Musings on First John (4:7-12)

⁷ Dear friends let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

I highlighted the word love not just because it shows up 13 times in these few verses, but because it is the central them of the entire Bible. God is love. God loves us. The proof of how great that love is was demonstrated almost two thousand years ago when He sent His son to die for us, to be the sacrifice for our sins. I don’t think we can come close to understanding this. As a parent I would sacrifice myself for my children, but I could never sacrifice my own child for anyone else. (Could you?) But I do think I could at least try to love others. Look at the promise in the last verse: if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

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Musings on First John (4:4-6)

⁴ You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

Verse 4 explains why Christians may seem arrogant and self-righteous to outsiders and verses 5 and 6 tell why non-Christians just don’t “get it” and never will. Simple as that!

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Musings on First John (4:1-3)

¹ Dear friends, 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 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

Boy, “testing the spirits” sound like a really difficult process, but actually it’s pretty easy. The black and white of it is this: “religions” and persons that claim Jesus, the Messiah, has come in the flesh are from God (i.e. Christianity and Christians). False prophets and false religions abound throughout the world, saying that the Messiah hasn't come yet, or that Jesus was just a prophet—a good man—but not God.

In Islam Jesus is considered one of the highest ranking prophets, but not the incarnation nor Son of God. Definitely sound like the spirit of antichrist, doesn't it?

There is (and can only be) one Truth.

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Musings on First John (3:18-24)

¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. ¹⁹ This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence ²⁰ whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God ²² and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. ²³ And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴ 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.

Remember the saying “Actions speak louder than words?” Here’s where it came from: verse 18 above.

Sometimes it seems really hard to be a Christian. People are quick to judge us and are happy to see us stumble and fall. But as our faith grows and we are obedient to the Lord we will be confident, we will please the Lord (all that matters), and we will live in Him. Our actions will be ones of charity, kindness, service to others, and brotherhood.

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Musings on First John (3:11-17)

¹¹ This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. ¹² Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. ¹³ Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. ¹⁵ Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ 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?

What’s the message that’s been around since “the beginning?” We should love one another. It’s in the Old Testament; it’s in the New Testament. It seems like half the world is like Cain and belongs to the evil one. Oh, well, it’s our duty (right, privilege, destiny, obligation) to love our neighbor. But what is love?

Going around in my head are the lyrics to a 1984 song by the musical group Foreigner: “I want to know what love is.” Hey, guys, the answer is right here in verse 16. And how we should show that love to our neighbor is pretty clear in verse 17: help those in need.

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EXODIA

By Debra Chapoton

an amazing re-telling of the story of Moses