Thank you for the the lesson and God bless you brother Jim If you feel lead to share I could use help understanding the first book of John. Specifically how to interpret the audience he’s speaking to and real life applications.( I’m a young in age and in faith. I’m struggling to find a church but love spending time with believers in worship and praise. What is church and agape and are they different?
Hi @dannytorrance5722 - Thank you. I assume you mean 1 John as opposed to the Gospel of John - Right? He was writing to Christians, perhaps Jewish, but nevertheless believers probably in Western Asia Minor (Modern Turkey) who were facing some issues with false teaching. However, it would be helpful to know specifically what verses are giving you trouble. I have found the only reason I have a hard time with 1John is how it speaks to the ways in which I personally fail to follow Christ and love my neighbors. It is very blunt and convicting. However we must not remove it from the context of the rest of scripture, especially the NT and the finished work of Christ on our behalf. If you are in Christ, then you operate from a position of being bounded on one side by the fact that there is no condemnation for you (Romans 8:1) and on the other side that there is no separating you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord (Romans 8:28-39) . That give us much grace and freedom to live and move and occasionally stumble in our Christian lives. As far as finding the right church, again, not knowing what your specific struggle is, I did a video on this. ( ua-cam.com/video/J1KxjLFCYvo/v-deo.htmlsi=Otf7O9BI233YZ9em ) . If it doesn’t address your specific struggles in finding a church, let me know. I would say bottom line is the church is perfect, and every church will be a local collection of people including believers who are being sanctified from their sin and unbelievers, who are either there for social or cultural reasons or perhaps genuine seekers. The best thing to do is to find a church with a faith statement that is orthodox, that has a mix of the generations, and just start serving. If you’ve done this at many churches, then I would ask God to show you if there is an issue in your heart that the Holy Spirit can help you address. Thanks again for your support.
@ thank you for your response! I will watch the video in the comments and pinpoint the verses I’m struggling with and share them with you, and I’ll try reading them again but this time I’ll keep it in context and personal as to how I’m failing to love my neighbors and follow Christ. Thank you! between your advice and my online pastor( sense I moved across the country) I feel like God is telling to me to not stay stationary building myself up. I’ll get back with you soon, God Bless
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Thank you for the the lesson and God bless you brother Jim
If you feel lead to share I could use help understanding the first book of John. Specifically how to interpret the audience he’s speaking to and real life applications.( I’m a young in age and in faith. I’m struggling to find a church but love spending time with believers in worship and praise. What is church and agape and are they different?
Hi @dannytorrance5722 - Thank you. I assume you mean 1 John as opposed to the Gospel of John - Right? He was writing to Christians, perhaps Jewish, but nevertheless believers probably in Western Asia Minor (Modern Turkey) who were facing some issues with false teaching. However, it would be helpful to know specifically what verses are giving you trouble. I have found the only reason I have a hard time with 1John is how it speaks to the ways in which I personally fail to follow Christ and love my neighbors. It is very blunt and convicting. However we must not remove it from the context of the rest of scripture, especially the NT and the finished work of Christ on our behalf. If you are in Christ, then you operate from a position of being bounded on one side by the fact that there is no condemnation for you (Romans 8:1) and on the other side that there is no separating you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord (Romans 8:28-39) . That give us much grace and freedom to live and move and occasionally stumble in our Christian lives.
As far as finding the right church, again, not knowing what your specific struggle is, I did a video on this. ( ua-cam.com/video/J1KxjLFCYvo/v-deo.htmlsi=Otf7O9BI233YZ9em ) . If it doesn’t address your specific struggles in finding a church, let me know. I would say bottom line is the church is perfect, and every church will be a local collection of people including believers who are being sanctified from their sin and unbelievers, who are either there for social or cultural reasons or perhaps genuine seekers. The best thing to do is to find a church with a faith statement that is orthodox, that has a mix of the generations, and just start serving.
If you’ve done this at many churches, then I would ask God to show you if there is an issue in your heart that the Holy Spirit can help you address.
Thanks again for your support.
@ thank you for your response! I will watch the video in the comments and pinpoint the verses I’m struggling with and share them with you, and I’ll try reading them again but this time I’ll keep it in context and personal as to how I’m failing to love my neighbors and follow Christ.
Thank you! between your advice and my online pastor( sense I moved across the country) I feel like God is telling to me to not stay stationary building myself up.
I’ll get back with you soon, God Bless