His Promise

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF JOHN

HIS PROMISE

 

1 John 2:24-25

24 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. 25 And this is what he promised us — even eternal life.

NIV

Well, we sort of already spilled the beans with the preceding verses regarding remaining in Christ. Yet that is the central theme of our faith. Yes, coming to Jesus for our salvation is definitely the beginning of our journey. Whatever reason each believer decides to follow Jesus, they made that choice at some point in their lives. This beginning is the moment we become born again. Jesus made it clear in his conversation with Nicodemus that in order for us to see the kingdom of God we had to be born again. But that is the beginning of our new life in Christ and from that point, we have to remain in Christ. Is it possible after being born again to not remain in Christ? If so, what would that look like? In the first place, what does it mean to remain in Christ? Is it just saying we are a Christian? Is it attending church every Sunday? Is it doing some good work? Is it setting up some rules to follow that give us the appearance of being “good Christians”? What we know is that remaining in Christ means to draw all our nourishment from him as he is the vine and we are the branches. We know that remaining in Christ means we have no righteousness in ourselves for He is our righteousness. We know that remaining in Christ means any fruit we bear is a direct result of Jesus sending the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and it is He who bears the fruit in us. We know remaining in Christ means we do not listen to other voices. This is the main reason John is writing this letter. Other voices infiltrate the body of Christ. It does those other voices no good if they do not have a group to spread their lies in because they start with the same basics of the faith. But they twist it for their own benefit so to draw followers to themselves. Remaining in Christ means to remain in Christ, to listen to His voice, His word, His truth, and follow His way. That is one voice, not multiply voices. It is difficult for us to understand how some believers can attend a local church under the care of the Shepherd God has called, and then listen to others preaching over the airwaves, who they do not know. Unless we remain in Christ and have the Holy Spirit manifesting His discernment in our lives, we may hear confusing or even opposing thoughts regarding the truth. We have even heard some believer's voice praise for some of those silver-tongued preachers, because they verbalize or preach so well, or have a wonderful accent to listen to or a great smile. But what is their message based on? Is it remaining in Christ? Is it all about Jesus and our life in him? Is it about having eternal life in Christ? If we do not remain in Him, we have no eternal life. But if we do remain in him, we have eternal life. That is His promise.