smithj77

I don’t think it is so much that we have struggles, stress, and problems as it is how we handle struggles, stress, and problems. Paul speaks about God and lets people know he is house arrest because he preached the Gospel. He was bound to a guard and never let alone. He took advantage of this and preached to his guards. Additionally, he was a living witness of how one should behave under tribulation. He witnesses as a prisoner and rejoices that others are preaching the gospel even if their intentions are not good. Praise God, I am blessed. At this time, all my needs are met by our Father in heaven.

Paul expects, no is confident, that God will complete the work he has started in the believers. Paul is saying that God, who began a good work in you meaning the Philippians, but also us today, epiteleō, "to finish something begun, end, bring to an end." While it doesn't say directly why Paul believes this we know that is confidence comes from another because the Greek verb peithō, is in the past participle. It means, "be so convinced that one puts confidence in something." Only God could confidence Paul of this. We are able to know that God will finish the work he began because we are his saints and slaves. He has made us holy for his purpose. God is so so God....

Q2. (1:6) When we become financial "partners" with a Christian missionary, minister, ministry, or church, what do we receive out of the partnership? What other kinds of support might we offer beyond financial? if we can become partners in a ministry we can see the blessing of our funds. For example, I used to,... and maybe should again, support American Bible Society. When I was in the Republic of Panama i saw one small village overjoyed to have just one Bible. If you are from the U.S. like me, you know that many of us have more than one Bible, and bibles are everywhere. The person asked for my new testament as it had Spanish (it was English/Spanish). i gave the book with pure joy and wished i had had many others to give to that village at that time. That kind of joy comes from the partnership. We can also give our ourselves as stated by Mr. Dick Ross.

Q1. (1:1) What is the basic idea of "slave"? What is the root idea of "saint"? In what way are these words saying the same thing about a Christian's relationship to God? Paul is using the Greek noun doulos for Slave. In the U.S. because of slavery this idea seems contradictory to American mentality. However, if we look back to Exodus 21:6 we see a different picture. It is the picture of a slave who loves his master and becomes a slave of that master for life. This is quite a different picture. Serve God well and be treated fairly and beautifully rather than to try to make it out in the world alone. Who wouldn't want to be taken care of by God! Paul then says of those to whom he is writing that they are saints using the Greek term hagios. The beautiy of this is that we are made holy by the blood of Jesus. Again, God in His mighty wisdom takes care of us. We are set apart to be holy, saints, and thereby we can be slaves or servants for the most high. it is amazing!!

"For everything in the world -- the cravings of sinful man, the **** of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does -- comes not from the Father but from the world." (2:16) John gives us three examples of worldly sins. The first is the ******* or craving of wants and needs. The second is *******, be in sexual or ******* of things. The third is a prideful or boasting of what one has or does and not recognizing what comes from God. We often can get so tied up into worldly things because we might try to be like others or we aren't focused on the things that God wants and we want worldly things. We could get so involved in trying to be successful, for example, that we no longer recognize what is right by God standards.

The world, or cosmos, here is referring to a lifestyle of worldliness as opposed to a lifestyle of Godliness. It makes me think of the sinful items listed in Galations 5:19 19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Love of these types of things stand against what God wants of us. They separate us from God.

John loves these Christians and wants the best for them so he encourages them. He reminds them that God died for their sins. he lets the youth know that they are strong and can take the burden. He lets the fathers know that their faith is sound so they won't doubt.

God is light and if we are in the darkness we are without God. We must repent and moreover, forgive others who have sinned against us. for God, will not forgive us if we don't forgive others. We will live in the darkness.

We need to focus on God's love, on his grace, on that there is non righteous no not one. This will help us to love others and not judge others. With God's help we make love our focus.

2 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. God gives us and advocate. Because of this we can be comfortable. Because God loves us we want to avoid sin.

2 I am writing this to you, my children, so that you will not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have someone who pleads with the Father on our behalf—Jesus Christ, the righteous one. 2 And Christ himself is the means by which our sins are forgiven, and not our sins only, but also the sins of everyone. ---- John tells us that Jesus will be our advocate if we sin. We can be comforted because our sins and the sins of others will be forgiven. The love we have for God and the great grace extended to us makes us want to not sin. Sin will separate us from God.

Confession is when we say that we have sinned. John is letting us know if we don't confess our sin then fellowship will be hindered. So to keep the relationship good we must confess our sins. If we stop confessing sin we won't have good fellowship with one another. 1 John 9 if we confess our sins: he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I think forgiveness is when one who was sinned against says those things are no longer held against the sinner, whereas, I believe that cleansing is when those sins are washed away.

If a person continues to sin knowing that it is sin, she or he will be separated from God. Often in this situation, a person might say well God forgives, I only did one time, I won't do it again, I'm only human... The person knows it is sin but tries to justify the sin. After a while I think the person may begin to believe the lie. If we walk in the light we will have fellowship with one another. We can get back into light by confessing our sin.

I believe in Western culture we start to compartmentalize our lives. We have work, perhaps social groups like Lions Club, activities with kids like boys or girl counts... then church. We aren't see Church as our family but a place to go and activity to do. Sometimes I feel it is hopeless, but with prayer and discussion perhaps we can get the Church to be alive and have deeper relationships with other Christians. These relationships may start Christian by Christian, till it spreads.