Children of God

1 John 2:28-29 “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”

Finish this statement “you are innocent until proven.....” (Guilty)

How do we prove that someone is guilty? You build a case against them and present the evidence to the judge and jury. If you have little or weak evidence, then it will be difficult to prove your case. But if you have strong, undeniable, proven evidence then it will be difficult (and wrong) to deny what you are going for.

If you are saved, then you are a child of God. As a child of God, you take on His attributes. Just as you share resemblance to your parents, when you are born again as a Christian you begin to look like your heavenly Father.

You begin to talk like Him, you begin to think like Him, you begin to see the world as He see’s the world (both the good, the bad, and the potential), you reason like your Heavenly Father does. In everything you do you reflect who has authorship of your life, and if God is the one taking control then it should be evident.

The world Abide means = Accept or act in accordance with. (rule, decision, or recommendation)

When you abide in the Lord, then you follow His guidance, and where do you find His guidance? Lined out in His word. Abiding by God’s word safeguards us from this world. Bad things may still happen to us from the actions of others, but following God ensures that we are good with Him, and that we are treating others right. So at the end of the day the ones who abide in Him will be the ones who are the righteous.

If you do these things, and you live your life by His word, then you do not need to be ashamed in His presence. You do not need to feel like you must hide from Him as Adam and Eve did in the garden. You may stand boldly with the Lord because He is your loving Father, and you are His obedient child.

Now if you make a mistake, then as we heard in chapter 2, we have an advocate in Jesus Christ who will reason for us. This does not mean we can do whatever we want cause Jesus will smooth things over. That is not evidence of a changed person. But we do fall sometimes, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get back on the path of righteousness.

When you do begin to see like Christ, and you begin to perceive the world as He does, then you will be delighted in the thought of Christ’s return. Christ’s return will bring an end to suffering, and end to wrong doing, and end to evil, and end to all this filth in the world (we will talk more about this the next time we meet to study in Revelation). But Jesus is the hope that all things good will be restored, and we will live in a world that God intended from the beginning. One greater than we can ever imagine.

So this is the thrust of it all. We strive to be righteous, come what may, and though that may not be easy, it is what we do. We do this because God is within us, and it is His guidance that will secure a righteous life for us.Then at the end of it all, at the end of the struggling, at the end of the persecutions, at the the hurt, all wrongs will be made right and peace will be restore. (This does not mean that your life will be horrible as a Christian, but know that being a Christian will not be easy, but it is worth it.)