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Read Introduction to 1 John

 

“And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
 
 
abides forever
 
All Christians will live forever, so John is not talking about eternal life when he uses the phrase “abides forever.” His point is that those who walk in fellowship with God enjoy doing something that will last forever. We want to be an asset, not a liability, to the cause of Christ in time, for when we do that, it will last forever. 
 
The word “abides” connotes the idea of permanence. The will of God is the one principle of permanence on which the believer can fasten himself. He does not attach himself to something temporal when he does the will of God but to something enduring. He lives for eternal purposes when he does the will of God. There is a lot of mutation in this world, but there is no mutation when we live for God. 
 
PRINCIPLE: 
 
The person who lives in the will of God lives for immutable values. 
 
APPLICATION: 
 
The right kind of love leads to a life of permanent values. Living for eternal values pays eternal dividends. Why not invest in eternal things? 
 
All things are transient, but he who does the will of God builds on eternal foundations. There is no “passing away” for what that believer does. 
 
Christianity cannot accommodate the world because it revolves around an absolute God of permanent values. God cannot change; He is immutable. Man is mutable; therefore, man must orient to the will of God. God will never adapt to our will. 
 
Christians cannot accommodate their faith to the prevailing opinions and practices of men because he lives for an immutable God and His immutable values. We live above the fray, doing the will of God. This world is not our home. We are pilgrims passing through. That is why we do not adjust our standards to the world.  We walk like speckled birds against the crowd of accommodation. 
 
2 Co 4:16-18, 16 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
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