Outline*
Introduction: The Reality of the Incarnation (1:1-4)The Christian Life as Fellowship with the Father and the Son (1:5;2:28)The Christian Life as Divine Sonship (2:29;4:6)- The Christian Life as an Integration of the Ethical and the Christological (4:7;5:12)
- Conclusion: Great Christian Certainties (5:13-21)
1 John 4 NLT
1 Dear friends, do not believe everyone
who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they
have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.
2 This is how we know if they have the
Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus
Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God.
3 But if someone claims to be a prophet
and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God.
Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into
the world and indeed is already here.
4 But you belong to God, my dear
children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit
who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
5 Those people belong to this world, so
they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them.
6 But we belong to God, and those who
know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us.
That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of
deception.
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love
one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and
knows God.
8 But anyone who does not love does not
know God, for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by
sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life
through him.
10 This is real love—not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our
sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that
much, we surely ought to love each other.
12No one has ever seen God. But if we love
each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
13 And God has given us his Spirit as
proof that we live in him and he in us.
14 Furthermore, we have seen with our
own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the
world.
15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son
of God have God living in them, and they live in God.
16 We know how much God loves us, and we
have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in
God, and God lives in them.
17 And as we live in God, our love grows
more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face
him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
18 Such love has no fear, because
perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment,
and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.
19 We love each other because he loved
us first.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” but
hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we
can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?
21 And he has given us
this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.
1 John 5 NLT
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is
the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves
his children, too.
2 We know we love God’s children if we
love God and obey his commandments.
3 Loving God means keeping his
commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.
4 For every child of God defeats this
evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.
5And who can win this battle against the
world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
6 And Jesus Christ was revealed as
God’s Son by his baptism in water and by shedding his blood on the cross —not
by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit, who is truth, confirms
it with his testimony.
7 So we have these three witnesses —
8 the Spirit, the water, and the
blood—and all three agree.
9 Since we believe human testimony,
surely we can believe the greater testimony that comes from God. And God has
testified about his Son.
10 All who believe in the Son of God
know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this
are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has
testified about his Son.
11 And this is what God has testified:
He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever
does not have God’s Son does not have life.
13 I have written this to you who
believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal
life.
14 And we are confident that he hears us
whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.
15 And since we know he hears us when we
make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.
16 If you see a fellow believer sinning
in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that
person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you
should pray for those who commit it.
17 All wicked actions are sin, but not
every sin leads to death.
18 We know that God’s children do not
make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one
cannot touch them.
19 We know that we are children of God
and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.
20 And we know that the Son of God has
come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And
now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with
his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.
21 Dear children, keep
away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.
