Be an Overcomer

DEVOTION 1 JOHN BE AN OVERCOMER 1 John 5:1-5 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. NIV So much here, about loving God, loving Jesus, obeying his commands, and overcoming the world, that it would seem, it is more than one devotion can handle. But since we have been already dealing with loving God and loving Jesus maybe we should focus on obeying his commands and thus overcoming the world. Would this mean that if we did not obey his commands we would no overcome the world? Or would this be as simple as saying because we are born of God we have overcome the world. That is to say that through the act of accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, being born again, is in fact overcoming the world. It has nothing to do with how successful we are at being perfect human beings, living completely free of all sin for the remainder of our life, but rather it has everything to do with being born again of God. There is a choice that each one of us must make at some point in our life. The choice to overcome the ways of the world and reject the sinful concepts of the mankind and accept the holy concepts of God is the only way we can be among those who are born of God. We must choose to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and in doing so we then overcome the world which rejects Jesus as the Son of God. It is an either or, no middle ground situation. We are either overcomers or we are not. We are born again or not. This is not an evolution of faith; it is a moment of decision. Believe or don’t believe, choose you this day who you will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. That is the only way to overcome the world. We cannot do it on our own ability, our own strength, or determination, for we are weak and unable to live free of all sin. We cannot stand before God and declare to him that we are righteous and that we overcame the world because of our great efforts and that we are therefore perfect enough to stand on our own merits. We can only stand before him because of Jesus, period. Overcoming is the choice to accept Jesus.