Listen here.
Welcome to
Devotions for Worship where we meditate on the appointed Scripture readings for
the upcoming Sunday. I am Pastor Eric Tritten from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
in Hudson, OH.
Thank you for
being with me today.
The Epistle
lessons over the Easter season all come from 1 John this year. We will get most
of the high points of 1 John, but there are significant parts that we have
skipped over to get to where we are. I encourage you to take 15-20 minutes to
read the whole book.
I’m going to read
this lesson a little differently. John is very clear in what he is saying. You
don’t need my explanation. I will simply read it and briefly pause from time to
time and repeat parts of the text for emphasis.
The Epistle lesson
for the 5th Sunday of Easter is from …. (ESV)
The Reading:
1 John 4:1-21
Beloved, do not believe every spirit,
but test
the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets
have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every
spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This
is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the
world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome
them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5
They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world
listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us;
whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of
truth and the spirit of error.
7
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves
has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does
not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made
manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might
live through him. / 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God
but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love
one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one
another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
13
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us,
because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and
testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15
Whoever
confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for
us. God
is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and
God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so
that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also
are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love
casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears
has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved
us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his
brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen
cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we
have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (ESV)
Comments
Whoever loves God
must also love his brother, because God is love, and God has loved us, so how
would we not love one another?
Prayers
The collect for
the 5th Sunday of Easter from Creative Worship.
Let us pray. O
God, You call Your people away from the spirits of this age, which are not from
You and do not confess that Jesus is Lord. Grant us faith to trust that Your
indwelling presence in us is greater than any happiness we may try to find
apart from abiding in You, in whom alone true joys are found; through Jesus
Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns in communion and love with You
and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Memory Verse: John 15:5 - I am the vine; you are the
branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit,
for apart from me you can do nothing. (Jn. 15:5 ESV)
Thank you so much
for using Devotions for Worship, I pray that our time together has blessed you
and given you something to meditate on – some reminder of God’s grace to rattle
around in your brain – for the rest of the day.
Would you do me a
favor? If you got something out of this devotional time, would you like and/or
share it on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever you do social media? That would help
me get the word out, and hopefully help these devotions be a blessing to others.
Look this podcast
up on iTunes! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/devotions-for-worship/id1295926846?mt=2
God bless you!
Devotions
for Worship: 1 John 4:1-21 - audio: https://soundcloud.com/pastor-tritten/april-27-1-john-4
- text: #devotion #devotional #devotions
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