Remain in Him: Studying 1 John 2 & 3

Hey y'all!

I'm so glad that I am already back to posting again. For the past few days I have been studying 1 John 2 & 3. I love 1 John so very much. So today I'm going to highlight some of my favorite verses in the two chapters and I'm going to ask again that y'all check out the chapters in full for yourselves before reading this post! Let's get into it.

1 John 2:24-25 "What you have heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life."

What we learned about Him at the very beginning must remain in us. That's how we remain in Him and then have eternal life. So, what is your beginning? Maybe your beginning is the beginning of your life. Maybe you've known about God and been saved since what feels like forever. If so, channel your feeling of being a child and learning of Him in Sunday school. Are those same feelings still remaining in you? Or maybe your beginning is when you got saved later on in life. Remember the feeling of that moment when you knew you were Jesus' forever. Let that feeling remain in you.

1 John 2:28-29 "So now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of Him."

Again: remain! A word that is really emphasized in these verses. Love it. We should remain so that when we meet Him, we won't feel ashamed. What is good in everyone is God. Everyone who does right has been born of Him.

1 John 3:1 "Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called His children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it doesn't know Him."

If you didn't say, "Woah!" from that last sentence, go ahead and read it again real quick. Y'all! When the world doesn't understand us, when the world won't listen to us, when we feel like no one around us gets us... it's because we are His, and they don't know Him. So pray for those that just don't get who you are. They don't know who they are in Him. We get to show the world what God is like by loving others... even the ones who don't seem to "know" us.

1 John 3:7-10 "Little children, let no one deceive you! The one who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. The one who commits sin is of the Devil, for the Devil has sinned since the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the Devil's works. Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God. This is how God's children - and the Devil's children - are made evident."

Ok, this is a lot but super amazing so let's go through this. Basically John is telling the little children to not be deceived and to go ahead and learn this young. He is telling us that it's always been pretty plain to see who is God's and who is not: by how they act. If they are righteous, then they are God's, and if they commit sin (regularly... we've all sinned and are imperfect, but John is talking about those who live in sin) then they are the Devil's. We have to belong to someone... so how are we going to live and who are we going to belong to? Let's let our desires become His.

1 John 3:14-15 "We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him."

A sign of salvation is loving others. Loving God = loving people. Hate = death. If you know my rejection story from when I was in middle school (I've shared it a few times between YouTube and my book, Genuinely Caroline) then you know that I have fully experienced feeling unloved by people who call themselves Christians. Yet, John is telling us here that if you don't love your brother or sister, you are equivalent to a murderer. Y'all! That is a big deal! He tells us that there will be no eternal life for us if we don't love each other. We have to love.

1 John 3:16 "This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers."

So, how do we even know what love is? How do we know how to love? Jesus is the ultimate example of love. He literally laid down His life for us. There is no greater love! We should follow His example and love each other so strongly that we're willing to lay down our lives for one another. Now that's love.

1 John 3:17-18 "If anyone has this world's goods and sees his brother in need but closes his eyes to his need - how can God's love reside in him? Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action"

This is so powerful and I actually will think of this verse often and feel convicted. I think we are all very guilty in the midst of our first world problems to turn our eyes from real need. Let's all make sure as people of the faith that we are really taking action when we see a need from a brother or sister that needs to be met. Because as verse 18 says here, we can talk God up all we want and go on about how we serve Him, but then if we're stingy with what we have, what sort of evidence of our faith and love are we really giving?

1 John 3:21-24 "Dear friends, if our conscience doesn't condemn us, we have confidence before God and can receive whatever we ask from Him because we keep His commands and do what is pleasing in His sight. Now this is His command: that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commands remains in Him, and He in him. And the way we know that He remains in us is from the Spirit He has given us."

We can feel when God is remaining in us. We can tell by how we feel His Holy Spirit. I don't know about you, but I can definitely feel a difference when I have not been keeping God's commands and when I have been actively serving Him and the Holy Spirit is strong in me. If the Spirit is there, you'll know! God has blessed us with the Holy Spirit so that we don't have to do it on our own! Isn't that awesome, y'all? This is the love of God.

So, remain. Remain in Him, and He will remain in you. God is longing to remain in you. He loves you. So keep his commands (believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another 1 John 3:23) and let Him in.

I love my readers! Let me know if you have any questions related to this post or any of the others by just dropping a comment and hopefully I can answer them with Scripture. Have a blessed week!