90 DON F O O T ================================
- H O L D
READING
90 DON’T STUMBLE IN THE DARK
PRAY Help me dear Lord, to understand the Scriptures and to understand myself. —————————————————————- READ 1 John 1:1-2:6. —————————————————————- THINK The pictures central to this passage are of light and dark. Make a list of the ideas that have come to your mind from these two words. —————————————————————-
FOCUS Wrong beliefs matter because they always lead to wrong actions!
- BE SURE OF JESUS (1:1-4). Notice the similarities between the opening of this letter and the first part of John’s Gospel. They may both have been written some sixty years after the birth of the early church – at a time when some of the early zeal seems to have been evaporating.
One of John’s reasons for writing was to deal with some dangerous false teachings. Some teachers doubted that Jesus could be both God and human. They believed all physical things to be evil so Jesus could not have been really human. Perhaps he was a phantom in human shape! This was totally contrary to the preaching of the apostles (2), and John was an eye witness (1). An emphasis on the miracle of the incarnation (God in the flesh) is fundamental to the church’s life. 2. BE SURE OF YOURSELF (1:5-10). Wrong belief leads to wrong actions or complacency. Notice John’s three examples (6,8,10). No one is beyond sin but this does not allow us to excuse it or pretend it doesn’t exist. Rather we are to avoid sin’s contamination as far as possible by living in the light of God’s standards (7). And we seek forgiveness when sin gets the better of us (9). 3. BE SURE OF GOD’S FORGIVENESS (2:1-6). The genius of the Gospel is that it offers forgiveness to sinners while treating their sin with the utmost seriousness. —————————————————————- PRAY Ask God to keep you from being deceived about his Son, about yourself and about his forgiveness.