1John 5: 13-21

13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

John did not write just to inform us about God’s love, His Son, or eternal life, but that we might know based on the evidence he has given us. With this hard evidence we will continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. When scripture describes a love relationship that we are already experiencing, it is a confirming witness that we are His children.

14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

Knowing produces confidence. When we know His will, we know what to ask for and that He hears us: then we know that we have the answer to our request. Knowing comes through abiding in Him.

16 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

If we know that a fellow believer is lacking complete victory, but is not making a practice of sin, we should intercede for that one, asking God to restore him with overcoming life. The one who has repeatedly hardened his heart to correction, and has made a practice of his sin, is headed for death, so do not pray life for him. Though all sin is punishable by death, some are gaining ground toward the victorious life through repentance, while others’ hearts are being further hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, choosing to continue toward a dead end.

There are some examples in scripture of people who got into a death trap. Sampson played around with sin until he was caught in the trap of the enemy. Though God had mercy on him, empowering him to destroy his enemies, he died along with them. His life was cut short by many years because of his sin. It appears that, once a believer goes so far into practicing sin, God allows him to be trapped in the hope that he will then turn back toward life; yet, God will sometimes let their flesh be destroyed that their soul might be saved.

There was such a man spoken of in 1 Corinthians 5. Paul told them to turn the immoral man over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh that his soul might be saved. God must judge sin beginning, especially, in the house of God. There were those who were evidently partaking of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy, self centered manner which led to sickness, and even death, among them. See 1 Corinthians 11:30. In both of these instances Paul mentions God’s judgment was taking place.

In Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira, his wife, both came under the judgment of God for lying about their financial dealings. This portion of scripture has few details but we must conclude this was not their first lie or deceptive offering but that they had developed a hard heart toward the truth. God is truth, and they did not know or practice Godliness.

Peter did not pray life for them, but judgment. We have to know the mind of the Spirit in order to pray for people in these situations.

18 We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

Everyone who is born of God has been given the authority of His family name to keep himself from the trap of the wicked one and to defeat habitual sin by that authority. This powerful name is not available to those who are of the world because the wicked one still has them under his authority. Those who choose to habitually sin do not to stand in the authority given them; they have allowed sin to, again, be their master.

20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

The Son of God has come and has opened our understanding to know Him as truth. Abiding in Him, and in the truth, assures us of eternal life. In John 8: 31-32, Jesus said

"If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

John’s closing comment is to keep away from idols. We usually think of an idol as a statue or graven image but it can also apply to mental images. Envisioning something in a covetous manner is a form of idolatry. Anything that takes our eyes and our affection away from the one true God is an idol. Colossians 3:5

1John 5: 1-12

1John 5: 1-12

Obedience by Faith

1Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

Coming into God’s family requires faith, believing and trusting that Jesus is the Christ, is our entrance. God’s family love naturally causes us to love the children of God and keeping His commandments are joyous, not burdensome. Love for God’s family is a sort of birthmark, as evidence, upon all who are begotten of Him.

4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Our birth into God’s Family means we have an advantage over all those on the outside.

The power of the world’s influence to form thought patterns and actions has been broken for those who submit to Christ. Those who are born of God overcome the influence of this world through Christ by faith. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds. Romans 12:2. We have the mind of Christ Jesus, the one who overcame the world. John 16:33

The Certainty of God's Witness

6This is He who came by water and blood — Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.

7 For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.

The Father sent His Son Jesus, the Word, to take upon Himself flesh and blood submitting to both life and death in human form being anointed with the Holy Spirit of truth. All three; the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit had a part in this incarnation of the Christ. These three in heaven agreed and conceived salvations plan that has been revealed on earth.

Earth must come into agreement with heaven and every truth must be confirmed by the word of two or three witnesses. 1 Corinthians 13:1. The truth of heaven is confirmed on earth by the Spirit, the water and the blood, all three agree as one. Each of these three play a vital part in our salvation. The Spirit draws men to Christ, the blood of Christ cleanses and saves us and baptism in water speaks of burying our old man of sin to then rise up and walk in newness of life.

9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. 10 He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.

We might believe what men say but believing what God says is much more important. God’s testimony is that He sent His Son and all who believe in Him shall have life. Those who have believed and received the Son of God will have an inner witness to know what is from God. Those who do not believe God’s testimony concerning His Son Jesus have counted Him as a liar, thus excluding themselves from life.

11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Our testimony is that God has given us eternal life through receiving His Son. When we invited Him in eternal life entered, but those who would not receive Him do not have eternal life.

1 John 4:7-21

Knowing God Through Love

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

These statements concerning love must be understood from the context of God’s (agape, in the Greek) love. I am sure the vast majority of unbelievers and those who would not claim to be born of God would argue that they love others, especially their own families. God’s love is God Himself and those who live, or abide, in God will live and walk in His love. Those who do not know God cannot live and walk in His love because they have not yet made access to Him.

9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

God put His great love on display by sending His Son to restore our access to His love and life through His Son Jesus.

10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

It was not our love for God that motivated Him to send His Son to die and pay the price for our sins, but it was His love for us. This is how God’s love is distinguished from human love: while we were in rebellion, our backs turned to Him, He pursued us.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Are we loving those who do not love us? Jesus said that it is easy to love and do good to those who love us and could return the favor, but even sinners do that. To stand out as God’s children, we must love and do good to the ungrateful, expecting nothing in return. Our thanks and reward will be stored up for us in heaven. See Luke 6:30-36.

Seeing God Through Love

12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.

Though we are not able to look upon God with our natural eyes, He is revealed to us by His creation. How could anyone say that they love God, yet despise a brother who has been made in the very image of God? If we love one another like He loves us, it proves that God lives in us and that His love is in complete control of us.

13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

God sent His Spirit to live in our spirits so that we could live in His Spirit, thus making us one with Him. When we invited Him to sit on the throne of our lives, He also invited us to sit with Him in His.

14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

God sent His Holy Spirit to reveal His Son, Jesus, to us, in us, and through us. Our confession of Jesus as the Son of God must be more than words, it must be a lifestyle of doing the works of Jesus. Confession must have corresponding action to be true. In the mouth of two or more witnesses every truth must be confirmed. Our words are one and our actions are the second witness.

16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

Our spiritual life is inseparable from God. As earth’s atmosphere provides everything necessary to sustain life in the natural, God’s love and presence create the necessary atmosphere to sustain us spiritually. Our spirit man must breathe in, as it were, the Spirit of God, then eat and drink the word and the living water.

The Consummation of Love

17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

In previous verses, John spoke of the boldness and assurance that those who walk in love would have to enter His presence and to receive the requests that they ask of Him. Now he speaks of the judgment day in a similar way. Love has been perfected, or made complete, in us when love’s desire and mission have been accomplished. God’s love judged and punished His innocent Son in our place and provided innocence for us, equal standing with the risen Christ at the right hand of the Father even while we are yet in this world. Jesus’ love for His bride fully consumed Him and love’s mission was accomplished. When love has fully consumed us, there is no room left for tormenting fear. The process of maturing in love includes self examination: judging ourselves here, in this life, that we will not fear that final judgment day.

19 We love Him because He first loved us.

We can only love God and others the way that He does as we receive His love. Without His love, we are an empty vacuum desiring to be filled. By nature, we usually seek fulfillment with the things offered by this world. His love has already been poured out. It endlessly flows toward us all: we only have to open up and receive it.

Obedience by Faith

20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

Jesus summed up the whole law and the prophets in these two commandments. Love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind and, love your neighbor as yourself. The two go together; we cannot truly love God if we do not love our neighbor. Some of us may have a problem loving self which will keep us from rightfully loving anyone else. We must loose our old identity, as a child of Adam, and grasp our new identity, as a child of God. It requires faith to see that which does not readily appear. Though my Adamic nature may rear its ugly head now and then, I must believe, by faith, that I am a new creation in Christ and focus on what God is making new in me.

1John 3:21— 4:6

Love Builds Confidence

21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of God.

This verse is a continuation of the thought in the previous verses. If we love one another not only in word but actively, if we have shared of this world’s goods with those in need then we can confidently stand in God’s presence and our hearts will not condemn us. Those who only hear without doing the word have deceived themselves, see James 1:22.

22 Whatever we request we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

Doing all the things God has commanded us to do not only allows us to stand before

Him confidently, but we can be sure that we will have the request we ask of Him.

When our heart’s desire is the same as His, we will love one another and we will

have what we ask for because we do not ask to consume it selfishly. See James 4:3.

23 And this is his commandment: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

Believing is just as important as doing. All is done in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and for His glory. We must always remember that without Him we can do nothing: we have no righteousness of our own. He always empowers the believer to do, or keep, His commandments; loving God and one another are at the top of the list.

24 The person who keeps his commandments abides in God, and God abides in him. This is how we can be sure that he remains in us: he has given us his Spirit.

Those who abide in, or are vitally connected to, God, through the Holy Spirit, have tapped into His power, which enables us to keep the commandments. This is the evidence that God lives and remains in us because we know that, without His Holy Spirit remaining in us, we could not keep His commandments. Love for one another

identifies us as Jesus’ disciples. See John 13:35.

Testing the Spirits

4:1 Dear friends, stop believing every spirit. Instead, test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Many false teachers and prophets are in the world, so we must be able to discern the true from the false. John says: test the spirits to prove if they are from God. The one from God will speak by the authority of the Holy Spirit but false teachers speak from a counterfeit spirit.

1Co 12:3 Therefore, I want you to know that no one who is speaking by God's Spirit

can say, "Jesus is cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy

Spirit.

4:2 This is how you can recognize God's Spirit: Every spirit who acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

Those who speak on behalf of God will testify to the fact that Jesus Christ was, and is, God and that He came in the flesh. Jesus, the Word, became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.

John 1:14 The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We gazed on his glory, the kind of glory that belongs to the Father's unique Son, full of grace and truth.

4:3 But every spirit who does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist. You have heard that he is coming, and now he is already in the world.

Jesus Christ: God taking on human flesh, living a sinless life then dying for the sins of all mankind, stripped the kingdom of darkness of its power and authority. Jesus disarmed principalities and powers, revealing their true identity. All who believe and confess Jesus as Lord and Christ will be removed from the power of the kingdom of darkness and positioned into the Kingdom of God’s Son. The kingdom of darkness and the spirit of antichrist only have power in darkness. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. The spirit of antichrist can not acknowledge Jesus as Lord, and God manifested in the flesh, because darkness cannot shine forth true light. The spirit of antichrist will only acknowledge Jesus as equal with other men, not God in human flesh.

4:4 Little children, you belong to God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

The Greater One, the Holy Spirit, resides in everyone who believes in, acknowledges, and confesses Jesus Christ as Lord. The believer has been placed on higher ground and has the overcoming advantage of that position. Our enemy is under our feet because of our position not because of our own crafty efforts in battle.

4:5 These people belong to the world. That is why they speak from the world's perspective, and the world listens to them.

4:6 We belong to God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

Previously, John spoke of identifying a spirit of error but now he brings it down to a

personal level. People of the world are tuned in, so to speak, to the spirit of the world

which is of antichrist. God’s people are tuned into the Holy Spirit’s broadcast on

the frequency of heaven. We can tell those who are listening to the spirit of error

because they are consumed with the cares of life and the things of this world. Those

who are tuned into God’s Spirit will agree with Him and with us. Their focus is on

eternal things above, using the resources of this temporary life to lay up treasures in

heaven, where the natural corruption of this world cannot devalue and the thief cannot

break in and steal.