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Q5. (1 John 2:3-6) How can we be serious about obeying Christ without become legalistic and judgmental, with a self-righteous attitude like the Pharisees had? We will always fall short of God's expectation...that is a fact. Fortunately for us, because of God's unconditional love for us, we are saved. From time to time, we will always stuggle with being legalistic and judgmental. When we come to face that issue, it is important that we realise it and pray for God's love to fill our heart and that we can carry out the deed through God's love (if our own love is lacking)...to show unconditional love like God does to us. How do love and legalism differ? Love comes with feelings and caring with no butts. Legalism comes with rules and conditions before love can even start to show. How can we be serious about obedience and make love our center? Try our best to become more Christ like as God desire of us.

Q4. (1 John 2:1-2) What assurance does John give us if we do sin? Jesus will always be there to intercede for us. He will reconcile us back to God Our Father. How does this comfort us? It is comforting to be assured of God's unconditional love. How does it make us want to avoid sin? Knowing that God loves us so much and it hurts Him when we sin, so we should try our level best not to sin.

(1 John 1:9) How would you define "confession"? Why is confessing our sins so important? What happens to us if we stop confessing our sins? What are the promises given to us if we do confess our sins? How is forgiveness of sins different from cleansing? Confession is an open declaraion of our wrong doing. Admitting and acknowledging what we have done is wrong. The act of confession is important because only after we admit that we have done wrong can we change direction and correct it and walk back to light. As long as we do not confess, we will and can always convince ourselves that what we are doing is not wrong and be in self denial and try to justify our wrong doing and continue to sin. This is what happens to us when we stop confessing our sins. God promise to be faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Forgiveness is pardon from our wrongdoing (which should be an act of the past) while cleansing is purifying ourselves to live a better future free from sin and wrongdoing.

1John 1:5-7) What is the result when a Christian walks in darkness, that is, continues willfully to do what he or she knows to be wrong? How does this involve self-deception? What is the result, according to verse 7, when we walk in the light? How do we get back into the light if we sin? When we accept Christ into our heart and become a Christian, we start to learn how we should live our lives as one by knowing (by listening to preaching) and studying The Word. The Holy Spirit (through our conscience) will quicken our spirit if we do anything wrong. However, having say that, we often do see and/or hear of christians who are very well versed in God's Word and still walk in darkness and try to justify their ways and wrongs. They are in denial. They try to make their own Will into God's Will. This is self-deception. On a personal level, we can only get back into light if we sin by confessing our sin(s) to God and ask and pray for forgiveness and show true repentence. If possible, it is good to have a mentor to walk and guide us to walk more and more back into God's way and light.

Fellow Christian often fellowship on the surface because of fear and mistrust... fear of hurt and mistrust because one may not have come to a level of frienship of fellowship with one another well enough to trust. Usually, a church is too big for everyone to know each other well to be able to come to a level of deeper fellowship in Christ. This is where a smaller cell or house group meetings helps. Participating in bible studies and sharing also helps Christian to come to a deeper level of fellowship in Christ. Faith in Christ also helps in this area... trusting that Jesus will protect us from "false" fellowship, from being hurt by giving us a better sense of discernment. We can deepen our level of fellowship by showing trustworthiness to others and also taking the first step to trust others.

Hi, I am Irene from Malaysia. I am new to this...good to learn new things. I live part of my time in Melbourne, Australia (which is where I am now)with 3 of my 4 children. In Malaysia, I worship in a Baptist Church whereas I attend a Pentecostal church in Melbourne. It is always good to be amongst God's children to learn and to share together. I look forward to participating.