September 4th 2022
As Followers Of Jesus Christ, We Cannot Have Any True Enemies, As Much As It Depends On Us!
1 John 4:10 (NIV)
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
In your (our) mortal lifetime God planned for you to find Him so when you leave this mortal life you will be with Him for all eternity. However, we are all sinners as we have inherited a sinful nature from Adam’s sin, and thus, we cannot earn salvation through our own sinful efforts! Therefore, we are all destined to go to hell when we die.
Hopefully, you will continue reading, as there is one remedy for this hopeless story told in the above paragraph. Many people give up and just plan to accept this verdict, and say things like, “well I know I’m going to hell when I die, so I may as well live drink and be merry for tomorrow I die!” I have actually heard friends of mine say such hopeless things, and they may have even believed that was their hopeless lot in life.
However, God/Jesus created mankind with a loving attitude toward us, and thus Jesus Christ came into this cursed world to allow mankind to be saved and end up in a wonderful place called heaven, when we leave this cursed world. That is why believers refer to this plan as the Good News! In the selected verse we can hear why God wants all of us to be with Him in heaven when we die, it is because “he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Jesus’ perfect sacrifice is the one and only way the God of heaven will accept as the price for entrance into heaven when you (we) believe that Jesus Christ is the Way! No, I did not leave out “when we die” in the previous sentence, because you immediately became ready for heaven when you first believed. We just must wait to enter heaven when we die!
Paul wrote about the before and after effect of conversion to Christianity for us. First, we read about ourselves before conversion. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. (Philippians 3:18-19). Next Paul tells us about ourselves after becoming believers in Jesus Christ. We are no longer prisoners of this cursed world. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Philippians 3:20-21).
Paul also wrote more about how foolish people are who do not come to believe. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. (Romans 1:20-23). Idols do not have to be graven images they can instead be beliefs in anything but God, as the atheists do, or believing in yourself as being good enough to deserve to go to heaven when you die.
When Jesus still walked this earth, He told His disciples (us) about His mission on this earth. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:14-16). Paul also reminds us that Jesus was the creator of all we see in this world. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. (Colossians 1:16).
John wrote about the love of God the Father has for us, and thus, awaits our return to give Him glory. How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (1 John 3:1).
The writer of Acts writes about how we all came from Adam and Eve, and that even in this cursed world, God is still near to those who love Him. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ (Acts 17:26-28).
Remembering and believing that all of mankind came from the original parents, makes us all brothers and sisters, and thus we should love each other. Because of such love we would wish no harm to come to our family members. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:19-21).
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are expected to love everyone, even those people who have decide they are our enemies! Therefore, we cannot have any true enemies, as much as it depends on YOU (us)!
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
1 John 4:10 (NIV)
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
In your (our) mortal lifetime God planned for you to find Him so when you leave this mortal life you will be with Him for all eternity. However, we are all sinners as we have inherited a sinful nature from Adam’s sin, and thus, we cannot earn salvation through our own sinful efforts! Therefore, we are all destined to go to hell when we die.
Hopefully, you will continue reading, as there is one remedy for this hopeless story told in the above paragraph. Many people give up and just plan to accept this verdict, and say things like, “well I know I’m going to hell when I die, so I may as well live drink and be merry for tomorrow I die!” I have actually heard friends of mine say such hopeless things, and they may have even believed that was their hopeless lot in life.
However, God/Jesus created mankind with a loving attitude toward us, and thus Jesus Christ came into this cursed world to allow mankind to be saved and end up in a wonderful place called heaven, when we leave this cursed world. That is why believers refer to this plan as the Good News! In the selected verse we can hear why God wants all of us to be with Him in heaven when we die, it is because “he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Jesus’ perfect sacrifice is the one and only way the God of heaven will accept as the price for entrance into heaven when you (we) believe that Jesus Christ is the Way! No, I did not leave out “when we die” in the previous sentence, because you immediately became ready for heaven when you first believed. We just must wait to enter heaven when we die!
Paul wrote about the before and after effect of conversion to Christianity for us. First, we read about ourselves before conversion. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. (Philippians 3:18-19). Next Paul tells us about ourselves after becoming believers in Jesus Christ. We are no longer prisoners of this cursed world. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Philippians 3:20-21).
Paul also wrote more about how foolish people are who do not come to believe. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. (Romans 1:20-23). Idols do not have to be graven images they can instead be beliefs in anything but God, as the atheists do, or believing in yourself as being good enough to deserve to go to heaven when you die.
When Jesus still walked this earth, He told His disciples (us) about His mission on this earth. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:14-16). Paul also reminds us that Jesus was the creator of all we see in this world. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. (Colossians 1:16).
John wrote about the love of God the Father has for us, and thus, awaits our return to give Him glory. How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (1 John 3:1).
The writer of Acts writes about how we all came from Adam and Eve, and that even in this cursed world, God is still near to those who love Him. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ (Acts 17:26-28).
Remembering and believing that all of mankind came from the original parents, makes us all brothers and sisters, and thus we should love each other. Because of such love we would wish no harm to come to our family members. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:19-21).
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are expected to love everyone, even those people who have decide they are our enemies! Therefore, we cannot have any true enemies, as much as it depends on YOU (us)!
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
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