John – God and Love
We can easily be fooled by great illusionists who cause our brains to see what isn’t really there or to see it from a different perspective. An illusion, by definition, is seeing something that is or is likely to be wrongly perceived or interpreted by the senses. There are some, John says, that know of Jesus, but are only impressed with him…as an illusion.
There are many in the world and inside God’s church who are merely impressed with Jesus, do good deeds, but do not know the realty of Jesus as Savior AND Lord of their lives. They are merely impressed with what he did a long time ago. They can even quote some of his teachings. Some confuse wives’ tales with scripture causing all kinds of confusion. What they are missing, most of all is the realty of eternal life offered by God through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. Our response is repentance of our sin. Done. We are then forgiven forever.The reality is this, John writes, “that you who believe in God’s Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion.”
DO you know beyond doubt? Good question for meditation so that we evaluate the realty of who we are in Jesus. Merely impressed? OR Deeply devoted?
1 John 5, The Message
Part Two
The Reality, Not the Illusion13-15 My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God’s Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion. And how bold and free we then become in his presence, freely asking according to his will, sure that he’s listening. And if we’re confident that he’s listening, we know that what we’ve asked for is as good as ours.
16-17 For instance, if we see a Christian believer sinning (clearly I’m not talking about those who make a practice of sin in a way that is “fatal,” leading to eternal death), we ask for God’s help and he gladly gives it, gives life to the sinner whose sin is not fatal. There is such a thing as a fatal sin, and I’m not urging you to pray about that. Everything we do wrong is sin, but not all sin is fatal.
18-21 We know that none of the God-begotten makes a practice of sin—fatal sin. The God-begotten are also the God-protected. The Evil One can’t lay a hand on them. We know that we are held firm by God; it’s only the people of the world who continue in the grip of the Evil One. And we know that the Son of God came so we could recognize and understand the truth of God—what a gift!—and we are living in the Truth itself, in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. This Jesus is both True God and Real Life. Dear children, be on guard against all clever facsimiles.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for Your Son, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for Your Holy Spirit that is real and active in our lives, who clarifies all Truth. Thank you for all you have done, are doing and will do in our lives to make Your Presence known to us. You are amazing, real, steady and unchanging in Your love and actions. Yes, I believe. I am not merely impressed the more I think of the reality of You. Help us to be on guard for copies of you that the devil tries to put in front of us. Help us to only have eyes for you! You never let me down!
In Jesus Name, Amen. I believe.
