1 John 4:1-3. Notice he starts with "beloved" because of what he is going to share on love, not with "little children." All through scripture we see "anti-christs" (i.e. satan, Cain etc). Testing spirits we have the Holy Spirit and the spirit of the anti-christ. The sense of the text here on "test the spirits" is not demonic. It's this: see if this is representative of the Spirit of God or the spirit of error. He's actually saying "don't be gullible." He will also tell us how to test. Beware of books that people are saying "God told me this" etc. This is a watered-down version of gnoticism. Those books take up more of our thinking space than the Bible.
Verses 1-2. He's relating spirit to flesh here. He's pushing back on what others have said that Jesus was only a spirit and only appeared in the flesh.
Verses 3-4. A "greater than" here also in John 3:20 "greater than our hearts."
Verse 5. "They" - antichrists. "From the world" or they went out from us.
Verse 6. "We" - apostles. By this they can discern because of who listens to them. Study the real thing (the Bible). We can't identify false teaching by asking if it is false but we have to know truth in order to identify false teaching.
Verses 7-12. Test of love. "Born of God" (John). He speaks as Jesus does. He send Him to be the "mercy seat" (propitiation) - the covering over, the ark, the manifest presence of God. Luke about the Pharisee and sinner, he's actually saying "God be mercy-seated" to me a sinner. A word picture here that between God and the sinner is the mercy seat. Verse 11 refers to His love manifested in us. Sinners must see God's love in us. God's love is perfected in us by producing loving fruit and actions. We don't like the fact that God is invisible. This gives false teachers the leeway to "paint" God as they want.
Verse 13-16. Spirit, Father and Son. Trinity here.
God is Love. What's the problem with people saying this who do not have God abiding in them? They have reduced God to being only love.
John is making a point here when he says this that we cannot hate our brothers and still call ourselves a follower of Christ. He has many more attributes than that. OT shows compassion, mercy and grace of God. We must spend time in all scripture, if we want to have a full view of God.
Verse 17-18a. Another verse that gets pulled out of context. He's talking about the kind of confidence that allows you to stand on the day of judgment and not fear anything. "As He is in the world, so also are we." Because as God's son is, so also are we God's children in this world. Children don't have to gear punishment from the Father. It's already been taken care of.
Verse 18. What kind of fear is cast out by perfect love? The fear of standing and receiving punishment from God. For the believer, that fear is gone forever. One fear we need though "the fear of the Lord." "There is no fear in love" - been used wrongly. we are not wrong to feel legitament fear. We can lovingly be guided toward a better orientation. The Christian life is not fear-free but we have a God who guides us in our natural fears.
Verse 19. God's love was first directed toward us.
Verse 20. We have many visible things were can show our love and deep affection to.
Verse 21. John is dancing around the idea of the great commandment. This is a deal breaker. Luke 10:25-29 - Jesus does not answer with a statement but a question.This man tries to justify himself by asking "who is my neighbor?" So where's the line? The attitude is "what's the bare minimum?"
Verses 30-31. The Jews would have understood this scene.
Verse 32. The Levite here - the Jews get it. The priest and the Levite passing by. But the Samaritan shows up. Racism against them from the Jews. Half-breeds. Bad hatred exists.
Verses 33-34. He had compassion. God describes Himself to Moses as a God of compasstion. Samaritan has oil/wine with him. He has an animal.
Verse 35. Money is not a problem.
Verse 36. Poses a question. "Who is acting like a neighbor here?"
Verse 37. Couldn't say "Samaritan". Go and do likewise. We are the man in the ditch. Along comes a man who is rejected by the Jews, has compassion, the means to heal, has great resources, leaves a deposit, goes away, promises to return.
Who is the good Samaritan? Jesus - predicting His own ministry. When we understand the lengths His love has gone, we should be the good Samaritan.
So, for us, "go and do likewise."
Pray for thoese we find hard to love and go and do likewise.
Next: Session 7 "Overcoming the World"
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