Daily Bread – March 5, 2024 (The Third Day – Genesis 1:9-13) 1 John 3:1 – Look at what amazing love the Father has given to us: that we should be called the children of God! The world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Children Who Love Their Father & His Ways God has made us members of His family. We are not children of God because we were born into the world, but we are children of God because we were born into the Kingdom of God by the Holy Spirit. Essential to the New Testament doctrine and faith in Christ Jesus is knowing that we have been born of God (John 3:5-8; 1 Peter 1:3, 23; 1 John 2:29, 3:9, 4:7, 5:1, 4, 18). More than anything else, God has purposed that we take on the identity of His Son – and of His family (2 Corinthians 6:18; Ephesians 3:15). As the children of God, we are not only privileged to be heirs and co-inheritors with Jesus Christ, but also empowered to be conformed to His image, Who is the first born among many brethren (John 1:12; Romans 8:17, 29). One of the primary themes of the First Epistle of John is fellowship. Within the definition of fellowship with God is the absence of fellowship with the world and its darkness. The proof that we know God and are His people is discovered in view of us having no fellowship with the world. Even as Jesus said concerning those who worked iniquity, “I never knew you – get away from me, you workers of iniquity!” (Matthew 7:21-23), we are not to know the world, and in turn, they do not know us. There is to be no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness which is equivalent to fellowship with the world (Ephesians 5:8-11). We recognize how all that is in the world is not of the Father (1 John 2:15-17). Everything that is of the world is opposed to God, and friendship with it is an act of hostility against God (James 4:4). Because we are born of God, the world cannot relate to us or have any real connection to us – we are of another Spirit and kind. Blessings, Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
Daily Bread 3/5/2024
