Daily Devotional for

Wednesday: The Comfort of God’s Knowledge

There is a second truth which we may also use to reassure our hearts. The first by its very nature was related to ourselves specifically; it had to do with God’s specific work in our own individual life. The second is more general in that it refers in equal measure to all who are God’s children. It is simply that whatever our hearts may say, God knows us better than even we ourselves do and nevertheless has acquitted us. Therefore, we should reassure ourselves by His judgment, which alone is trustworthy, and refuse to trust our own.

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Wednesday: The Comfort of God’s Knowledge

There is a second truth which we may also use to reassure our hearts. The first by its very nature was related to ourselves specifically; it had to do with God’s specific work in our own individual life. The second is more general in that it refers in equal measure to all who are God’s children. It is simply that whatever our hearts may say, God knows us better than even we ourselves do and nevertheless has acquitted us. Therefore, we should reassure ourselves by His judgment, which alone is trustworthy, and refuse to trust our own.

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Monday: When Doubts Come

How does a Christian deal with doubt? Although there are many causes for it, there is only one answer. It is by knowledge. The Christian must simply take himself in hand and confront himself with what he knows to be true concerning God and God’s work in his life. In other words, faith (which is the opposite of doubt), being based on knowledge, must be fed by it. This is the point that John develops at the close of this third chapter.

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Love and Hate

Friday: Love for Others

A second area in which self-sacrifice must be practiced is in the Christian home, particularly in love between a husband and wife. Today’s culture glorifies self-satisfaction. It teaches that if one is not personally and fully gratified in marriage, one has a right to break it off, whatever the cost to the other spouse or to the children. But this is not God’s teaching. God teaches that we must die to self in order that the other person might be fulfilled, for it is only as that happens that we will find the fullness of God’s blessing and personal satisfaction.

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Love and Hate

Thursday: The Example of Christ

Here the continuing contrast between Cain the murderer and Christ the Savior is seen in sharpest focus. Life is the most precious possession anyone has. Cain showed his hate by killing righteous Abel. Jesus revealed His love by sacrificing His own life for those foul creatures of sin He chose to make His brethren.

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Love and Hate

Tuesday: The Example of Cain

Just as jealousy and hatred in a life indicate that the person involved is of the world and not of the family of God, so also do love and self-sacrifice indicate that such a one has passed out of the world and into God’s family. John therefore turns to an analysis of Christian love, elaborating his statements over against the background of the world’s hatred and murderous designs. In this section he restates and elaborates upon the social test itself, digs deeper into love’s essential nature, and finally suggests two ways in which Christians may show love practically.

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Love and Hate

Monday: A Most Important Contrast

At no point is the contrast between one of John’s tests and its opposite more important for contemporary men and women than the contrast between love and hate. This is so simply because the meaning of love has become so debased in modern culture that practically anyone will claim to have love according to his own definition.

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James Montgomery Boice

About Think & Act Biblically

James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000) was a successful inner city pastor and articulate spokesman for the Reformed faith in America and around the world. He was the pastor of Philadelphia’s historic Tenth Presbyterian Church (1968-2000) and his teaching continues to be aired on The Bible Study Hour radio and Internet broadcast. In 1996 he brought The Bible Study Hour, God’s Word Today magazine, Philadelphia Conference of Reformation Theology, and other Bible teaching ministries under the umbrella of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.
Alliance of Confessional Evangelicals

About the Alliance

The Alliance is a coalition of believers who hold to the historic creeds and confessions of the Reformed faith and proclaim biblical doctrine in order to foster a Reformed awakening in today’s Church.

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