Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God. – 1 John 3:10
Leo Tolstoy, known for his great works of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, had a personal religious revelation shortly after writing the latter. Lawrence Jordan writes in his introduction to three short religious writings of Tolstoy that the author studied the New Testament for years and did a lot of soul searching to find the meaning of life.
Tolstoy was in love with the goodness and morality that Christ embodied, and he sponsored 250 relief kitchens during the Russian famine in 1891. But he was his own contradiction. According to his and his wife’s journals, their marriage “was a highly explosive union rife with contention, hostility, and even hatred.” Though Tolstoy knew his inability to be a consistently good man, yet he did not hesitate to point to the chink in the Christian armor. According to Jordan, “In his life and writings Tolstoy keeps asking the question: how is it that Christians can refuse to obey the words of Christ?”
A Bible commentary explains that a key theme in 1 John 3:4-24 is that “those who know Christ forsake sin and keep God’s commandments – in particular the love commandment.” Being right with God will not only allow you to lovingly care for your neighbor, but it will give you release from any feeling of hopelessness. Knowing the Lord will also give you wisdom to perceive deception from truth…something you will certainly need as the elections draw nearer.
Dear One, your prayers must include a plea for discernment for yourself and for the leaders of this country. Then ask for a heart of love that you might “practice righteousness” in all things.
Today’s Verse: 1 John 3:10
By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: 1 John 2:20-29, 3:4-10
20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. 24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.
26 I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. 27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.
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. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
