Have confidence

 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

1 John 2:28 ESV

John is letting his readers know how important it is to remain in Jesus teachings. It's just as important for us today to know that the teachings we follow are those of the Lord. We all know that there are many different types of teaching out there. There are many false teachers that would have us believe something other than what our Lord has taught us through His word. This is a problem the church faced in the 1^st century and she still does today in the 21^st century, false teaching.

John says “little children, abide in him”, live in his ways. One thing we must remember as Christians, we are disciples of Christ. We are not be disciples of any man. Men will lead us astray, but Jesus is the way. (John 14:6) John wants all of his readers to know that if we remain in Jesus teachings, we can be confident of our place in heaven when He returns for us.

Think about it, when we stand before Jesus in judgement we want to be able to stand in confidence. We want to be able to know that He knows us because we know Him. We want him to recognize us on that day as those that followed His ways, because His ways are God's ways. We want to hear Him say “well done, good and faithful servant” not, “ I never knew you; depart from me.” We don't want to have to shrink away from Him because we were not faithful to His teachings.

So today, let's begin anew our discipleship in Christ. Let's study ourselves to be approved by Him. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15 ESV

© 2013 Leo J. Woodman

What you heard from the beginning

-->Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.

1 John 2:24 ESV

In this verse John is alluding to the teachings of the Apostles. He is writing to remind christians to live their lives in the teachings of the Apostles. If they live this way they will be living in Jesus and God. An intimate relationship with the Son and the Father only comes from being obedient to those original teachings.

Why would he want to remind the disciples of this? Because, there were already many false teachers bringing new and different teachings from what had been taught by the Apostles. Today the same thing is happening there are those that would teach new ways of being in Christ. Even though there is no such thing, these teachings persist.

Remember what Paul had to say about this; “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8 ESV Paul uses strong language, he wants believers to know that there are no new teachings.

If this was the teachings of the Apostles in the first century it stands to reason that those teachings have not changed. So, when we consider 1 John 2:24 we must realize that all that we need to know about Jesus, God's plan of Salvation and His church is to be found between the covers of our bibles and no place else. If we live our lives according to the Apostles teachings, we live in the Son and the Father.

So today, let's commit to learning what was handed down to us in the Word of God and pay no heed to those that would want us to believe something different.

© 2013 Leo J. Woodman