D-Day: The Johns

My Fellow Sippers,

With all that has been going on in my life within the past week, I am glad that I am still able to dedicate some time to doing our D-Day. I always look forward to spilling the tea on each of the books that we've read. More importantly, I always look forward to the response.

I know that I skipped all over Galatians, but I'm so excited to get into the Johns. Therefore, I will discuss Galatians at the end of this month's challenge. Let's jump straight into it....

1 John 1
I love how this book opens up in verse 5 with "God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all." John makes it clear to us that we can't live in the light and still have darkness reside in us. In order for us to have true fellowship with each other, and to have the blood of Jesus cleanse us of our sins, we have to remain "in the light." 

I like the reference of light and dark, simply because in literature light represents good and darkness represents evil. To relate it to our spiritual being, if we have light, then we have good, and this good is a representation of God. If we have darkness within us, then there is still evil. Not to say that it is inevitable to rid our spiritual body of evil, but as long as evil is within us, then there is still representation of Satan. In order for us to be completely tied to God, we have to allow ourselves to fully be cleansed by the blood of Jesus. 

This brings me to my next point, where verses 8-10 backs up the aforementioned. 

⁸ If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. ⁹ But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

We all have sin. There is not one of us who is without sin. We are born into sin, (this came about when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden); therefore it resides in us (the darkness that is within us). But by confessing our sins, we are cleaning out the darkness and purifying our spiritual body. 

1 John 2
In this chapter, John tells us that when we sin, we have an advocate who pleads on our behalf (Jesus Christ). Verses 4-6 says:

⁴ If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. ⁵ But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. ⁶ Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

We should be a reflection of Christ. To "know God" is to be like Him, living righteously. He has given us the perfect example to follow in order to be like Him, when He gave us His Son, Jesus. Therefore, Christ has laid out the path in which we should follow.

Then in verses 15-17 we are urged against loving the world. We can't love the world and love our Father. Our flesh = the world. If it fills the desires of our flesh, then we are living worldly.

¹⁵ Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. ¹⁶ For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. ¹⁷ And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

Verses 28-29 pretty much says to LIVE OUT LOUD FOR GOD! Be bold. Be confident. Be faithful.

1 John 3
Again in this chapter, we are compared to the world. The world doesn't recognize us as children of God because they (the world) lack the knowledge and understanding that it takes to know that to be fully committed and wholeheartedly love God, is to be His child. Once we fully commit ourselves to God, we are purified. Once purified, our sins are no longer existent. To continuously sin after proclaiming your commitment  means that you are not as fully committed as you think you are.

We should not be deceived by the teachings of the world. It is not okay to claim "Christianity" while living a life of sin. Righteous living = RIGHT LIVING! Therefore, we should always strive to live righteously, or live right!

We don't truly love God if we don't love His people. To be truly in love with God means that His Spirit reigns over our flesh. Spirit says to love even when we aren't loved back, because God has an eternal love for us that will never disappear.

1 John 4
In this chapter, we are warned against false prophets. Although to a certain extent it seems as though we are judging, when we are fully in engaged with God, we are given a spirit of discernment. It is our duty to use discernment in filtering the truth and the fake.

Also, we are reminded yet again that we should love others. If we fail to love others, then we do not truly love God. I love verses 9-10... 

⁹ God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. ¹⁰ This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

How is it possible to love an invisible God, but hate a visible person? We've never seen God, yet we have deep love for Him, but He has given us people to love and we find it absolutely impossible to love some of them.

1 John 5
In this chapter we are given the following information:

• Spirit = truth
• Water = Baptism
• Blood = the Cross or the Sacrifice

To believe in God, we must first believe that He gave His Son, Jesus. Christ died on the cross so that we can have eternal life <------ We must believe and accept this. We must also believe that eternal life is found in Christ.

Furthermore, verse 21 tells us to keep away from anything that takes God's place in our hearts. This is one reason why we should be consistent with fasting. When we find our flesh overpowering our spiritual being, we should then consecrate our bodies.

2 John & 3 John
2 John is only 13 verses long, and simply reiterates what 1 John says.

• Love one another!
• Beware of false prophets!

In 3 John, although John is writing to Gaius, as a reader I walk away understanding that I should be mindful of the way I treat servants of God. They should be treated with gentleness and care. After all, they are serving our Father.

** As always I look forward to your responses. Below is the reading for our last few days of February! We will pick up in March!!

 February 25 - 1 Peter 1
February 26 - 1 Peter 2
February 27 - 1 Peter 3
February 28 - 1 Peter 4 & 5
March 1 - No Reading
March 2 - No Reading
March 3 - D-Day (Discussion Day)

-Signed,
The King's Daughter