Today, Friday August 20
Walking in the Truth
1 John 4:7-11 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
3 John 4
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
In both of John’s 2nd and 3rd Epistles, we read that John experiences great joy when he hears that the believers are “walking in the truth”. Over the years and especially as I lay down my mantle as a senior pastor, I find I have the same great sense of fulfilment for the forth-six years of ministry, which is hearing and knowing that others are also continuing to day by day, live and “walk in the truth” of God’s Word. Because if we are not walking and living in the truth we are being deceived and living a lie! So how do we know and are assured that we are “walking in the truth”? We find the answer here in 1 John. We are “walking in the truth” when in everyday life, we really expressed love for one another! Three times, in this section, John encourages us to love one another (1 John 4:7, 11-12). And he supports these admonitions by giving us three foundational facts about God. What God is; What God did; and What God is doing.
When we respond in love and are willing to help and sacrificially give as we become aware of the needs of others around us, we know we are “walking in the truth.” And one the great truths of the New Testament is that Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to live and abide in us! And He is the One who produces this love in us that reaches out to others.
Today, are you “walking in the truth”? Are you leading others to “walk in the truth”? I believe you will truly find your greatest fulfilment in life, and sense a genuine purpose in living if you are!
God bless!