Believe and you have been born again

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1 John 5:1-21

Everyone who believes (present tense) has been born of God (past perfect tense). John is a proponent of eternal security of the believer. Once saved, always saved. Being born again is evidenced by loving God, v.1, obeying Him, v.2, and overcoming the world by faith, v.4. This, surprisingly, is the first use of the word […]

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Love one another

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1 John 4:7-21

This is my favourite portion of the letters by John, the Apostle of Love. Largely because of v.18 – “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love”. What is the opposite of love? Normally one […]

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Love one another

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1 John 3:11-4:6

  John was the apostle of love. As Paul keeps telling us to be full of gratitude, John keeps exhorting us to “Love one another.” Cain was a hater, and that led to murder. You can read that account in Genesis 4. Sin grew in him. John wants love for God and each other to […]

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Practice who you are

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1 John 2:38-3:10

Johns turns his attention to the lifestyle of a believer. In a number of different ways he is telling us to live out who we are. The message of the gospel of grace is that we were sinners who couldn’t live holy lives no matter how hard we tried. Jesus died for us and rose […]

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No fence-sitting allowed

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1 John 2:12-27

Yesterday we looked at the fact that God is light and at the contrast between light and dark. In today’s reading, John contrasts worldliness with godliness. 1 John 2:12 begins with an appeal to all members of the church. John addresses the Ephesian Christians as ‘little children’, ‘young men’ and ‘fathers’. The ‘little children’ could […]

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That light bulb moment

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1 John 1-2:11

In today’s reading, we are told that Jesus was there from the beginning of time with the Father, and yet was witnessed in the flesh by the disciples when He became a man (the life was made manifest) and that He is eternal. This letter, written by John, the self-proclaimed ‘disciple whom Jesus loved’, aims […]

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Watch out for false teachers

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2 Peter 2

In Peter’s day there were problems with false teachers who were enticing people away from the true gospel of grace. Today is just as bad, as the above quote shows! The internet is a great force for spreading the truth, but sadly also for fake news and a fake gospel. In the first few verses […]

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What superpower?

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2 Peter 1

At a recent event I was asked what super power I would like if I was a superhero. After chatting for a couple of minutes over the question I decided that although I’d quite like to be able to fly, I did not want to be a superhero. With great power, as Spiderman will tell […]

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