Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Thursday, October 9, 1 John 5:19

"And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness." (KJV)

"We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. (NIV)

Here is another recap of what we have learned through this letter. Looking back we can see the verses that describe how we know that we are of God, and that we know that the whole world lies in the clutches of the evil one.

How do we know that we are of God?

Chapter one lets us know, because we have believed the testimony of the apostles, and turned to Christ. Now we have a living relationship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

We find also, that if we are walking in the Light, as He is in the Light, we are assured of His presence, and sense the cleansing He has given us by the shedding of His blood, a once-for-all sacrifice for our sins.

We understand this because we realize our sin and our dependence on His forgiveness. We can never boast of being sinless, we can only depend on His great work. If we ever try to presume that we do not, or have not sinned, we make Him a liar and prove that He is not in us.

In chapter two, we find that we have the assurance that, when we do sin, Jesus is our Advocate. We also find that one who believes bears fruit of that belief by keeping His commands. We can gauge our spiritual state by how we are walking—in light or in darkness. And this gauge is shown primarily by how we love one another, which is the New Commandment Jesus gave us just before His passion.

So, we have a gauge that, to me, looks like a cross: First upward, setting your affection upon Him, as Matthew 22:37-40 lets us know, loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. If we are not setting our affections upon Him, we are setting them upon ourselves. We discover where our hearts are by how we are reaching up to the Father with prayer and study of the Words He has given us, where He speaks to us more than any other way.

And if we are setting our affections on Him, it is revealed to others by how we reflect Him to them. How we love our brothers and sisters in Christ shows how we love God. I think of the cross-piece on the Cross to represent the Second Great Commandment, loving our neighbor as ourselves, in Matthew 22:37-40. So, if we are right "vertically" before God, it will reflect "horizontally" before man.

Further in this chapter we see that a believer matures. They have the assurance of knowing their Father from the very beginning. The Spirit gives them that seal and they can trust that He will never leave them nor forsake them. It is written deeply in the heart of true believers, and no one can take that away from them.

And as we walk, we learn how to overcome the wicked one by having the Word of God abiding in us. The more we immerse ourselves in the things of God, the stronger we become. And when we mature, we circle right back to what we knew from the beginning: "knowing the Father". But then it is not only childlike faith and trust. It is that, with added knowledge of what it means.

Also, in chapter two, we learn that not everyone in the church are necessarily "of the church". We are able to discern false teachers from true teachers by the Holy Spirit. He teaches us through the Word of God, and the more we study, the more He can bring to remembrance, so we are not "tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine", as it says in Ephesians, but we let Scripture define Scripture, and can say "Amen" to what rings true, and be cautioned against what does not.

Chapter two ends with the key to Christian growth: Abiding in Christ. Knowing and seeking after His righteousness gives the Spirit opportunity to mold us into Kingdom children, so we can walk in confidence, as children of the King of kings.

Well, I'm only on chapter two, and our time is up, so we'll continue on this "review" verse tomorrow.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps:

"We know that we are
children of God,

and that the whole world is
under the control
of the evil one. (NIV)

We'll be working with this at least two days, so if you get it well, you have time to go over previous "trouble verses" as well.

We see the contrasts: "we are children"/ "whole world is under control"

We are "children of God"/ the whole world is "under control of the evil one".

We can "picture" this in two frames:

Frame one: Picture a bunch of children sitting around a throne of light, which represents God.

Frame two: Picture the world chained in a cage with "the evil one" guarding it with a whip.

For verses 19, I use "Mr. Pennybags" from Monopoly, because of his "ToP" hat. (T=1, P-9, vowels fillers). We can let him take the place of both scenes, with a bunch of little "Mr. Pennybags" happily surrounding the throne, and a very uncomfortable old one sitting in that cage with the world.

To link it to 1 John 5, we will put a "yawning Lei" on each of the top-hatted kids, because "yawn" represents 1 John, and "Lei" can only represent the number 5 in the phonetic alphabet. That way we link 1 John 5:19 to the verse.