Thursday, July 27, 2006
1 John 3:11-18
For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (ESV)
by Linda Harris
Would you die in order to save another person, perhaps your child or your spouse? Most of us say we would, but laying down our life for another person doesn’t usually mean that we would die for them. Instead, it means laying down our expectations, our control, and our desires, to meet another person’s needs. Think of the caregiver who gives up a career in order to care for a family member with a terminal disease. But even doing a chore for a family member when it’s really their job, and not even drawing attention to it, can be laying down our life.
Copyright Information
Daily Bible Meditations are taken from The Helping Hand,a Sabbath School student quarterly for youth and adults. Copyright © 2010, Seventh Day Baptist Board of Christian Education, Inc.
Scripture quotations marked "ESV" are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service.
