A Conquering Faith
Study Scripture: 1 John 4: 2 – 3, 13 – 17; 5: 4 – 5
Background Scripture: 1 John 4 – 5
Lesson 12 August 21, 2021
Key Verse
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. 1 John 4:16
INTRODUCTION
Our Study Text Topic leads us to consider what faith is and what conquering means. The Dictionary tells us that this participle means “to overcome and take control of a place or people generally by military force”. It also means “successfully overcoming a problem or weakness and the Dictionary illustrates this meaning by pointing to a saying “a fear she never managed to conquer”. The Dictionary also gives us ‘synonyms’ or ‘words with similar meanings’ to conquer such as crush, overthrow, quell, rout, subdue, or subjugate.
This is a most interesting and needed Study when we realize that the Apostle John was writing in a very hostile world. After 60 years of ministry John was thinking about the overthrow of Jerusalem, the amount of people that died in Nero’s persecution, the dismal and oppressive world of Domitian the Roman Emperor, and his now exile on the Isle of Patmos.
It has often been pointed out therefore that when John was writing it was a very dark place for John and for the Christian church. But despite that the Apostle John’s word to the church was the word victory. He was without doubt recollecting the words of Jesus,
“In the world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”.
The Apostle John as well as the other Apostles were very clear headed and realistic because they knew the secrets of God. To guide us John is going to give us insight into the conditions in which Christians fellowship.
The Apostle stresses that Christians are in fellowship in the light of holiness, in righteousness, and in the ultimate element, love. John is not talking about human love, sentimental or romantic love but he it is speaking about divine love, a love shown clearly in the propitiatory sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle John therefore is looking at the sphere of the conflict between Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Father in Heaven, and Satan, the Father of lies.
The Apostle John is making it absolutely plain that the work of God begun in Heaven, not on Earth and He continued His work following the Fall in the Garden of Eden when men became unable to turn to God. So divine work and divine salvation came to man and so the statement was required,
“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him”.
Obviously this gives rise to the need to test what is happening in the church. Then as now there was a manifestation of supernatural power and the claims of supernatural experience. Scriptures tell us that when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt there was a conflict between him and the Egyptian magicians and the magicians managed to duplicate some of the miracles of Moses. We also read about King Saul’s experience with the witch of Endor. Then we read in the New Testament of Simon Magus who managed to persuade many, using sorcery to bewitch the people of Samaria. In addition to this, we are also warned that in the time of the end there will be the ministry of the Beast who would perform miracles.
As we study therefore we have to pay special attention to the fact that the supernatural is not necessarily originating from that which is divine. Some in the early church claimed to possess supernatural power and were able to perform miracles and make prophecies using prophetic language. John therefore gives the warning that there are wheat and as well there are tares in the world, and wherever there is truth it will always exist with a counterfeit nearby.
So remember the warning. Some supernatural things are not divine at all.
But there are things that are supernatural as well as divine.
The Apostle John is often referred to as the ‘Apostle of love’ and a reading of his First Epistle gives the reason; the word ‘love’ is mentioned about forty times in its 5 short chapters.
One of the key tests of Christianity is love and John uses it to challenge the legitimacy of those who claim to be Christians, because true Christians do love one another!
Note, Jesus set this command as the identifying trait for His disciples;
“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another,” (John 13:35). (See Rom. 5:5; 1Thes. 4:9).
Love is the dominant theme in chapters 4 and 5, however the Study Text highlights verses that speak to the believer’s assurance and their right relationship with the Son of God. The important terms ‘faith’ and ‘truth’ are often linked to love and the Study verses also place some emphasis on these terms. Importantly, God’s love is the first cause of all the blessings that come to believers.
This will give us a conquering faith.
Note however that John will also deal in our Study with the marks of authentic believers for this is connected with the question of what is authentic Christian faith. This is of course a crucially important topic for us today for there are many believers who profess a strong Christian faith and yet there are multiple scandals in which they are involved.
These scandals give reason to question the authenticity of the faith they are professing. Some in the very highly regarded Christian circles have been involved in major financial and sex scandals yet they continue making a lot of money using the word of God. This of course brings the scorn of the world and Christianity suffers because people think that Christians and Christian leaders are always generally after only money.
The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and the glory of the gospel suffer as a result of these shameful activities.
Our Study therefore also invites us to look at the many false ideas about “the love of God”. Unfortunately the love of God is generally interpreted among many Christians to mean something like sentimental love, or romantic love. For some of them it simply means that God is affectionate. Some think that God is like a loving grandfather who receives everybody on their terms. He is like a kind of Santa Claus.
But remember that the Bible gives us a completely different picture of God. We can never talk about the love of God if we do not at the same time speak of the propitiation that Christ has accomplished. That is the meaning of “God is love” and John identifies that love for us later in the chapter.
The Book of 1 John is widely accepted as being written by the Apostle John, though the writer does not identify himself nor the Christian community or locale to which he wrote. Still the content of the letter is sufficiently specific to apply to a particular situation, yet holds application to all believers in all ages. This much is clear, his intended readers were Christians, they appear to have been well-known to him and he to them and so no introduction was necessary, (2:1, 12, 28; 3:7, 18; 4:4; 5:21).
His readers were facing a serious threat from false teachers and the heretics were their former brethren (1 John 2:18-19). John’s use of the terms “antichrists” (2:18) and “false prophets” (4:1) as labels for his opponents, indicate both the depth of his feeling about them and also the seriousness of their departure from the apostolic teaching about Jesus.
Although the Apostle says:
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God; (1 John 5:13) the Study Text is also to be considered against the backdrop of an on-going controversy and split in a Christian community, to which he likely belonged. Doctrinal and ethical matters seem to have been the issues.
Thus, the Epistle deals with factions within and outside the church, which had begun to teach error
(1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3). These include the denial of the true humanity of Christ (and therefore His atoning death), the reality of sin in the lives of teachers and denial of the assurance of salvation for believers in Jesus Christ.
Another heretical belief was that salvation came through knowledge
(Greek = gnosis, from which we have our word diagnosis). They also believed that Christ was a spirit who did not exist in bodily form. He only appeared or seemed to be a normal man. Some other heretics stated that the Jesus taught by the apostles was simply a man on whom the Spirit of God came to empower them to do great miracles but when it came time for the Cross the Spirit of God left him and he died as a man.
Some viewed the spiritual as always good and the physical was viewed as always evil; thus, they argued, the physical Jesus Christ could not be the Incarnate Son of God.
To combat this false teaching, John emphasized the interconnection of right belief, right actions and right love. Put another way, it is the right involvement of head, hands and heart. The child of God can be assured of eternal life, must believe the truth, the word of God, obey the commands and love brothers and sisters in Christ. The Apostle’s message: true believers practice righteousness, follow the truth and love the brethren is squarely centred on the person and message of Jesus Christ, a true understanding of which, is the antidote to all heresy and error.
The Apostle adopts an adversarial stance, ‘we’ vs. ‘they’ (4:4-6) and this implies that the people to whom he wrote had not embraced the teaching of those who had withdrawn from the community and who were still seeking to win adherents to their own views. Some might have felt pressure to side with the opponents and this would give impetus to this letter, as John sought to reassure and strengthen the faithful members of that community and urged his readers to adhere to apostolic teaching.
Note, unity at all cost is not desirable. Error and false teachers must be confronted, exposed and refuted. There is to be no compromise with the error of the adversaries, which is condemned outright (2:18-19, 4:1-3).
The threat of false teachers has bedevilled the church from its earliest history and continues unabated to the present time.
The idea of overcoming, or being victorious, is a common subject with John and features in the Study Text. He discussed victory over Satan, (1 John 2:13–14); overcoming the pressures of the world, (1 John 4–5).
As we consider this in today’s Study, we should distinguish among three ways the Bible speaks of ‘the world’:
a). As planet Earth in its physical sense (Acts 17:24; Romans 10:18)
b). As the world human inhabitants (Luke 2:1; John 3:16)
c). As a system of values opposed to God’s (John 14:17; Colossians 2:20)
John showed that threats to the faith must be dealt with firmly and without compromise, yet in a spirit of love. Christians should not respond to hate and abuse with more hate and abuse. Even in the most contentious relationships, love must prevail. Surely this applied to John himself, whose teachings were under attack by these heretics.
The Study Text highlights the critical role of the Holy Spirit in the assurance of true believers; their confession to the true nature of Jesus Christ and their empowerment to obedience to God’s commandments.
Importantly, the possession of the Spirit is the first ground of assurance for the believer. Conversely John alerts readers to the existence of the ‘spirit of antichrist’ which necessarily opposes the work of the Holy Spirit.
THE TEXT
Chapter 4.
The doctrines of Christianity lays great stress upon believing but it also stresses that there are times when unbelief is right.
Never forget what one writer says: “ Faith is not a way of convincing yourself that something is true when you know it is not, as someone has defined it, but faith is believing something that is true. In order to be a Christian you must be a believer, because from faith comes life, strength, peace, and joy, and all else that the Christian life offers. But , that being true, it is equally true that every Christian is also called to be an unbeliever. There is a time when unbelief is the right thing and the only right thing. The very same Scriptures which encourage us to believe likewise urge us not to believe. In fact, they not only urge us, they command us not to believe. This is no contradiction, anymore than to say that in order to live it is necessary both to inhale and to exhale….
It is the same thing with the matter of belief and unbelief. You cannot believe truth without rejecting error. You cannot love righteousness unless you are ready to hate sin. You cannot accept Christ without rejecting self. “If any man come after me,” Jesus says, “let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16: 24, Mark 8: 34).
You cannot follow good unless you are ready to flee from evil. So it is not surprising, therefore, that the Scriptures tell us we are not to believe, as well as to believe. This is what John declares in the first three verses of Chapter 4”.
Verse 1. … do not believe every spirit (stop believing) … having just mentioned the Holy Spirit (3:24) the Apostle hastens to alert his readers to the presence and activity of false prophets and the evil spirits that influence them. Evidently some of his first readers were giving an ear to the false teaching.
Some Christians are too gullible and often fall easy victims to the latest fads in spiritual exercise. It is necessary to distinguish the ‘Spirit of God’ from false ‘spirits’ (i.e., spirits advocating falsehood), because many false prophets have gone out into the world (2:18-27). False spirits (utterances or persons inspired by a spirit opposed to Christ) produce false teaching. John was speaking here of the “false prophets” as the mouthpieces of the ‘spirits’ that inspired them, not as the foretellers of future things.
… test the spirits … is to make a choice from among competing claims. His test question, whereby one can determine whether the Spirit of God or a spirit of falsehood possesses a person, was this: What does the person believe about Jesus Christ? This question is still a relevant test of orthodoxy today!
If a person denies the incarnation of Jesus Christ (He has come in the flesh), he / she has the “spirit of (the) antichrist (2:18-27). This was a heresy that false teachers were promoting among John’s original readers and it was a denial of the doctrine of Christ taught by the apostles. Any deviation from orthodox Christology evidences a spirit opposed to Jesus Christ.
One writer note: “Notice that John did not say we can tell false spirits by their works. He said we can identify that they are false spirits by their message. This was the acid test of a false prophet under the Old Covenant as well (Deut. 13:1-5).
According to the Lord Jesus, false prophets were to be tested ‘by their fruits’ (Matthew 7:16-20) which include their words, (Matthew 12:33-37). Jesus said, they ‘come to you in sheep’s clothing’ so that they look like sheep when in reality they are ‘ravenous wolves’ (Matthew 7:15). Their behavior does not set them apart from the sheep, but their message does!”
It is rather striking that cult groups, or religious movements that win support always does it in the name of love. But remember that the word love is used in many, many different ways and describe many different reaction and impulses. One writer therefore notes:
“Love means one thing to a hippie in Haight-Ashbury; love means quite a different thing as when it is used by a psychologist in his counseling room. Love is still something different on the lips of a movie-struck teenager; love is different yet when used with reference to the relationship of nations. There is no word, perhaps, in our language, that is capable of being stretched in so many directions as this word love. Yet so many people seem utterly gullible about it. If someone comes talking about love, this to them is the earmark they must be of God, they must be “of the truth”, despite the fact that the oldest trick in Satan’s bag is to show a spirit of friendly concern and appear to offer the fulfillment of love and desire”.
Therefore we will have to keep on pointing out that the message from God is the most important thing.
So the Apostle wants us to first test, and don’t jump to believe anyone who comes along.
We must point out the critical importance of this advice for us today for in our modern age we are in a much greater danger than the people in the days of John the Apostle and even before him, for in those ancient days everybody knew that there were invisible spirits and invisible realities lurking right behind the scenes of life. Those ancient people made all kinds of legendary figures and mythological figures worshiping them as demigods for they recognized that man did not exist in the universe by himself. There were superior beings that would influence Kings, rulers, and ordinary people, controlling and determining attitudes and bringing fertility and prosperity to every man alive.
But nowadays we think that we are smart and we have grown beyond that ancient approach. We therefore expose ourselves without any defense at all and so we easily come under the control of these evil spirits. But Jesus made it clear that there are a great host of evil spirits. The Apostle Paul warns us in Ephesians 6:12 that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, and wicked spirits in high places.
So do not fool yourself. Behind the rulers and important people in every country there are wicked spirits who are affecting the minds of men from top to bottom.
Our generation is proud and arrogant and therefore we do not understand the reasons behind the chaos and anarchy that is steadily increasing for they reject the whole concept of evil spirits and demons as intellectually unacceptable.
John did not say that every spirit that denies Jesus, but every spirit that does not confess Jesus (v. 3). Often heretical teaching masks its deviations from the truth by simply failing to affirm important biblical truth. Rather than proclaiming, “Jesus is not the Christ,” they fail to affirm that He is the Christ.”
Verses 2. …Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God …this statement immediately follows John’s stress on the need for discernment (vs.1). One vital doctrine of Christianity is that of the divine-human nature of Jesus (John 1:1–18) and the situation in John’s day called for emphasis on the fact that Jesus became flesh (2 John 7).
Why was it important that Jesus’ had a real, physical body? Until the destruction of the Temple in
A.D. 70, animals were sacrificed yearly there on the Day of Atonement to among other things remind the Jews that the shedding of blood was necessary to atone for their sins (Leviticus 16; Hebrews 9:22). Those sacrifices pointed to the sacrifice that Jesus would one day offer as He gave Himself on the Cross (Matt.26:28). If Jesus did not come in the flesh, then He did not have a body to sacrifice or blood to shed. Thus, it was essential that Jesus be not only fully God but also fully human in order to make salvation possible (1 Timothy 3:16). As well, He had to be fully human to be our ‘representative’ in His death, burial and resurrection.
Thus John provides a method to identify false prophets in this regard: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. This test complements Jesus’ own words in
Matthew 7:15–17 and 24:23–26 regarding the need to identify false prophets.
Note therefore that it is only through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit that one can confess that Jesus is come in flesh, saying it and meaning it. One writer notes the specific meaning of what John is saying:
“You might think, “Well you mean that is all there is to a true confession, to confess that Jesus Christ has come in spirit”? But think about it for a moment, what he is really saying, He doesn’t say he has come into the flesh. You see a Cerinthian Gnostic might say that. “For he thought of Jesus as just an ordinary man who at a point in time, his baptism, there had come upon him power from God, under which power and by which power he ministered until before his work on the cross when the power departed from him and he died just as a man”.
So John says it’s not that we confess Jesus Christ as having come into the flesh but in flesh, a true incarnation.
Furthermore, he doesn’t say that we confess Jesus Christ as one who came in the flesh, as if our Lord came in flesh and that was an event that happened a long time ago and it has not particular significance for us today. Not, not, he says that the true confession is the confession of Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh and still being in the flesh. That’s the particular expression that he uses. It’s a permanent thing. It’s not a when our Lord appears in his incarnate days, that’s not an exhausting of the fact of the incarnation.
In other words, the Lord Jesus is in flesh at the present time, glorified flesh as a result of the resurrection, but in flesh. Listen to the Apostle Paul,
“There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”.
He’s still a man in glorified flesh at the right hand of the father in heaven. The incarnation has not been completed, as a matter of fact permanent”.
Verse 3. And every spirit that confesseth not … as the church was born, the believers continued in ‘..the apostles’ doctrine …” (Acts 2:42). Several decades later however when John wrote his letters, certain people were disseminating false teaching about Christ and departing from the apostolic faith.
And this is that spirit of antichrist, … the word antichrist occurs only four times in the New Testament and only in John’s letters (1 John 2:18a, 22; and 2 John 7).
Bible students often try to identify this opponent as a singular individual, possibly the “man of sin … the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, … shewing himself that he is God”; in 2 Thess. 2:3–4 and/or as the ‘opposer’ mentioned in Revelation 20:10. The term can encompass all that oppose God, ideas and personalities
And even now already is it in the world. The spirit that was already at work in John’s time thrives today. The world to John usually refers to sinful humanity. In this sense, the world (that is, humanity) is largely opposed to God (John 3:19).
Remember therefore that there is a practical confession of human moral conduct, and then there is a confession of spiritual belief. So John we know in the next verse reminded brethren that they are God’s little children and so they do not have the spirit of antichrist, for that spirit is in the world. As children of God they have the victory because they can stand against the seducers and because they have the might of God. The One in them is greater than the one in the world.
Chapter 4:12-17
Verse 12. … No one has ever seen God … the visions of God reported in the Old Testament (theophanies) are to be seen as partial and incomplete in the light of John’s statement in this verse. In fact, these are Christophanies, appearances of the pre-incarnate Christ.
The fact is, God is invisible in His nature and incomprehensible in His being and perfections
(1 Tim. 1:17; John 4:24), so that normal, familiar relations as exist say between friends, is precluded with God. In light of this, Christians ought to love the saints and people of God, who are visible, in our realm and with whom relations are natural. This is the defined vehicle to effect the love of God and in the fashion He has demonstrated, sacrificially.
God indwells believers by His Holy Spirit, as a guarantee of their eternal life (Eph.1:14) and as the enabling power in obedience to the commands of God, at the heart of which is the command to love one another. The love for one another resident in the heart enjoined on believers is only possible as the fruit of God’s indwelling Holy Spirit.
Note, it is the in-dwelling of the Spirit that produces the love and not vice versa, thus love is the confirmation of the presence of the Holy Spirit, God, in the lives of believers. This dwelling or visibility of God in us is seen most clearly when we love those who are unkind to us.
By His own gracious design, His love is considered to reach its proper, genuine and realization in the love of Christians for each other, for in so doing we are most like Him.
… perfected in us … God’s love for us, reaches perfection (maturity; completion) in our love for others, which is what God wants and what believers are commanded to do.
Note therefore as the Apostle speaks of the love of God in Christ we are now looking at the marks of an authentic believer. We should therefore ask ourselves after each of these verses, Am I really an authentic believer?
Verse 13. By this we know … confirmation and assurance of their relationship with the Father, comes to believers through the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives; (3:24). Love is the primary manifestation of the presence of the Holy Spirit. As a result, continual acts of love are evidence of salvation. Where God’s life is, there we will find God’s love.
The indwelling Holy Spirit is evidenced by the fruit that He produces in us: “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,” and other great virtues, (Galatians 5:22-23). Love is the primary fruit, (Galatians 5:22). The remaining fruit of the Spirit are expressions of love; the fruit is the clearest evidence of the possession and working of the Holy Spirit in our life.
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him; (3:18-19).
Our love provides our assurance.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (Rom. 8:16).
The Spirit is witness to our salvation.
Note, in this sense it is the giving of the Spirit by the Father that assures believers, while we know the resulting acts of love are enabled by the Spirit. The believer is assured on all sides.
… and He in us … there is a reciprocal aspect to the relationship; we dwell in Him, and He is us, it is God who graciously works from both sides.
Note we are now looking at
“A union between the Father in heaven, the Son in heaven, the Spirit in heaven, and the believer upon the Earth. We call it covenantal union”.
Remember therefore Jesus’ words in the Upper Room discourse in John 14 when speaking about the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost He said,
“At that day, ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you”.
Verse 14. We have seen … possession of the Spirit will inevitably lead God’s people to testify. John follows the internal evidence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, with the external evidence that the Apostles were eyewitnesses to the fact that God had sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.
The incarnation is the most profound evidence that the Father had really manifested His love. John insists that we must understand that the Father sent the Son.
This in turn is the teaching of Scripture that Jesus the Christ is the eternal Son of God. He was always the Son and their relationship is an eternal relationship.
It is interesting to note that John does not say that Jesus came to save the world, but John states that He came as the Savior of the world. This means that only those who believe in His name would be saved. Those that do not believe in Him will not be saved. This is ‘world’ in the sense of men from all races, kindred, tongue, culture …
And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; (Rev. 5:9). (See Rev. 7:9).
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13.Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14.And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:12-14).
(See John 5:40; 8:21).
John evidently laid great importance on this subject and thus he repeats for the reader’s sake the gravity of this subject, restating the evidence by which we are affirmed and in which we can find assurance.
… and testify … The Church has no more effective way to testify to the world about the Saviorhood of Jesus than by the re-display of the Savior’s love in the fellowship of His disciples.
Verse 15. “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God…” John has given us the test for the internal evidence, the presence of the Holy Spirit and the fruit produced by Him. However, this test does not stand alone, but is accompanied by the doctrinal test, that is a restatement of verse 2.
“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God” (1 John 4:2).
He stresses the importance of sound doctrine, for it is also evidence of one’s possession of the Holy Spirit and true love for God. The proper confession is a ground of assurance that God resides in a person and he / she in God.
John gives us a measuring stick whereby we can determine whether or not one possesses the Spirit of truth or the spirit of error. This is the first test of a true teacher: they acknowledge and proclaim that Jesus is God incarnate, God in human flesh.
It is not a mere confession that Christ came to earth, but they confess that He came in ‘flesh’ to the earth. Thus, His human body was physically real. Both the full humanity and full deity of Jesus must be equally maintained if one is considered to be genuinely led by the Spirit.
The spirit of the antichrist is that which distorts and denies the true nature of Christ. Thus, if one performs acts of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, etc. and yet deny the true humanity and deity of Christ; these acts are not the fruit of the Spirit, but are counterfeit.
Confessing that “Jesus” is God’s “Son” is not the only condition for abiding in God. It is one evidence that someone might be abiding. One not abiding may or may not make this confession. Confession is the last step, the step of bearing witness (1:9; 2:23; 4:3; Rom. 10:9-10).
God’s Spirit descended and ‘remained’ on Jesus, according to John the Baptist (1:32, 33). The Spirit was Jesus’s constant companion.
To ‘remain’ or ‘abide’ in Jesus’s teaching is to be His true disciple (8:31). A disciple will be informed and steered by all that Jesus commanded and taught. God the Father ‘remained’ or ‘abode’ with Jesus during His earthly days (14:10). The Father was the source of the very words He spoke, and Jesus ‘remained’ continually in the Father’s love (15:10).
Abiding’ describes a reality involving Father, Son, and Spirit. In this context, “abides” refers to salvation, rather than to the fellowship that results from salvation.
Verse 16. This verse succinctly presents the teaching of the foregoing text. God is the source and giver of the love exhibited by the brethren, and this love is itself assurance of the mutual relationship that exist between God and true believers.
Previously the Apostle asserted a full assurance and knowledge of and faith in God; the love He has shown for believers, especially in sending His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, and that we might live through Him and all confirmed by our continued acts of love to the brethren.
… come to know … John was speaking of intimate knowledge and close fellowship (remains).
‘We’ includes the readers with the Apostles.
‘For us’ should be ‘among (or in) us,’ as in verse 9.
The sequence of John’s thought to this point have now emerged clearly. Faith (acknowledging Jesus as God’s Son, (v 15); and trusting in the love which God has for us, (v 16a) leads to mutual indwelling between God and the believer. Such a personal relationship is consequently expressed in and perpetuated by ‘living in love’ (v 16b). The believer’s love, for God and for other people (or for God in other people, v 12), is to be active and sustained.
John’s point was that his readers had personally ‘seen’ God in a sense similar to how the Apostles had seen Him. The Apostles had seen God in that they saw Him in His Son, Jesus Christ. God revealed His love to the Apostles through Jesus Christ. The readers saw God in that they had seen Him in His Spirit-indwelt abiding believers who loved one another. Consequently, John’s readers could bear witness to the truth as the Apostles did and they could enjoy the same intimate fellowship with God as the Apostles.
Verse 17. How can a believer know that his love for the Father is being perfected? 1 John 4:17—5:5 suggests four evidences namely, confidence (4:17-19), honesty (4:20-21), joyful obedience (5:1-3), and victory (5:4-5).
By this, love is perfected… implies fullness, maturity, and completion, not sinlessness. The meaning is, the love that is within us, or in us, is made perfect. The expression is unusual; but the general idea is, that love is rendered complete or entire in the manner in which the apostle specifies. In this way love becomes what it should be and will prepare us to appear with confidence before the judgment-seat.
And now, little children, abide in Him, so that whenever He should appear, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming (2:28).
Our ‘love’ becomes complete (‘is perfected’), in the sense that we can now have ‘confidence’ as we anticipate our ‘day of judgment’ (i.e., the evaluation of our works at Christ’s judgment seat;
(1 Cor. 3:12-15; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10-12). The characteristic of God and Christians in view here is our love.
…That we may have boldness on the day of judgement… Judgment Day holds no fear for those in Christ. (Matt. 25:31-46; II Cor. 5:10; Rev. 20:11-15). The influence and operation of the love of God in our hearts frees us from the fear of the wrath to come.
We do not need to fear the judgment seat of Christ if we have demonstrated love to others. By loving God and others, we demonstrate our likeness to Jesus Christ our righteous Judge (‘as He is, so also are we’). Therefore, to give love is to gain boldness (confidence).
One writer notes: Here John said that God’s love reaches perfection ‘with us’; whereas in John 4:12 he wrote that His love reaches perfection ‘in us’. When it reaches perfection in us, a proper relationship to other people exists, namely, no hate. When it reaches perfection with us, a proper relationship to God exists, namely, no fear.
As Jesus abode in His Father, and consequently had confidence in the face of trials and death, so we can abide in Christ, and have confidence in spite of the world’s hostility. Abiding in God gave Jesus confidence, and it gives us confidence.
Jesus is in the world unseen, and our office is to make Him visible. We are to Him what He was to the Father in the days of His flesh.”
…with us… this preposition (meta) can be understood as “in us” (TEV, NJB), “among us” (NKJV, NRSV, NIV, REB), or “with us” (NASB).
Because as he is, so are we in this world – the ways of the believers’ confidence are that we have and demonstrate the same character traits as our Saviour. When Jesus was here, He was fearless, faced the plotting, false accusations and rejection with no uncertainty about what He had to do. He knew that He was dependent on and protected by His Father.
We are like Him. We too live in dangerous situations but we do not have to be afraid, for the love of God drives out fear. We do not fear the world and we do not fear judgment.
Chapter 5:4-5
So after discussing thoroughly the themes of
-fellowship with Christ,
-maintaining this fellowship,
– maintaining truth,
-maintaining righteousness, and
-maintaining love,
the Apostle John can now finish his discussion and end with the theme of maintaining assurance or confidence.
One cannot claim to know God and yet walk in the darkness of disobedience. If anyone does that they are a liar. One has to keep the Commandments of God. One has to love your brother. Sometimes this love to be kind might involve a certain amount of cruelty. When you see a person heading into trouble. what you have to tell them might be unpleasant for them. With love there is really no such thing as a “white lie”. You might think that you’re doing your brother a favour by not telling them the truth but in fact what you’re doing is hurting them. All of the truth when delivered can set a person free.
The world might tell you that it is all right to follow your own rules but Scriptures warn us that the Commandments of God are pure and life giving. Therefore, do not give in to the ways of the world. You overcome the world by keeping steady, unmoved. Faith in Jesus is at work in you moment by moment and as one writer says, in the midst of pressure from the world and from your own life, it will make sure that you will overcome.
Life with God produces assurance, confidence, and victory.
Verse 4. … whoever has been born of God … John now asserts that because we are born of God we have overcome the world. It is from this birth, which is the work of God, that our strength comes. The overcoming does not come from our personal strength and effort. Note however that we are required to make effort.
… overcomes the world … every Christian has ‘overcome the world’ by his or her initial ‘faith’ in Jesus Christ. To continue to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, we need to continue to exercise ‘faith’ in God (Rom. 8:37).
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. 15:57
A writer notes: “It is striking that John does not say ‘whoever’ but ‘whatever’ (Greek: to gegennemenon, neuter gender). This suggests that there is something inherently world-conquering in the very experience of being born of God. We are now immediately told what this is: ‘and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.
…world… here means human society organized and functioning apart from God.
…the victory… believers are overcomers and continue to be overcomers in and through Christ’s victory over the world. The word “nike,” so popular today as a manufacturer of tennis shoes, is the Greek name for the goddess of victory.
…our faith… Possibly John was worried about an overemphasis on ‘correct theology (as a system of beliefs) versus daily Christlikeness. Our faith brings victory because
1. It is linked to Jesus’ victory
2. It is linked to our new relationship with God
3. It is linked to the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit
Verse 5.Who is the one who overcomes the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Continuing to overcome is not automatic for the Christian. Not all Christians continue to overcome the world (2 Tim. 4:10). Only those who continue to live by faith (i.e., trust and obey God) do. However, no one can overcome the world unless he or she ‘believes that Jesus is the Son of God.’ It is in this sense that John refers to “overcomers” here; every Christian overcomes essentially because he or she believes in Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION
John’s message is stark, clear and unequivocal, believers must love one another, or they are not true believers.
Now that we have come to know Jesus Christ as our Saviour our gratitude should continue and addressed to the Father as Jesus taught us to embrace the Father who sent the Son. Our gratitude should not stop at Christ. The Father was the one that sent and the Father does His ministry through the Son.
Truth does not change. And truth regarding Christian conduct is just as unalterable as truth regarding Christ. A person who claims to be a Christian but does not habitually practice righteousness and love is no Christian at all. When one becomes a Christian he/she is no longer dominated by sin; but the tendency is to do righteous things and begin to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.
There will be occasions when we will not love one another, but the habit of our lives will be to love one another.
It is a source of comfort and assurance that we have eternal life when we have a continuous and habitual love for other Christians.
God’s love realizes its perfection in us only when we obey the Word of God.
- 1 John 2:5–“Whosoever keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected.” The obedient individual realizes the fullness of all that God’s love means.
b) 1 John 5:3–“This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” Fulfilling love is not sentiment or mystical experience; it is contingent upon moral obedience.
Let us examine our hearts, for where there is no love, there is no salvation. Do we love other Christians?
Do we seek the fellowship of Christians? If we do, we have passed from death to life. If we do not, we are still dead in our sins.
God’s plan of salvation centers on the life, death, resurrection and ascension of His beloved Son, Jesus. The plan remains the same today as in the first century A.D.
In His life, Jesus proved His identity; in His death, Jesus paid the penalty for sin; in His resurrection, Jesus defeated the power of death; in His ascension, He reigns forevermore. At His Second Coming, Jesus will rid the world of sin and welcome His children home. Hallelujah! What a Savior we have! Those facts allow us to have confidence as we face the challenges of the world. And as we obey Jesus, we can assist others to do as well.