Everyone who habitually commits sin, also habitually commits lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And you know absolutely that that One was manifested in order that He might take away our sins; and sin in Him does not exist. Everyone who in Him is constantly abiding is not habitually sinning. Everyone who is constantly sinning has not with discernment seen Him, nor has he known Him, with the result that that condition is true of him at present. Little born-ones, stop allowing anyone to be leading you astray. The one who habitually does righteousness is righteous, just as that One is righteous. The one who is habitually committing sin is out of the devil as a source, because from the beginning the devil has been sinning. For this purpose there was manifested the Son of God, in order that He might bring to naught the works of the devil. Everyone who has been born out of God with the present result that he is a born-one of God does not habitually commit sin because His seed remains in him. And he is not able habitually to sin, because out of God he has been born with the present result that he is a born-one of God. In this is apparent who are the born-ones of God and the born-ones of the devil. Everyone who is not habitually doing righteousness is not of God, also the one who is not habitually loving his brother with a divine and self-sacrificial love. Because this is the message which you heard from the beginnings namely, We should habitually be loving one another with a divine and self-sacrificial love; not even as Cain was out of the Pernicious One, and killed his brother by severing his jugular vein. And on what account did he kill him? Because his works were pernicious and those of his brother righteous. Stop marveling, brethren, if, as is the case, the world hates you. As for us, we know absolutely that we have passed over permanently out of the death into the life, because we are habitually loving the brethren with a divine and self-sacrificial love. The one who is not habitually loving in this manner is abiding in the sphere of the death. Everyone who habitually is hating his brother is a manslayer. And you know absolutely that no manslayer has life eternal abiding in him. In this we have come to know by experience the aforementioned love, because that One on behalf of us laid down His soul. And, as for us, we have a moral obligation on behalf of our brethren to lay down our souls. But whoever has as a constant possession the necessities of life, and deliberately keeps on contemplating his brother constantly having need, and snaps shut his heart from him, how is it possible that the love of God is abiding in him? Little born-ones, let us not be loving in the sphere of word, nor even in the sphere of the tongue, but in the sphere of deed and truth. In this we shall know experientially that we are out of the truth, and in His presence shall tranquilize our hearts in whatever our hearts condemn us, because greater is God than our hearts and knows all things. Divinely loved ones, if our hearts are not condemning us, a fearless confidence we constantly have facing God the Father, and whatever we are habitually asking we keep on receiving from Him, because His commandments we are habitually keeping with solicitous care, and the things which are pleasing in His penetrating gaze we are habitually doing. And this is His commandment, namely, We should believe the Name of His Son Jesus Christ, and be habitually loving one another even as He gave a commandment to us. And the one who as a habit of life exercises a solicitous care in keeping His commandments, in Him is abiding, and He himself is abiding in him. And in this we know experientially that He is abiding in us, from the Spirit as a source whom He gave to us. 1 John 3:4-24 WUEST
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 01:34:04 +0000
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