Long Island Abundant Life Church 長島豐盛生命教會
  • Home
  • About Us 關於教會
    • Mission Statement - 使命宣言
    • Statement of Faith - 信仰立場
    • Biblical Marriage - 合乎聖經的婚姻
    • Church Leadership - 教會同工
    • Directions - 路線圖
    • Documents - 表格與文件下載
    • Contact Us - 聯絡我們
    • Ministry openings
  • Chinese Ministry 華語事工
    • 崇拜
    • 講道集 >
      • 主日信息
      • 特會 / 講座
    • 主日學
    • 門訓小組 >
      • 門訓小組介紹
    • 團契
    • 讀經
  • English Ministry 英文事工
  • Youth 少年事工
    • Worship
    • Sunday School
    • Youth Fellowship
    • Events
    • Our Vision
    • Connect with Us
    • Parent Resources
    • Youth Prayer Requests
  • Children's Ministry 兒童事工
    • Children's Worship - 兒童崇拜 >
      • Children's Songs - 歌曲
      • Junior Worship, Archive - 學習內容
      • Junior Worship, Current - 學習內容
      • Preschool Worship, Archive - 幼兒崇拜
    • Sunday School - 主日學 >
      • Preschool - 低年級
      • Middlers, Current - 高年級
      • Elementary, Archive - 高年級
    • VBS-特别暑期聖經班 >
      • EVENTS- 特別活動
    • Nursery - 幼兒照顧
    • Resources - 資源
  • Missions/Evangelism 宣教/佈道
    • Global Mission 全球宣教
    • Missions Ministry 宣教事工
  • Chinese School 中文學校
  • Church Activities / News / Calendar 教會活動 / 消息 / 行事曆
    • Special/urgent 特別/緊急
    • Calendar 教會行事曆
    • Bulletin 週報
    • Archive 檔案 >
      • Pray for Hindus 2018 為印度人禱告
      • Seek God 2019 尋求神
      • Misc. 其他
  • Chinese Student Ministry 学生事工
    • Campus Ministry 校园事工
    • CSF 衣
    • CSF 食
    • CSF 住
    • CSF 行
  • Links 资源鏈接
  Long Island Abundant Life Church 長島豐盛生命教會

1 John 2:28–3:24

12/8/2012

 
Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Where Assurance Comes From
Just  a quick quote today on some of my favorite verses in the Bible.  They're really important and far less known and understood than they should be.  So much of 1 John so far has been focused on people who think that they know God, but are revealed by their deeds (or lack thereof).  These verses in chapter 3 focus on the other side:  those who truly know God, but doubt their salvation:

"If we repunctuate verses 19–20, we can better clarify John’s thought, particularly if we make the first clause clearly point to what comes before. Initially, therefore, John is making two points, which we can paraphrase in this manner:

  19a:
“In this [the love and obedience we exhibit, vv. 11–18] we will know that we are of the truth.”

  19b–20:
“We will reassure our hearts in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us, because (1) God is greater than our hearts, and (2) God knows all things.”

This paraphrase gives a clear strategy about what to think when moments of profound insecurity overtake us. Our assurance is anchored in God and God alone, never in our own ability to generate feelings of confidence. John is urging that God is the final arbiter of our personal spiritual well-being. We do not look into our hearts to see if we feel secure and then use this as evidence of our security in the truth. If our conscience condemns, God overrides its verdict. This is possible for two reasons: God is mightier than our hearts, and he knows far more about us than we can ever imagine." [1] (emphasis mine)

[1] Gary M. Burge, Letters of John, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 163-64.
Andrei
12/8/2012 08:40:53 pm

LoL; I'm glad you posted about message of reassurance, because I somehow found this passage to be discouraging; roflcopter. I was thinking maybe I'm just getting caught up in the wording on this particular section and not taking into account what the Bible says consistently in other sections or something. Like verses 8-10 seem to indicate that whoever makes a practice of sinning is doomed... but don't we all make a practice of sinning whether we want to or not? 19-22 was confusing to me; I think I was concentrating more on verse 21 as saying that our hearts can't condemn us if we want to have confidence before God or something like that.

greg
12/9/2012 07:07:34 am

It's important to understand what John means by "continue in sin". He's not saying anyone that sins at all, but those that continue to live a life ruled and driven by sin - someone still a "slave to sin" (see Romans 6). If a person like says that they know God, they are deceived.

Kevin Kuo
12/11/2012 02:30:56 am

Yes I was struck too by the verses about continuing in sin but I quickly rebuked Satan's attempts to give me a downer by remembering what we read recently about the elect and that we don't earn our salvation. That our walk with God is a continual process of sanctification and there is no point in our earthly life that we are fully devoid of sin. So attempts to convict me of being some perpetual sinner because of struggles God is working in my life will fall on deaf ears.

greg
12/11/2012 02:53:40 am

It's a hard balance. Just like we talked about before, we need to live in grace and understand what you just said, but we also need to not forget the "missing category of the righteous man" in that we CAN pursue holiness and be transformed and sanctified by God. Does that mean perfection? No. Does it mean progress? I think so.


Comments are closed.

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.