#34 Aug 24, 2015
2015 Devotional. Our goal for these weekly devotionals is to grow in humility and to grow spiritually by memorizing selected passages, putting them into context, and by applying them to our daily living. These passages are taken from: “100 Verses Every Christian Needs to Know” by Freeman-Smith. All passages are from the NIV.
John 12: 46
46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
This verse is found in the section of this chapter labeled as, “Belief and Unbelief Among the Jews”. All four Gospels are about the work of Jesus during His life on earth. However, the Synoptic Gospels are very similar one to the other, about 75% of each Gospel is contained in the other two. Matthew, Mark and Luke were written between 50 AD and 60 AD while eyewitness were still available. John’s Gospel was written later, somewhere in the 90’s AD. John is an eyewitness to all of the time Jesus was on earth and he is an eyewitness to the major changes in the world, the fall of Jerusalem being a major event for Christians at the time. While the Synoptic tells the same story to different audiences, John is speaking to a persecuted church. Therefore, 90% of John’s gospel is not found in the other three Gospels.
In the area of unbelief John quotes Isaiah 53: 1 and 6: 10 to explain why some leaders believed and some did not. Believing in Jesus is a choice; we choose to believe and ask for the faith to do so. Those who choose not to believe do not ask for faith. But John’s quote of the Isaiah passages makes belief much deeper than our choosing. The leaders of the Jews and the teachers of the law had Isaiah’s writings at hand and had much of it memorized, they had no excuse: They closed their eyes and minds, unbelievers and some believers as well “for they loved human praise more than praise from God“. We turn to Ephesians 1: 3-14 for the deeper understanding of choosing to follow Jesus. Belief is a “Spiritual Blessing in Christ”: “for He chose us in Him before the creation of the world”(v. 4). “In Him we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works everything in conformity with the purpose of His will…” (v. 11-12). We must choose to respond to the Love of Christ!
Going back to the verse we are memorizing: Jesus is “the LIGHT of the world”, we see by His light with spiritual eyes and He is here for us always keeping us on the right path in a dark world.
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Heavenhigh 