Category: 1 John

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Love, Life, and Death (1 John 4:9-10)

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How do we know that God loves us? First John 4:9-10 answers that question by teaching us that God’s love is public, personal, proactive, and propitiatory. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. First, God’s love is public. It is something he “showed” us. It is not merely a theological idea or spiritual feeling, it is an historical … Continue reading Love, Life, and Death (1 John 4:9-10)

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God Is Love (1 John 4:7-12)

georgepwood

According to 1 John 4:7-12, God is love’s direct source, best example, prime mover, and ultimate completer. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our … Continue reading God Is Love (1 John 4:7-12)

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Church Matters (1 John 4:4-6)

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First John 4:1-3 offers a Christological criterion for distinguishing between true and false prophecy; verses 4-6 add an ecclesiological one. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the … Continue reading Church Matters (1 John 4:4-6)

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The Importance of Disbelief (1 John 4:1-3)

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Belief is an important part of Christianity, but so is disbelief. The Bible teaches the importance of belief (or faith) in several places. According to 1 John 3:23, belief is a divine requirement: “And this is [God’s] command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.” According to Ephesians 2:8-9, faith is instrumental in our salvation: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” Indeed, “without faith,” as … Continue reading The Importance of Disbelief (1 John 4:1-3)

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Condemnation or Confidence (1 John 3:19-24)

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Is your relationship with God characterized by feelings of condemnation or confidence? If you’re at all like me—in other words, if you’re an ordinary Christian—your answer to this question is probably, “Both.” Sometimes I feel guilty and ashamed of my sins. Knowing that I’m a sinner, I feel like I should be condemned. Other times, however, I feel like I’m in sync with God and his purposes for my life. In those times, I feel God’s love for me, have hope for the future, and approach him confidently in prayer. These wavering feelings are my issue (and yours), not God’s. … Continue reading Condemnation or Confidence (1 John 3:19-24)

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Self-Sacrificial Love (1 John 3:16-18)

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Christianity is a religion of love. But what exactly is love? First John 3:16-18 provides an answer. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. In these three verses, we see the model, definition, application, and test of true … Continue reading Self-Sacrificial Love (1 John 3:16-18)

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Love vs. Hatred (1 John 3:11-15)

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Christianity is a religion of love, not hatred. Before you start citing examples of hateful Christians, whose existence I freely concede, permit me to draw an elementary distinction between ideal Christianity and actual Christianity. Ideal Christianity is normative Christianity, what Christianity should be. Actual Christianity is descriptive Christianity, what Christianity currently is. At the ideal level, Christianity is a religion of love, not hatred. But at the actual level, Christianity contains more than its fair share of haters, bigots, and jerks. First John 3:11-15 paints a picture of ideal Christianity in particularly bright colors. This is the message you heard … Continue reading Love vs. Hatred (1 John 3:11-15)

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Sin, Jesus, and Us (1 John 3:4-10)

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What is sin? What is Jesus’ relationship to sin? And what is ours? First John 3:4-10 provides an answer to each of these questions. First, what is sin? Verse 4 says, “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.” According to the Bible, God’s moral will is revealed in both nature (Romans 1:18-20) and Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Sin is the intentional disobedience of this divine will. It is acting contrary to both reason and revelation. Because the devil is the first and most notorious example of such disobedience, John considers all sinners to be of the … Continue reading Sin, Jesus, and Us (1 John 3:4-10)

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Is God’s Fatherhood a Cliché? (1 John 3:1-3)

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Is the Fatherhood of God a cliché? The dictionary defines cliché as “a phrase or word that has lost its original effectiveness or power from overuse.” You undoubtedly have heard this cliché, for example: “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.” I’m sure this advice made sense when people didn’t have indoor plumbing; but now you don’t throw water out, you unstop the plug and let it drain away. I’m sure babies all over America will sleep peacefully tonight knowing there’s not a chance they’ll be tossed with the dirty water. I fear that for many people God’s Fatherhood … Continue reading Is God’s Fatherhood a Cliché? (1 John 3:1-3)

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Family Resemblance (1 John 2:29)

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In your family, whom do you resemble most? My dad and I share the same name, but we don’t look at all alike. He’s fair-skinned and red-haired; I’m olive-skinned and brown-haired. I used to be able to say that he was bald and I had a full head of hair, but every time I get a hair cut, I know that distinction is slowly becoming less true. I get my looks from my mom. Even more specifically, I look like her father. I have a picture of him from the 50s or 60s. He’s wearing a suit and playing a … Continue reading Family Resemblance (1 John 2:29)