1 John 4
Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section below; remember it’s perfectly fine to comment on verses already mentioned. You would in Bible study, why not here?
Enjoy.
Phil—
1 John 4
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because 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, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we 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 seen God at any time; 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 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the 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 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in 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, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one 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, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
1 John 4:1-21
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Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. (verse 4)
So true!
SO so true!
So why don’t we (I) live like it sometimes?
Do we think it’s more fun to let the enemy win a few now and then?
Do we think we’re tougher than he is? We’re not. God is, but I’m sure not. (Talk about a dangerous patch of thin ice to be standing on!)
God IS greater – now if I can just consistently live like it!
Phil—
My thoughts
Verse 1
We need to read and check (in our Bibles) whether what we a re told is the truth or not.
Verse 2
By reading the bible we get to know what God is really like.
Verse 3
Jesus is God and anyone who doesnt believe this is an unbeliever. There are those out there in thje world that will try to tell us different but they are not from God.
Verse 4
We are from God. We dont have to believe of those that may do us wrong. We have Jesus on our side. He is all powerful and He has already overcome all evil.
Verse 5
Unbelievers and evil people are from the world. Others like them will listen to them. They dont know any better. They also use clever words and ways to get others to listen to them.
Verse 6
Again he says we are from God. Believers will listen to us. But those of the world wont. They will wish us dead. By knowing our Bibles and God we will know the difference between what is right and what is wrong.
Verse 7 and 11
Again he tells how important it is to love each other. Love is from God. There is no hate in Him. We must follow in His example.
Verse 8
It is not possible to know God and yet hate others. We must be like Jesus. He forgave even on the cross.
Verse 9 and 10
By knowing God we can love others as He did. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn us but to love us. Nor is it our job to judge others.
Verse 12
Although no one has ever seen God. His love can be seen through us, if we believe in Him. For He is in our hearts.
Verse 13
We are one God and I, when we love others as He did. He has given us the Holy Spirit to help us live right.
Verse 14
We believe that God the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. This is the good news. We can tell others this wonderful truth.
Verse 15 and 16
When we know and believe and tell people that Jesus is the Son of God. We become one.
Verse 17
When we do know within our knower that Jesus Christ is Lord and God Most Holy then we dont have to be afraid of the future. We will be able to one day stand in glory on the day of judgment.
Verse 18
To truly believe and be loved by God and us Him means we dont have to worry. Perfect love is unconditionally. God loves us unconditionally. Because we have put our trust in Him. Again I am reminded about the fact that God sent His Son into the world NOT to condemn us but to save us. If we DONT believe this then we dont fully trust and love God.
Verse 19
We can love others because He first loved us. He showed us what perfect love is.
Verse 20 and 21
If we say we love God yet also hate our brother or someone else then we are lying. We have seen our brother, we have never seen God. Is it not far easier to feel emotions for someone we have seen than someone we havent. Love is having faith in someone and for this to occur we dont have to see them. Besides which we have been told to love others. We must not hate.
Sometimes it can be very hard to love someone whom has hurt us. However, I turn my feelings into prayers. I give my hurts up to God. I know that those that have hurt me are without God. I truly believe everyone needs God. So I pray for their souls. I pray that God can reach out to them and heal them and love them the same way He loves me. Without God on their side the future for them is bleak. I also believe that by doing this I am forgiving them. God calls us to forgive. This doesn’t always mean I can forget what has happened. I believe in order to be healthy sometimes we need to love from afar. Believe me when I say I am praying for you E, M, D and S. You may never see this but I am praying for you all.
I found this, this morning
When God calls a man He does not repent of it. God does not, as many friends do, love one day and hate another; or as princes, who make their subjects favourites and afterwards throw them into prison. This is the blessedness of a saint; his condition admits no alteration. God’s call is founded on His decree. His decree is immutable. Acts of grace cannot be reversed. God blots out His people’s sins, but not their names.” Thomas Watson
I also found this
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
He did that for us!!!!! We were never worthy and can never be worthy enough but He did that for us!!!
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
We need to give and support others.
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. ~ 1 John 3:16-23
Amen
Not very many thoughts this week, but just a few! 🙂
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
How much more so since we have daily blogs to read on the computer. We need to be in the Word to make sure that someone we only know on-line is on track with God’s Word.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Do you all remember the chorus from these two verses? This has been playing in the CD player in my mind today. Reminds me that God is love and can work through me. Even when I don’t feel love, God can love through me.
Jonell
I remember hearing a message by Harry Bollback (Word of Life Ministries) in 1971. It was my first-ever youth convention and we met in Muskegon, Michigan that year.
Bollback was the organist for the week but the man could also preach! His text that day was the last half of 1 John 4.17.
By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because I)as He is, II) so also are we III) in this world.
That session had a profound effect on me. Knowing how God is (and that He doesn’t change – ever), that He wants me to be like Him as He works in me right-here, right-now, in this world I live in — now THAT could get exciting!
Phil—