1 John 4

1 John 4:1

VII. THE NEED TO DISCERN BETWEEN TRUTH AND ERROR (4:1-6) 4:1 Having mentioned the Holy Spirit, John is reminded that there are other spirits abroad in the world today, and that the children of God need to be warned against them. Thus he cautions the believer not to trust every spirit. The word spirit here probably refers primarily to teachers but not exclusively so. Just because a man speaks about the Bible, God, and Jesus does not mean that he is a true child of God. We are to test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. These are people who profess to accept Christianity, but teach another gospel altogether. 4:2 John gives the actual tests by which these men are to be proven. The great test of a teacher is, What do you think of Christ? Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. It is not so much the confession of the historical fact, namely that Jesus was born into the world in a human body, but rather it is the confession of a living Person, Jesus Christ come in the flesh. It is the confession that acknowledges Jesus as the Christ Incarnate. And confessing Him means bowing to Him as Lord of one’s life.

Now if you ever hear a person presenting the Lord Jesus as the true Christ of God, you will know that he is speaking by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God calls on men to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and to commit their lives to Him. The Holy Spirit always glorifies Jesus. 4:3 And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. This is how you can detect the false teachers. They do not confess the Jesus who was described in the previous verse. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which has been prophesied and which is now already in the world. There are many today who are willing to say acceptable things about Jesus, but they will not confess Him as God Incarnate. They will say that Christ is divine, but not that He is God. 4:4 Humble believers are able to overcome these false teachers because they have the Holy Spirit within them, and this enables them to detect error and to refuse to listen to it. 4:5 The false teachers are of the world and therefore, the source of all that they speak is the world. The world is the spring of all that they teach, and therefore the world hears them. This reminds us that the approval of the world is not a test as to the truthfulness of one’s teachings. If a man simply wants to be popular, all he needs to do is to speak as the world speaks, but if he is to be faithful to God, then he must face the disapproval of the world. 4:6 In verse 6, John speaks as representing the apostles. He says, We are of God. He who knows God hears us. This means that all who are really born of God will accept the teaching of the apostles found in the NT. On the other hand, those who are not of God refuse the testimony of the NT, or they seek to add to or adulterate it.

1 John 4:7

VIII. MARKS OF THOSE IN THE CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP (CONT.) (4:7-5:20) A. Love (4:7-21) 4:7, 8 Here John resumes the subject of love for one’s brother. He emphasizes that love is a duty, consistent with the character of God. As has been mentioned previously, John is not thinking of love that is common to all men, but of that love to the children of God which has been implanted in those who have been born again. Love is of God as to its origin, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. It does not say that God loves. That is true, but John is emphasizing that God is love. Love is His nature. There is no love in the true sense but that which finds its source in Him. The words God is love are well worth all the languages in earth or heaven. G. S. Barrett calls them: … the greatest words ever spoken in human speech, the greatest words in the whole Bible. … It is impossible to suggest even in briefest outline all that these words contain, for no human and no created intellect has ever, or will ever, fathom their unfathomable meaning; but we may reverently say that this one sentence concerning God contains the key to all God’s works and way … the mystery of creation, … redemption … and the Being of God Himself. 4:9, 10 In the verses that follow, we have a description of the manifestation of God’s love in three tenses. In the past, it was manifested to us as sinners in the gift of His only begotten Son (4:9-11). In the present, it is manifested to us as saints in His dwelling in us (4:12-16). In the future, it will be manifested to us in giving us boldness in the day of judgment. First of all, then, we have God’s love to us as sinners. God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him and to be the propitiation for our sins. We were dead needing life, and we were guilty needing propitiation. The expression, His only begotten Son carries with it the idea of a unique relationship in which no other son could share. This makes the love of God all the more remarkable, that He would send His unique Son into the world that we might live through Him. God’s love was not shown to us because we first loved Him. We did not; in fact, we were His enemies and hated Him. In other words, He did not love us because we loved Him, but He loved us in spite of our bitter antagonism. And how did He show His love? By sending His Son as the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation means satisfaction, or a settling of the sin question. Some liberals like to think of the love of God apart from the redemptive work of Christ. John here links the two as not being in the least contradictory. Denney comments: Note the resounding paradox of this verse, that God is at once loving and wrathful, and His love provides the propitiation which averts His wrath from us. So far from finding any kind of contrast between love and propitiation, the apostle can convey no idea of love to anyone except by pointing to the propitiation. 4:11 John now enforces the lesson of such love on us: If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. The if here does not express doubt, but rather is used in the sense of since. Since God so showered His love on those who are now His people, we also ought to love those who are members with us of His blessed family. 4:12, 13 God’s love is manifested to us at the present time in dwelling in us. The apostle says, No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. In Joh_1:18 we read: No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. In John’s Gospel we see that the invisible God is made known to the world through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here we have the expression no one has seen God at any time repeated in John’s Epistle. But now God is manifested to the world, not through Christ, for He has gone back to heaven and is now at the right hand of God. Instead God is now manifested to the world through believers. How stupendous that now we must be God’s answer to man’s need to see Him! And when we love one another, His love is perfected in us. This means that God’s love to us has achieved its goal.

We are never intended to be terminals of God’s blessings, but channels only. God’s love is given to us, not that we might hoard it for ourselves, but that it might be poured out through us to others. When we do love one another in this way, that is proof that we are in Him, and He in us, and that we are partakers of His Spirit. We should pause to marvel at His dwelling in us and our dwelling in Him. 4:14 John now adds the testimony of the apostolic company: We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. This is a grand statement of divine love in action. The Father has sent the Son describes the boundless scope of Christ’s work. W. E. Vine wrote that the scope of His mission was as boundless as humanity, and only man’s impenitence and unbelief put a limit to its actual effect.4:15 The blessing of being indwelt by God Himself is the privilege of all who confess that Jesus is the Son of God.

Here again it is not the confession of merely intellectual assent, but a confession that involves the commitment of one’s person to the Lord Jesus Christ. No closer relationship is possible than for a person to abide in God and to have God abiding in him. It is hard for us to visualize such a relationship, but we might compare it, in the natural realm, to a poker in the fire, a sponge in the water, or a balloon in the air. In each case, the object is in an element and the element is in the object. 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. God is love, and that love must find an object. The special object of God’s love is the company of those who have been born into the family. If I am to be in fellowship with God, then I must love those He loves. 4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this. It is not our love that is made perfect, but God’s love is made perfect with us. John is now taking us on to that future time when we will stand before the Lord. Will it be with boldness and confidence or will it be with cringing terror? The answer is that it will be with boldness, or confidence, because perfect love has settled the sin question once and for all. The reason for our confidence in that coming day is given in the words because as He is, so are we in this world.

The Lord Jesus is now in heaven, with judgment completely behind Him. He came into the world once and suffered the punishment which our sins deserved. But He has finished the work of redemption and now will never have to take up the sin question again. As He is, so are we in this world. That is, our sins were judged at the cross of Calvary, and we can confidently sing: Death and judgment are behind me, Grace and glory lie before; All the billows rolled o’er Jesus, There they spent their utmost power. Mrs. J. A. Trench Just as judgment is passed for Him, so we are beyond the reach of condemnation. 4:18 Because we have come to know God’s love, we have no fear of perishing. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear. It is His perfect love that casts out our fear. I am assured of the Lord’s love first of all, because He sent His Son to die for me. Secondly, I know He loves me because He indwells me at the present moment. Thirdly, I can look to the future with confidence and without fear. Truly, fear involves torment, and he who fears is not made perfect in love. God’s love has not been allowed to operate in the lives of those who are afraid of Him. They have never come to Him in repentance and received the forgiveness of sins. 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us. The only reason we love at all is because He first loved us. The Ten Commandments require that a man should love his God and neighbor, but the law could not produce this love. How then could God obtain this love which His righteousness required? He solved the problem by sending His Son to die for us. Such wonderful love draws out our hearts to Him in return.

We say, You have bled and died for me; from now on I will live for You.4:20 John emphasizes the futility of professing to love God while at the same time hating one’s brother. As spokes get nearer to the center of the wheel, so they get nearer to one another. Thus, as we get closer to the Lord, the more we will love our fellow believers. Actually, we do not love the Lord a bit more than we love the humblest of His followers. John argues the impossibility of loving God whom we have not seen if we do not love our brothers whom we have seen. 4:21 John closes the section by repeating the commandment which we have from Him, that he who loves God must love his brother also.