THURSDAY 23rd
1 John 4:17
‘By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.’
Before we get to the devotion, today marks the third anniversary since we went into lockdown due to the Covid-19 and so three years since I commenced with the devotions! This devotion is the 737th.
In our verse today, John is continuing from what he has already said in the previous verses, and it is that love becomes perfected in us as we learn to love as God has loved by abiding in him. This love will then be demonstrated in a practical way through our being his expression of love here on earth and as we live as examples of the love of God in the here and know when it comes to the future judgement we will have confidence, we will not be ashamed.
The challenge is personal to each one of us who claim to know Jesus as Saviour and who also claim to be abiding in him, is the love that has been shown to us through the salvation we have received being shown to others through us?
But the phrase ‘confidence for the day of judgement’ could be applied to so many other aspects of our Christian living, for as we have been reminded in previous devotions from the word of God that the day will come when each one of us will have to give an account of our lives as we stand before God ‘And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account’ Hebrews 4:13.
John has already spoken previously in this epistle about having confidence before God in 1 John 2:28 ‘And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming’, and he brought it up again in 1 John 3:21, ‘Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.’ May God help each one of us to abide in God and to love like God and to live lives that are pleasing to God so that when that day comes we will have confidence before him.
But before I move from this word ‘confidence’, I want us to take a look at another Scripture where it is used, for this Scripture if we allow it to be a guiding principal in our lives as Christian will help to ensure that we live in a way that will be pleasing to God, for it is the key to us finding the help that we need to continually abide in God and to love like God in the communities in which we live, it is Hebrews 4:16 ‘Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.’ Can I suggest that the more we learn today to come with confidence to the throne of grace, the greater the possibility of being sure that we will also be able to one day stand before him with confidence.