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Confidently Living
1 John
(Church)
Early confusion
- Early in Christianity, there was confusion about eternal life. Did it come from adopting the religious Jewish lifestyle (this was a conversation in Acts 15)? How would a person know they possessed the same spirit that Jesus Christ had? Read 1 John 1:1-5.
- Believing on the name of the Son of God for eternal life is different than having the assurance of eternal life. That’s a distinction John makes in 1 John 5:13. Assurance that you possess eternal life is knowledge from the Spirit of God that produces the fruit of joy.
- People have all kinds of misunderstandings about eternal life. The Jews did. They thought their culture and ethnicity gave them life. People in John’s day said they were Jews therefore they knew they were saved. Sometimes people say I was baptized so I’m good. Others may say they prayed so don’t let anyone tell you differently. As far as the scripture is concerned none of these describe life because they can’t describe life. A baptism isn’t new life. A prayer isn’t new life. An ethnic group isn’t new life. A profession or membership in an organization isn’t new life. Life is LIVED.
- John writes this so that early Christians’ joy may overflow. That the Spirit of God could produce fruit in their lives in the form of assurance of what eternal life is. John says he wrote these things so those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ would know they possess the same Holy Spirit that guided the life of the LORD Jesus Christ (1 John 5:13).
- John said these things have I written so our question this morning is what things were written? How did the apostle John explain eternal life? John gives four characteristics of the Spirit of God, fully present in Jesus Christ. If someone as vast as God came to live in someone as small as you, he’d stick out somewhere.
Keep his commandments (2:1-5)
- The soul that hears the words of Jesus Christ and keeps them has a right to the confidence that the life of Jesus Christ is in them.
- It means to walk as children of the light like Paul said to the Ephesian church.
- It means hearing and doing as Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount.
- It means not believing in vain as Paul said to the Corinthians.
- It means doers of the word and not hearers only as James said in his letter.
- This person not only has access to assurance but lives confidently that Jesus Christ has the words of life.
Do righteousness (2:24-25,29)
- People claim to believe in God but deny Jesus Christ. The Jews did this. John addresses that if you’ve seen the Son you’ve seen the Father.
- Jesus said I and the Father are one. Not one person, but the same spirit.
- Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
- Thomas said show us the Father and Jesus said if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father.
- Someone who has known Christ and concluded that Jesus Christ is not really the manifestation of this divine spirit, the Father, that person is antichrist, obviously, and has been fooled in their understanding of God.
- Read 2:21-25.
- Participating with Christ in goodness and lovingkindness is the righteousness incorporated into the Christian’s life (vs 29).
Love Christians (3:13-17)
- The soul that loves other Christians has a right to the confidence that Jesus Christ dwells in them.
- Read 3:13-17. He equates laying down one’s life with having the ability to do good but choosing not to.
- James said you know to do good but don’t it’s a sin.
- James said don’t boast about what good you’ll do tomorrow. That’s foolish pride.
- Christians share a spirit, they have fellowship together, and they love one another.
- The opposite of that is the spirit that possessed Cain to kill Abel because Abel was righteous (note 3:12). The same satanic spirit that possessed the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day to kill Jesus.
- In biblical history, this love of the brethren was demonstrated by outsiders such as a man named Ebedmelech who helped the prophet Jeremiah when he was imprisoned.
- It’s the same spirit in Ruth that helped her mother-in-law Naomi to survive life after losing her husband and two sons.
- Notice 3:23 that belief in Jesus means loving as he loved which also means you possess the same Spirit of God that was in Jesus Christ. Read 3:23-24.
- This soul has the witness of the Spirit of God in them and has a right to the confidence that Jesus Christ dwells in them.
Possession of the same Spirit of God (4:2-13)
- The soul that believes Jesus Christ has come in the flesh has a right to the confidence that Jesus Christ dwells in them. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
- The Jews taught against believing in Jesus Christ. The religion of Jewish leadership wasn’t a scriptural religion, it used the scriptures without understanding them. As Peter said, perverting the scriptures to their own destruction.
- Read 4:2-13.
Now, these are the things that are written so you can know. So if a person’s life resembles or follows the life of Christ in these ways, there is confidence the person possesses eternal life. If not, then your confidence is in your own mind. And many people tell themselves lies and justify them with the Bible. Like the people who said Lord we’ve done so much in your name. But the assurance of eternal life according to the LORD is found in these things. Now read 1 John 5:13.
Following Christ means certainty. John 8:31-32 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
