(See Part 1 in the March 2025 W&W.)

 
                In the third chapter of his intimate family letter, John tells us what love requires of us.  He
pleads with us to love God and to love His children as members of our family, the family of God!
                John's emphasis is on being in the family of God, the best family to belong to!  When we are out
of fellowship with our heavenly Father, He tries to get us back, sometimes with chastening, as Hebrews
12 relates.  To stay in His family, we have to obey His rules, just as we have rules for our own families. 
God has lavished His love on us as a loving gift, but it is only real if we believe it, accept it, and have an
experience with Jesus. 
                From the time we obey the Lord and surrender our lives to Him, we are taught to love others.  If
we truly die to self, we will purpose in our hearts to love everyone in our congregation, even the old
grouches!  We will go to worship with intent to give our all to God, then act on that by being kind, getting
to know members better, and sharing what we have with them and with others far from God.
                John explains that because our hope is in Jesus, we have access directly to God's presence.  For
that reason, we should never give up meeting together with our congregation.  The worship service should
be so wonderful that we hate to miss it!  Having compassion and other fruit of the Spirit will improve our
worship and our love for other believers.  If we have problems with any, we need to be patient, confess it,
and ask God to help us learn to get along with them so that our congregation can be known as a group
who loves each other.
                Sin is rebellion.  Unwilling obedience is not pretty, and demands work on our attitude.  Our fruit
does not lie.  Communion with Jesus keeps us from deliberately disobeying Him.  Keeping ourselves pure
is easier as we grow in our reverence for Him.  In our desire not to hurt Him, we obey and confess when
we fail.  John announces that now that we are in the family, because we are born of God, we will practice
right and love others.
                No Christian is sinless, but God does not want a true believer to sin habitually.  We may commit
an occasional wrong, but we do not make a habit of it.  Repentance and forgiveness help us continue to
remain pure.
                Hosea 4:4 tells us God's love knows no bounds, so we should follow His example to reflect His
love to those far from Him. ( I believe His circle is much larger than mine!)
                 John teaches that Jesus came to take away our sins and to destroy Satan's work, though not
Satan himself.  He is a dangerous foe, but he cannot destroy God.  He hates God, so to hurt Him, Satan
goes after God's family.
                Once when I was a youngster, Mom and I were harvesting potatoes.  She pulled the plants out
of the soil so I could dig in the dirt for the tubers.  One plant Mom pulled had a snake wrapped around it. 
She screamed, threw it on the ground, then chopped the head off with her hoe.  The snake kept wriggling,
so I was afraid.  Mom said, "It's dead.  It's going to keep wiggling for a while, but it's dead!"
                Like the snake, Satan has already lost the war, but to hurt God, he keeps trying to get God's
children to sin.
                The reason Christians do not want to hurt God by breaking any of His commands is because His
DNA was put in us when we were born again!  We still make mistakes occasionally, but we're better
known for being good because God's DNA gives us love for others.
                Paul wrote in Romans 6:6 about our old nature, which continually fights the new nature we
receive when we are born again (Col. 3:10).  Believers have been justified, are being sanctified daily, and
the Holy Spirit helps our new nature stay pure.  The nature we feed most overpowers the other, so the
Word of God is what we need to devour daily.

                Praying daily is so important.  My younger brother gave me an acrostic to use which keeps me
focused.   FATHER stands for forgive (me and others) and is mandatory before continuing; A is for
adoration; T is  for thanksgiving; H is for help! (which I always need!); E is when I make requests for
Everyone else; and R is for rejoicing!
                If we begin each day talking to God our Father, we can ask God the Spirit to empower us
through the day, and we can examine ourselves at the end of the day to see if we acted like God, the Son. 
We can ask ourselves if we behaved as Jesus or just pretended, walked with Jesus through the day or just
let the old nature rule.
                We either love others, are indifferent to them, or we may even hate them.  God is not pleased
with any attitude that is not love.  Jesus died for us and we should be willing to value and honor others,
help them, and show compassion with good deeds.  That will go far in showing we belong to the family of
God.
                Believing that Jesus is the Son of God, actively following Him and loving others should
describe our congregation.  If we could put aside our petty judgmental attitudes, imagine what God could
accomplish through us!  If we are not loving, we should strive to go forward and do what is right.  As
John constrains us to love, let us put our self aside, follow God, and work for Him!  Now is the time!  For
God and for His family!
Joyce Broyles is a Retired High School Library Teacher and lives in Jennings, LA.