Enjoy Jesus

Thursday, April 24, 2014            Enjoy Jesus

1 John 5: 13-21

In this closing passage, John is encouraging the church to pray for one another and to avoid the sin that robs us of life in God. He seems to be distinguishing between the sins that compromise the quality of our spiritual life to that sin which leads to death. I believe John is following Jesus’ teaching: “So I tell you, every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven—except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will never be forgiven. (Matthew 12:31). Jesus is pointing to a kind of Catch-22. The person blaspheming the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven because they don’t ask to be forgiven; they don’t want to be forgiven. They are fighting against God and refuse to submit to the sovereignty of God.

As John concludes his first letter, he includes a statement very similar to the one he used to close his Gospel (John 20:31): “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.” (I John 5:13).

Eternal life is life uninterrupted by death. Those who are in Christ are living eternally now. How can that be? John answers that question: “And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life” (I John 5:20).

God wants us to spiritually sense, or experience, that we are living eternally. This experience comes through fellowship with Jesus. We can know God, and have fellowship with God, because of what Jesus accomplished to give us new life. This fellowship with God the Father, and His Son, Jesus, comes through our meditation on the Word of God.

The 23^rd Psalm is a good place to begin experiencing fellowship with God because it is written in the first person. As you read the Psalm, take your time. Read one verse at a time and allow the words to sink deep within you. Don’t think of David writing those words; imagine you are writing them. When you speak them out loud, don’t just read scripture; let these become your words of affirmation, devotion and trust. Make David’s psalm your psalm.

God wants you to know you have eternal life. Jesus is eternal life. Jesus wants you to have fellowship with Him. Enjoy Jesus!

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

• Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.