In 1 John chapter 2, John continues this letter to the church by reminding them of what to do with their sin. John wants to remind us that Jesus is the atonement and full payment for our sin so we do not have to carry it with us. Repentance is something that is a daily continual thing. It isn't something we do once and are good for life. I am repenting of somethings right now this morning as I write this... Our sins are forgiven for His name's sake as it says in 1 John 2:12. As Matt Chandler says in Explicit Gospel, "the Scriptures reveal that the foremost desire for God's heart is not our salvation but rather the glory of His own name." God's name is very important to Him and how we live as a representative of that name is very important to Him. 1 John chapter 2 reminds us that we show how much we love God by keeping His commands. Every decision we make and how we live our daily life is a choice to either follow the Light or the Darkness. What will you choose today? What will you choose tomorrow? John writes us to remind us that the darkness is passing away and the TRUE LIGHT is already shinning. We have the book of Revelation; we know who wins and what they end of the story looks like. We are the lucky ones who get to read the final chapter and live out from that so we should live out loudly and correctly. John also reminds us that Jesus has anointed us with al the knowledge that we we need to survive and be successful at living the Christian life. But he knows all to well how appealing the flesh and the world is. He actually give us a strict command that is really challenging me this morning. He says in 1 John 2:15, "Do not love the world or the things of the world." We can joke about this and most of us would tend to say, "Well, that is just over the top strict." But this is the way Jesus desires for us to think. Jesus wants to remind us that His THINGS to not compare to HIM. Think about this statement by Matt Chandler for a second... "The universe shudders in horror that we have this infinitely valuable, infinitely deep, infinitely rich, infinitely wise, infinitely loving God, and instead of pursuing Him with stedfast passion and enthralled fury - instead of loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; instead of attributing to Him glory and honor and praise and power and wisdom and strength - we just try to take His toys and run." Wow... how foolish we can be. And if we are all honest we are mostly foolish... In what ways do you need to repent of choosing God's toys over the Creator?
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