4 January 2014 - redefined

 4 January 2014 - redefined

No one who is begotten by God commits sin,
because God’s seed remains in him;
he cannot sin because he is begotten by God.

Well shoot.  That's kind of harsh.  We certainly commit sin.  Does that mean we aren't begotten by God?

no one who fails to act in righteousness belongs to God,
nor anyone who does not love his brother.
We certainly fail to act in righteousness at times.  We don't always love our brother as we should.  But don't we belong to God?

We do belong to God, in life and death.  It is true that we do sin.  We don't always love our brother or act in righteousness.  But these acts no longer define us.  They are our old self trying to rear his ugly head.  Paul admonishes us many times that, although we have been made a new creation in Christ, we need to live from that truth and lay aside the old self (cf. Eph. 4:22).

This old self was crucified with Christ so that we might not be a slave to sin (cf. Rom. 6:6).  Sometimes the old self surfaces but it no longer defines us.  We no longer belong to the devil.  We aren't slaves to sin anymore.  God's seed remains in us.  Yet we remain free to submit to the devil again.  We remain free to commit mortal sin and become slaves to sin once more. 

Let us continue to live out of the power of the resurrection.  Let us continue to live in the victory of Jesus over sin and death.  We must continue to live the death to our old self.  We must continue to live from the vitality of the resurrected life of Jesus Christ poured out in the Holy Spirit.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.

"We have found the Messiah," so let us share him with others.  Let us bring as many people as we can to Jesus.  They too need the saving power of God to deliver them from slavery to the world, the flesh, and the devil.  Sharing him isn't as hard as we imagine.  We don't have to be intellectual or spiritual giants.  We don't have to know the right thing to say.  All we need to do is extend the invitation.

He said to them, “Come, and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying,