Spring Break Ruminations

I've been away with the family for a week, and I thought I'd try to synthesize thoughts from my devotions here. I read several days ago a great sermon by Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Romans 5:1 about peace with God. In his concluding paragraph he made a pregnant "by the way" remark about how the way to remain steady in the experience of peace with God is to remain much in the book of First John 1:1-2:2. This whet my appetite and I decided to spend my morning devotions this week in 1 John.

The first thing that stood out to me was a phrase in 1 John 1:7 to which I hadn't paid much attention before.

But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

This strikes me as the purest motive for walking in the light. We want to walk in the light because that is where Jesus is. This should motivate us to come out of the darkness even more than the desire to escape the negative consequences of walking in the darkness. It's a Christ-centered motive for turning from sin. Follow Jesus. He's not walking in sin. So we can't either if we are to follow Him.

After observing this early in the week, I started seeing it elsewhere in the book.

1 John 3:3 And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself as He is pure.

1 John 3:7 Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as He is righteous.

We are so self-conscious about our sanctification. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.