Devotional Study: 1 John 2

Welcome to the this week's Virtual Bible Study! This week we're discussing 1 John 2.
Let's get started!

First Step: Read the Text. (This doesn't take too long).

This Week’s Reading is 1 John 2. You can find it here.

Second Step: Lesson/Focus Text

And now, dear children, continue in him so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. 1 John 2:28

Ready or not...

For the last month or so I have had a list tacked up on my wall. I call it my: “Before Surgery” list. It is all the things I want to finish before I have hernia surgery on June 7th. After that date I know I won’t be able to lift anything or push anything and, since there is a whole lot I need lifted and pushed before then, I made a list of everything I wanted to finish.

For the most part I have succeeded. I moved books and boxes a couple weeks ago. The patio got cleaned. The basement swept and cleaned. Other things, odds and ends, have been finished. And I’m ready... Ready as I’ll ever be at least... for my surgery tomorrow morning at 7am.

Getting ready for my surgery reminds me of the chapter from 1 John that we have before us today. Today John is getting the congregation ready for Christ’s Second Coming. In a way this is his “Before Christ Comes” list. For the most part, the congregation has done well... Only...there’s a few things still left to be done.

The first is the cleansing of the congregation itself. This may seem odd to us considering the wide range of opinions we find in our own congregation. But in John’s congregation here, there are some there who are leading people astray. They are teaching things contrary to what the apostles have taught. Most are claiming that Jesus is not the Christ. These, John calls, the Anti-Christs.

Anti-Christ is something we usually hear in reference to the End of Time. Movies often will capitalize on the antichrist as the devil’s son or daughter out to destroy the faithful and bring about armageddon. But actually Antichrist has nothing to do with the end of the world. The word doesn’t even appear in the book of Revelation! It appears, instead, here in John’s first letter referring to those who deny Jesus as the Christ. Those people, John writes, are the antichrists because they are perpetuating a lie, namely that Jesus is not the Christ.

Top on John’s to-do list is this: Remain in Christ. John says it like this: “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us–even eternal life.”(vs. 24-25)

Remain in Christ. That’s how we get ready for the end of the world. Remain in Christ and in Christ’s teaching. Remain steadfast in faith. Despite the raging world around us. Despite the signs and wonders we see. Remain in Christ, steadfast in faith, and then, when he appears, we may remain confident and unashamed before him.
That I believe is very difficult. It’s easy to prepare for something you can plan for. My Before Surgery list was easy...because I knew when it was coming. I could gauge what I wanted to finish with how much time I had. I knew that if I put too much on that list, it would overwhelm me and I would finish none of it. But with the knowledge of that deadline, I could plan and arrange my schedule so that I finished everything on time.

But we have no deadline to fall back on. No knowledge of when Christ will return. He may return tomorrow... or next Tuesday...or he may return for us at our death...but when will that be and how...God only knows. And so we plan and organize our lives around a deadline that doesn’t exist with a to-do list that is simply: “Remain in Christ.” No wonder we get sidetracked so easily! No wonder we get busy with our own lives and our own schedules and forget about God. God’s deadline doesn’t even factor into all of it. If we knew that Christ would return for sure on December 21, 2012, we would know how to organize our lives. But we don’t.
And so we wait, trying to remain faithful to Him. Confessing to him that we cannot do it on our own. Realizing that we will fall asleep in the night and forget about him amid all our vacation planning and busyness, but realizing that we rest in God’s mercy both now and forever. Come Lord Jesus! Come quickly Lord Jesus and end this cycle of waiting! Amen!

Third Step: Questions to Ponder...
A: People make, what they call, a "Bucket List" sometimes, things you'd like to do before you die. What's on YOUR bucket list?
B: What are you putting off to tomorrow?? What have you procrastinated in your life?
C: If Jesus returned today for you, would you have any regrets? What would you have wished you had done? If you were given the next 24 hours to live, what would you do with your time?
D: How have you remained in Christ?

Fourth Step: Email(if you like) your responses. You can just reply to this email or email it here.

Fifth Step: Close with prayer... Lord Jesus, I know that at any time you may return to carry me home. Help me use the this one glorious, precious life to your glory. Keep me steadfast in your Word that I may endure to see your return. In your Holy Name I pray. Amen.

See you next week! :)