#j.i. packer

[apenitentialprayer]

We strongly affirm the separation of church and state, and just as strongly protest the distortion of that principle to mean the separation of religion from public life.

Chuck Colson, Richard Neuhaus, et al. (Evangelicals & Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium)

[gospel-art-project]

[woodsandhearth]

“Being prone to self-deception, we do well to test our assurance by applying the doctrinal and ethical criteria which 1 John provides for this very purpose, and by this means the inferential element in our assurance will be strengthened and the vividness of assurance as a whole may vastly increase:

“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments...If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him...No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him...

Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 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. 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. 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...We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death...

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God...Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love...

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him...

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith...We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.” (1 John 2:3, 29; 3:6-10, 14, 18-21; 4:7-8, 15-16; 5:1-4, 18 ESV)

- J.I. Packer, Knowing God

[craigtowens]

A half-truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth.

J.I. Packer

[livingleft]

There is, certainly, great cause for humility in the thought that he sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow humans do not see (and am I glad!), and that he sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself (which, in all conscience, is enough). There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given his Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose.

J. I. Packer, Knowing God

[semperreformanda]

Doctrinal preaching certainly bores the hypocrites; but it is only doctrinal preaching that will save Christ’s sheep. The preacher’s job is to proclaim the faith, not to provide entertainment for unbelievers—in other words, to feed the sheep rather than amuse the goats.

J.I. Packer

[apenitentialprayer]

In their relationship to God, persons have a dignity and responsibility that transcends, and thereby limits, the authority of the state and of every other merely human institution.

Chuck Colson, Richard Neuhaus, et al. (Evangelicals & Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium)

[apenitentialprayer]

John wrote that "God is love" to make an ethical point, "Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" (1 Jn 4:11). Could an observer learn from the quality and degree of love that I show to others —my wife? my husband? my family? my neighbors? people at church? people at work?— anything at all about the greatness of God's love to me? Meditate upon these things. Examine yourself.

J.I. Packer (Knowing God, page 127)