Last week the Good Morning Girls studied 1 John 3:1-10:
"See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin in lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins had seen Him or knows Him. Little children, made sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil had sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother." (NASB)
On first glance this passage seemed confusing to me because no one is perfect, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) so it seems impossible to attain what John is suggesting. Upon further meditation on the passage I think the main point is that as a Christian I should be practicing righteousness. According to dictionary.com, practice means "to perform (an activity) or exercise (a skill) repeatedly or regularly in order to improve or maintain one's proficiency." So certainly if I am regularly and repeated practicing sin, that would be a pretty good indication that I am not abiding in God. Sin, John calls "lawlessness" which I take to mean having and attitude of I-do-whatever-I-want without regard for what is right or how my actions might affect others. Jesus came to take away sin, and the more I get to know Him, the more I become like Him, and the more I am like Him, the less I am able to sin.
I think I personally needed to hear these words John wrote because sometimes I don't take sin nearly as seriously as I should. Since I believe that Christ's righteousness covers my sin, I sometimes feel like sin is just not that big of a deal. But sin is a big deal. And habitual sin is evidence that I'm not really walking with God. So I have really been focusing on verse 3 this week, "And everyone who has this hoped fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." I want to purify myself and get into the habit of practicing righteousness. Because as the saying goes, practice makes perfect!
One area where I can work on purifying myself which I think will go a long way towards helping me practice righteousness is in my thoughts. Driving around in my car I often let my mind wander and often it unfortunately settles on playing the "comparison game" in which I compare various aspects of myself with those of other women which generally only leads to either jealousy or pride, neither of which are really qualities I desire for myself. The other day while driving around I started to play this game and the Spirit reminded me of verse 3 so I shifted gears from comparing myself to other women to thinking of why I am so thankful for the influence other women have in my life. By the end of the short car ride I was even plotting ways to bless them for being so wonderful! Amazing what a little dose of God's Word can do:)
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