“By this the children of God
and the children of the adversary
are made plain:
every one who does not do good is not of God,
and the one who does not love his sibling.”
1 John 3:10 lks
Light is an amazing thing. It is particle. It is wave. It is a something. Darkness is an absence of something. The presence of light—the something—makes darkness impossible.
If we are children of God then we are children of Light. Our being children of Light is made obvious in our actions and attitudes. What we do, how we do it, and why we do it are all part of doing good.
So, what is the point? This first half of 1 John, wrapped up in 3:10, contains two crucial commands: First, be the sort of person who is a child of Light. Do good. Come clean. Follow God. Second, be sure that those you learn from are God-followers. Do they do good? Do they come clean? Do they follow God? If they do not, then do not sit under their teaching.
Now this does not give us a warrant to bash people or to question their salvation. Before their own master—Jesus—they stand or fall. It is about who we choose to learn from. We must not learn from those who do not clearly follow God. Those who would be teachers live lives that bear evidence of God-following.
Be a God-follower.
Learn from God-followers.
1 John 3:4-10
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“Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.” http://www.esv.org/
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