Bible Verses: 1st John

This week we return to 1st John. We will move on next week and cover the topic of Grace for the remainder of June and part of July. This will include a companion piece on Sunday where hopefully we can all reflect and share a moment of grace from the previous week. More to come on this series next week. Then we will start a new topical study that will span from mid July until the end of August.

After that we will see where the Holy Spirit leads us to go next and which book/topic we will cover at that time. I hope you have enjoyed 1st John. It has truly challenged me spiritually and convicted me as well. I would encourage each reader to read each book in its entirety since we are just covering snapshots. May God convict, challenge, and change us.

*Bible Verses is not an exhaustive study and each reader should seek the Lord alone for revelation and translation.

1st John 5:18-20
"We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols."

The final words of this book linger on and convict and challenge me daily. Keep yourself from idols. It is easy to see an idol as a shrine or other false representation of something as referenced in the Bible. What idols challenge us today? I would say an idol would be anything that reflects something other than Christ. A mirror, a television, another individual, a desire for objects, clothes, money, and oh so many others.

We face idols all around us all the time and to be set free from these things we must constantly fight for the one that we love; Christ. To see Christ, seek Christ, desire to know Christ, to clothe those without, to see another person's reflection, to turn off the television and be evangelists and care takers of our family, to love others more than ourselves and to vow each day to live differently from the world around us.

So while this passage has so much more to say and may each of us take it to heart; may the last words linger with us all so that our faith may be authentic, our heart may be pure, and our life may be a witness.