Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Wednesday after the Last Sunday after Trinity Sunday

Posted on November 28, 2018 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: 1 John 2:18-29 (NKJV)
 
2:18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
 
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
 
24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.
 
26 These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.
 
28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
 
29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
 
Devotion
 
In the Gospel we come to know true joy, and through this grace-filled joy we can live a holy life and be assured of salvation, even though we are still far from perfect. John’s epistle points to the core of Christianity, saying that either we exhibit the sound doctrine, obedience, and love that characterizes all Christians, or else we fail to be true Christians.
 
The Apostle does not leave any room for middle ground or partial confession of Christ since the leaven of lies can eventually leaven the whole, for you are either Christ’s disciple or you are not. Thus, anyone who deviates from the Word of God presented in holy Scripture and Christ’s Sacraments deviates from Christ and the Christian life, becoming an anti-Christ in the process. In our text John warns against listening to or following such apostates (anti-Christs), for such leads to one’s own destruction, and can lead others around them to a similar fate.
 
Christians are greatly comforted with the assurance that they can avoid this because they know the Truth (Christ and His Gospel) which is theirs through the pure proclamation of the Gospel and the right administration of His Sacraments.
 
We pray: Heavenly Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit working Your will through Your Word and Sacrament ministry among us, may we see the path of grace so mercifully laid before us through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord. Amen.
 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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