A Friend Who Motivates
by Fr. David M. Knight
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus
Lectionary No. 206
1John 2:29-3:6; Psalm 98; John 1:29-34
"Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed." 1John 3:6
People who don’t know Christ might assume Christianity is all about avoiding sin.
Wrong. It is about knowing Jesus. But if we read reflectively John’s first letter, we discover there is a relationship between knowing Jesus and avoiding sin.
According to John, Jesus empowers us to “make ourselves pure, as he is pure.”
He does this by giving us hope that we will be “like him,” for we will “see him as he is.”
So what should motivate us to live a Christian life is the hope of entering into a relationship with Jesus in which we see and know him as he is, and become like him.
To have this relationship is to “remain in him.”
If we live in this relationship, we “will not sin”—at least not in ways that are deeply, radically evil.
Our desire and focus, our effort and goal as Christians, should be:
1. to “see Jesus” by contemplating him as he is revealed in his words, and in his interaction with us today;
2. to live as Christ—consciously
3. and so to “become like him” in ways “beyond our power to ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).
Friendship is interaction. If you interact with Jesus, relationship with him will help you avoid sin.
ACTION: Write out one practical way to do each of the first two things above.
PRAYER: “Lord, be with me. Let me be with you.”
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
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