I John 3:7

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Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.

THE STUDY:

Again, we read John’s endearment, “little children,” to his flock. He’s reminding them to “let no one deceive you”! Just because we are believers in the faith doesn’t exclude us from being deceived (lead astray). As a matter of fact, one will find that the deceiver (Satan) will turn up the pursuit for our souls once we have become a follower of Christ.

John states, “Whoever practices righteousness” which means whoever produces righteousness. John is revealing the understanding that the very nature of our being should be Christ! Once He is our very nature the only thing we can produce “Christ” (righteousness). I hear an evangelist recently state that apple trees can only produce “apples!” Why? Because this is their nature! Once we have accepted Christ, surrender all to Him, and die out to self our nature changes. The only thing we can produce is Christ, the very nature that lives inside of us.

WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY WITH ….

• We can walk away this morning with the understanding that our nature needs to be that of Christ. When our nature is that of Christ we can’t help but to produce (practice) righteousness. Let today be a day that we surrender all to Christ so that we can produce righteousness.

CONCLUSION:

          I came across this poem that I thought would be fitting for today’s devotional:

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today

He has no feet but our feet to lead men in the way

He has no tongue but our tongue to tell men how He died

He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.

We are the only Bible the careless world will read,

We are the sinner’s gospel; we are the scoffer’s creed;

We are the Lord’s last message, given in word and deed;

What if the type is crooked? What if the print is blurred?

What if our hands are busy with other work than His?

What if our feet are walking where sin’s allurement is?

What if our tongue is speaking of things His lips would spurn?

How can we hope to help Him or welcome His return?

—Annie Johnston Flint^[1]

Blessings my friends

Pastor Rod

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^[1] Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.