1 John (Program #18) – The World and the Things in the World

One of the interesting words in the original language of the New Testament is cosmos. This Greek word is normally translated in the Bible as “world”.

In John 3:16 “For God so loved the world (cosmos) that He gave His only begotten Son..” to save it.  Yet in John’s epistle we are told not to love the cosmos, because it’s impossible for us to both love the world and love God the Father at the same time.

The reason that we as believers need to flee and any attachment of the world is that the world is a mask for God’s enemy, Satan.

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1 John (Program #16) – Conditions of the Divine Fellowship (9)

John first epistle as a continuation of his gospel stresses the eternal life. And specifically the fellowship or flow of this divine life that is available for all of us as His children to experience.

But though our salvation is unconditional there are conditions for us to stay in the fellowship of life experimentally. The first of this condition is found in chapter one and this is a basic requirement for every believer to maintain their enjoyment of Christ as life.

1 John 1:7, 9
7 “But if we walk in the light as He 1is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.”

9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Keeping sure account by confessing our sins before God is vitally important. But John brings us another important condition for maintaining the fellowship of life and that is to love the brothers.

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1 John (Program #15) – Conditions of the Divine Fellowship (8)

The two conditions of the divine fellowship involves sin on the negative side and love on the positive side. On the negative side we need to deal with sin, on the positive side we need to exercise ourselves to love God and love the brothers.

Therefore sin must be dealt with and love must be perfected. If we deal with sin and exercise ourselves to love God and the brothers, we shall fulfill the conditions of keeping ourselves in the fellowship of the divine life.

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1 John (Program #6) – Conditions of the Divine Fellowship (1)

All genuinely blood washed, Spirit regenerated believers in Christ have become children of God and we can never break this marvelous relationship in life with our Savior God.

Yet in our experience we all know that our fellowship with God can be broken. Unfortunately this happens to us all too frequently and we miss the fellowship with the Lord that we love. So, the apostle John helped us in a practical way in his first epistle to deal with this.

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1 Peter (Program #10) -The Full Salvation of the Triune God and Its Issues (8)

As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we accept the Bible as truth.  John 17 says specifically, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”  And so when we come to verses such as John 3:16 for example, “for God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”  We take that as truth without question.  But are we satisfied merely to accept the objective fact that God surely loves us or have we  in fact experienced His love in a personal and subjective way? 

The apostle Peter was one, whom no doubt knew the objective teaching of God’s love.  But it must have been his deep and personal experience and appreciation of the loving Savior that prompted him to write in the deeply and experiential manner that we find in his New Testament epistles.

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1 Peter (Program #8) -The Full Salvation of the Triune God and Its Issues (6)

All genuine Christian experience is based on truth. The truth or reality convey in Scripture forms the base or foundation of all our real spiritual experience. Peter’s first epistle in the New Testament very much illustrates this point. The first twelve verses in chapter one lay out some of the great truth of the whole Bible.  Such as our being chosen according to the foreknowledge of God and our being regenerated unto a living hope and unto an incorruptible, undefiled and unfading inheritance, an inheritance that Peter shows us should be our portion, not just in eternity but also today. The in verse thirteen Peter goes on to tell us that based upon all these rich divine truths, we should gird up the loins of our mind and soberly set our hope on the grace that is ours at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

If we take Peter’s way, if we give ourselves to the word in this way, we will find that our own love and experience of the Lord as well as our love for one another will be greatly enriched and strengthened as well.

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James (Program #4) – Practical Virtues of Christian Perfection (4)

In chapter one of the Epistle of James, three major points are covered: the divine birth in verse 18, receiving the implanted word in verse 21, and the perfect law of freedom in verse 25. First God brought us forth he regenerated us by the word of truth. Hence the word of truth is the seed of life for our divine birth. After being regenerated by receiving this seed, we need to continue to receive the implanted word, which is able to save our soul in our daily life.

According to verse 18, the word of truth is for regeneration in our spirit. According to verse 21, we need the implanted word for the daily salvation of our soul. Moreover according to verses 25-27, we need the perfect law of freedom so that we may live a God-fearing life. A life that might be considered religious in a proper sense. Such a life corresponds to God’s heart, which is love, and to God’s nature, which is holiness.

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Hebrews (Program #25) – An Evil Heart of Unbelief Deserting the Living God and the Living Word of God and the Parts of Man

Our heart is a loving organ. We should exercise our heart to love the Lord, even to say, “Lord Jesus, I love You. Fill my heart with Your love so that I might love you with my whole being.”

The book of Hebrews presents Christians with 5 serious warnings resulting in falling short of God’s reward. But in the midst of these warnings, the Spirit includes a striking portion of unveiling the three parts of man. Could this be a clue as to how not to fall short of God’s goal? more…

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1 Timothy (Program #12) – A Man of God

“But you, O man of God, flee these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, meekness. Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold on the eternal life, to which you were called and have confessed the good confession before many witnesses.”

That was 1 Timothy 6: 11 & 12. And the title of today’s life study of Timothy program #12 is “A man of God”.

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2 Thessalonians (Program #23) – A Word of Correction of the Misconception Concerning the Day of the Lord’s Coming (1)

The subject of Paul’s second epistle to the Thessalonians were encouragement and correction concerning the holy life for the Church life.

Verse 3-5 of chapter 1 say : “We ought to thank God always concerning you, brothers, even as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly and the love of each one of you all to one another is increasing, So that we ourselves boast in you among the churches of God concerning your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions which you bear, a plain indication of the righteous judgment of God that you may be account worthy of the kingdom of God for which also you suffer.“

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