"He that loveth his brother abideth in the Light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him." 1 John 2:10
“Whoever loves His brother [believer] abides (lives) in the Light, and in it or in him there is no occasion for stumbling or cause for error or sin.” 1 John 2:10 Amplified Bible
If we love one another, there is no occasion for us to stumble and there is no occasion for us to sin, none! Our Father said, and His Word is everlasting, if we love our brothers in the Lord, there is absolutely and positively no occasion that we can sin. Now that is some powerful stuff, but here is what even makes it more powerful.
“Whoever loves His brother [believer] abides (lives) in the Light, and in it or in him there is no occasion for stumbling or cause for error or sin.” 1 John 2:10 Amplified Bible
If we love one another, there is no occasion for us to stumble and there is no occasion for us to sin, none! Our Father said, and His Word is everlasting, if we love our brothers in the Lord, there is absolutely and positively no occasion that we can sin. Now that is some powerful stuff, but here is what even makes it more powerful.
“And I have declared unto them Thy Name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:26
Jesus is declaring God’s Name to us. He ever lives to do it, so the love that God has for Jesus, the Head of the Body of whom we are part of, is now in us. If we are truly saved, than we can’t help but love our brothers, because we have the same love for them that God has! Man that is so awesome, the love that has been born into us is the same love of God, now that just isn’t love, that’s perfect love. And since we now have our Father's love within us, there is no occasion for us to stumble or to sin! We now have the mind of Christ that allows the power and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to teach us the full victory of this Truth! I know that it is easy to struggle with these verses. I mean how in the world could we ever love as God loves. But we can love as God loves because the power of the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior has allowed our Father to do it through us. If we walk by sight with this we will stumble and fall into the ditch. But because Jesus is the Author and Finisher our faith, we can see clearly that our Father is willing and He is able to that which He has spoken. Through Christ we humbly accept the power of Jesus and acknowledge that it is the Father within us; He does the works! And the Truth sets us free and we cannot help but to love as God loves and there is never an occasion for us to stumble or fall!
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.” Galatians 5:22
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.” Galatians 5:22
“And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that ye might be filled with the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19
Jesus has sent the Holy Ghost to dwell within us, and because He does, we have love; we have our Father's love. We actually have living within us the love of God, the love that came to die on the Cross to serve us, the love that lives for the very purpose of interceding for all believers. This is the love that has been born into us; we are commanded to love our brothers in the Lord, if we are saved, that is a non-issue for us! If we don’t love our brothers and sisters in the Lord, we are in darkness, and we don’t have salvation, that is what 1 John 2:9 has to say about it. We have the Holy Spirit and the fruit of that relationship is love and since we know that love, we are filled with the fullness of God, and through Christ we have uttermost salvation!
"And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." 1 John 2:3-6
The love of our Father is perfected within us. In Christ there is no occasion for us to stumble and we are able to actually dare to believe that we can walk as Jesus walked. These are the Truths that our Father has to say about those who have been empowered to accept the sacrifice of Jesus and who are baptized with the Holy Spirit. Do you see that salvation is not us just getting by, barely making it into Heaven? Our Father talks about us being in His Holiest. Our Father, Who is God, says that as He is, so are we in this world and He says that through the Blood of Christ we are saved to the uttermost! God tells us to consider ourselves dead to sin, in the same way that Jesus is dead to sin. Jesus tells us that we will do greater works than He did and Jesus tells us that the Holy Ghost will teach us all things, perfect love is part of all. Salvation is bringing us into line with what God created, man in His image. But it goes so far beyond just being in His image, it goes into us being one with Him, no separation, as the branch lives only because the vine is ever connected to it, so do we live, because we are always connected to Jesus. He is the One Who is alive within us, so of course we would have and share in His personality, His character, His abilities, His everything. We are now one with Jesus and the only reason we live is because He lives. We are flesh of Jesus' flesh and bone of His bones!
Think about it, do you hear that the Church actually has the power to never stumble. Have you ever heard that God’s love can be perfected within us, or that we are saved to the uttermost? I have heard that we should strive for these things, but it was preached and implied that we must use our own efforts to get there, and if we did everything just right than it would come. It was never preached that we couldn’t help but be there, because we are now one with God, and He is always there. Actually if someone would have stood up and said that they were there, no one would have believed them. This is not pie in the sky thinking, it is reality, it’s who we are, and it’s what we are.
"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to Whom be glory for ever and ever. A-men." Hebrews 13:20-21
"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, Who also will do it." 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
When you see verses like these two, you can see that it’s not impossible to live as one who is saved to the uttermost, sanctified wholly, perfect in every good work, and well pleasing to our Father. It’s not even hard to have the faith that we can never stumble and live in perfection. Look at what God says, it’s not us doing it; it’s Him doing it within us. The Blood makes us perfect in every good work and God is faithful to preserve us blameless. Our Father will do it! I don’t think any believer stumbles at believing God can do anything, we stumble when we think we have to, but praise God it’s not up to us, it’s up to Him, and He is faithful to do what He has said.
The Bible teaches us that we will know a person by their fruit. “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” Matthew 7:16 Jesus is our Vine. “I am the Vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.” John 15:5 We need to settle it right now, we should all expect to be used fully by our Father to bear much fruit to prove that we are in the Vine! According to Jesus, if we are saved we will produce much fruit! Through the power of Christ that is at work within us, every one of us should be producing godly fruit: love, peace, joy, gentleness, faith, longsuffering, and goodness, and producing much of it! God had it written that it would prove that we are part of the Vine of Jesus Christ!
"And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." 1 John 2:3-6
The love of our Father is perfected within us. In Christ there is no occasion for us to stumble and we are able to actually dare to believe that we can walk as Jesus walked. These are the Truths that our Father has to say about those who have been empowered to accept the sacrifice of Jesus and who are baptized with the Holy Spirit. Do you see that salvation is not us just getting by, barely making it into Heaven? Our Father talks about us being in His Holiest. Our Father, Who is God, says that as He is, so are we in this world and He says that through the Blood of Christ we are saved to the uttermost! God tells us to consider ourselves dead to sin, in the same way that Jesus is dead to sin. Jesus tells us that we will do greater works than He did and Jesus tells us that the Holy Ghost will teach us all things, perfect love is part of all. Salvation is bringing us into line with what God created, man in His image. But it goes so far beyond just being in His image, it goes into us being one with Him, no separation, as the branch lives only because the vine is ever connected to it, so do we live, because we are always connected to Jesus. He is the One Who is alive within us, so of course we would have and share in His personality, His character, His abilities, His everything. We are now one with Jesus and the only reason we live is because He lives. We are flesh of Jesus' flesh and bone of His bones!
Think about it, do you hear that the Church actually has the power to never stumble. Have you ever heard that God’s love can be perfected within us, or that we are saved to the uttermost? I have heard that we should strive for these things, but it was preached and implied that we must use our own efforts to get there, and if we did everything just right than it would come. It was never preached that we couldn’t help but be there, because we are now one with God, and He is always there. Actually if someone would have stood up and said that they were there, no one would have believed them. This is not pie in the sky thinking, it is reality, it’s who we are, and it’s what we are.
"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to Whom be glory for ever and ever. A-men." Hebrews 13:20-21
"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, Who also will do it." 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
When you see verses like these two, you can see that it’s not impossible to live as one who is saved to the uttermost, sanctified wholly, perfect in every good work, and well pleasing to our Father. It’s not even hard to have the faith that we can never stumble and live in perfection. Look at what God says, it’s not us doing it; it’s Him doing it within us. The Blood makes us perfect in every good work and God is faithful to preserve us blameless. Our Father will do it! I don’t think any believer stumbles at believing God can do anything, we stumble when we think we have to, but praise God it’s not up to us, it’s up to Him, and He is faithful to do what He has said.
The Bible teaches us that we will know a person by their fruit. “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” Matthew 7:16 Jesus is our Vine. “I am the Vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.” John 15:5 We need to settle it right now, we should all expect to be used fully by our Father to bear much fruit to prove that we are in the Vine! According to Jesus, if we are saved we will produce much fruit! Through the power of Christ that is at work within us, every one of us should be producing godly fruit: love, peace, joy, gentleness, faith, longsuffering, and goodness, and producing much of it! God had it written that it would prove that we are part of the Vine of Jesus Christ!
I don’t want to sound condemning here, but Jesus said that through Him we will bring forth much fruit and Jesus said that we would be known by our fruit! I think for most of us we believe that it is unrealistic to think this way. But we should expect that all of us are fully used by God to produce much fruit. Jesus said that if we are one of His branches then we will bear much fruit. That’s awesome, we should shout for joy, we should hope for this and faith will come, and we will be used by our Father to bear much fruit. Think of how much the world needs it? Look at the Middle East, you think they need some gentleness, goodness, love, and peace? Take a gander at Washington DC, you think that group may need some of what God has to offer? Two of us agree as touching anything and it will come to pass, together we can agree that these verses of Truth are fulfilled within our lives and that we actually mature to the fullest stature of Jesus Christ, and we move on to perfection, and we will, God said so!
We need to preach it, it’s Truth, and the Truth will set us free! I know people who never produce any fruit and they have been so called saved for years, and no one loves them enough to call them on it. I mean Peter said that he didn’t want Jesus to be crucified and Jesus called him satan! We all need to look in the mirror and allow God to be Who He is within us. Ask Him, am I producing much fruit? He will tell you. The great thing about much is it’s relative. A new branch may not be bearing as much fruit as a mature branch, but in reality, compared to its size, it’s producing more than the older one, or much. God knows where you are and He knows what much is for you and what’s great, it is God producing the fruit for us anyway, so He defines much for each of us. And if you are truly saved, it just happens, a branch doesn’t have to take thought for producing fruit, the Vine and the Gardener determine that! And the Gardener and the Vine have determined for us to have much!
“But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught by God to love one another.” 1 Thessalonians 4:9
We need to preach it, it’s Truth, and the Truth will set us free! I know people who never produce any fruit and they have been so called saved for years, and no one loves them enough to call them on it. I mean Peter said that he didn’t want Jesus to be crucified and Jesus called him satan! We all need to look in the mirror and allow God to be Who He is within us. Ask Him, am I producing much fruit? He will tell you. The great thing about much is it’s relative. A new branch may not be bearing as much fruit as a mature branch, but in reality, compared to its size, it’s producing more than the older one, or much. God knows where you are and He knows what much is for you and what’s great, it is God producing the fruit for us anyway, so He defines much for each of us. And if you are truly saved, it just happens, a branch doesn’t have to take thought for producing fruit, the Vine and the Gardener determine that! And the Gardener and the Vine have determined for us to have much!
“But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught by God to love one another.” 1 Thessalonians 4:9
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