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This week Chelsey is sharing about God's command to love in deed and in truth. This is yet another post we must not waver from holding. To love like Christ we must LOVE in action and in truth, always.

To love in deed and in truth we must be walking in the light: 

• 1 John 1:5-10 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
• To to walking in His light means you've accepted Christ as Lord and Savior - you believe in Jesus's life, death, and resurrection.
• We in Christ confess our sin and seek true repentance because we know He is faithful and just to forgive our sin. 

To love in deed and in truth we must know what the Lord commands of us because those who know Him seek to obey Him:

• 1 John 2:3-6 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
• We in Christ must know His commands. 
• Keep His word.
• Abide in His ways and WALK like Him.

To love in deed and in truth we must not desire to live and love like the world: 

• 1 John 2:15-17 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life —is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
• To love like Christ we must get comfortable with being unpopular. 
• We have to daily seek God's desires over our fleshly desires.

To love in deed and in truth we must reject the deception of the world and lead others in truth:

• 1 John 2:18-24 18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. 20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. 24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.
• We must remember the truth we were taught - VS 24.
• Uphold the truth so you wont be "taken captive by empty deceit". Col 2:8

To love in deed and in truth we must know who we are in Christ, His beloved Children:

• 1 John 3:1-10 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
• True Christ followers have conviction because of the Holy Spirit living within our hearts. We seek repentance and walk in sanctification.
• We love in deed and in truth - 1 John 3:19 "By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him.." 1 John 3:23-24 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God,and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

Stand Firm: Standing Firm In Your Faith Against Deception:

• You can get the 7 day devotional at the link here: STAND FIRM DEVO
• Part of the proceeds for the sale of each devotional goes towards donating Bibles to kids through Compassion!