Yesterday, we concluded by speaking of the first two factors that enable us to measure God’s great love for us in Christ. The final factor is that God gave His Son to die for sinners. As John says, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation
The fact that the Trinity is involved in these statements leads naturally to the second of John’s reasons why Christians must love other Christians. The second reason is God’s gift of Jesus Christ His Son for our salvation. The parallel between this and the first of John’s reasons is striking. If we
John begins with a passionate exhortation to his readers to "love one another," a phrase which is repeated three times in verses 7, 11, and 12. This is his great concern, and the reasons for that concern are given in connection with this threefold repetition. The first reason is that love is of God'
To this point much of John's letter has been given over to developing the three tests by which a person who has become a child of God may know that he truly is a child of God. They are: the moral test, which is righteousness; the social test, which is love; and the doctrinal test, which is the test
The outline to these verses is to be found in the emphasized pronouns which begin verses 4, 5 and 6. With the exception of verse 4 this is preserved even in most of the English versions. Verse 4 begins with “you.” It is a reference to those who are of God, that is, to Christians. John says two thing
There are three possible ways in which the confession of verse 2 may be taken, as Brooke indicates.11) “Jesus Christ” may be the object, and the phrase “has come in the flesh” may be the predicate. In this interpretation the confession would be that “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh”; that is, that
Having been pressed by Ahab to speak only what the Lord had revealed, at this point Micaiah replied as God had instructed him: “I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd. And the LORD said, These have no master; let them return every man to his house in peace” (v.
In these verses John deals with this problem of the need to discern teaching in the church and, therefore, also with our own need to exercise such discernment. His reply has three parts. First, there is the command to test those who claim to be inspired. Second, there is a standard to be used in tes
One Sunday evening after I had preached to the congregation of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia on the need to test Christian teaching by the Scriptures, a young man came up to me with a very interesting story. Two summers before he had been active in a summer music camp sponsored by one of
John is not inventing any special doctrine at this point. Rather he is only taking at face value what he has learned from Jesus. Jesus had said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name; ask, and ye s
The first advantage of an uncondemning heart is what John calls "confidence before God." This must be understood, not in the sense of confidence of things in general, but in the sense of confidence of one's standing before God and therefore of access to Him. The Greek phrase literally says, "confide
There is a second truth which we may also use to reassure our hearts. The first by its very nature was related to ourselves specifically; it had to do with God's specific work in our own individual life. The second is more general in that it refers in equal measure to all who are God's children. It
Yesterday, we looked at the most common meaning of peithein, which is “to convince” or “to persuade.” Today we begin by looking at another meaning,The other meaning of peithein is “to reassure” or “to assure.” This meaning is rare. It occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in Matt. 28:14: “If t
At first glance it is somewhat surprising to find that John interrupts his second presentation of the tests—righteousness, love, and truth—to deal with doubt, at least so late in the letter. But when we reflect on John’s pastoral concern for his readers and on the nature of normal Christian experien
A second area in which self-sacrifice must be practiced is in the Christian home, particularly in love between a husband and wife. Today's culture glorifies self-satisfaction. It teaches that if one is not personally and fully gratified in marriage, one has a right to break it off, whatever the cost
It is interesting to notice in this connection that there is hardly a verse in the New Testament that speaks of God’s love that does not also speak (or the context does not also speak) of the cross. For instance, there is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, th
Here John is in perfect accord with the Lord’s teaching regarding murder as found in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old, Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment; but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his b
At no point is the contrast between one of John's tests and its opposite more important for contemporary men and women than the contrast between love and hate. This is so simply because the meaning of love has become so debased in modern culture that practically anyone will claim to have love accord
Herein lies the explanation of John's initial test and the reason behind it. If a person has truly been born of God, then something quite radical has happened to him. He has received a new nature and is therefore and for that very reason launched on a new course. The course is a course in holiness.
At the conclusion of yesterday’s study, we looked at the first suggestion for understanding the presence of sin in the Christian life. Today, we look at the other six ideas.2. A second view is that what is sin in an unbeliever is not so regarded by God in the life of a believer. But this is simply n
John has reminded his readers that it is characteristic of the devil to sin. Now he also reminds them that it is a characteristic of Christ to work to take away sin. He states this in two forms, corresponding to the parallel structure of these verses. First, Jesus appeared to take away the sins of H
In verse 4 the apostle defines sin as lawlessness and says that everyone who commits sin is guilty of it. This is not the most comprehensive definition of sin that might be given, but neither is it “somewhat superficial,” as one writer has indicated. By lawlessness John naturally recalls thoughts of
In conversation with those who are not yet Christians, Christians are often puzzled by the fact that the other person sometimes professes to believe all that the Christian believes, yet also believes things that seem, at least to the Christian, to be incompatible with Christianity. For example, the
That day of Christ’s return will see the perfection of God’s eternal purpose concerning His chosen ones. Here F. F. Bruce writes brilliantly: These first two verses of 1 John 3 celebrate the accomplishments of God’s eternal purpose concerning man. This purpose finds expression in Genesis 1:26, where
