Test the Spirits
4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
God Is Love
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (ESV)
ELLO… I read
I like verse 20,”If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
I like this verse because it talks about loving others. GOD is love and if we don’t have love then we are not in HIM. I need to make sure I love everybody but I can’t love anyone as much as I love GOD. I need to make sure I am not a hypocrite and don’t love love anybody because you love GOD by loving others.
CYA
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Just before this verse in verse 9, John writes of how God showed his love for the world in that he sent his only Son into the world to die so that all might have true life through him. And carrying on into the next verse above, John makes it extremely clear that in this love, it isn’t anything that anyone has done to love God, but it’s his love shown in sending his son down to earth to die as the sacrifice for all sins. Not a single person here on earth can even be partially credited for anything good they have done, or any love they have apart from what they have found in Jesus. Salvation came not as a result of people loving God, but instead of God sacrificially loving his people.
I need to always stay humble in realization that I didn’t do anything for my salvation. I wasn’t any better than those around me, that God chose to save me over others. I didn’t love God, but I rejected him and chose to live for myself. But because of God’s love for me, Jesus came as the perfect sacrifice for my sins. he demonstrated love in that he loved me and sent his Son to be the propitiation for my sins. And now that I have received true love from God, I need to, in turn, spread the love to others. When I was lost in my sins, I didn’t know God, thus not knowing love. Yet know I have received the greatest love there is, so I must take it and share it with everyone around me!
Yesssssss!
1 John 4:20-21 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
When God sent His son to die in our place, He showed the ulimate agape. Now we have a chance to honor Him by doing what He says, living more like Him every day through the Spirit. So, seek Him first and He will convict us to put aside our petty grievances and love others. Keep short accounts with God, especially on this key command. Lord, forgive us when we violate Your command to love others and move us to reconciliation by Your Spirit. And PLEASE COME SOON!
Make this our prayer!
4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
A mormon used this verse on my mom once…scary right? False prophets don’t even believe that they are one! They believed Joseph Smith was the one who told them not to believe in false prophets and that he had the way to Heaven….there’s this mormon that sits and talks to me in Bible Lit…he pulls out his bible which has the book of mormon in it too..and I talk to him casually as if nothing will happen to him. He knows I’m a Christian and he knows I’ve talked to his missionary peeps before..he knows my grandpa and my grandma are mormon..it’s strange though that I’ve never talked to him before about why I’m a Christian. He’s so hard-core about his religion that I think to myself, “ohhh he’s probably been talked to before, I don’t want to push him away further.”. In reality, by not saying anything, I’m pushing him into Hell…so either way, even if I was talking to him and he completely rejected me, the same outcome would result…except for one thing..later on in life, God might choose him to be His follower. Lord, I pray for more trust, that I might see that you can save this child’s life. I pray for wisdom, that you will provide me with the words to say. I pray for boldness and that my brothers and sisters will stand boldly. I pray for love that I may do it with a loving heart..MARANATHA! :)
That’s such an amazing goal. :)
YESSS Bethaaaanyyyyy! We’ve all got to be spreadin’ the word! I’ll most definitely be praying for this. d:- )
4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit,
this is saying to test the spirits because every spirit is not from God therefor it will
not be honoring God in everything that it does so we need to test to make sure
wether some are form God or are not. I need to work on testing the spirits by
comparing them to the bible and what God says about them.
20 “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
How can I love God, who I have never seen and can’t even imagine what He looks like, and hate a brother/sister, who I see regularly? I can’t! “If anybody does not love, does not know God because God is love.” I am lying if I do this and I am seen as a hypocrite. I need to work on loving everyone, no matter what the circumstance is or who the person is.
!!!MARANATHA!!!
So this chapter speaks to love, and having confidence in the fact that if you are of God, you will have love. But so many people SAY they know and love Jesus? Yet their lives aren’t jiving with what we have been learning about sin and obedience, and all the other marks of a Christian.
So, it begs the question…just what exactly IS love…?
Scripturally, we know that love is defined as follows, as outlined in the 13th chapter of Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians:
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.
In the John 14, Jesus, HIMSELF, says regarding love, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” He goes on in chapter 21 to question Peter’s declared love for Him. And when Peter SAYS he loves Jesus, Jesus goes on–THREE TIMES–to indicate that Peter’s attendance to and service toward OTHERS will testify to this declared love.
In a culture where we misappropriate the word love, and use it to describe our affections for even such things as ice cream, I am grateful for GOD’S definition, so that we have clarity regarding such a maligned and ambiguous subject in the world we live in.
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
I know that out of all of these *AMAZING* verses, I chose a pretty grim one, but it stood out to me. It’s a big reminder that we can’t just love God and go on with life. We can’t say we love God and really, be hating our brother. Not only is it wrong to hate in the first place, but if we hate our brother, and they are a Christian, we are hating God for He is in our brother. ‘Loving’ God and hating our brother is very hypocritical. I know, personally, that loving all of our brothers and sisters is extremely difficult. If I’ve been wronged by a brother, I am automatically going to be upset with them, but we are told to love our brothers and sisters regardless. It’s a *commandment* from God! My goal is to love every single person, no matter what they are doing, have done, or will do, I’m going to work towards loving them. It’s what Jesus would do. :)
4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
These three verses stood out to me because they provide a clear explanation of who is legiT in their beliefs and who is not. The bottom line is…who does someone say Jesus is and how central is He to their faith. The Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses will say that faith in Jesus is important to their religion, but…when you really get down to the facts of their faith this is not the truth. Mormons believe that Jesus was A god, not the one, true God of the universe. They believe that they can become God’s in the afterlife if they are “good” Mormons on this life. Yikes! Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the deity of Christ. Hello, BIG problem there! If Christ wasn’t God then He never could’ve never lived the perfect life we couldn’t and He would not have been able to atone for our sins by His death on the cross. So…even if a cult group says they believe in Christ, that is NOT enough! Christ has to be the cornerstone, the central figure in faith, or else that faith is futile. Christ is the key to CHRISTianity!
Love is one of the characteristics we should all have as Christians!!!! We should be loving not only because it is a command but also because of Christs love for us we can now have a relationship with God!!!!! I think a couple of ways of being loving is by putting someone before yourself!!!! Also treating others as you would like to be treated!!!!! I know that I struggle with this sometimes!!! My prayer this week is that I could be more loving!!!!! And by showing that I will serve my brother!!!!
Maranatha
4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
You can’t believe everything you hear! Instead, you always have to check if it matches up with the Bible. At school, they tell us a lot of stuff, and pretty much none of it is what the Bible says is true. if it’s not what the Bible says, then it’s not true!
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
When I became a Christian, it was because God opened my eyes to see that Jesus is the Son of God, and that I need to follow Him for the sake of my soul. A lot of people will say that they know that Jesus was the Son of God, but they don’t follow Him. Especially High Schoolers in Orange County! They have heard about him in some shape or form, or their parents are “christian” so therefore they say that they believe that Jesus is God. The truth is that if they truly confessed in their hearts that Jesus is God, they would repent and follow Him. This verse testifies to that. It says that if we truly do know about Jesus, God comes into our life and we continue to grow in Him. The only way to recognize a good tree is by its fruit, and if we truly are abiding in God, then we will produce good fruit.
4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
This is so true!! Alot of times we are afraid of people of the world, or from persecution, but that is nothing! God is everything and He is greater than everything and overcomes everything.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
We are and were so unworthy of God’s love. That we can have hatrid and dislike for people that are just like us, sinners, and who make the same mistakes as we do isn’t right! God loves US..so why can’t we love each other? We can only love and know love through Jesus Christ, the all amazing Lord!
I really love this chapter :) i pray to stay in the word more everyday and that God will strengthen my heart in Him
9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
The only real love is from Christ, because He poured out himself for us and our sins. I like the part that says that we didn’t love Him first, but instead we were rebelling against Him and He died for us. This is so amazing, and gives me a great reason to love others, even if they don’t necessarily love me back. 1 John has talked about love a lot and I like how it always relates it back to Jesus on the cross. King Jesus we love you, for we have been loved! (I love that song :P )
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”
If this is true, then it also could be said that everyone who loves is born of God–or that Christians are the only people capable (not because they’re any better, but because they have been exposed to the only source of a true, genuine love)
Of course, any person can show affection for others, but that is not the type of love it’s talking about here. It’s talking about the kind of love that we have received from God, which was completely selfless and sacrificial.
That’s what love is, and because Christians are the only ones who have been exposed to it, Christians are the only ones who can love.
That is an awesome thing to thank God for.
Thanksgiving in March, anyone? d:- D
21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother
I found this verse really convicting! Notice that John says that whoever loves God MUST also love his brother. A true Christian MUST love his siblings in Christ, and a true Christian WILL love his brothers and sisters in Christ. The love of Christ is an essential element to living a holy life; one who does not love doesn’t know God (v.8). This is something that I really need to work on. In my thinking, I have sometimes marginalized love to “being nice”. But true, biblical love is what 1 John 3:16 defines it as: laying my life down for my brothers in Christ, as He has laid His life down for me. True love is encouraging someone who needs it, rebuking sin (in a gentle, but serious manner), or praying for others. I need to be doing more of these things in my life, and not just being nice. Don’t get me wrong, love is kind (1 Corinthians 13:4), but it is not superficial. God, I pray that I would be loving more in my life. I pray that You would bear more love in my life; that I would sacrifice for my siblings in Christ like You have sacrificed for me!
Woah! Fantasmic insight on love! Your comments are encouraging to me!
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Ok, I got the point here! And now I need to put it into action. This is exactly what I needed to read. If we do not love our brothers and sisters in Christ, how can we say that we know God when love is what he’s all about? God is love yes, and if God is in me, I too need to have love! I’m trusting that God will give me the heart to love others, even if it is not easy!! It’s a command!
4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
SOOO TRUE!!! Even though people of this world will not listen to God and may have seared hearts, that does not mean that they are greater. Because GOD is greater/ the GREATEST because NOTHING is greater than He! God can do any and everthing that He wants. I need to listen to Him and abide to His will! :]
Can I get a hip-hip horray for True North United tonight!?!?!? Yippie! :]
***(steeling from the frosted flakes commercial :])***
***He’s more than good, HE’s GREAT!!! :D ***
20,”If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
i liked this verse because it says that if you are a follwer of god and you claim that you love him, you shall also love everyone. i need to start doing this and not hate anybody
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
This is a great verse. A lot of this book has been about love, and we know that that is really important. GOD is love, and we need to love others because he loved us. It isn’t just that we need to love others, but we have to. If we love GOD then we should love others.
12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
The best way to prove God’s existence, and show His character is not with apologetics, or various arguments, but by showing God’s love. People can argue all day long about religion but the only thing that can melt a heart of stone is love. Even though no one has seen God, we can see Him in people who love others.
Please Pray For the Campus Lunch Friday @ DANA!
5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.
6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
As Christians not of this world, being aliens we should try and talk not like the world does and not be like the world any way. Let us be like God because we are of God. Let our lives reflect. I’m not trying to say I’m perfect, I’m saying let’s try to be close to perfect!
-Kyle Johnson
Test the Spirits
4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
God Is Love
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
I freaking all this book=D
and i think this will be my favorite chapter..
i was reading this @ school today
woow i would put this whole chapter in here lol
but what made me really think was 1 john 4:4
yes, we are not from the world. we are from God!
9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
I liked this verse because it really shows the ultimate love of God. God sent his one and only son to earth, to be persecuted and mistreated even though He was perfect. He did it to set an example to us christians. Jesus was perfect; and though we will never be perfect it doesnt mean we cant strive to be. People watch christians, and since we represent Christ we must always think, “What would Jesus do?” By doing this it will help us to do better and to be a better example to others!!! :D
4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
This verse shows me that I need to be on my guard at all times. I can’t just believe everything that people say I need to test them to see if they are on God’s team or not on God’s team. Also It is a war and if I don’t go out to battle with my armor then I can’t fight. So I must put on my armor and get in God’s word every day so that I can test false prophets. I liked in this chapter how much it talked about love and if I am on God’s team I need to be loving others. The chapter showed me that I should be striving to be the most loving person.
HAPPY ST. PADDY’S DAY! m
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18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.
I like these verses because they define love. Love is thrown around so casually in today’s world, but nothing can be compared to God’s love. He died for me so I might have eternal life. That is the greatest love imaginable, and I need to love God in return wholeheartedly by loving others. I can love others through encouraging words and selfless actions. Love has no fear, therefore I should never fear any task God puts before me. Jesus did the hardest thing ever. Nothing I am ever asked to do or say will be as tough as dying on a cross. I need to strive to perfect my love and purify my heart.
(p.s. the tippy-top was my attempt at a shamrock. haha:)
whoops! the spaces got messed up!:(
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ok, it doesn’t appear the same when you type it and after you hit submit…i’m just gonna stop now…ha:)
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
I need to stop worrying about what’s going to happen in the future! If I’m being faithful to the Lord and serving others, I have the Lord on my side. This reminds me of one of my favorite verses in Isaiah 50:7: “But the Lord God helps me; therefor I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame”. When I was in elementary school, my teachers would always say, “Do your best, and God will do the rest.” As cliche as it may sound, it’s so true! God has a plan for everything, and even though it may be SUPER hard sometimes, he meant for it to happen. (We talked about this in Christian club!)
21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
This reminds me of the SOTD yesterday. I constantly struggle with serving my neighbors so I pray that God will help me to serve his people over the next few days!!
19 We love because he first loved us.
This verse reminds me of the verse, Be holy because I am Holy. I need to pursue holiness and the love of God. I pray that I would love one another and pursue holiness until the day I die!!
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
We need to step it up in our perspective of love. Love for most people is, “omg i looovee that dress…!” and “i looovee you sooo muchh!”
But the love that God commands us is the true Christian love, the kind of love that Jesus Christ demonstrated to us. The love we must have for others, especially our fellow Christians, needs to be that of genuine service and commitment. We need to go out of our way to show others that we care about them, just like Jesus cares for us.
9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
This is the gospel, plain and simple. When nonChristians say that “God loves everyone,” they are most likely in error. he DOES love everyone, but not in the way that they want Him to love them (letting them get away with their sin and not judging them). He loved us by sending us His Son to die in our place, that if we repent and put our faith in Him we can experience His true love and blessing! Pray that this message will ring out boldly from the LHHS Campus lunch tomorrow, and in the days following this as well, as we boldly bring the Gospel to the campuses of Orange County!
I read…
Verse 1… “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
In this verse John reminds us to not just trust every one speaking that says they follow Christ. As we learned tonight, these people could be cultist people and if we are listening to them, we are listening to the Devil’s deceptions. Also, for those of us who go to Christian schools, by all means, DO NOT LISTEN TO EVERY CHAPEL SPEAKER WITHOUT CHECKING IT FIRST IN THE BIBLE. This can lead to misconceptions about our faith and Jesus, which is just what Satan wants so he can deceive us. I pray that God would remind me to check what speakers say in the Bible if verses are not provided to us.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Loving others is something God has been convicting me about lately and something I have been trying to change in my own life. Because God loved me I need to love others. Love should flow out of me because God loved me so much! I need to show I love others by serving them, looking out for their needs instead of my own. I need to show my love for my co-workers by sharing the gospel with them.
4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
This is such an encouraging verse! To know that we can overcome the world is a great feeling! We as Christians will be persecuted but we can eventually over come those people. Whenever I argue with someone about anything, even the slightest thing, it always feels good to be right. Sometimes I am wrong though, but being on Gods side, we WILL win the battle against sin! We are on Gods team, the winning team. I can honestly say that is one of the BEST feelings ever! With God we can conquer anything that God puts before us. I just have to be trusting in God that He will help me through it, He has all the power I need.
God is my soul and savior and I love him. I also want people to prays for me thatvu can abide by his commandments and his love. I hope that we can all get along with fellow Christians and worship and prais the lord
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Love is on eof the most important traits to have as a Christian. How can we be showing God’ss love if we ourselves do not love others? It is impossible. If we say we love God we must prove it by first loving others.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
I particularly like verse 4 and how it reminds me that our God is the most high, the almighty–the one true and living God. I need to keep that simple truth in mind so that I am bold for Christ and live without fear. With God on my side who can be against me? These verse also reminded me of what Ben talked about tonight at TN U: we need to talk to others about Jesus Christ’s resurrection. Out of love I need to confess to all that Jesus Christ “has come in the flesh”.
17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
This passage seemed to be about the love in our relationship with God. And that truth is, the relationship i am so graciously allowed to have with our Lord is based entirely on love. In love God created us, in love God sent Jesus down, in love Jesus died for you and me, and in love God lives in us as the Holy Spirit. iiiii think this is awesome!! God loves me, the sinful human sooo much! He could have easily chosen another vessel for His works, but for some reason, He chose me! I find this so encouraging, I am going to trust in His love and not fear on Judgement Day but trust in the amazing love He has for me. I am surrounded by the love of an all powerful God, whom shall I fear? Answer: nobody besides Him!
Thank you Lord for your amazing love, grace and mercy towards me!! Help me to be worthy of that every day by applying your word and spreading your name throughout my high school! AMEN!!
P.S. Amazing night tonight at True North United! Thank you to all the leaders who shared on some awesome talking points!! I’m going to use them tomorrow!!!
4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Sounds like today’s True North United mini sermon on cults!! Thank you John Karlson!! (not sure on the spelling of your last name, sorry if i spelled it wrong!) There are so many new claims out there on theology, it can be difficult to discern between what is true or not sometimes!! BUT with God’s word, we can differentiate what is true and what is false!! This is precisely why I need to be reading and studying God’s word each day!! It’s easy to read something and forget about it later when one is not meditating on it throughout the day. LORD help me keep my focus on what your word says to me each day!! :D
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
This is what we talked about at Campus lunch a few weeks ago! I love this passage, as it really describes the Biblical definition of true love. Love is such a popular word, but I want to be a person that is loving other people in the same way that God loves us, and because he has loved me. To truly be loving other people, I need to have a mindset that is all about putting other people above myself, loving them in the way that I actually have to put out effort, like God loves me. He did the hardest possible thing, by sending Jesus, all for me, and I didn’t even deserve it! I want to use this way that God loves us as a model for how I love others. Finally, I love the ending of verse 12 – God abides in us and his love will be perfected in us. That is so awesome! To be a person that loves others like God does – now that is a major step to being a Godly person! I want to strive for this. I trust that God will give me all the strength I need to do this!
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
The person who claims to love God, yet quarrels, argues, and even hates other Christians is a liar. This person has no street cred because they claim to follow the loving God, yet refuse to follow his example of forgiveness and love. We need to make sure that we are living proof of God’s love to others. That we will have great relationships with the other beleivers in our lives and show them the sacrificial love of Christ.
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
It seems in the Christian culture today there is an idea that God needs us or that some how we are doing him a favor if we come to him and love him. But this verse shows that idea is false. It is not about our love for God it is about His love for us. The love that God has for us goes so far beyond what we can begin to understand, and is truely shown in Christ life as he lived and died and rose again. Alll of this he did so that we may be made right before God. Jesus was that final sacrifice that made atonement for our sins past present and future. When we think about how truely wretched we are and that we deserve the wrath of God. the truth of Gods love for us becomes a reality. Because without the love of God for those he chose we would all be desolate and lost.
I need to remind my self of this each and every day that with out Christ I would be the worst of sinners awaiting the full wrath of God, but because of Christ I am seen as righteous completely forgiven and I am loved through Christ.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.—This really stood out to me because I don’t think about this a lot but I think that I can definitely work on showing more love towards my brothas and sistas! Just encouraging them and praying for them. And also showing love for those that are my friends that are not Christians! If I love them I can’t let them live their lives in sin, I need to be evangelizing to them and pushing them towards God so that on judgement day they know where they are going and I don’t need to worry about them burning in hell. And since God is love, people will recognize my love and I want them to know that it’s all from God!! He loved me first and died for me when I did not deserve it so I need to show God’s amazing love towards others even if they are non-Christians!! Praying for love!
MARANATHA!!!!
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
God created man in his image, so if we hate the created things that we can see, then why would we love the Creator of the created things that we already hate. For instance lets say you hated Monopoly and thought it was the most boring board game of all times, then you probably pass at the chance of the meeting the inventor of Monopoly. Who would want to meet the creator of the most boring board game ever? Sounds boring huh? I don’t if that makes sense, but this verse has changed how I think about people and made me realize that I need to love all people and I have no right to judge based on how they make me feel.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
Ultimately, this is talking about how God’s love takes away our fear of condemnation. Because of the love God has shown through the cross, I have total confidence in the face of God’s judgment. Also, this fearlessness frees me up to love other people more. I don’t dread condemnation, I don’t fear man, therefore, I am free to love.
Great comment Pastor Ben! And great talk on the resurrection tonight!
I agree! And BTW…I am no doubt gonna share with someone the ressurection tomorrow — I should be talking about THAT more!
16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
God is love and he is the perfect definition for what true and unconditional love is! Christ showed this love on the cross! Those who have repented and put their faith in Christ know what love is because of what he went through. God loves us so much that he sent his son to die on the cross for our sins. MY sins! I am a sinner that deserves hell and God’s wrath. I am so thankful that my sins have been paid in full. I want to praise my Savior all day long and forever for everything he has done and what he is doing in my life in the present! I want to love God by getting to know him more and more on a daily basis. I also pray that I can share God’s love with others and abide in him and live for him!
There is a constant theme of love in this book, and telling us things that show if we are Christians. A verse that i thought was really encouraging was verse 4 “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. ” No one is greater than God, as it says in Romans, he has crushed Satan under his feet! That is awesome to me. I can have full confidence that the Lord will take care of me, that i can trust him with everything.
It is all about God. He created us to do the good works on this earth that bring him glory. He created us to make disciples and to prepare the world for his return. “10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” God loved us first. He set the perfect example, and we are to follow it. It is because the Lord loved us enough to send his son to die for sinners, of which i am the worst, that i am even able to have a relationship with my savior! Thank you Lord.
p.s. True North United tonight was awesome! It is awesome to be reminded of these awesome ways to defend my faith. I feel so much more equipped to take on the people at my school in conversation. Lord i pray that you will open doors for me this week so that i will have an opportunity to talk about the Bible, resurrection, cults, homosexuality, or evolution, this week. Lord thank you for the amazing teaching that i am able to have at Compass Bible Church!
Fantastic comment and prayer! Let’s pray that True North will be nitorious as “DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH”.
Great comment (: Lets go and defend our faith!
I like this because it talked about true love and nit the love that some high schoolers think of it today. They think that they need to go out with someone, because everyone else us going out. In other words they are compromising with the world. Like pastor Bobby said we shouldn’t be thinking of dates until a couple of more years. Just look at some of our leaders I am sure they I will give us a heads up. We should all love because we loved us first and showed it by sending his one and only son to die foeour sins
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Why is there still unloving disputes not only with Christians with secular people, but with Christians and Christians! I have seen it in church!
A while ago Bobby gave a sermon on how we need to love one another in the church. I have personally seen a lot of clean up since then, but still……I see it once in a while! Why can we love one another? Is it because someone did something wrong against you? If its that reason then LET IT GO! God forgives you everytime you do something wrong against Him. If God forgives us (wretched sinners), then we need to start acting like Christians and forgiving each other.
Its SO important to love each other, we are all on the same team (id hope)…so let’s start acting like a band of Christians, and love one another, becasue God first loved us!
Love you guys!
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
MMM this reminds me of the campus lunch a little while ago. If you are not a Christian, you cannot experience love unless you have experienced the love of God! Jesus dying on the cross was the ultimate act of love anyone could ever do for us–he cared about our sin problem and took care of it for us and died on the cross for us! Wow, thank you Jesus so much for what you did for me on the cross so that I could have a relationship with you. All that makes me wanna do is serve him more.
6 We are from God.
In Christ. What a truth! God has adopted us as His sons and daughters!
The Love of God is profound beyond comparison. He adopted us into his family, has made us a new creation, leading to eternal life, and is today preparing for us a home in Heaven where we will dwell forever with the glory of our God!
God is good—all the time!
I loved tonight! I can still say with confidence: there is no other God than our God. He reigns in truth, his word, his resurrection, his miracles, all true to the last. Never have I came up to anyone who has caused me to sway or believe otherwise—our God is good!
TO sum up this passage i would just say LOVE!!! We as Christians should just emenate and just have love flowing from us!!! Love is one of the things that mark us as Christians!!! Let us love each other with the love that is from GOd not the love of this world that is here one day and gone the next let us love sacrificially and unconditionally!!!!
4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. As Christians, we are up against not only legions of demons trying to bring us down into sin, but the devil himself. This may seem like an impossible battle, but there is hope: we have God almighty on our side, and He is greater than our enemy. The incomparable, all-powerful, triune creator and ruler of all things is infinitely greater than Satan, our adversary. It is not a hopeless fight. . . But it is a fight nonetheless. In a battle, whatever weapon you’re using, wherever it is, whoever you’re fighting, there’s one thing you always have to do: be alert, on your guard, ready at any and all times, both to defend, and to strike. We learned in 1 Peter that the devil prowls like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. That is anything but a situation which I could be relaxed in. I want to be always alert and ready to fight, yet remembering that I am not fighting alone! Praise the Lord that He has mercy on a sinner like me so that I can be on His side!
Awesome awesome chapter :)
always love hearing about God’s love for us :)
Favorite verses were 4 and 11.
Verse 4 reminded me of Romans 8:31, “if God is for us, who can be against us?”
Ah amazing passage! Great verse to always remember :)
God is always for us and He is stronger than the rest of the world.
To me, thats a super comforting thought :)
And verse 11.
Christians aren’t supposed to hate our brothers and sisters in Christ.
It’s murder in His book!
Whatever issues you may have with a briother that cause you to not be so fond of them, you gotta work it out.
Cause murder just ain’t cool :P
I think 1 John may be one of my new favorite chapters now :D yay!
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
Although this text is rather long it is one of the most useful passages in the bible. A few weeks ago we held the “What is Love?” lunches at the schools of OC. Without the Bible and God’s love towards us, we would never be able to love each other sacrificially like Christ loved us. Without his death on the cross we would be left to a cold, love-depraved society. Praise God for his Son and the unforgettable sacrifice that we know and are saved by. Where would we be without God? Thank goodness for his love towards us!! Now lets share the love!!!!!
If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen
We must love others as we love ourselved!! Me must always treat others with respect even though me may not like them!! God requires to be examples and a way of doing that is not to be stuck up and selfish but by giving of yourself for others!!!!!
MARANATHA!!!!!!!!!!!!
I read . . .
1 John 4 . . .
“7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”
I know something I need to work on is loving others by showing others the love that Christ’s shown me. Yeah, it’s just so easy to walk by someone and then completely start judging them in your head. But you know what? That’s un-Godly & something Christ would NEVER do. I need to be more thoughful of others and not judge them just on their outward appreance. I need to take the message from Winter Revival to heart, and look at people for their inner beauty. As easy as it would be to automatically judge from their outwardness, I shouldn’t do that. It’s not what Christ would do, therefore I shouldn’t be doing anything AGAINST my Lord.
Jesus,
Help me to not look/judge other people by their outward appreance. Help me to look at them for what’s inside their hearts. As easy as it is, Father I ask that I would look at people from the inside and show them Christ’s love.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~M.A.R.A.N.A.T.HA~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
~ Ariana Mishreki ~ :)
4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Good verse! It is important to be able to differentiate between the Spirits whether they are from Satan or from God. Basically, Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God and every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Demons work in our thoughts(1 Timothy 4:1) and make you think there is nothing wrong. Dont let demons control you! I pray that i would not be blind and i learn how to discern between good and evil.
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
I love this verse! I cannot love unless i know God. THe word “love” is so mistaken in the world today. I love God but i also love ice cream. It is important to be careful when using the word love! Later in the chapter it talks about how if you don’t love your brothers but say you love God, you are a liar! Whoever loves God must love his brothers and sisters! With some people, it is extremely difficult to love them but this is what we are called to do! I am not just going to love others but i will show it by going out of my way to do things for them!(:
Awesome night tonight! I feel confident if anyone questions my faith and christianity(:
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Love originates in God, not us. This amazing love has been made manifest through Christ’s death on the cross that we might have life through Him. Amazing love, how can it be that you my King would die for me? I need to be genuinely loving others everyday! Because of God’s love, we are able to love. May love permeate our lives!
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
If God could so wilingly love us, as imperfect and sinful and unrighteous as we are, the I think the least we could do for him is to love others truly as we say we do!!! I don’t want the reson I don’t get to heaven to be bcause I did not love truly as I said I did! I need to be patient and kind and not angry and not envious of those whom I say I love!!! It was the biggest act of love when the Lord sent his only son to die for our sins on the cross so that we may get a chance to repent and be forgiven, and I don’t want his love to me to go unanswerd! I pray that I can love like Jesus did and love the ones who I don’t want to the most!
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
I confess that Jesus is Lord and I am ready to defend the faith!
“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
Wow, what a clear indictment against hard-heartedness. If I’m unwilling to love my brother, then it’s clear that I don’t know the love of God, who went to the greatest extent to love me! If I know this love, then that love will overflow in my life toward other people! I’ll be alert, looking for ways to spread the love of Christ to other people, specifically by sharing Christ’s love with them through the gospel.