Today’s Scripture: 1 John 5:19, NIV- “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”
How do we know if we are children of God? 1 John 5:1 promises us that “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too.” (NLT)
This sounds easy yet the evil one of this world makes it challenging. Apostle John wrapped up 1 John 5:21 with a warning, “Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.” (NLT) We are all tempted by something or someone that might take God’s place. There are dangers in forming idols. We do find blessings in this world, but our greatest blessings are found in God and His Son Jesus Christ.
Jesus came to earth to help us understand eternal life. However 1 John 5:19 warns us that although we know that we are children of God, the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We do not need to look far to recognize evil. If we are living and running with the rest of this world we are headed in the wrong direction.
As we are promised in 1 John 5:18, Jesus Christ keeps us safe and protects us from wickedness. Although we do fall prey to wickedness, we can pray for each other to remember that we find great comfort and security in knowing God hears our prayers as promised in 1 John 5:15. We also find confidence as 1 John 5:14 promises. “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” (NKJV)
The previous verse in 1 John reminds me of why I am driven to write. In 1 John 5:13, John states that “I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.” (NLT) We need to pray for each other to be reminded we are to be confident in God and know we have eternal life even when the world attempts to discourage us.
You and I do possess the Good News. As 1 John 5:13 encourages and warns us “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (NIV) Although we can encourage each other with our own testimonies, we have the testimony of God. 1 John 5:9 states that “We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.” (NIV)
God’s testimony is in 1 John 5:11 “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” 1 John 5:5 promises that only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God can overcome this world. We should not look to non-believers to save us from wickedness. 1 John 5:4 promises that “every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.” (NLT) Let us pray now for our faith to be in God and His Son.
As 1 John 5:2 reveals, “this is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.” Let us accept the truth of God that Jesus is the Christ and ignore the attempts of this wicked world.
Let us pray now in thanksgiving that we are children of God and have eternal life.
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