October 28: John 15:17-27
Key Verse: John 15:22
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
Devotion:
When you found out for the first time something you were doing was wrong, did you stop doing it? Sometimes we do things because we don’t know they are wrong – we do this a lot as young people because we are still learning the ways of the world. If we were good imitators we may be able to do things right; but that depends on the person we are imitating doing things right to start with!
Jesus warned the disciples the world would simply hate them because they were doing what Jesus said they should do; not because they were doing anything wrong, but because the world was doing things wrong and did not want to be shown up! We cannot be guilty of doing wrong if we do not know it is wrong, but as soon as we know it is wrong, we have no excuse for doing it wrong again.
As our church grows into the world the world is not going to like the way we point out what is wrong because that means they no longer have the excuse of “we did not know it was wrong!” God gave us the Bible so we could help people (and ourselves) to see what is wrong.
The Holy Spirit comes to show us what is right and wrong. He does this no matter where we are or what we believe. This means nobody really has the excuse of saying they did not know it was wrong any more.
Points to Ponder:
Who teaches you right from wrong?
How well do you listen to the Holy Spirit?