The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in 1 John 2:28,
“And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.”
Our continuing in Jesus Christ demonstrates that we belong to Jesus Christ. The “antichrists” that John refers to in verse 19 demonstrated they never belonged to the fellowship of believers by their leaving the community of faith. Such is often the way with those who make a profession of faith for whatever reason but fail to actually embrace Jesus Christ in faith. Never having experienced salvation, they often abandon apostolic orthodoxy and go their own way into some apostate form of doctrine or simply drop Christianity altogether. Such are the ones who have left legitimate churches to start the many cults and “isms” we see in our day. John here is telling us to make sure our salvation is certain by verifying we remain in the faith.
That the persistence of the saints is due to the responsibility the Lord has taken on himself is tremendous cause for my fascination and adoration of our Lord. Who knows what would become of me if left to my own devices. As Jude tells us, it is the Lord who keeps us, “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy…”! Jude 24. And in 1 Corinthians 1:8-9 we read, “He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.” The very faithfulness of our God is what keeps us “strong to the end”.
As Jude points out God will present us before himself without fault and with great joy! Paul points to the blameless condition we will all find ourselves in when we appear before him! Some of us who have been stubborn and persistent have found ourselves prematurely appearing before him as the believers spoken of in 1 Corinthians 11:30. I may stray for a time, but the faithfulness of God insures I will always return to him – one way or another!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!
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