12-28-2024         1 John 4:1-21 – The love God       

              

Talking about 1 John chapter four, here’s the passage with my comments in italics.

Beloved, don’t believe every spirit but try the spirits to see whether they are for God because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This is how we know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.

Every spirit that does snot confess that Jesus is come in the flesh is not of God and this spirit is of the anti-Christ, which you have heard would come and is even now already is in the world.

As we acknowledge that Jesus is exactly who He said He is, we can only do so by the Holt Ghost (1 Corinth. 12:3).  And, as the passage says our enemy (the devil) has been at work for over 2000 years trying to convince us otherwise.

Little children you are of God and overcome them (those spirits) because He who is in you is greater that he who is in the world.  (True, the Jews had conflict with Satan prior to Bethlehem but the Messiah (Jesus) had not yet manifested Himself).

God created all things so who or what could possibly be greater? (Gen. 1:1-31).  And, because we are in Christ Jesus, we are greater than the things of the world.  Jesus gave us authority over sickness, disease and devils (Matt.10:1).   And because He goes to the Father, we can do the same works He does as we believe (John 14:12).  Jesus then tells us, just before He ascended back unto the Father, we shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon us (Acts 1:8).  And Acts describes that event (Acts 2:1-18).  This power (dumanis) is the power Jesus operated in – absolute power from on High (the Father).

They (the spirits) are of the world therefore they speak of the world and the world listens to them.

Look around you today.  The world has been busy (under Satan’s guidance) to take references to God out of everything and anything.  The Supreme Court of the United States says that religion, if organized by the school is largely banned from public elementary, middle, and high schools by a series of Supreme Court decisions since 1962. Students may pray privately, and join religious clubs in after-school hours. Public schools, such as local school districts, are banned from conducting religious observances such as prayer. Private and parochial schools are not covered by these rulings, nor are colleges and universities.   Elementary and secondary schools are covered because students are required to attend, and are considered more at risk from official pressure than are older students and adults. The Constitutional basis for this prohibition is the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which requires that: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof (Wikki Free Encyclopedia).  Our enemy has been at work for a long time trying to separate God and man. The less the world hears of God, the less the world is likely to listen to its Creator.

We are of God and he who knows God hears us but he who is not of God does not hear us and this is how we distinguish the Spirit of truth from the spirit of error.

As Christians, those who listen to us know God and they who don’t have no clue who He really is because they haven’t truly heard about Him.

Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

He who does not love does not know God for God is love.

Observe the contrast, without God, there is no true love!

The manifestation of God’s love towards us is because God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.

And this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins.

Jesus came into this world to give us life – eternal life (John 17:3), that is to live forever in  God’s kingdom (Luke 1:27-33).  However, His kingdom has already begun in us (Luke 17:20-21).  Jesus is our propitiation and that means that He has taken our place in death by dying on the cross, cleansing us from our responsibility for sin which separates us from God.

Beloved, if God loved us so much, ought we not also love one another?

No man has seen God at any time.  If we love one another, God lives in us and His love is perfected in us.

This is how we know that we dwell in Him and He in us because He has given us His Spirit.

We said that in Acts chapter two that the Holy Ghost has come into our heart.  The Holy Ghost is God’s breath (or Spirit) and confirms with our spirit, in our own heart, that we are God’s and have been cleansed.

We have seen and testify that the Father has sent Hs Son to be the Savior of the world.

Whoever will confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him and he in Father. 

This is how our love is made perfect, that we have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He (God) is, so are we in this world.

We should always be the reflection of His love as we abide in this world so when the day of judgment comes, because of God’s love in us, we may be bold knowing that our name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life and we will be with Him forever (Rev. 21:27).

There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment. Therefore, he who has fear is not made perfect in love.

As God’s love is perfected in us we discover that we fear no evil for we know that God is with us (Psalm 23:4).

  We love Him because He first loved us.

So, if a man says ”I love God” but hates his brother is a liar, for if he can’t love the brother whom he has seen, how can he love God, whom he has not seen?

This is the commandment that we have from Him – that he who loves God also loves his brother.

And such is the love of God – and we are in God’s image, are we not?

Amen