Outline*
2. Love (3:10b-24)
A. Christological Tests of Sonship (4:1-6)
1. The source of love (4:7-16)
2. The fruit of love (4:17-19)
4. Obedience: the evidence of love for God's children (5:2-5)
A. The Christological Test (5:6-12)
V. Conclusion: Great Christian Certainties (5:13-21)
29 Since we know that
Christ is righteous, we also know that all who do what is right are God’s
children.
1 John 3 NLT
1 See how very much our Father loves
us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who
belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they
don’t know him.
2 Dear friends, we are already God’s
children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears.
But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really
is.
3 And all who have this eager
expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins is breaking God’s
law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.
5 And you know that Jesus came to take
away our sins, and there is no sin in him.
6 Anyone who continues to live in him
will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand
who he is.
7 Dear children, don’t let anyone
deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are
righteous, even as Christ is righteous.
8But when people keep on sinning, it shows
that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But
the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.
9Those who have been born into God’s family
do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t
keep on sinning, because they are children of God.
10So now we can tell who are children of God
and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and
does not love other believers does not belong to God.
11 This is the message you have heard
from the beginning: We should love one another.
12 We must not be like Cain, who
belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him?
Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what
was righteous.
13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers
and sisters, if the world hates you.
14 If we love our brothers and sisters
who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a
person who has no love is still dead.
15 Anyone who hates another brother or
sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have
eternal life within them.
16 We know what real love is because
Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our
brothers and sisters.
17 If someone has enough money to live
well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s
love be in that person?
18Dear children, let’s not merely say that we
love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.
19 Our actions will show that we belong
to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.
20 Even if we feel guilty, God is
greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel
guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence.
22 And we will receive from him whatever
we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
23 And this is his commandment: We must
believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he
commanded us.
24 Those who obey
God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know
he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.
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.
