1 John 4:7-10

Beloved, we might love, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been begotten from God and is knows God. ⁸ Everyone who does not love is not known by God because God is love.⁹ In this the love of God is manifested in our case, because God sent His only son into the world in order that we might come to live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he has loved us and sent His son as a propitiation for our sins. (My translation)

John continues to drive home that love and the Christian's life are together as one. Verse 7 gives the substance of our own love. Those that are in Christ love because God loved them. His is the one that gives us love. Also notice that love characterizes the one that is "begotten" and "knows" God. This relates to John 14, where Jesus mentions that love for him is equal to obeying Him. The action of loving others identifies one as a Christian. Private devotion does not shows one to be a Christian. This is not to neglect these things because that is what God uses to help Christians grow in love. The negation in verse 8 just repeats what is said in verse 7.
Lets not move to quickly past this. The way we act towards others show much. In Lane and Tripp's book, "How People Change," they explain that how people react in situations reveal their hearts. Other people and situations do not case a person to act in certain ways. As Christians, when we act in a not loving way it reflects bad on the goodness and love of God. Now, this is not a excuse for those that do not believe. A life that is characterize as not loving shows that they are not really from God. This is noticed in the difference in verse 7 and 8. The verb "knows" and "known" are the same verb is different tenses. For the sake of simplicity, the first is present and the second is past tense. This difference in the tenses show a great deal. It is the difference is one knowing God and the other never knowing God.
Finally verses 9  and 10 starts with a common phrase in 1 John, "in this." John uses this phrase to connect different arguments. It is used 14 times in 1 John and it means from this past information this next set of information is also true. So here,  John is saying that we know this love of God because of He sent His son on earth. This was done so that Christians can have life. Verse 10 then gives us an explanation of this, using "in this." God's love is demonstrated in the sacrifice of Jesus as a "propitiation for our sins."
What does this mean for our life? We love as a continuation of His love to us. Our love reflects the love of Christ. This love is based on the new life that we have in Christ. Christ who acted loving all the time, is our example of what love looks like. It is not a self-seeking love but a love of others. Christian life is not about me but about Christ. As we learn more about God, it should cause us to love others more than self. It is seeing Christ as the one that bore our sin and then living accordingly to others. Love is not seeking revenge for sins committed against us but forgiving others. Love seeks to bring life and forgiveness restores the broken life we have with others. 

1 John 3:1

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Our circumstances don't cause us to act as we do. They only expose or true condition of our hearts, revealed in our words and actions." Lane/ Tripp's book How People Change.

Mediation for the day.

In my Greek class, we are working through 1 John. I started reading it more throughly from the Greek. I was in 1 John 3:14. The ESV reads, "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death."

The last part the verse struck me. I translated the Greek, "He who loves not remains in death."He remains there because he has not crossed over, or as the ESV reads pass over, from death. The one who does not love is still in their sins. Verse 15 confines the thought with "everyone who hates their brother is a murder." This connects hate with Cain. Those that hate are like Cain. This is a powerful statement and one that we should not pass by to quickly. As Christians, the way we treat other Christians show our devotion to God.
In what ways to we hate each other? This could be as simple was trying to be better then a fellow members. It could be seen as easily as not helping when someone is in need. Remember of you have hated, Jesus stands to forgive you (1 John 2:2).

Why Death is Better than Birth?

Today in my devotions, I was reading Ecclesiastes 5-8. As I was reading felt the need to understand better what Solomon is telling is in Ecclesiastes 7:1-5. He writes,

1 A good name is better than a good ointment, And the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth. 2 It is better to go to a house of mourning Than to go to a house of feasting, Because that is the end of every man, And the living takes it to heart. 3 Sorrow is better than laughter, For when a face is sad a heart may be happy. 4 The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, While the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure. 5 It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man Than for one to listen to the song of fools. (NASB)

This is not a up lift piece of the Bible but it does spread light into how we should look at our lives. Solomon ended chapter 6 talking about wisdom and fools. This leads to the 7:1 in say that a name is better that ointment and death is better than the beginning of life. This asks the question of why a funeral is better than a birth? This question is answered in verse 2b, "Because that is the end of every man, And the living takes it to heart." It is when someone dies that we realize that life ends. One day, we will be like the one that has not breath in their lungs. Psalm 90:12 connects this notion of realizing our days. The Psalmist says "So teach us to number our days/ that we may get a heart of wisdom." It is this reality that makes people more effective for God. It is understanding that I can not get caught up wasting time. This also means that taking a day of rest will help sustain life in the Lord. To stop work and rest in Lord to be refreshed until the final rest comes when Christ brings the new heavens and new earth. 

The Art of Debate and Why I Get no Where with It.

I finished a debate. It went nowhere quickly, but that's getting ahead of the story. So I once made a facebook post about a very minorly controversial topic, which proved to be very emotionally charged when discussing with a friend of our family who is a believer. In a series a responses to that post, a sparring debate was lit over whether or not preaching about sin in churches was condemnation without love. To me, the need to preach about sin was very obviously the correct view, but I soon learned that my friend was driven by much more than just logic, and as I later view this post, I see that I was too. After a few, yet quite lengthy rounds of argument (all publicly displayed, I might add), I became exceedingly frustrated that my friend did not see the same truth I did. I pulled out of the argument in a way that might seem like a cop-out. I just claimed that my ideas must not be understandable because my explanations are not always the clearest in writing. Anyways, here are a few lessons that I have learned about debating on Facebook from this experience:

1. When using theological terms, explain.: In this post I used the term "antinomianism." That is a belief that one can continue to sin without regard of the holiness of God thinking that grace will pardon their sin. However, I did not clearly explain this to my friend when I tried to show them how antinomianism quickly becomes legalism. My failure to explain left my fried at loss. I then become an arrogant person by showing off my great knowledge. This is obviously not what I want to display as a Christian because it is a very prideful action.
2. Read other posts carefully before re-posting: After reading this debate again in preparation for make this blog post I realized that I should have replied with a completely different argument. I originally chose to debate the purpose of the law, but upon review, I see that I should have gone a different route by saying that people don't like hearing about sin because they enjoy their sin and do not want to repent.
3. Do not get emotionaly attached to the need to win: It is not about winning the debate. As much as this debate dealt with sin, righteousness, and the gospel, my tactics should have been loving and I should have depended on the Holy Spirit to convict and bring repentance. I focused too much on logical arguments and tended not to let the Holy Spirit convict my friend.
4. The point is to glorify God: This debate all together felt like a failure to me and I believe the root cause was my lack of love. This must be the hardest to write because it deals directly with my sin: my failure to love and spur another Christian towards love and good deeds. I could be off base with this a little but I am pretty convicted about it. I guess I get emotionally worked up about arguments like this because they seem to be an attack on the gospel, which I love. However, my friend must also have been worked up about it because they were holding their ground. Though I may have been right, when the debate became emotional, I automatically lost.

I think that those 4 points explain pretty well why I did not get anywhere with this debate. At the end of the day, it just felt futile. This could have been because of my pride. I felt like I should have won  because I have the truth, based on the Word of God through a line of godly people that openly proclaimed it.Don't get me wrong, I still believe that we should contend for our faith, but let's just say I've learned a lot about how to contend in love. So ends this post.

Holiness is Happiness

"Her ways are ways of pleasantness--and all her paths are peace!" Proverbs 3:17

The Satan-deceived world imagines that godliness is a thing of gloom--rather than of gladness; that it is something which the saints endure--rather than enjoy. On the contrary, holiness is happiness!

It is neither the mirth of the fool, nor the giddy gaiety of the thoughtless--but a "peace which passes all understanding" (Philippians 4:7), and a heart-satisfaction not to be found elsewhere! So far from piety robbing us of freedom, it conducts into true liberty--delivering from the bondage of sin. Christ's yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30).

God has established an inseparable connection between holiness--and happiness; between our pleasing Him--and our enjoyment of His providential smile.

Worldly mirth is at best evanescent--but the delights of holiness are eternal.

Only the One Who made us--can truly content us!

This quote is from Arthur Pink. Today it served as my devotional piece. As I reflect on this piece, I notice that I have thought that. Some how, I thought, I must be holy (on my own power). It was something I had to endured. God would reveal my work-righteousness but His mercy and grace. Now that I have understood more about the work of Christ Jesus, I see the pleasures of obeying God. It is no longer something that I feel tied up in. It is freedom and peace that cannot be know by any heathen.

God has been working on me to desire Him more, to find pleasure in Him, and to serve him with His strength. It has been, at times, like a miracle that I finished some of my papers. Now as I reflect on how this short work trip in Spain is going. I see the amazement of God working in my life. I have desired to prayer more, I have more of a desire to learn about Him through His word and through other godly men that have written about Him. This is all happen as I try to live a holy life with the power of God. I am not saying that I am at a perfect happiness because I am not. But I am happier to serve God and to obey His rules and to serve Him. Sola dei gloria.