Category: Devotion

John tells us that we can’t earn God’s love. God gives us His love unconditionally. We are dead in our sins and the dead cannot accept anything from God. However, God places His love on us and makes us alive through His Son, who took our sin to the cross. Through the blood of God’s Son and the waters of Baptism, we are God’s children. We didn’t earn this adoption; rather, it is placed on us by God’s unconditional and sacrificing love. Because we are God’s children, we will do His will for others, just as Christ has done freely: give to the poor and elderly, say the perfect prayers, and attend church.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, who’s unconditional and sacrificing love made me your child, give me a heart like that of your Son, who radiated Your love to me through the cross. Help me and guide me as I also radiate Your love to my friends and family so that they too will see Your love through me; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hymn
What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this
That caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul! (LSB 543:1)

These verses also tell us that we are living in the last days, in the days when antichrists will try to seduce us with their lies. Do not give in to these lies. Do not follow the antichrists with their emphasis on the law and their denial of Christ’s work. Rather, rejoice because you know the truth. The Holy Spirit who abides in you allows you to confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The Holy Spirit who abides in you gives you certainty that Christ’s death reconciled you to His Father, giving you forgiveness of sins and eternal life. In this season of Lent, it is a certain truth and not a lie that Christ suffered and died for you.

Prayer
O Great Defender, You gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us in the way of truth. Give to us faithful pastors who proclaim the true Word of God that we may remain in the true faith; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hymn
Though devils all the world should fill,
All eager to devour us,
We tremble not, we fear no ill;
They shall not overpow’r us.
This world’s prince may still
Scowl fierce as he will,
He can harm us none.
He’s judged; the deed is done;
One little word can fell him. (LSB 656:3)

We too are daily confronted by the lucrative and deceptive temptations of the world. Like a ravenous beast thirsty for blood, we soon find out that our sinful cravings can never be quenched.

In our reading, St. John exhorts us to flee such temptations of the world. These words recall what Christ spoke in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”

Trends come and go, desires balloon and deflate, idols are built up only to crash down. But the will of God, revealed in the Son of God who took on flesh and was crucified upon the cross in our place, never fades away. God and His promises are sure and endure to the end of the age. Thanks be to God!

Prayer
Abiding and unchanging God, the sinful world around us is enticing and fleeting. Guard us from the temptations of this age and our sinful cravings, and guide us by Your enduring will and promises, revealed in Christ, which never fade away; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hymn
What is the world to me
With all its vaunted pleasure
When You, and You alone,
Lord Jesus, are my treasure!
You only, dearest Lord,
My soul’s delight shall be;
You are my peace, my rest.
What is the world to me! (LSB 730:1)

We start out in this Christian faith as little children, knowing the Father through the water and Word of Christ. We become young men and women with time and perseverance in the faith, through the strengthening of our faith in His Word and Sacrament, which has the power to overcome the evil one. The eternal Word, which was from the beginning, has called us out of darkness into the light, and we become fathers and mothers when we have matured in the faith and start to teach it to others.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, You have called us out of darkness and into the light through the death and resurrection of Your dear Son, Jesus Christ. Strengthen us in the one true faith which you began in our Baptism and sustain through your Holy Word and Sacrament, that we may abide in the light; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hymn
God has called you out of darkness
Into His most marv’lous light;
Brought His truth to life within you,
Turned your blindness into sight.
Let your light so shine around you
That God’s name is glorified
And all find fresh hope and purpose
In Christ Jesus crucified. (LSB 646:2)

However, it is a new command because it is fulfilled. It’s not fulfilled through you. No, it is fulfilled through Christ and what He has done for you. It is fulfilled by the Spirit working through you. In fact, you have failed at keeping this command. But your failures have been forgiven! Simply because you have known the Father and received His name at your Baptism.

At your Baptism you became one of His beloved, little children. God made you promises, a promise to strengthen you, a promise to forgive you, and a promise to let His light shine upon you and to keep you from darkness.

Prayer
Most holy God, the everlasting light of the universe, we pray that You might strengthen us so that we may stay in Your light and reflect Your love onto our neighbors; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hymn
The Lord is my light and my salvation,
The Lord is the stronghold of my life.
Since the Lord is my life, my strength, and my all,
Whom then shall I fear?
There is one thing I ask of the Lord:
To dwell in His house forever,
To gaze on the beauty of the Lord
All the days of my life. (LSB 723:1)

St. John’s words for us today speak of the light of God in which there is no darkness. Jesus Christ is the light of the world, the light no darkness shall overcome. We confess that Christ has joined Himself to us in the incarnation and then bears our sins to the cross. If we claim to be joined to Christ, who is the light, how then can we deliberately walk in darkness? At the same time, “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (v. 8).

So here we stand. We must confess that we have sin so long as the Old Adam clings to our flesh, yet we must not walk in the darkness of our sins. Therefore, cling to the light of Christ. Confess your sins and walk in the light as one cleansed by His holy and precious blood.

Prayer
O Christ, the light of all the living, curb our flesh and renew our hearts that we would desire only to walk in Your light, trusting in the cleansing of Your precious blood; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hymn
Thy love and grace alone avail
To blot out my transgression;
The best and holiest deeds must fail
To break sin’s dread oppression.
Before Thee none can boasting stand,
But all must fear Thy strict demand
And live alone by mercy. (LSB 607:2)

The apostle John, however, begs to differ. The critics are wrong. In this epistle, John tells his recipient that all they have heard about Jesus is true. The Son of God is real—John and the other disciples heard and saw and touched Him—and the eternal life He promises is real, too, and it is for them. And it is just as true and real for you and me. Though we live nearly 1,900 years after John, his message about Jesus is for us, too, and, trusting this, Jesus makes our joy complete in His love, and gives us fellowship with God the Father, forever.

Prayer
Lord God, heavenly Father, we give You thanks for Your Son, Jesus Christ, who came physically among us and was seen, heard, and touched by His disciples. Help us to always believe and trust that their testimony is true, that we may by faith receive forgiveness and be made righteous through this Gospel; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hymn
Grant us grace to see Thee, Lord,
Present in Thy holy Word—
Grace to imitate Thee now
And be pure, as pure art Thou;
That we might become like Thee
At thy great epiphany
And may praise Thee, ever blest,
God in man made manifest. (LSB 394:5)

Thank God for His patience. He would be right in judging the whole world now. But He waits; He is patient. He allows more time for others to come to recognize the salvation that has already been won on the cross.

Peter exhorts his hearers to not be influenced by lawless people and to not lose their solid foundation. Indeed, that solid foundation is none other than Jesus Christ. Instead, Peter urges them to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (v. 18). This Lenten season, may we grow to appreciate all that He has done for us. May we fall to our knees and thank Him for having suffered on the cursed tree for our sakes.

Prayer
Almighty and merciful God, we thank You for sending the spotless Lamb for our sake. Help us to conform to Christ. Thank You for being forbearing and allowing others to come to salvation. Open our eyes to Your grace that we may grow to realize and be thankful for the cross for our salvation; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hymn
For me You gave all Your love,
For me You suffered pain;
I find no words, nothing can
Your selflessness explain.
What kind of love is this? What kind of love is this?
You showed Your love, Jesus, there
To me on Calvary.
What kind of love is this? What kind of love is this?
You showed Your love, Jesus, there
To me on Calvary. (LSB 542:2)