1 John Chapter 3 Verse 10

· Practicing righteousness is to be prioritizing your relationship with the Lord in your life. That’s really all it is, simply. And Jesus said that is the first commandment above all others, which is tied to, connected to, the same as and hand in hand with the second commandment, which is to love each other as we are loved by God.

· And John says, this is it… this is Ancestry.com in the spirit! The holy paternity test! How each one can tell of which family they come from. It’s not scripture knowledge, worldly or ministerial success, it’s not even knowledge of righteousness, (what is knowing right and wrong)…, It’s practicing righteousness. The desire, ability and reality of living unto Jesus which means, ultimately…, living more and more like Him…

1 John Chapter 3 Verses 11 – 12

· Did Cain love Abel? The crazy answer is yes. He was his brother. Grew up together. Kicked the wheat-ball together (not sure what kind of toys they had, ha!). And John says here, love one another, but not with the kind of love Cain had for his brother. Which was what? A love that took second place to his love for himself… proof that God was NOT his Father. (Channeling my internal Maury Povitchawitz!)

1 John Chapter 3 Verses 13 – 15

· In a world that thrives on “likes,” God calls us to thrive on and stake our personal value on not how others treat us but how we treat others. Not how we are loved and cared for but how we love and take responsibility for the people around us! And that’s a tough one!!!!! Reminds me of Jesus…

· God Himself, perfect love, perfect man, perfect friend, perfect citizen, perfect perfect…, and yet He had (and still does have) a stack of enemies and people that hate him!

· The opposite of sin is love. The world is trying it’s best to create and encourage a love that is sin… But this is family talk. Family of God talk. While the whole world lulls into a deeper sleep with every generation that gets closer to the Lord’s return, the righteous will live by faith. This really is what sets apart the family of God on this earth. The holy… And it’s the sure mark of one who has passed from death to eternal life!

· Folks can know tons about Jesus. Be active in the faith. Wear all the “Not of this World” merch. Have all the MDIVs and ordinations, but if they don’t have a desire to live and love like Jesus…, has there really even been any heart transformation at all? It’s like a big ole pig. You can take a pig out of the mud, clean him up really well, make him smell good, put some pig lotions on him, (Oink of Oley! Vasoswine! Ha)! Bring him into the house out of the pig pen…, and it will soon look for a way back to the mud because that is its nature. The work of salvation is not reformation or cleaning you up or making you behave better…, it has to be a nature-change. A family change… from the family tree of Cain to the family tree of Christ…

1 John Chapter 3 Verse 16

· I want to give you a thought and hopefully it’s a helpful one… The proof of God’s love for us, for God’s love for me, for God’s love for you…, is not our circumstances but rather it is the cross! The world has gone all-in in trying to define love but love was defined indefinitely and ultimately long ago. Love is not to do what I want, get what I want, live however I want…, that’s lust. Its incredible to me that we can put a “love” nametag on what is obviously lust and everyone falls for it! Love is to lay down our lives for others… That is what agape love is. It’s not eros, it’s not phileo, and it never will be! It’s agape.

· Why does it matter? Why does it all matter anyway? I can argue that it matters and also, that I don’t care! I know what love is and because of that I have a real relationship with God, I am saved by grace through faith, AND I am able to in a way ascend to a higher form of human existence. I know that sounds boastful but whatever. It’s true… AND, if someone else can’t get it, understand it, just stuck on self…, what has that to do with me!?

· Peter all confused at one point after having an intense interaction with the resurrected Jesus, he looked over at John and asked Jesus in John 21:21-22, “But Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? YOU follow Me.” We get so so upset, angry, frustrated, discouraged and distracted by what others do wrong…, when all that truly matters to me is what I do wrong! It’s like this slimy strategy of the enemy and my flesh. You call lust love and I get so angry about that that I call love hate as I despise you in my heart! He got us both!! Look, I’d rather the enemy get neither of us but if I can’t help that then I better make sure the enemy at least doesn’t get me!

· Now, with that being said, here’s the danger… Someone says they love and you hear it differently than they mean it. And now you react like they said agape, but what they said is eros. Here’s where you have to be careful because this is where you can get hurt. You meant agape, they meant phileo…, big problem. For Christians, if you’re a Christian, you should feel phileo, you should understand eros, but to your brothers and sisters in Christ, it should always be (you should always do) agape… And I love this, look at this example of agape that John gives to us…

1 John Chapter 3 Verse 17

· How do you feel about the illegal immigration issue, the open border issue we have in this country? Don’t answer that. If you were there, would you feed, clothe and house those that have illegally come into this country? It’s a good thing Jesus checked citizenship before feeding the five thousand… Agape doesn’t look at condition or situation, agape looks at need alone… I’m not being political; I’m just using that as an example because it’s an easy target.

· I think about what I consider to be one of the most pure if not the most pure ministries we have here at this church which is Silo Storehouse. Feeding unhoused children. I don’t need to know anything more. It does not matter why, how, who, no details of the situation are righteously relevant. All that matters is that there are people that are suffering and we have the means to serve them… What’s the priority? Them being perfect or them being in need? If your heart leans towards, “I don’t care about anything else…, they are hurting…,” that is the love of God flowing through you and proof of you lineage...

1 John Chapter 3 Verse 18

· In terms of the things of God, what we say doesn’t really matter. What we profess to believe, well, that doesn’t really matter either. What we actually do, that reveals what is true about us. And we unfortunately listen to ourselves far too much and judge ourselves far too less… Because in self-observance, rather than self-service, that’s where we face the truth. Which is the only way anyone ever will grow up!

· Here’s what this directs me towards in the Spirit. Loving someone by telling them you love them isn’t love. Setting out to accomplish the action of taking care of someone, that is what love is… This is the love that Jesus expressed with His Word (and still does today) and yet also carried out in His life and sacrifice. So, a word…, love. We hear it everyday and all the time. From relationships, to advertisements to overheard conversations…, movies, music and books…, and I wonder, have you ever even loved anyone…, and has anyone ever loved you. Well, maybe today you know that there is One that did, and He today does…