francissmith

The world is the "Pride of Life" and the "Desires of the flesh". Not people but things and events, social standing, having more. When we place these things above Jesus, then the Love of the Father is not in us and we are without Light.

I believe that John is taking us through all the stages of Spiritual life. We are children when we first believe and need the milk of the Word, being taught by the Word. Grow into young men, capable of understanding more, eating the meat of the Word. As fathers, we should have matured to the spiritual stature of being teachers responsible for giving back our knowledge and experience. Encouragement brings strength and confidence to our faith. John spplauds their overcoming, giving them confidence to press on.

Hate blinds us to the Light or Love of Jesus. Confessing that hate, receiving forgiveness and cleansing from that sin will bring us back to the light of His Love. It is both rewarding and comforting to be in the Light of His Love.

By allowing the Spirit of Love to fill us, we have compassion. Without Love we remain self-righteous, leagalistic and judgemental. God accepts is each where we are and surrrounds us with His Love, Word and Spirit. We are known by reputation and it should present itself as Love. When we deal with everyone we meet as Jesus would deal with them, it is Love. We can be serious about obedience by developing the Fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22 & 23).

When we sin, Jesus, our advocate, intervenes on our behalf because He has already paid the price for that sin. There is NO greater comfort! Our desire to draw closer to Jesus should cause us to strive daily to consciously decide not to choose sin.

We must take responsibility for our sin by confessing it to God. Not confessing our sin, nullifies Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Confessing our sin allow us to come bodly before the Throne of god and be cleansed from it. Forgiveness means to "send off" or to dismiss our sin. Cleansing is removing our sin "as far as the East is from the West".

We have not buried the "old man" and hang onto it and that separates us from God. Seek a deeper relationship with Christ. Allow His love to fill us on a minute by minute basis.