Today’s passage: 1 John 2:24–25 Focus verse: And this is what he promised us—eternal life. (1 John 2:25) After warning us to be on alert for the antichrist, John encourages us to make sure we hold on to the good news of Jesus—on what we heard from the beginning. We started our journey with Jesus by believing […]
Today’s passage: 1 John 2:18–23 Focus verse: As you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. (1 John 2:18) After John tells us to not love the world, he warns us about antichrists too. Anti means against and Christ means Messiah. Therefore, an antichrist is someone who is against the Messiah, […]
John’s Vision for These Churches Provides Us With Practical Insight Today Many people love the Book of Revelation, the apostle John’s supernatural treatise of the end times. It’s an epic read of God’s awesome power and the amazing, scary, exciting events that will usher us from this world into our eternal reality. Yet readers are […]
Today’s passage: 1 John 2:15–17 Focus verse: Do not love the world or anything in the world. (1 John 2:15) John reminds his audience to not love the world or anything in it. Loving what the world offers is incompatible with loving God, as Jesus commands us to do. We can’t have the world’s love and the […]
Today’s passage: 1 John 2:7–11 Focus verse: Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. (1 John 2:10) John launches into a discussion about an old command and not a new one. Then he pivots just as quickly to talk about a new command. […]
Today’s passage: 1 John 2:3–6 Focus verse: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. (1 John 2:6) Today’s passage talks about knowing God and keeping his commands. If we claim to know God and don’t do what he says, we’re only deluding ourselves from the truth, and our claim is false. But when […]
Today’s passage: 1 John 2:1–2 Focus verse: But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. (1 John 2:1) John’s desire for us is that we do not sin. That’s one of the reasons he writes his letter. Yet if anyone does sin, he reminds us that we have an […]
Today’s passage: 1 John 1:8–10 Focus verse: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) As a young teen, I had a Sunday school teacher who claimed he sometimes would go an entire day without sinning. Granted, he didn’t claim […]
Today’s passage: 1 John 1:5–7 Focus verse: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5) As John continues in his letter, he moves from fellowship and joy, to talking about the light. God is light. That is, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit give us light. In their light there is […]
Today’s passage: 1 John 1:4 Focus verse: We write this to make our joy complete. (1 John 1:4) John uses the pronoun we a lot in this letter, over forty times in its short five chapters. Later we’ll see him use we as inclusive language to embrace all those who follow Jesus. Yet other times, especially in […]