Abiding in God

Children of God

Those who are saved are called children of God. We are adopted into the family of God thus making us heirs to his Kingdom. As children of GOD we should be emulating the Father in our lives. When a child is young most of the time they will want to be their parents whenever they grow up. Christians should be emulating Christ as they grow in their faith. Christians grow in their faith by abiding hin Christ.

In 1 John 3 we will begin to discuss the importance of abiding in Christ while refraining from sin.

1 John 2:28–3:10 ESV

28 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. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. 1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

1. Abide in Him

We need to abide in God so that we are able to know Him. Part of the way that you can know what you believe and why you believe it is by knowing God more readily.

What does it mean to abide in something?

It means to remain in HIM. Be stable in God. We should not be wishy washy when it comes to our faith. So many times we will be borderline with our faith and the world rather than fully devoted to Christ. People will quickly change from Christ to the world as the day changes and so many times people will wear their church mask as soon as they walk into the building and become a perfect christian immediately then turn back to the world as soon as they leave. That is not how we should be! We need to be the same person we are inside the church as we are outside the church. The reason why is because we are the church. We need to abide in HIM not just touch his shadow whenever we come to a building but rather we should be the exact same as we are when we come to a building as we are when we are in school. The reason that the church is prototyped as a bunch of hypocrites is because there are a bunch of hypocrites within the building. If we abide in HIM then we have no option but to be constant in our actions and life.

The main reason we should do this is so that we know who God truly is. We should abide in God so that we are able to distinguish who He is.

2. Children of God

1 John 3:1–3 ESV

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Those who are saved are called children of God. This shows the amount of love God has for us. He calls us His children. Someone doesn’t just call someone a child unless they love that person. This love is so much greater than could ever be humanly imagined because we were at once enemies of God but now HE loves us enough to call us his Children. When we are sinners we are completely opposed to the righteousness of God and we are enemies to Him. He then says I know that you were my enemy but now you are my son or daughter. I know you hated me but I love you! Whenever we become a child of God we then abide in HIS house forever and ever. There is not a way to be disowned from the family of God because we are called HIS children.

The love of God was demonstrated through the death of Jesus. God loved the world enough to put the wrath of sin onto Himself through Jesus. God loved us while we were still enemies towards Him and thus made away for us to be made right with HIM.

What we are now is not what we will be when we get to dwell in the presence of our creator for eternity. We are still in our human physical body but when we come face to face with God we will be changed. What exactly that entails I do not know but we will be better than we are now because we will not have our sinful flesh to deal with.

3. The problem of Sin

1 John 3:4–10 ESV

4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Sin is lawlessness. Sin is the lack of conformity to the perfect mind of God. If you have ever commited even the smallest of sins such as stealing a pencil that someone left in a classroom then you are guilty of breaking all of the laws of Christ.

If you have a chain and it is the perfect length if one of the links are broken the whole thing is broken. It is the same way we are with sin. If we have commited one sin then we are guilty of all of them.

We sin because it is our nature to sin, BUT we have hope in a savior that has not ever sinned and has already taken the punishment for those who believe.

Since we believe in Christ we are affected by his divine purity and we are pure as He is pure. Does that mean that you are going to be perfect and never sin? No it doesn’t but as we abide in Christ our desire to sin should become less and less.

Christians should not be able to continue in Sin. What I mean is that Christians should not be involved in habitual sins consistently or else they may not be saved. You cannot serve two separate people Satan and God.

Christians should also be wise and not be deceived by false teachings or doctrine. This can be anything that is against the Bible or taken from the Bible but taught falsely. Christians need to know what they believe and why they believe it so that they can decipher what is true and false.

Christians are known by what fruits their life produces. A righteous person is going to produce good fruit while a worldly person will produce worldly fruit. The key aspect of a Christian should be living in a righteous way rather than dwelling in sin.

John states that there are only 2 types of people in the world Children of God or Children of Satan. Those who have placed their faith in Christ are God’s Children and everyone else is a Child of Satan. There is no middle ground between the two.

Closing

How can a Christian who is struggling with sin be set free from it?

A Christians who is struggling with a sin should first ask for God to help you with the sin.

Be up front with God He already knows what you are struggling with, so ask God for forgiveness and help to turn away from the sin.

Next ask God to make you more aware of Sin before walking into it.

Pray that God will make you more aware of the Holy Spirit when sin is inching closer to you.

Look to the Bible for a definition of right and wrong rather than the world.

The Christian life should be saturated with us looking to God and caring less about how we are different than the World.

Continually inspect your life and start praying that God will take away any aspect that does not reflect HIM.