Daily Devotion

You Didn't Know Any Better

 

"So you must live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better then."  1 Peter 1:14

 

Hey everybody!  Sorry I have not posted a devotion...quite honestly I don't really have a good enough excuse.  I have been super busy with work, traveling and all.  But on to the good stuff!  I have been reading the book of John, slowly at turtle speed.  But today I finished the 15th chapter, actually more than that.  But John 15 is a really good chapter.  It has one of my all-time favorites--I know I say a lot of scriptures are my favorites, but don't you have some like that?  I would hope so!  That scripture is John 15:7--"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."  Jesus is talking to the Disciples in this chapter, right before He is betrayed by Judas Iscariot.  But I noticed some really important scriptures here. 

 

John 15:22, 24 say the following:  "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin." ESV 24"If I hadn't done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father." NLT

No excuse.  That's powerful.  Basically there are two kinds of people:  the people that know Jesus and the people that do not know Jesus.  Then among the people that know Jesus, there are two more kinds of people:  the people that know Jesus and acknowledge what He did and try to live right, then the others are those that know Jesus and just sin anyway.  When we sin as if there is no consequence, we are fooling ourselves.  Everything has a consequence whether it be good or bad.  Consequences are not bad!!  They are just results!  If I go to bed late, 9 times out of 10, I'm gonna wake up late and then cause everything else to be late.  That's the consequence--the result of my being a night owl.  If I spend more money than I'm supposed to, 9 times out 10 I'm gonna be crying about it later.  Jesus said the people that heard Him teach and saw Him perform miracles had no excuses for their sin.

 

When you were little, you tried something until you learned that maybe you didn't like it.  You tried to touch something that you shouldn't have, and maybe you got spanked, got shocked, burned yourself...anything.  But until you knew better, you did it. Until you were taught different, you thought one way.  Then you had no excuse if you got hurt or got in trouble.

 

We all sin, we all "fall short of the glory"--but God grants us forgiveness and the promise that He will forget.  But for those who just completely disregard directions, those that know better and keep doing the same things without learning or repenting what happens?