Christians are to live by faith, not sight. That’s true. But it doesn’t mean that God does not give us clear teachings, evidences and knowledge of who He is, and of who we are. Many Christians assume that God answers prayer…but ask them where it says that in the Bible, they don’t know. They assume He does. Many Christians think they are living the life God wants them to live, but ask them to prove it according to God’s word, they cannot think of any verse to show as proof. Many Christians have an idea concerning the end of the world, but they get their ideas from the movie “2012”, the Mayan calendar, or even Nostradamus. Ask them where in the Bible it says that the world we live in today will one day be destroyed, and they don’t know where or what God teaches. It’s sad.
Christians are meant to be a people who KNOW, not a people who assume, or who guess upon who God is and what He desires from us. In the first epistle that John wrote he wanted his believers to understand this – that they should know. All over the letter he reminded them of things that they should know, and it serves as a checklist for us today of how much we do know about our God and our Christian life.
1 John 2:5-6 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
1 John 2:18 18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
1 John 3:10 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
1 John 3:16 16 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.
1 John 3:24 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
1 John 5:2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
How do we know we are “in Him”? How do we know it is the last hour? How do we know who the children of the devil are? Or what love is? That He lives in us? That we truly love the children of God?
Sadly there are many Christians who do not know. This is why God calls us to pray, to read His Word, meditate upon it. This is why a Christian is to pursue every opportunity to study, learn, fellowship with other believers…so that we may know more about our Lord, and about who we are. Many today limit their “study” to the Sunday sermon. We know more of quotes and sayings in facebook , rather than the words of our Lord.
Isaiah 40:21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?…
I pray we all keep growing in the knowledge of who our God is, and the truth He desires we keep in our hearts.
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