butt kicked

1 John 2

1 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin.

But if anyone does sin,

     we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father.

He is Jesus Christ,

     the one who is truly righteous.

2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins;

     and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.


  3 And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments.

4 If someone claims, "I know God," but doesn't obey God's commandments,

     that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.

5 But those who obey God's word truly show how completely they love him.

     That is how we know we are living in him.


6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.




Does anybody else see the profound truth in these 6 verses?!



In 1 & 2, John says if we sin (who doesn't?!) Jesus makes it possible for God to forgive our sins.


In verses 3, 4, & 5 John says if we say we are follow God, then we will obey Him.

     It's like we can't have one without the other.

Obeying is a big deal with God.

iow, do what He say.

Now, how many of us be & do that?!

Or, how many of us have adopted this smorgasbord, middle class attitude toward following Jesus,

     where we get to pick and choose what we are or do.

     where we pick & choose what parts of the Bible we follow.

     where we will obey Him as long as it doesn't affect our bottom line,

        or our relationships,

        our pet sins,

        or doesn't invade areas of our lives where we have issues that need addressing,

        or places us in a position of being out of sync with everything & everyone around us.



But here's the real kicker...


In vs 6, John says if we say we follow God, if we're livin' the life, if we're supposed to be all sucked up into God & all that, guess what?

     we're supposed to live just like Jesus did.

...live just like Jesus did.

....just like Jesus.

Now, how many of us are gonna do that?

Think about how Jesus lived His life...


Go ahead, I got the time - think about it before you read ahead...


How many of us are gonna live like THAT?!

How many of us are gonna LOVE like that?

How many of us are gonna let go of our possessions like that?

How many of us are willing to be that others oriented?

How many of us are gonna be that ultimately selfless like that?

How many of us are gonna be THAT forgiving?


But John says here that if we're as all up in God's stuff as we say we are, we're gonna live like Jesus did.

...just like Jesus did.


I think John kicked us in the butt w/ verse 6.


Think about verse 6 today, & as we face every situation & person today, try to live like just like Jesus did.

yeah, I think we'd better brace ourselves for finding our just how much we're NOT just like Jesus...