimes in desperation, and what we pray for doesn’t happen. Unanswered prayer can be a bewildering experience that knocks our confidence. What are we to make of those words – “receive from him anything we ask”? Is prayer always a blank cheque? Or a signed cheque that sometimes bounces?
Sunday
1 John 3.22 “We have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.” (Part 2)
Prayer is never an unconditional offer of whatever we want, when we want it. We can never fully know the purposes of God. The benevolence and providence of God will always be a mystery to us; but he who did not spare his own Son but freely gave him up for us all – will he not, with him, freely give us all things? The one sure thing that underwrites our every prayer is the love of God, expressed in his covenant faithfulness towards us in Christ. We cannot know why at times we do not receive what we ask. What we do know is that God’s sovereign will towards us is guided by covenant love and enduring faithfulness. That we do know, so we go on trusting the One we call Father,“keeping his commands and doing what pleases him.”
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