1 John 4

1 John 4

1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see [determine] whether [if] they are from God, because many false prophets [with false spirits] have gone out into the world. 4:2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every Spirit that acknowledges [freely admit] that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God 4:3 but every spirit that does not [refuses] acknowledge Jesus [his testimony] is not from God [they are false spirits]. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world [After Pentecost].

Do Not Believe Every spirit

   There are two spirits in the world: the False spirit and the True Spirit; the “spirit of falsehood” or the “Spirit of Truth” (1 John 4:6).  There are many, hundreds of false spirits creating powerful feelings, false convictions and beliefs that deceive. There is only one Spirit of Truth, which brings into hearts convictions that Jesus is Lord combined with the love of God and love for God’s children, one another, as John will give further details to the end of his letter.

1 John 4:4 You, dear children, [you] are from God [born of God] and have overcome them [false spirits], because the One [God’s Spirit] who is in you is greater [in power] than the one [evil one] who is in the world.

The First One,

  Is the spirit of truth, is from God, points to “Jesus Christ, the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1).

The Second One

  It is in the world, from the world, not from God. This one is evil, for “the whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). John writes to the “young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (1 John 2:14). Cain is an example of one who belongs “to the evil one” because he “murdered his brother” (1 John 3:12).

1 John 4:5 They [false spirits] are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint [perspective, ideals] of the world, and the world listens to them [follows]. 4:6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us [the apostles]; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us [the Apostles]. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth [true Holy Spirit] and the spirit of falsehood [deception an error].

False Spirits Speak to the World, It Listens

  The world approves and repeats the ideas that arise from false spirits through the media. For Satan is called “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Eph 2:2). Today it is the internet and worldwide public media that glorify what they want. The spirit of falsehood entertains the world’s minds, young and old. Around the world, every culture, every society and every place human beings walk.

  Those from God, who have the Spirit of truth, embrace and study the messages of the Apostles, while the false spirits ignore in part or whole, the New Testament. They create new sets of emotionally convincing beliefs that appear to be the truth, which are not supported by the Apostles.

4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born [fathered] of God and knows God. 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. NIV

4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess [freely admit] that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. 4:4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 4:5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them [its media repeats what they say]. 4:6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 4:8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. NKJV

The Text

       In the second chapter John spoke of Antichrist, which were at one time true believers as John said, “they went out from us” (1 John 2:19). These are ministers, so called prophets of the Gospel that mix up truth and error, which Jesus calls “false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves” (Matt 7:15). They deceive your souls, take your money and engage your mind with falsehoods, telling you that they are the truth.

  Now there is a new kind of Antichrist, which are from the world and the world listens. They are known also as false prophets, not from within the church, but from within the world. They teach with vigor, certainty or with their convincing sciences. They are those that teach falsehoods as truth, with strong spirit-like conviction, with charisma, emotion telling others for instant, to chant for hours. Some use science to prove so that they exclude any possibility that God lives. Listeners are moved to accept it, embrace it as truth that is unassailable.

  John wants us to be able to know the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. There are two spirits that are at work in the world, one is from God, and the other is a false spirit. One brings us close to Jesus and the other, takes us further away, as an antichrist.

  As Jesus predicted many antichrists will appear before his return on earth saying, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, “I am the Messiah,” meaning they have a message of truth they pretend is from God, or a higher source, which will save you, “and will deceive many” (Matt 24:4,5). What they teach does not come from Christ, yet their teachings carry a power of persuasion and conviction, similar to the true Spirit of God, but not holy or pure.

Good and Bad Angels are spirits

       Good angels, coming from God are called “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation” (Heb 1:14). Satan, on the day of creation was “anointed as a guardian cherub” (Ez 28:14). Due to his pride and desire to be like God, “war broke out in heaven. Michael [commander of the angelic hosts] and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back…The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him” (Rev 12:9).

  Now in our time “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14). Which is a spirit of antichrist and a spirit of falsehood. Satan uses his spirit like nature to move on many with false inspiration. That uses persuasive speech from a darkness inside Satan to teach falsehood, lies to mislead and move human emotions to accept his crafted and created lies. This is why John warns us to “test the spirits” (1 John 4:1), the ideas, the teachings within churches and the world, to determine if they are from God or not.

During Jesus Ministry Evil spirits Confounded Jesus

       Jesus spent many hours healing everyone, from all the illnesses, in the area. “He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight” (Lk 7:21). Jesus gave his disciples spiritual powers, “He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits” (Matt 10:1). Influences in the lives of people, which push them far from God. That possess them to harm themselves and do evil.

Alcohol Is an Unclean spirit Given Wide Acceptance

       Alcohol as in vodka, gin, rum, whiskey, and tequila, is called “spirits”. It is not a Spirit from God. Under its influence it harms the body, bringing on early onset diseases. It triggers chaos in society, causing many to forget God and truth. The chief reason why many are incarcerated is because they committed a crime against society, while under the influence of demon alcohol spirits. Then evil spirits rob them of “the promise that He [God] has promised us—eternal life” (1 John 2:25). But worst of all the spirits that come with alcohol will rob you of the love of God, substitute drunkenness for the joy of life and love we can have and share together in life. Demons that come from the bottle create a path of addiction and make the heart stubborn in their supposed likes and dislikes. Making it very difficult to change, to find freedom from demon alcohol’s embrace.

  Liquor and Vodka are called "spirits”? Because of their mind-altering effects. A spirit it is! It is a Demon spirit. Not the Holy Spirit. How many homes and lives, and families have been destroyed or damaged, by demon-spirit alcohol, we could never count.  

  Then last of all, evil spirits of alcohol intend to send their users into the “lake of fire” (Rev 20:15). “For ever and ever” (Rev 14:11). 

Three Unclean spirits

       After the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, there has been an increase in demon spirits. As prophecy predicts, “I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet” (Rev 16:13). Frogs use their long, sticky tongues to snatch prey, which they swallow whole, as they cannot chew their food. Innocent insects are just flying by the frog and are taken in by their fast sticky tongue.

  The Beast has false influences on all of humanity, that “The dragon” Satan’s human agents, “gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority… The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast” (Rev 13:2,3). The Beast are antichrist powers in the world, which appeal to the sinful, carnal nature of humanity, bringing out hatred, murder, violence and political dominance. Many nations, states, have elected their leaders that are driven by evil spirits, which do not do justice. They are, in part, disinterested in the sufferings of their people while they accumulate wealth for themselves. Lies are the political slogans, being led by unclean spirits in what they do and what they say. Since unclean spirits don’t love them, they are discarded just as those they dispatched with injustice.

  The whole world listens to Satan the dragon as he speaks: “People worshiped the dragon [Satan] because he had given authority to the beast [Satan’s powerbase], and they also worshiped the beast [Satan’s creation] and asked, ‘Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?’” (Rev 13:4). Demon spirits create huge numbers of followers, taking on many different names. Their ideas, their false truths, their created gods are worshiped. The “Beast” the “Dragon” and “the false prophet” send out into the world unclean spirits, that war against God, his Son and the Apostles. They have intertwined themselves into world culture, philosophy and science; so that they appear to be almost indisputable.

  But those who love, know God, love one another, love his Son, study His apostles—are not deceived, in the least. They are not part of world culture in movies, music, entertainment and lifestyle. The are part of the “stubborn and rebellious generation, "A generation that did not set its heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God” (Ps 78:8 NKJV).

How to Tell the Difference Between a True and False Spirit

1.     Know that there are two distinct spirits in the world. One Spirit is called the Spirit of truth, and the other is the spirit of error. The “Spirit of truth” (John 15:16) represents the Holy Spirit who “lives with you and will be in you” (John 15:17).  The false spirit is like Christ, called Anti-Christ, which speaks as the spirit of error; that lives inside minds and hearts of millions. False spirits speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. Meaning that the spirit of error creates many followers, it is immensely popular around the world.

2.     The Spirit that comes from God will always acknowledge that Jesus has come in the flesh from God. Jesus came in a human body. The false spirit does not teach that Jesus is God’s “one and only Son” (John 3:16). As the Apostle John testifies: “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

3.     The Spirit that comes from God will listen to us. They will listen to the Apostles, John, Peter, James and Paul, as the source of truth. The spirit of falsehood will teach opposites of what the Apostles taught. They will leave the impression that they are not needed at all or there is another source of truth greater than the Apostles. But, in spite of what they think“God has placed in the church first of all Apostles” (1 Cor 12:28).

4.     The Spirit that comes from God will love one another because God is love. The true Spirit will embrace love, kindness, with no hatred of any kind. The false spirit will foster “hate”, which is “darkness” (1 John 2:8). “Anyone that does not love, remains in death” (1 John 3:14). The Spirit that comes from God will give to us an unselfish love for others. A Spirit-God given unselfish love. The false spirit creates discord, war, hatred, and separation from each other and most of all from other believers in God. They use hatred, murder and evil in all their different forms to accomplish their goals. Large groups of humanity are considered disposable. Whole armies of young men are sent to the battlefield with the knowledge of their generals that most of them will die, so that they can meet their war time objectives.

The spirit of Falsehood is a Substitute for the Spirit of Truth

  The spirit of falsehood functions similar to the way the Holy Spirit ministers to us. The evil or false lying spirit moves, motivates, inspires, creates new ideas, suggests plans of operation and forges new friendships. This false spirit will never acknowledge Jesus is from God. This evil spirit will never look to God as the source of love. They will never say that John and the Apostles teach the true way to God and are appointed by Jesus to teach the way to eternal life. They speak from the pulpit all over the world, human-unclean spirit taught, ideas mixed with some truth.

  Think about the group you are part of. Maybe a church. Consider, apart from the slogans taught by the church leaders. Can their ideas be matched with Jesus and the Apostles. Does it produce the love of God and love of others in your heart? Or it is devotion to a church creed, it leaders and prophets.

"Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.

These words you hear are not my own

they belong to the Father who sent me.”

John 24:24

Antichrist, Opposite of Christ, Movements in the World

  There are many examples of false spirits that have moved over the world with huge numbers of committed followers. None of these spirit-like teachings acknowledge God, Jesus his Son and his Apostle as “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). False teachers or antichrists will cause others to focus on something else, other than Christ, as first and foremost. Most often their ideas clothed in the just a scent of truth.

  These movements affect the hearts and minds of millions, with spirit like convictions leading them to accept error while they reject truth. They leave no room for Jesus, as their “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36). These false spirits demand to be worshiped or treasured as wonderful truth and adored. Millions cannot “stop worshiping demons” (Rev 9:20), which are “masquerading as an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14).

  These false teachers, Antichrist have started movements throughout the history of the world, with millions of books, movies and web pages. To which everyone listens and gives them free positive press. Many of these movements, led by false spirits lead to lawlessness, because they are at their core, selfishness and hate. “For sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4).

  The false spirit uses deception and lies that lead many to feel no need for the Son of God. Most often they are antagonistic to Scripture faith and Jesus as the “Savior of the world” (John 4:42). As Apostle John has declared, “we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).

       In contrast to the false dark spirits, “He appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin” (1 John 3:5), and “in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Nothing that will lead to hate, murder, war or abuse of women and children.

The World Listens to Unclean spirit

  The world reports on the network channels, their ideas and endeavors, with approval. Here is what John teaches us to test all political or religious movements:

  First, do they acknowledge that Jesus came from God to show us the way, the truth and give us life eternal (1 John 4:2)

  Second, do they follow Paul, Peter, James and John, the apostles of Christ. When we carefully study their words and yield to their influences, we will find they are Holy Spirit filled.  (1 John 4:5,6)

  Third, do they have love from God, seen in removing all forms of hate, racism, injustice, murder justified as war and a thousand others form of separation from each other. (1 John 4:7-8)

1.     Adolf Hitler: The young followers of Hitler were known as Hitler Youth, were led into hate.

2.     Communism: 100 million followers, led into anti-Christian activities.

3.     Chairman Mao Zedong of China: and Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), led into hate of outsiders including western Christians.

4.     Dear Leader of North Korea who demands to be worshiped (25 million), led into political idolatry. They forbid Bibles and the open worship of Christ the Savior.

5.     Buddhism: 320 million, do not accept Jesus is from God. Instead Buddha (563-483 BC) is the path to enlightenment. Nearly all their beliefs cannot be found in Christ or his Apostles.

6.     Islam: 2 billion or about 25% of the global population, do not accept Jesus is from God, “Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). They oppose Christ as God’s son and all His worships they forbid.

7.     Hinduism: 1.2 billion followers, do not accept Jesus is from God and is “the Word of Life” (1 John 1:1). Their creator god is Brahma, often depicted with four heads.

8.     Sikhs: 25-30 million followers, do not accept Jesus has “eternal life which was with the Father” (1 John 1:2). They believe hair uncut is a religious and spiritual discipline instituted by the tenth Guru. A practice not taught by Jesus or His apostles.

9.     Evolution: All U.S. public colleges are required to teach evolution, and the majority of European colleges teach evolution which rejects the whole idea of God and His Son in Scriptures.

10. Stalin: The young people that followed him were called Stalin Pioneers; they wore a distinctive red neckerchief. They were heavily indoctrinated with communist ideology and encouraged to show absolute loyalty to him which excluded God and His Son.

11. Some music bands that create crazed followers that have no place for faith in God

12. Burning Man in Nevada desert encourages relying on their inner resources, as if they were gods.

Paul Teaches us About the Spirit of Falsehood

  “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world [darkness] and against the spiritual forces of evil in [from] the heavenly realms” (Eph 6:12). 

Paul teaches us that evil spiritual forces move on rulers in authority to bring darkness to society. Spiritual forces of evil stand for the Devil and his Angels. The realm of evil spirits, the invisible sphere not seen by human eye, called “spirits of demons” (Rev 16:14). They are supernatural, above human ability to see, not dependent on food, light or air to exist—and they are dominate our world.

  Jesus called Satan the “Ruler of this world” (John 14:30) and Paul called him “Prince of the power of the air [invisible]” (Eph 2:2 NKJV). They are in a different dimension that can’t be seen with our human eyes.

These evil spirits carry their craft into the minds of world leaders. For example, at this time of writing, the North Korean leader has forbidden all Bibles and the worship of God. Even further this “dear leader” has made himself an object of worship. Satan and the host of false spirits is delighted.

  They influenced world leaders to go to war, to rob the peoples of their natural rights, to enrich themselves at the expense of their country.

  Just look at WW I & WW II, not a just war of defense, but a war of aggression, where over 50-100 million were killed. And millions more lost family and fell into deep sorrow. Hitler displayed in his speeches a charismatic and theatrical effect, which hid his real intent and purposes, to kill and murder any who he disliked.

Lying and Murder

       Even the leaders of the nation of Israel in Jesus time were led astray. Jesus told them very plainly, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!” (John 8:44-45). Lying and murder are two results of evil spirits influencing human social movements. To the Jewish leaders at the time of Christ, they accepted the lie that the promised Messiah would come and declare war against Rome. Restoring Israel to its place of dominance in the world.

The Spirit of Anti-Christ

       This is the opposite of God’s Holy Spirit. It only pretends, it claims to be the truth and convinces people to believe it.  Paul was saddened by some of the Corinthian churches that lost discernment between a false holy spirit and the true Holy Spirit. “For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough” (2 Cor 4:11).

False Spirits Run Amok in Society

  John is warning us that there are active spirits, which do not come from the Spirit of God, all over the world, inspiring people to believe in falsehoods. They announce themselves in society, through the media, through government, through the influencers of social media, ideas that sound good, but bring in darkness of hatred in various forms (see 1 John 2:9).

John is not addressing Christian congregations primarily, for nearly all would acknowledge that Jesus is from God. Except some congregations who see truth as coming from many sources with Jesus as just one of those sources.

  John is asking us to test the spirits, because false spirits have a strong appeal to human emotions and hearts welcome these feelings of conviction. Before we know it, we have stepped into darkness that appears to us as light and truth. “For the whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19).

  By way of example, strong authoritative voices, encouraging very young children to change their birth gender was a good idea and would benefit children, parents’ knowledge was unnecessary.  A false prophet is someone that teaches something they claim to be truthful and right when it is all wrong or evil. Yet they demand attention claiming their way of life is the best for everyone. Those who accept these things become hard to persuade otherwise.  

There is a way that seems right to a man,

But its end is the way of death.

Pro 14:12 NKJV

The Spirit of Truth VS the spirit of Falsehood and How to know the Difference

       The Spirit of truth, as taught by Jesus, is a direct reference to the Holy Spirit also known as “the Spirit of Truth” (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13). Also known as “the Spirit of God” and “Spirit of Christ” (Rom 8:9), because they work together for our benefit. It is by means of the “Spirit of God” that “lives in you” (Rom 8:9), we are given discernment.  “This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us: He has given us of his Spirit” (1 John 4:13).

       The spirit of falsehood is also called “the spirit of the world” (1 Cor 2:12) also the spirit of antichrist, sponsored by the Devil called the “father of lies” (John 8:44). He tells his lies using religion, culture, government, social and public media. They teach and practice in this environment, receiving praise and public acceptance. They have a global influence, and they are found in all parts of the world, reaching into the lives of millions.

       The Spirit of Truth: “Whoever knows God listens to us.” They approve of the Apostles of Christ

       The Spirit of Falsehood: “whoever is not from God does not listen to us.” They ignore or don’t care what the New Testament writers have to say. Their falsehood is presented as truth above Apostle John. It may sound like truth but is not supported by the Apostles.

       The Spirit of Truth: Is altogether called “the Spirit of holiness” (Rom 1:4). It does not agree with the world’s viewpoint, or of its call to be holy, pure and innocent.

       The Spirit of Falsehood: is a spiritual like force of power and influence but does not lead to holiness. This spirit dominates the world’s view of reality that has no time to listen to John or Jesus.

You Have Overcome Them

  The first way we have overcome the spirit of falsehood is to have Scriptures in our hearts. To the “Young Men” in John’s fellowship John says, “you are strong, and the word of God lives [abides] in you and you have overcome the Evil One” (1 John 2:14).  

  Another way we overcome the spirit of antichrist is because “we live in Him and he in us: He has given us His Spirit,” (1 John 4:13), the Spirit of God and the Spirit of truth. But more, we know that “God lives is us” because His love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12).

The Absolute Truth

1 John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, 

for love comes from God. Everyone [all] who loves has been born of God 

and knows God [personally].

The Opposite of the Truth

1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God [at all],

because God is love. NIV

4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 4:8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. NKJV

Dear Friends—To All Christian Believers Until the End of Time

 Must Also Love

  This is John’s opening statement of truth in this new section of his letter. John spends the rest of this chapter explaining its centrality. In the last verse of this chapter John comes to this conclusion. God “has given us this command(ment): Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister” (1 John 4:21). Showing that love for God and love for one another are inseparable. They are mutually dependent.  Cannot have one without the other. 

  Every time we draw near to God, we will know we need his forgiveness. Everybody knows this and has asked for God’s forgiveness time after time, because God forgives out of his love, not obligation. As we come to know God, we will love Him, we can’t do otherwise, it is impossible. As we come to know God, we will see we need more love. We will ask for God to impart to us more love. We will never claim to need no more love. No not ever.

  A relationship with God is all about love—beginning to the end. Love in the home, in the office, for your children, wife or husband and your extended families. Without a broad-spectrum love—we are not children of God. We just think we are because the church tells us we are. But we aren’t.

  This is a frequent reason why some struggle with their devotional and prayer life. Why they seem to be empty inside.

Must Love or No Holy Spirit

  What Jesus taught: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another” (John 13:34-35).

       John is repeating what Jesus taught, with inside information: “If we love one another, God lives in us” (1 John 4:12), because “we live in Him [abide] and He [God] in us,” God has “given us His Spirit” as a means by which God resides is us (1 John 4:13). Notice the word IF. This is a constant reminder to check our behavior, our attitudes, our relationships with family and other believers, can they be characterized as antagonistic or loving? Our eternal life is dependent on this issue alone; all other doctrines are secondary.

Children and God VS Children of the Devil

  The Children of the Devil in the Negative: “This is how we know… who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right [does not do the right and good thing] is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. (1 John 3:10).

  The Children of God, worded in the positive: “This is how we know who the children of God are… Anyone who does what is right [does what is the right and good thing] is God’s child, and does love their brother and sister. (1 John 3:10 re-worded).

  Living in Death While Still Alive: “Anyone who does not love remains in death” they have no “eternal life residing in” them (1 John 3:14,15).

       While We are Alive, Eternal Life Lives Inside Us, re-worded in the positive: It is fact when “we love each other” we have transitioned from “death to life.” We have “eternal life residing” in us. (1 John 3:14,15 re-worded). This experience of having “eternal life” inside us, “gives us confidence…in approaching God in prayer… “we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked” (1 John 5:14,15).

  The reason why we as believers have so few answered prayer—we do not love as we should one another. Some may divorce when they should love. Some may not eat with those they do not like. Some may be antagonists to others of a different political party.

God Is Love

       Those who are born of God are the children of God. If God is their Father, they will be loving people or God is not their father. One of the chief, most important, above anything else—is to learn to love during our life. Those born of God, born of the Spirit, and must start to practice giving love and learning how to love those we meet in life that are not very lovely people. Learning not to criticize them, find fault with them or shun them as ignorant, too difficult to get along with.

       Those that learn to love, from God, “when Christ appears, we shall be like him” in love, “for we shall see him as He is” (1 John 3:2). For God is love. Only by love, living in our hearts now, today, tomorrow. Only by being tested to love, when it may be hard—or it is impossible to see God at all.

Two Simple Ever Expanding Truths

  John teaches two easy to grasp, short, simple, truthful yet always expanding truths. This is the most primary and fundamental doctrine of our faith. Of every church doctrine, every endeavor to teach “the everlasting gospel” (Rev 14:6 NKJV), if love, as John teaches it, is not made prominent, in connection with being Born of God, the results will be sadly deficient in love.

  Many conservative and fundamental congregations are held together by common doctrines that often lead to a faith rooted in a religious movement having a starting point, founding fathers, in history. Eventually this church will split up into competing versions of liberal or conservative ideas of worship. They may elevate some other unique and special Biblical ideas, in dress, diet, or in music as the way to life. They will expel from their fellowship those who disagree with any small point of their standard of truth they regard as absolute. This is not the way of those who have learned from God how to “walk in the way of love” (Eph 5:2).

First Group—Open Hearted Love

  The Born of God, they know God, they love God, they love others. It is that simple. That plain to understand. Yet impossible to do, unless we are born again, by the action of God Himself. This is not something that we can do by obedience: "Not because of righteous things [good deeds] we have done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

  As “children of God…when Christ appears we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). We will be children re-born to love God and one another, which makes us like God. We are God’s children, his “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17). Born into a likeness of God Himself who is love. Thus, we can love others in harmony with the heart of God because God put His love into our souls, our thinking, our words, our actions, our outlooks—into all our relationships. Inside and outside.

Born of God—God’s Action

       To be Born of God, is an action of God, who comes from above and “lives in us” (1 John 3:24; 4:12). As a result: We live “in love” which is the only way to live “in God” and “God in” us (1 John 4:16). If God who is love “lives in us,” then we will be loving to others. We will not be rude, unmoved to the plight of others, selfish with our possessions and indifferent to the problems of others. We will not be exacting on policy when not necessary. All because God who is love, does not live in us. Our profession to be a Christian, means nothing at all.

  How do we become born of God? We know that we “live in him and He in us” only then can we love one another, because God “has given us of His Spirit” (1 John 4:13), which comes from Himself.

       God’s Children are born again, by God, for the primary purpose, according to John, is to love one another. Since God Himself is love. Since God has already “lavished on us” His love. Since God has already called us by the official title “children of God” (1 John 3:1). Now God desires us to love others as he has loved us.

       His children will reflect that love, received from Him, back to Him and to others. Later in this chapter John states that we can only “live in Him and He in us” because God has “given us His Spirit” (1 Joh 4:13). As Paul affirms this “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God” (Rom 8:14), they are Born of God, God has fathered them Himself. The proof of it is we love others while we love God.

To be Born of God is What Jesus Taught to Nicodemus:

  “Let me tell you the solemn truth,” replied Jesus. “Unless someone has been born from above, they won’t be able to see God’s kingdom…no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit…So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:3,5,8 New Testament for Everyone).

  To be Born of God according to Paul is made possible by “the Holy Spirit who lives in us” (2 Tim 1:14). That is “the Spirit of God” (Rom 8:9,14,19). To be filled with the Spirit of God, love and its fruits of joy and peace will be evident. If love is missing, so is the Spirit. If the Spirit is missing, we are not “fathered by God” (1 John 5:1 NKJV).

Love With No Exceptions, No Room for Any Hate or Dishonesty

       We love our husbands, wives, children and will view our society around us as opportunities to love: To be kind, to be gentle, to be understanding, to be positive, to be hopeful, to be helpful, to be attentive, to be open and honest with, to be truthful, to be good toward others, to be faithful, to include others, to be inclusive with authority, to uplift others, to trust others with responsibilities, to be sincere and to teach the love of God and to live the love of God.

Second Group—Selective love

       Not Born of God, we will not love one another, thus making it impossible to know God. What else we believe, what else we practice, what other commands or commandments we keep. Whatever church we attend—without being born again by God’s action into non-selective love for others—it makes no difference at all.

Love That Comes from God Himself and Is Born Inside Us

• Pure love is visible in the good works promoted by lovingkindness

• Pure love possesses no hidden inappropriate thoughts that spring to action

• Pure love is simple minded, thinking of what is best for others

• Pure love is goodness, kindness, with no desire to gain recognition or praise

• Pure love is hope for a change in others, while we do them good

• Pure love has nothing to hide or be ashamed of

• Pure love is your neighbor’s keeper

• Pure love knows the wisdom of silence

• Pure love is supported with the steel of faithfulness
  Pure love makes sweet music that is inviting

• Pure love is warm-hearted for the unloved and uncared for

• Pure love can be bruised and hurt, but is refreshed in prayer with God

• Pure love is resilient, after loss and disappointment

• Pure love knows the heart of God for the broken

• Pure love is counseled by wisdom and caution, wanting to know the will of God

• Pure love partners with others that also have pure love

• Pure love is never anxious to the point of despair with loss of faith

• Pure love must be, needs to be much in prayer, to stay pure

• Pure love is recharged, renewed daily from God’s love dwelling in them

• Pure love mixes faith and hope in all it does

• Pure love is given many added gifts and opportunities to be fruitful

• Pure love cannot stay pure without thirst to know more about God

• Pure love never breaks a marriage vow—ever, no never ever

• Pure love is opposite in every way of lust; it is the one thing pure love hates

• Pure love works to nourish and strengthen others

• Pure love is inclined to be generous and forgiving to offenses that hurt

• Pure love must keep its focus every day on the sound of love, in song and praise

• Pure love is white as snow, but warm as a fireplace

•  Pure love is like an open door from the outside to a warm table and embrace

•  Pure love exposes teachings of hate, violence, and other hurtful things

• Pure love loves to possess pure love

• Pure love satisfies its owner

• Pure love cares, often way too much

• Pure love is multilingual

• Pure love is sensitive to the feeling of others

• Pure love is easy to talk to and reason with, ready to consider new ideas

• Pure love wants to be helpful, looks for ways to make a difference

• Pure love is humble, often promoting others in place of themselves

• Pure love shares responsibilities, in trust, to others to build them up

• Pure love is true love, they are twins to each other

• Pure love is sourced by the Spirit of Truth

• Pure love is humble, “not puffed up” over itself

• Pure love generates seeds of love in others by doing them good

• Pure love grows, blossoms, and bears fruit from the cleansing and forgiveness of Christ

• Pure love knows it never fails, always wins, in God’s record and sight

• Pure love is very sensitive, but resilient

• Pure love is kindhearted and caring about others

• Pure love does not care just from a distance, but tries to be as close as possible

•  Pure love will “carry each other’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2)

Pure love is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” And “Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these” (Mk 12:30-31).

  Love from God, for God, must precede before we are able to love others with pure love. Because God's own nature is love. God gives us love from Himself, to love Him. And God gives us love, from Himself, to love others.

  Selfishness, pride, and lust will interrupt the flow of love. Thus, we must “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” (2 Cor 13:5).

  Tell the Lord all about your weaknesses and failures to love as we know we should. Just come with your heavy burdens, with your need to love others as you know you should. Take up the promise of Jesus “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28).

Love Coming from God, Is for Others

  First Corinthians chapter 13 and the Golden Rule, in action. “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Lk 6:31), are needed to guide the hands, arms, and feet into the way of love. Every day and throughout the day. “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Col 3:13).

  God’s name should never be used to rationalize any violence, hate or abuse of others. Love is expressed even silently when we can do no positive good to those we meet during the day, at least we will do them no harm.

The Deceitful Lie

  If we tell others, we know God. If we claim to be baptized born again, Spirit filled believers. Yet if we allow various forms of hatred, disgust, jealousy, hard feelings, anger, ranking people by your judgment as worthy of our friendship. If we secretly undermine others, for purposes of our advancement or pleasure in seeing their dishonor. In this case, these people do not know God, at all.

  We may believe we are saved; we may preach and teach others about God; we may be good at explaining church creeds and doctrines; we may be very charismatic in the pulpit; we may be selectively kind and generous; we may be president of a church or charity; we may have a doctorate in Biblical theology; we may have published a popular religious reader; we may be leader in a Bible Study group; we may have connections with many important religious people and organizations; we may be ordained to the gospel ministry; we may have a large library of religious books; we may be full of Biblical factual knowledge—without God birthing love inside us, beside us, near us, close to our hearts because nothing else done without love matters at all. For whoever does not love does not know God. They do not know God—at all.

  To know God, you cannot but love. Love will overwhelm all other doctrines, will rise above the Law of the ten Commandments, as sky is above the earth. We were created, born of God, by God to love. It is the very foundation of worship of God.

  If we feel no obligation to love other believers, even in our fellowship circle. We feel free to judge them as being too fat, thin, not intelligent, or so poor that we avoid them, so we are not obliged to help them. We need to be Born of God, so we can love.

  Love from God, can be seen in all different church affiliations. It can be received from God, by Amish, Catholics, or Protestants. Love received from God, is not dependent upon a specific creed or set of doctrines. Thankfully, it is open to being received by all, everywhere and anywhere. It is a universal global doctrine, which comes from genuine faith in God, the foundation of “the everlasting gospel” (Rev 14:6).

To be Born of God is to be Father by God

  What an inestimable privilege to have God as our Father. To pray to the One that we know, not from head knowledge but we know it from the love that flows out to God and others in our lives.

Only God the Father, can teach us what love is. How to express it, how to give it to others. How to have right feelings about those who we do not trust, about those who do not love anyone but themselves.

       We must learn to love from God. We must ask Him to give us love, to promote the growth of love in our hearts. This needs to, must be done, every morning of every day of our lives. New situations will arise where we just do not know how to love someone. Only God can prepare our hearts, give us wisdom, and guide our plans to show love and we promise you that God is faithful and will answer your prayers.

  For “God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor 1:9). God is “the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love” (Dt 7:9). God is more than faithful, He will show you, teach you, lead you, guide you, instruct you, inspire you how to love. How to “walk in the way of love” (Eph 5:2), with no darkness. God does not just point the way, but carries you there, enables you to live in love, causing you to feel at home with a God-given love that is always expanding.

  Every morning, it is our privilege to ask the Father, through our faith in Christ, to give us love, more love, better expressed love. Benevolent love for our fellowship and neighbor. Family love, unselfish and protective love, for our spouse and children. To “love one another” is what God Himself has “commanded us” (1 John 3:23). To be diligent in, to be willing to give love, to be faithful in love when, even when there is no return of love that has been poured out on others, almost as if wasted.

Christianity without love is not Christianity—

not at all, it is dead with no Spirit of God

A Christianity with love is real and authentic—

Because it is filled with the Spirit of God

No Love, No Knowledge of God

  Anyone that does not know the Love of God, does not know God. The love John is referring here is not to love of others in general, but to the Love of God in specific. God will show you personally how to love, how to show love, how to be loving, even to those we do not have much in common.

  Millions, all over the world, in past centuries, have discovered the depth, the knowing, a sense that is above human senses, which realizes that God loves me, personally. It has brought tears to millions of eyes as they feel it deep in their souls. The love of God takes a central place in all things of life. Strange as it maybe, you love God without sight or touch, you love Him from a distance. Yet it is as real as love can be, but it is different from all other loves, affecting emotions, giving a sense of warmth and often tears. It is a spiritual love without physical attachment that must be shown to others.

  The themes of Love for God and love for others is the major test to decide if a gospel fellowship is a place of restful peace for weary hearts. Or just much talk, about everything else except to wish to love, better, deeper with honest sincere hearts.

1 John 4:9 This is how God showed [displayed] his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we [the purpose of] might live through him [God & His Son]. 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God [we didn’t], but that He loved us [first] and [He] sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. NIV

4:9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 4:10 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. NKJV

From the Preceding Text

       Since “God is love” (1 John 4:8), how has he display His love for us to see? Amazingly, unknown by us, undeserving by us, when we should have only received judgment and condemnation, Because "He [God] first loved us” (1 John 4;19). Loved us enough to send something of Himself, something irreplaceable, so close to Himself, His own, His very own, one of a kind—Beloved Son. Who “is the image of the invisible God…For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in him [His Son]” (Col 1:15,17).

  God could feel the separation and pain this caused to his only Son, because of their close likeness. God takes the leadership; he shows love to those who even reject it—FIRST. Then God asks to copy His example. 

The Text: There are multiple themes presented

• First how God showed love, what it is, to us, among us

• Second, for the purpose of bringing our lives up to Him, to live through Him, with love. His own love, something that He possesses. 

• Third, is to provide a way to forgive our sins, our offences that are committed against Himself. God’s proposed way, sending His Son, was built on the premise of love first and foremost, for us. God’s actions were not done regretfully or out of responsibility he had to do.  Offenses that we have done without love, to others that God loves. They are against God’s own nature of love. They are an assault against Him. Yet His love was not insulted, love overruled the insult. 

The Impossible: There is Something That God Cannot Do

       What is it? He must send His Son—so that we might be able to have God live in us. Without sending His one and only Son, God cannot make it possible for us to live our lives through Him. So that we may “Know God”, love God and “love one another” (1 John 4:7,8).

God’s love is Displayed

       God sees humanity as in great need, “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12).

He Himself comes to our rescue, even as we commit crimes against one another which is so very foreign and offensive to God. God, setting aside our distasteful crimes, offers a way, through His Son, that we might live through Him in love instead of selfishness of hate and discord. 

This Is Love

       God does not love the worthy, the good, the excellent, the trustworthy, the gracious, the lovely, the blessed, the talented, the useful, the kingly and queen like—God loved humanity, messed up, sinful, defiant, broken, heartless, cruel, unfaithful, disloyal, mean spirited, immoral, criminal and unjust. He loves them all. Even when we have done unforgiveable wrongs, His love reigns supreme when it comes to sinners. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).

  To prove it God gave something of himself in His Son, in that His Son is part of Himself. Part of God in a way not understood in human relationships.  It was God’s one and only Son, one of a kind. God did not have two sons so one could remain behind. If God lost His Son, there could be no replacement. True love is self-giving, the opposite of selfishness and self-serving. There is no example in human experience, we can find, that would match the self-sacrifice of God Himself.

  When we look at the life and public teachings of Jesus, here is where the miracles of change take place. Love springs up into our hearts, in stealth mode. We don’t feel it all at once, but slowly our attitudes change and the seed of Divine love is placed into our hearts begins to grow. Because Jesus retained the quality of love from the Father. By and through looking at him, faith and love grow. Because God’s charisma of love, could not be hidden in His son, in His human form.

  While John the Baptist was in prison, he began to question whether Jesus was the Messiah. So he sent two of his disciples to go and ask Jesus, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” They stayed a few days with Jesus and then returned to John, telling him what Jesus said and did. “Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me” (Matt 11:2-6). 

  John was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. A Messiah not of military power, not of wealth, not of a large following of very wise educated men. No, instead of a person who loved the sick. Who healed all who were in physical or mental suffering. “News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them” (Matt 4:24).

  When you look at Jesus, your eyes will open. Thank God when they do, it was Him that opened your heart into love.

When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast save in the death of Christ, my God!

All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them through his blood.

See, from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down.

Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small.

Love so amazing, so divine,

demands my soul, my life, my all.

Isaac Watts (1707)

The Love of God

  Is a divine love, a perfect love, which belongs to God and God alone. God is our source of love. It is love that will make eternity in heaven attractive. Because it is love alone that satisfies us the longest and the best. Wealth without love is sad and lonely. Death without love is total loss, and such have forfeited eternity in a land, a city, a cosmos, where this love at its fullest display—Together—forever, God with the redeemed of the Lord. “We who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thess 4:17).

God’s Love is Manifested

  Clearly seen among us, made known. Made visible, is made apparent and clear. No covering of the love of God. The love of God, and the love of Christ, becomes rooted in the center of our souls.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love.

may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people,

to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—

that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Eph 3:17-19

To Grasp and know how: Wide-Long-High-Deep—Is the Love of Christ

Width-Length-Depth-Height—The full dimensions of love

Wide enough to encompass everyone,

Christ’s love reaches out with both arms to all of us.

Long enough to last for eternity, everlasting to everlasting,

goes beyond human barriers.

High enough to exalt those who love Christ, to heaven.

Deep enough to reach the most degraded sinner

to touch any need, any sorrow and hurt.

 God Sent His Son

  God sent his son on the greatest rescue mission for guilty hell bound sinners, unworthy and undeserving of his love. Sent on a mission to accomplish a task with a very specific message, to show to us the love of God, for us. But more, to bring that love down to us by living in us and taking us to love, was we live through Him.   

  The Son of God was sent by God, to provide an atoning death. A death that was different then human death. It is a forgiving, pardoning death—because God loved us. God had to let go of His Son, with us in mind. The Son had to let go of God the Father, for us. That is why it is called a sacrifice, something that was very costly to both God the Father and his Son. A cost that will always ripple down the endless time periods of eternity. It was a humbling cost on their part. It was their journey into the unknown.

  Jesus was aware this cost and in the midst of the height of its pain, he wavered for a moment as he viewed the lasting effect of going forward, saying twice, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me” (Matt 26:39, 42). In other words, is there another way to my father?

  Although the end from the beginning is known to God, yet in the atoning death of Christ, they were in uncharted territory. To change our future, changed theirs. The home, the life between God and His Son is now expanded, for we enter into their home becoming “heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:17). They know what this change means, as we have yet to see!

We Are to Live Through Him, in This Way Love From the Center of God Moves into Us

  The expression live through him, is translated the same way by the NIV, NKJV, KJV and NET Bibles. This is the consistent translation in nearly every Bible version, even Tyndale’s Bible of 1526.

       The expression through Him, applies primarily to God, because God is identified at the opening of the sentence. Yet, this expression can also mean through the Son, because we come to God through His Son. However the clear point is, that God wishes us to live a life of love through Him.

       As God “lives in us” (1 John 3:24), He imparts a part of Himself—His love to us. It works through us, among us, so that we may live our personal lives with God’s love percolating, boiling through us. Morning, noon and night.

       In truth: It is by and through the love of God running in our lives, in and out toward others that we, by means of God’s love given to us so that we can “participate in the divine nature” (1 Pet 1:4). We receive God’s second gift, “eternal life” (1 John 1:2).

  The love of God made available in Christ, His Son, is a gift of His grace. Grace is something that nobody deserves. It covers sin. It transforms inside us, it draws in heart and soul upward, it gives us peace, hope, and faith. It changes our outlooks, our steps in life. It creates a passion for prayer, for Scriptures, for truth. It removes all our animosity toward neighbors. A love, borrowed from God, the source of all love. Then by our words, our actions we spread love in front of us, behind us and around us.  “Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love” (Eph 6:24).

The earlier sentences of John make this clear (4:7)

                 “Let us love one another, for love comes from God”

                 All who love have been “born of God…knows God”

       The following sentences also make this clear (4:12,15,16)

                 To see God, we will love each other

God lives in us and his love makes us complete

“God lives in them and they in God”

“Whoever lives in love and God in them”

  This is in addition to God living in us, as explained previously, “he lives in us…by the Spirit, He gives us” (1 John 3:24). The big difference that John is teaching us is that we are now given the privilege of living our life through Him. God makes His life, by many ways unseen, but most of all through “His Spirit” (1 Cor 2:10), available to live in us. God shares his life, opens a channel for us to share our life within or through God, specifically His love and “His incomparably great power for us who believe” (Eph 1:19). This great power is not to be used in self-acclaim to bring honor to oneself. It is the power of love. “The Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline [sound mind]” (2 Tim 1:7). Love must be contained in the boundaries of wise good judgment to do good and carry the burden of others.    

  That “great power” is displayed in our lives by love, mercy, kindheartedness of tears for others that suffer pain, danger and difficulties. There is no cold-heartedness that can exist in our souls, except for evil, which we have no kinship with at all. Because we are living our lives “by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).

We Might Live Through Him

  John has already explained to us that we receive God by his Spirit that can “live with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). Now John adds that God can bring us up to Him, where He is at, so that we can live our lives through Him. So that God can live “in us and His love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12).

God reaches down to us and calls us, but more, He carries us to Himself. God demonstrated this in the past saying, “I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Ex 19:4).

  Sometime, at the end of time, God has promised that He, physically, will come down to earth and take us, those of us that know of His love, personally, to Himself. This is where we have been all along, it will be natural for us to be in His physical presence at that time.

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command,

with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God,

and the dead in Christ will rise first.

After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together

with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

And so we will be with the Lord forever.

1 Thess 4:16,17

       How amazing it is. God is wanting to dwell in us, that is His life in us.  Now, our Father God, who is love wants us to live in Him, or as John says live through Him. Divine love reaches our hearts and pulls us into Him, so that His love, can be displayed to us and we see “the glory of God.”

Why?

       Why would God want humanity, “dead in your transgressions and sins” (Eph 2:1), to share their lives through Him? It would be like bringing darkness, as we are in our sins, into the heart of God who is light and all truth.

Answer

  Because God alone has the real lasting and eternal love, made available to us by His Spirit is the means by which we “are transformed into His image” (2 Cor 3:18).

  Because “God so loved us” (1 John 4:8, 11). Love makes allowances for us, made possible by God’s Son coming to earth to unite humanity to His Father, so that His Father can be our Father also. God reaches through his Son and pulls us to Himself by His own love and His grace. To be with Him.

Extraordinary Love

       God’s love is too extraordinary that it can’t be written or explained. It is by His love that we are pulled to Himself, even though “God is angry with the wicked every day” (Ps 7:11 NKJV). Only love, can break through the separation that sin has created between us and God. Love alone is able to set aside justice, punishment, divine sent karma for our dark actions. To not notice our bondage to lust of the flesh and pride of life.

Image of God or Image of the Beast

       John writes in Revelation about “the image of the beast” (Rev 13:15 NKJV), which is the opposite of love, the darkness of hate, the image of Satan, the one who gives to the beast his “power and his throne and great authority” (Rev 13:2).

  The image of the beast is seen in the combined influences of “everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life” (1 John 2:15). This is those who do not know that God is love, are in the image of the beast.  This is what rules the world known as “Babylon the Great” (Rev 17:5), the ancient power that conquered the world and still is the dominate force in global politics and society at its street level.

God Love to Us, When We Deserve Judgment, is Injustice

  Even when God knows full well, that loving us is an injustice to the universe. A wrong that is inexcusable. For God who loves justice for sins has said: “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing” (Isa 61:8).

  Who also said: “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me, says the Lord Almighty” (Mal 3:5). A just God, a righteous God must keep criminal activities from spreading.

  Yet, it is amazing that God willingly and knowing all about us, still wants to take us to Himself. His love is more than able to cover, on account of the atonement of Christ, sins that would be hateful to Him. His love is able to look past the justice we sinners really deserve. Like the story of the prodigal son, the father meets the son with an embrace and a kiss. When in justice, he deserved a scolding and kick, for his disgraceful and shameful actions to his family.

       God is able to promise eternal life. To those who have faith in His Son, which saves and justifies us, declaring us innocent of all wrongdoing. God welcomes them into a safe home of rest inside, besides, near the heart of God!!

God enters our lives first to awaken us to His love. We can only love God “because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). If you sense the love of God awakening in your heart, respond to.

  God’s love is not satisfied to just make an offer to us to come and receive of His love. No, God makes the first move, He draws to Himself, through Christ.  As Jesus testifies, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them” (John 6:44). Jesus as the Son of God, loves us the same kind of love, coming from His Father, “from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him [Christ] who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood” (Rev 1:5).

  Next God sends His own Spirit to live in us. “This how we know that we live in Him [God] and He [God] in us: He [God] has given us of His Spirit” (1 John 4:13).

  Next God gives us “wisdom and understanding” (Eph 1:8), of things that belong to Him

  Next to take us to Himself, for “God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself” (Ps 49:15).

Why Does God Love Us? Why Does God Do All This?

  God has a heart for the broken, the sick, the poorest, the injured, the crippled, the weak and the worst sinner. Even if they caused their own condition. Even if they have hated God, ignored Him and sought out idols that please themselves.

He is not satisfied with sympathy—from a distance—but wants them close to his heart, as close as possible. With all who trust in the name of His Son, he welcomes with no questions asked, no pre-qualifications, no work that must be done first. For “the work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:29).

  Only come, rest in His love, for you, personally. Claim it, rely on it, depend on it.  If you are looking for it, it is close at hand (see Rom 10:8,9). The ones that God loves, he sees them not as they are now, but what they will be in His eternity. It pleases God, because of His Great Need to Love, to plan for the ones he loves with a positive future that is presently unimaginable for us in the present

What Does It Mean to Live Through Him?

       Since Jesus said that “God is Spirit” (John 4:24), it is His Divine Spirit that can touch our human spirit—with love. Love is the blood transfusion we receive from God, we share directly in His love and thus we live through Him. Now that His love is shared with us, we can share it with others. Just like God shares His love with us we open a loving heart to others.

       The biggest results of living our lives through Him is more love, bringing us closer, ever closer to God by the love received, then returned to God in love for Him. Then the love received from God is given to others. As God “commanded” us to “love one another” (1 John 3:26).

       We must learn from God, for our individual circumstance’s how to walk in the light of God’s love. Not mixed with shadows of darkness that bring distrust and selfishness. “Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them” (1 John 4:16), is our high calling.

       God takes on a responsibility for us, for “His love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12).  From his inside position He knows a lot about us. Thus we can with confidence “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7). This is why “there is no fear in love” (1 John 4:18), but confident trust in a love we have come to know personally. In a love we have personally received. In a love we have expressed to others—we live through Him and “rely on the love God has for us” (1 John 4:16). Meaning there is flow of love from God so that we can “love one another” (John 13:34; 1 John 4:7,11,12). If we are not loving others, even those who displease us. Stop and pray for the love of God to blossom in your life.

       Now what can we learn about God, from our inside position of living our lives here on troubled earth. When in love, daily received and given, we are not far from God. Our eyes are opened, wide opened, to know the truth, something that most in the world don’t know, that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Really, we know it for we live our lives through the benefit of his love, ever streaming toward us, which cannot be capped inside us for it must be released to currents of love toward others, who God also loves.  

1 John 4:11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another [always]. 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made complete in us. NIV

4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 4:12 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 [Love made perfect]. NKJV

  Since God has commanded us to believe in His Son and love one another (3:23)

  Since “love comes from God” (4:7) because we are “Born of God” into love (4:7)

       Since “God has displayed His love” through His Son (4:9)

       Since God’s purpose for us is to “live through Him” in love. (4:9)

       Since God, in love, has send His Son to provide atonement for all our sins (4:10)

  Since God has already shown his great love for us (4:11)

Thus, God lives in us, so that His love will be made complete in us (4:12)

John’s Personal Appeal: Dear friends, My Beloved We Ought To “Love One another” (3:11,23; 4:7,11,12) and “Love the Children of God” (5:2)

       Since God has given us the example of his love to follow. We can offer no excuses why we are unwilling to love others. God will accept no excuses from us why we choose not to love one another, with a warm-hearted, generous-minded, care for others.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

  There can be no excuse to hold bitterness toward each other, that would lead to separation of affection. That would lead to divorce and alienation. That would lead to hate, retaliation or murder.

       In the world of love that John teaches us, let’s be clear. Divorce should be rare, unheard of, among believers that claim to love God. “For the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce” (Mal 2:16).

  Here is where the fellowship of believers can come to the aid of troubled families, with prayer and counsel. With their testimony of the love they have found in God that has changed their own lives and marriages. Giving them attitudes of patient-kind-toleration for others that are different than ourselves. Others that are in trouble due to their failure to love. Others have been hurt by others that known not God, which know nothing of his love.

 love one another always

       To love others is less personal than to love one another. This is a benevolent love that wishes the best for others. This is kind love, is grateful, tenderhearted, encouraging uplifting to others, with a kindly regard. Free from “lust of the flesh” (1 John 2:16), “with absolute purity” (1 Tim 5:2), no jealousy, pride, making others feel inferior or using people you should love for your advantage and their disadvantage. It means placing yourself at a disadvantage to help others.   

  This kind of love brings to view personal names in our fellowship. It is a command from God, to love only not our friends, but others outside our circle of friends. We are to reach out to them with interest in them and care for them. We are to notice and appreciate them, without a reason why we should. Except God has told us we ought to. And the truth be told, with our hearts, we really want to.

No One Ever Seen God

       God is not a person. Jesus told the Woman at the well “God is Spirit.” In the Greek it reads just “God Spirit,” the English added the word “is” to make sense of the expression.

       God is also described as “God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29), to us as humans, in His presence we could not live. However God’s love, through His Spirit, “dwells in us” (James 4:5). By the fire of His love, He lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

       Jesus told Nicodemus “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man” (John 3:31). Meaning no one from earth, has been to heaven and returned to tell us about it, except Jesus, who “came from God” (John 16:27).

Prophets have had visions and dreams but were not physically there. Jesus used to live in heaven; thus he had seen God, been with God and was the Son of God. A word that suggests a very close relationship, closer than a brother or sister.

God’s Love is Not Stored Up In Us

  God’s love is not stored up inside us. There is no storage cabinet or closet to hold God’s love. It cannot be contained like silver or gold. It is given so that it may flow out into love for others. As it flows out, more of God’s love is given to us. This is a reason why some have so little love of God in their lives—they don’t share much love with those who are considered unworthy of their love.

His Love Complete or Perfected in Us 

  The Greek word for complete in the NIV is teleioó which means: “To complete, to perfect, to accomplish, to bring to an end.” It carries the idea of working through the entire process, or stages, to reach the final phase or conclusion which is seen in living in the realm of love, because God lives in us and we in turn live in God. Love is the channel, the cord, the means by which God dwells in us. If the love of God with the love for others is not prominent from our impulses to do good to others—we are not like Jesus in the world we live in. We are not keeping his commands.

  For love to be made complete brings to view a long-term experience of dwelling with God and He in us. For love to grow, it takes time for the seed of love to become a very fruitful plant with large fruits of the Spirit. 

Love Made Perfect

       To be “made perfect in Love” (1 John 4:18) is not one step process. It is on-going every day of our lives. We will meet many different situations, that we know we should love someone, but we feel that they don’t deserve it. We feel that we should give them back some of the injustice and lies that they have given to us. The thought is satisfying. But, if we are Born of God, we can’t do it, when God is dwelling in us and we have been dwelling in Him. It is just not possible unless we step out and away from the love of God that has filled our hearts. It would break and hurt our hearts if we did just that.

  Self-indulgence, laziness, indifference to others. This weakens us. It should be seen as breaking the bond of love God has given to us, shared love from Himself to us.

       Jesus used this word complete in his prayer to his Father, hours before the cross, “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing [teleioó] the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4). At the end of his life of more than 30 years, he had finished the work of saving man.

       Paul, at near the end of his life writing to the Philippians he made a public confession “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal [teleioó], but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Phil 3:12). Paul was always pressing forward to carry out the calling God had given to him. He did, having left us 13 letters and the books of Luke and Acts, written by a Gentile that Paul led to Christ.

  Over time, in prayer asking God for more love, in Scriptures, in helping our neighbors we receive more love so that we can give more love. The rule is: give little love, receive little love, give more kind love, receive more to give more love.

God’s Love is Made Complete When Experienced Together with Others

  Yes, God’s love makes us individually whole. Yet, love is to be made complete in us. It must start individually. God’s love is given to us, so that in fellowship with other believers, His love can flow through us, one to another, to another, to the point God’s loving presence, is in all of us. God wishes his love to be known, not just individually, but together. There is additional love, power and influence for good in society, when God’s love is mutually shared, received during worship of God, together. For the love of God is to be “poured out into our hearts” (Rom 5:5), with the Spirit moving on us all at the same time. Just as the disciples’ experience in the Upper Room at Pentecost.

  Revival is a group experience. It moves around the room, affecting many all at once. Strangers enter the room and are deeply moved, as never before. God’s love is given in different measures, which bind us together, in group confession, all surrender finding forgiveness. This is just what Jesus asks of His Father in his prayer: “I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:23).

  Sad to say, it is hard to find a fellowship of this kind of love. We have too much theology, too much doctrine that divides us, too much pride in denominationalism, too many denominations that claim to be the exclusive way to truth. We have too much money a stack to change our priorities!

Complete in Love is Obedience

       The Law is the means that God uses to convict us of sin, “for through the law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom 3:21). John does not use the Law to make us complete. He does not point us to the law as the means to be like God, to be complete. No, he did not. “For the law made nothing perfect” (Heb 7:19).

       John shows us a God of love, that He has prepared to live in us. So that we can “live in love, live in God and God in us” (1 John 4:16). The Torah called Israel to obey its Laws, decrees and commandments. Now that the love of God has been revealed in His Son—we are privileged to have God dwell in us, by and through His love. This is what makes us complete, “perfect love drives out fear” so when judgment day comes to earth, we have “no fear” (1 John 4:17,18). Since “God is love” and his “love lives in us”, “we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

       This love has a purifying effect on us, unlike the Law, which condemns. But does perfect, unlike anything else (1 John 3:3). God’s love always will lead into holiness, which is a desire to do good, to do the right things, to not be lawless but to be righteous like the God we love.

Love Fits Us For Heaven

       It is by love of each other, love for God that prepares us for our eternal state. This fits us for heaven. It gives us “confidence on the day of judgment” (1 John 4:17), at the second coming of Christ.  Love inside, from living our life through God, from the Holy Spirit that gives us love (Rom 5:5)—God prepares us to see for “we shall be like him, and we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

The Application of Love—Action Steps

  Given what God had done for us, in unloading the treasures of grace and mercy on us. So, I could go out of my way to show love to others.

  Be with other believers, show up where believers are in order to love them.

  Be observing believers, pay attention to what they are saying. Ask them questions so you can show interest in them.

  Be responsive to believers, open doors of opportunity. (1 John 3:18). Love people that are a challenge to love. Some are very hard; they are unlike us in many ways. Are we willing to extent ourselves to others in Christ. Rise above the hindrances that cause us to shy away from love. This is only possible when by living in God with much prayer. Set aside the idea that some religious practice is superior, the only way to worship. How can God reach any of us, if he waited for us to put everything together first?

  “Whoever lives in love” practices love in home and away from home, “lives in God and God in them” (1 John 4:16). This is John’s account of what he saw and experienced in the personal and public life of Jesus.

We have thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness,

In the midst of Your temple.

According to Your name, O God,

So is Your praise to the ends of the earth;

Your right hand is full of righteousness.

Ps 48:9.10 NKJV

(repeated) 1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us [abide, resides] and his love is made complete [perfected] in us. 4:13 This is how we know  [know it for sure] that we live in him [abide, resides] and He in us: He has given us of his Spirit [the means by which God resides in us]. NIV

4:12 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. 4:13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. NKJV

4:12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us. 4:13 By this we know that we reside in God and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit. NET Bible

  Since God has commanded us to believe in His Son and to love one another (3:23)

  Since “love comes from God” (4:7) because we are “Born of God” into love (4:7)

       Since “God has displayed His love” through His Son (4:9)

       Since God’s purpose for us to “live through Him” in love. (4:9)

       Since God, in love, has send His Son to provide atonement for all our sins (4:10)

  Since God has already shown his great love for us (4:11)

  Since God lives in us, so that His love is complete in us (4:12)

Since no one can see God, yet He displays Himself by our love for others (4:12)

Therefore we are able to abide in God, by means of His Spirit (4:14)

  The love that comes from God, which He has for us, reaches perfection through our consistent desires to love others, to do them good. This is what God wants of us; this is what believers are “commanded” to do “to love one another” (1 John 3:23) by God Himself.

God Wishes the World to See Himself Through His Love Displayed in Us

  The only possible way to see God, to know God, to realize His presence, to worship God—is through love for one another. Love is the antidote to sin as it is expressed in thousands of forms. Love is the only gateway to holiness, for “without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:4). And God is only seen through, in, by—love. For God’s love makes us complete, giving us “confidence on the day of judgment” (1 John 5:17).

  God’s abiding love in us, by His Spirit, is what make us a complete human being, “perfect in love” (1 John 4:18).

  The Redeemed of the Lord are made complete, ready to meet the Lord—only by God’s love living in us, because God’s presence is known to us, and to the others by our love for them.

  The point John is teaching us is simple: To see God visible, is to love one another. This is the only way to see God since He is a “Spirit” (John 4:24) and as such cannot be seen by our eyes.

  Love is God made perceptible, when we love one another. Love is the witness we give to the existence of God.

  No one should be confused to think that their attendance of church or their belief in its doctrines is what reveals God to the world. For closely held doctrines, without love for others, blinds our eyes to our real bankrupted spiritual condition. It makes us a prisoner of the law of sin at work within us. Sin can masquerade as love, when one holds to their Bibles, to tithing, to church attendance, without the need of love burning, moving in their hearts toward others, not just in our social circle.

  Peter expresses the same concept saying: “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth,” now show it by having “sincere love for each other.” Which over time means to “love one another deeply, from the heart” (1 Pet 1:22). This is natural and spontaneous love. It does not come from our will to love, our choice to love—But God’s Spirit implanted within us makes us ready and willing to love others.

  When we are “Born of God” (1 John 4:7), love is implanted, love is transfused into us. It will spring up spontaneously. Recently we were talking to a woman, when a man walked in front of us, whom we did not recognize as homeless. The elderly woman we were talking to, broke off conversation with us to speak good and kind words. She offered him help and asked if he needed some food. This caring love sprung from her heart spontaneously.

  This is how God’s love lives in us. When we see a need, we respond without a moment’s hesitation, to meet their need, from the heart of love received from God, flowing from our hearts. As if it is naturally our love.  

  Love received, love lived, love given, love shown, love displayed, love that is kind, generous, faithful, honest, sincere, earnest, caring, upholding, supportive, careful with the feelings of others, unselfish and moves with pity often. God’s love is not controlled by the viewpoints of others in doctrines they hold or policies they follow. Like God who is “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (Ex 34:6,7). Notice that God can maintain loyal love to the undeserving. God’s love is seen in His patience to the wicked, those we have a tendency to hate.  He can love when there is no love to return, no response to His love. Such we were before we were “born of the Spirit” (John 6:8). He is faithful to his covenant to have mercy, and his mercy is generated from his love. “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4). God’s mercy springs out of Him, it is His response to loving you.

  If you sense your need for more love, this is good. Thank God for it. This is evidence that God’s Spirit of love is at work in your life. Acknowledge your need, your failures, your difficulty in being kind to others that are dishonest and abusive of you. Ask our “glorious Father” that he “may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation” (Eph 1:17) to know how to react without anger or hate.

Though the mountains be shaken

and the hills be removed,

yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken

nor my covenant of peace be removed,

says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

Isa 54:10

For I am convinced that neither death nor life,

neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,

neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from

the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Rom 8:38-39

Love One Another

       People do not have to change for us to love them. Sadly, there are many unloving people we meet in life, some believers and others are in our workplace. They lie, they shift blame on others, they are not honest, they have favorites, they love positions of honor, and if it is to their favor they will easily betray a friend. How do we love those that bring darkness, negativity or treat us with no respect? Who lies to our faces and yet claims to be telling the truth. Who holds on to their power and position until they are ready to die? They make exceptions to the rules for themselves. In short, how do we love those with some unloving traits of character?

The Answer

  People don’t have to change for us to love them. People don’t have to be perfect, be loving in return, for us to love them. If God lives in us, we have love to loan.

  First, when we meet hard to love people. We leave them in the hands of God to change them. Remember love’s twin, is kindness. God will provide ways for you to be kind, with honesty, yet not justifying their deceptive behavior.

  Second, we should follow the example of Job. He had sustained overwhelming loss of family and all his friends. He had undergone physical and mental suffering. He had felt abandoned and ignored by God. This would be a perfect example for  Job to hate his friends who falsely accused him of sin that made him deserve all his troubles. His friends offered no compassion or love for him, in the least. As a lesson for all of us today, Job refused to hate but prayed for them. This is just what Jesus also taught to “pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44). To pray for those who make your life difficult and troubled.

After Job had prayed for his friends,

the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.

 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him

 before came and ate with him in his house.

They comforted and consoled him

overall the trouble the Lord had brought on him,

and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

Job 42:10,11

Taught by God to Love Each Other

  Paul gave an unusual commendation to the Thessalonian fellowship of believers. “Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more” (1 Thess 4:9,10).

  The point is if God does not teach us to love, we cannot learn it anywhere else. What would our church fellowship look like if God came and taught us how to love one another? Since John as previously said the “hate” brings “darkness” (1 John 2:7-11), the congregation would be a place of light that could be seen, touching our emotions from contact with such a warm-hearted caring and open fellowship to one another and to visitors. This is only possible if God’s love lives in us.

  What does a love focused church fellowship look like? You tell us? We will add your description of what a church fellowship should look like here.

  When God teaches us about love, it something that is not learned from a book, sermon or seminar. It can only be said we know it from the inside of our spirits, from a hidden location from within ourselves. We will know that we need to pray for love every day. As we sing “songs from the Spirit” (Eph 5:19), we rejoice when we find love moving around inside us, creating expressions of praise, thankfulness and love to God, that burst out often with tears and praise.

  Paul urges the Thessalonian’s to “make your love increase and overflow for each other” (1 Thess 3:12). Paul talks about love 14 times in 1 & 2 Thessalonians. In Ephesians and 1 Corinthians Paul teaches us to love a total of 34 times in each. However, John also teaches more about love in his three much smaller letters 34 times.

This is How We Know that we Live In Him [in His love] and He in us:

He Has Given Us His Spirit.

1 John 4:13; 3:24

  Think and talk about the many functions of the Spirit? They can’t be counted. To John the only possibility of us living in God and His love living in us—Is by God’s supreme gift of the Spirit. When it comes down to the bottom line of all things: Our ability to love someone, to love others, is dependent on God’s Spirit. Trust God right now, to impart His Spirit to you, so that you have the love you need to give to others.  Love with kindness to some unloving individual in your life. You will find freedom from the depression and worry and hostility that has plagued you.

  Look to God to personally guide you, your steps, your thoughts, your responses, by His Spirit. The results will be a whole healed heart, with joyous freedom that you have never felt before. Because “love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18), anxiety, suicidal thoughts that leads to addictions to drugs, food, movie or sports addictions, sex and a hundred other habits that rob you of “love, joy and peace” (Gal 5:22). God has an “abundant provision of grace” (Rom 5:17), just for you.

We become God’s temple where God dwells by His Spirit (1 Cor 3:16)

We learn to pray in the Holy Spirit (Eph 6:18)

We are taught to walk in the Spirit (Gal 5:16)

The Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me” (John 16:26).

We are privileged to be guided by the Spirit (John 16:13)

We are personally taught by the Spirit (John 14:26)

The Spirit is to “abide or live” with us and to be “in” us (John 14:17)

We are to be strengthen in our inner being by the Spirit (Eph 3:17)

We are to keep in step with the Spirit (Gal 5:25)

We must not quench the Spirit’s fire (1 Thess 5:19)

True worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth (John 4:23)

We are to live by the Spirit (Gal 5:25)

When Spirit filled, we learn to “love in the Spirit” or love from the Spirit (Col 1:8)

We are to serve God in the Spirit (Phil 3:3)

We are sanctified by the work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ (1 Pet 1:2)

Praise be to the God and Father, in his great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ into an inheritance that can never perish (1 Pet 1:3)

We are to live according to God in the Spirit (1 Pet 4:6)

We are to be made alive in the Spirit (1 Pet 3:18).

We are to be circumcised of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code (Rom 2:29)

We are to have fellowship in the Spirit (Phil 2:1)

We are to be sealed with the Spirit, a sign of God’s ownership of us (2 Cor 1:21-22)

We are to receive the anointing of the Spirit (1 John 2:20,27)

We are to be born, given a new birth, by the power of the Spirit (Gal 4:29)

We are to be a dwelling where God lives by his Spirit…a holy temple to the Lord (Eph 2:21,22)

We are given access to the Father through the Spirit (Eph 2:18)

We are to praise God in the Spirit (1 Cor 14:16)

We are to serve God by his Spirit (Phil 3:3)

We are to sing songs from the Spirit singing to God (Col 3:16)

The Spirit God gives us is power, love and self-discipline. (2 Tim 1:7)

We are to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, with all the wisdom & understanding that the Spirit gives (Col 1:9)

“No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in him [in His love]: He has given us His Spirit. (1 John 4:12,13)

An Important Function of the Spirit—Subdue Our Sinful Flesh

       When God’s Spirit lives in us and we are “born of the Spirit” (John 3:8), it does not mean that our sinful nature is erased, and we have holy flesh. That we are no longer tempted to do wrong, not from the Devil’s world, but from within ourselves. James says, “each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed” (James 1:14). Those who are addicted to Alcohol or drugs, know, firsthand, what this feels like.

       If our sinful nature were removed there would be no need to resist temptation by waring the armor of God as Paul teaches us. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” (Eph 6:10,11). There is an old adage that is so very true. “Our sinful flesh remains after conversion, but it no longer reigns.”

       Paul describes one of the most important functions of the Spirit. “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want” (Gal 5:17). If it were not for the Spirit actively fighting the call of our flesh for self-indulgence—we would be overcome. If we had sinless flesh, there would be no need for the Spirit to fight against our flesh.

       We are called to live a holy life and to “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry” (Col 2:5). Paul appeals to us saying, “brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live” (Rom 8:12,13).

Love Made Complete or Perfected in Us

       This is a call to focus on love, more than doctrines that often define a congregation, more than church pioneers, more than political issues of the day, more than anything. Study the Psalms about the “loving kindness” and “tender mercies” (Ps 25:6 NKJV) of God. Spend much time in the “Word of life” (1 John 1:1), with prayer.  As John wrote to the youth of his fellowship, “you are strong” because “the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (1 John 2:14).

       This is a call to focus on love. What kind of love? Spirit filled love that comes from the presence of God living in our body temple, “springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14 NKJV). Ask God to teach you how to act in love and think in terms of love. Before you act in a situation when you are with others that have no love, pray for wisdom. It “will be given to you” (Matt 7:7).

       Why does love take center stage in the mind of John? Because love of “darkness” and “hate” cannot exist together with love (1 John 2:7-11). Because love and sin are opposites. All sin is nailed in selfishness, with a total absence of love. Love for God and one another is the Golden Rule in action (Matt 7:12). It is the law the governs the universe, where there is no need to emphasize the Ten Commandments. “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom 13:10).

Let no debt remain outstanding, [love is a kind of debt we owe to others]

except the continuing debt [obligation] to love one another,

for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. [Its commands]

The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” [7th Commandment]

“You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” [6th & 8th Commandments]

“You shall not covet,” [10th Commandment]

and whatever other command [1st to 5th & 9th Commandments]

there may be, are summed up in this one command[ment]:

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

 Love does no harm [wrong] to a neighbor.

Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law [Law’s requirements are satisfied].

Rom 13:8-10

These three remain: faith, hope and love.

But the greatest of these is love
1 Cor 13:13

“May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God” 

2 Thess 3:5

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, 

and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. ‘

2 Cor 13:14

But God, being rich in mercy,

because of His great love with which He loved us,

even when we were dead in our transgressions,

made us alive together with Christ

 by grace you have been saved

Eph 2:4,5 NAS

1 John 4:14 And we [John] have seen [with our eyes] and testify [give evidence] that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

4:15 If anyone acknowledges [confesses] that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them / and they in God.

4:16 And so we know [for sure] and rely on the love God has for us [cherishes]. /   God is love. Whoever lives in love  / lives in God, / and God in them [God’s love is alive, living in us]. NIV

4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.  4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, / and he in God.  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. NKJV

4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 14:15 If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God resides in him / and he in God. 4:16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has in us. God is love, and the one who resides in love / resides in God, / and God resides in him. NET Bible

• Since God has commanded us to believe in His Son and love to one another (3:23)

• Since “love comes from God” (4:7) because we are “Born of God” into love (4:7)

• Since “God has displayed His love” through His Son (4:9)

• Since God’s purpose for us is to “live through Him” in love. (4:9)

• Since God, in love, has send His Son to provide atonement for all our sins (4:10)

• Since God has already shown his great love for us (4:11):

• Since God lives in us, so that His love is complete in us (4:12)

• Since no one can see God, yet He displays Himself by our love for others (4:12)

• Since we are able to live in God, by means of His Spirit (4:14)

Therefore: By our love we testify that God has send His Son to be the Savior of the world (4:14)

       Since God is love we can rely on God’s love for us, living by His love in us (4:16)

Anyone Who Personally Acknowledges Jesus as God’s Son

       In the historical period that John lived, the world was totally pagan. Rome believed that their war time victories was due to their many gods. To not worship their gods was unpatriotic and also, they were considered an atheist. Rome was not in favor of the Christian God, who rejected all other Gods. Thus when a pagan Roman citizen confessed and acknowledged Jesus, it brought them under suspicion. It was a serious step to choose to deny all pagan gods and choose Jesus Christ.

Today, there is no stigma in becoming a Christian in most Western Countries. Except in countries like North Korea, Kurdistan and most Muslem countries.

       John is addressing believers that acknowledged Jesus at personal cost and associated with social stigma. and political disadvantages. It was not unto Emperor Constantine (306-337) that Christians were freed from suspicions, persecutions, often with imprisonment and death, by previous Roman authorities.

Apostolic Personal Testimony

“We have seen and testify” (4:14)

  We have heard with our ears

  We have seen with our eyes

  We have looked at, observed carefully

       We have touched, with our hands

       We now proclaim to you that we have personally known as “The Word of Life” (1:1)

The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it

The life we proclaim to you is the eternal life which was with the Father

This life appeared to us (1:2)

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard (1:3)

We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world (4:14)

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14)

John the Baptist said: “I have seen, and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One” (John 1:34)

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news of the resurrection of Jesus said, “I have seen the Lord!” (John 20:18)

Jesus showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord” (John 20:20).

One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it [John] has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe (John 19:34-35).

“We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain” (1 Pet 1:18)

“I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings” (1 Pet 5:1)

“He [Resurrected Christ] appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time” (1 Cor 15:6)

John is Going Out of his Way to Stress a Very Important Truth (See 1 John 1:1-3)

I have seen and I want to testify under oath that what I am saying is dependable. It is absolutely trustworthy. Because I have seen it repeatedly before my eyes. Not just by myself, but with many others. We all testify together, we all verify, with certainty, we all speak with confidence. What we all tell you, you can rely on. Trust us, this is the truth. We talked, ate with, walked daily with “the author of life” (Acts 3:15). We listened to him, prayed with him, we heard him teach, we listened to his every word, we saw Him heal every disease. We saw him raise the death and we heard the Father say He was His loved Son. He saw him die and saw him after he rose from death. He is the “Word of Life” (1 John 1:1). Without any reservation we declare to you He is the source of “Eternal Life” for the world (1 John 1:2).

1st Savior of the Whole World—All Who Are Born on Earth

  That God our Father Send His Son Jesus Christ is the Savior of the whole world, no exceptions. No place untouched, no part of the world exempted. God’s Son was to have a global exposure, a universal appeal, to every beating heart that is able to exercise faith. As the Savior of all who have lived in this world, now and always. Until “the last day” (John 6:3,9,40,54). He is there for you. He calls you saying, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28 NLT). Rest brings peace that supports love.

  Jesus as the Savior of the world, came to “destroy death” and provide to us “immortality.” This event was planned before time began. Paul writes to Timothy, “This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim 1:9,10).

  Someday, any day now everything is going to change. The saving purpose of Jesus will be complete and we “will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 1:11). Get ready, reach for it in your mind. Anticipate it, hope to see it as a reality before the event. So simple it is today to acknowledge and confess Jesus as your Lord, that no one need miss it: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Lk 7:50).

2nd What Does It Mean to Acknowledge Jesus as the Son of “the everlasting God” (Isa 40:28)?

       The Greek word for acknowledge is homologeó, means: To confess, to acknowledge, to agree.”

Our confession is our acknowledgment, that we want Jesus to be “our Lord and Savior” (2 Pet 3:18). This starts with faith, saving faith in Him.

       Our confession of faith is our belief that Jesus is the Son of the Creator God and has been revealed to us, in the Gospel accounts, so that we “may be saved” (Rom 10:1). We believe it, we respond to it, calling on God, in the name of Jesus. We confess or acknowledge our sins to Him, and we know that he “will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9), removing all our guilt, for every act, every transgression and every sin.

       God is good. When we confess our sins and acknowledge him as our Lord and Savior. Jesus takes a reciprocal action, he says, “I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge [them] before the angels of God” (Lk 12:8). Since the Angels don’t know everything that happens, they now know that you have put your faith in Jesus. We are assured by Jesus who said, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom” (Lk 12:32).

  If the Angels know, your confession is also known throughout all the cosmos. The believer is a celebrity in heaven.

3rd It’s Time to Rely on the Love of God for Us

       The Greek pisteuó means “To believe, to have faith, to trust or entrust.” The NKJV translates it as “we have known and believed the love God has for us” which is accurate, as nearly every other translation.  While the NIV says, “We know and rely on the love God has for us.”  It is our opinion that the NIV translates it better, representing the intent of the passage.

  How wonderful, in your daily life, during problems and challenges around us in a world frozen out from a knowledge of God—that in our weakness, in midst of our human reality of troubles close to home—We can rely on, trust in the love God has for us. What a shakable foundation God has promised us, a promise of such huge importance. A promise from the Eternal God that His love, will be there for you. Not just when you need it, but now, tonight, tomorrow and into a new world that is without end.

       We come to know, to perceive, to recognize, to be aware of God’s love, for us, for me, for you, on a personal level. We just know deep down inside us that this is true, true indeed. The truth.

       We come to know, to be aware of God’s love, so much so that, over time, we absolutely rely on it. To stand in trust, on the love of God, for us. No one could persuade you otherwise.  When things in life are unpleasant, when emotions and feelings are hurt, physical and emotional pain are evident—we look to the love of God for us and will always find it is true. It is still there, although circumstances seem otherwise. The love of God for us individually is like our feet that anchor us to the floor.

       See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts [relies on] in him will never be put to shame” (1 Pet 2:6). “God, who cannot lie” (Titus 1:2), promises this to us. We can depend on and rely upon God’s love for us so we can say, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you” (Ps 56:3). Trust, rely upon the truth that God loves me and thus will be here for me.

  God makes the first move, in response to your confession of faith. He sets up his home in us. Our faith results in two anchors, “we live in him and He in us” (1 John 4:13). God lives in them and they in God. When God is in us, He influences our thoughts and our eyes to see things never seen before. God places a desired to do good and to be good, whenever and wherever.  His love is like an invisible force, “so that you are not to do whatever you want” (Gal 5:17). Evil and wickedness are highlighted with warnings not to enter

“God is Love” (4:8,16), Always and Forever, Dependable and Certain

       God is not love in a static form. Not love just in his solo existence. Not love just for himself and His Son and His Angels. As if dirty sinners are a stain to His pure love.

  No, no. God is an active form of love. He is a dynamic form of love. He is an outreaching form of love. His love is always in the forward movement. His love is embracing, gathering others, especially troubled and guilty sinners, toward Himself. His love has a creative power to produce the same love to those He loves. His love always creates a response of love in return to God, and we copy God’s love in reaching out, to love others. With His love we learn to love others, from the love we have experienced and received from God.

God’s Love Settles Down Deep, For the Long Term

  God’s love is not a gift, like a set of clothes we wear for a while then discard. Instead, God’s love settles down inside us, “that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9), in love. His love becomes part of us. His love is made complete in us, meaning that God’s love makes us whole and complete. Instead of being troubled, broken, fractured and addicted.

The Substance of God is Love

  What is amazing is that the very essence of God, is love. God’s love is accompanied with light, for “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5)

God does not live for Himself; he does not hide Himself from us. His love is open and unhidden. His goodness, His kindness, His compassion, His sympathies, His honesty, His purity, His holiness—Is all packaged together with His love. 

  God shares Himself with us, “we live in him and he in us” (1 John 4:12), so we may share in His eternal life. When God is in us, we can’t die.

  The same can be said about Jesus the Son of God who boldly declared, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11:25,26).

  His love is a force that cannot be repressed, any more the sun rising and setting. It can at time boil over in us with tears, with praise that is shouts out loud to God, in our human love, which God accepts.  

God Loves, even our Broken Human Love

  God loves our human love, enough to choose to dwell, to live, in its midst. How can a “Spirit God” (John 4:24), really enjoy sharing His infinite love within our broken spirits.

  Well, God loves to do just that. If God could not love, He would be flawed and broken. It is by the presence of God’s love, through the Spirit of God, which assures us of eternal life. God’s love in us brings to, gives to us, without asking—eternal life. God’s love cannot be separated from life eternal. To know God is to love. For “this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:2).

  Those who have not received God, cannot love. They will remain broken down, weighed down with sins that give them darkness, hatred and in the end loss of life eternally.

God’s Way is Packaged In Goodness, Not a Bitter Pill 

  In an interesting way, God makes available eternal life, sonship with Him, being his child and “heir” (Rom 8:17), fun and easy. It comes gift wrapped with love, for you, with you so that you can rely on that love to be a part of your life.

What Evidence Can We Possess we Are Love By God?

  The evidence we have received God’s love; is that we can know it lives in us. It has become a part of our thinking, our playing, our marriages, our homes. We are never far away from God’s presence, in our thoughts. Because God’s love lives, it is alive in us. It is God in them, God’s love alive and living in us. Abiding with us, wherever we are present, we carry a knowledge that God loves me. We know its true, we know, yet we can’t fully explain it. We know it’s not false, we know it’s real, so real that at times, it can be overwhelming to tears and praise.

God’s Love is Not for Sale

       You can’t buy God’s kind of love, in the marketplace. It is not found in Transcendental Meditation. It is not located in Buddhism or Hinduism. It is not found in sexual gratification, the sex trade, a course not. It is not found in vast wealth and landed estates. It is not found in amusement parks or electronic computers and I-phones.

       Yet, it is easily available, around the world, in any location, in the air or under water, in space, or underground. “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says,  “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame” (Rom 10:9-11). This is where it has its beginning in your life. Why not start now and receive of God’s love. For God has reserved a part of Himself, to love you.

God’s Eternal Nature Generates a Strong and Wide Stream of Love

  Perhaps the very existence of God’s deity and eternal nature is dependent on love. God and love are united creating bonds of light that is constantly self-giving. Starting with the Son whom God has declared is “the One he loves” (Eph 1:6), His love is spread all over the world, “for God so loved the world” (John 3:16).

  As you confess faith in his Son, forgiveness is given to you in total, which is a part of God’s love. Forgiveness includes the dawning, the realization and the ability to proclaim His love, as His love is stationed in you, flows out of you, to love others. “For love comes from God…whoever does not love, does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:7,8).

God’s Love is Poured Into Our Hearts

  Paul gives us a graphic view of how generous God is with sharing his gift of love within our hearts, when he offers us His Spirit. “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). Another translation says, “For through the Holy Spirit who has given to us, the brimming river of the love of God has overflowed in our hearts.”

  The Spirit brings to us a self-giving love from God. It is the central part of God.  It is a sacrificial love on His part. It seeks the highest good of the ones He loves.

  It is “poured out,” in the Greek meaning to gush forth as a powerful influence. Paul’s imagery is that the love of God is as a flood, drenching our hearts, coursing through our hearts, overflowing in our hearts, like a river running, tipping over the sides of its banks. Overflowing into green pastures of hope. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive” (John 7:38,39).

How to Strengthen God’s Love in Your Life

  When the time comes and you really know for yourself the love of God. Don’t stop there. Go for long walks in prayer, alone with God. Take printed pages of Scriptures to read and pray for understanding. Be strong in the words of Jesus and his Apostles. Avoid making your devotional time just reading devotional story books. To neglect Scriptures is to have little love. To value the NT witness, is to love more, because the love of God flows from his Son to us, through His Spirit who “lives in us” (1 John 3:24). If you neglect Scriptures in favor of sermons, before you know it old habits will creep back into your life.

  The Spirit is the means of sending this copious abundant love of God. It is God’s self-communication, freely through the means of His Spirit, of His divine love, in order that we can know and be conscience of this high spiritual love.

  This love from God is not like a gift card that is on a printed page of a book, which affirms his love to us. It is individualized, living and breathing from God into the justified believer.

Let Your sweet aroma fill my life—Rose of Sharon show me
How to grow in beauty in God's sight—Fairest of Ten Thousand
Make me a reflection of Your light—Daystar shine down on me
Let Your love shine through me in the night

By: Jason Crabb

God’s Love Produces New Desires

  Love that we have received by the Spirit of God, will automatically create in us a desire to “do good” (Eph 2:10; Gal 6:10). There are some that we don’t trust to be very close to. So pray for them from a safe distance. Ask God to take resentment, bitterness and anger from your heart when you mistreated. God will do this. Then ask him to create right feeling inside you, when you have no idea what this would look like or feel like. God will do this.

  Ask God to give you real hope that you can see a change take place in the person you love. To see them also loving God. To see God revealing Himself to them, to see by faith them living in God and God living in God.

1 John 4:17 This is how [God’s] love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence [bold assurance] on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. NIV

4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. NKJV

  Since God has commanded us to believe in His Son and to love one another (3:23)

  Since “love comes from God” (4:7) because we are “Born of God” into love (4:7)

       Since “God has displayed His love” through His Son (4:9)

       Since God’s purpose for us is to “live through Him” in love. (4:9)

       Since God, in love, has send His Son to provide atonement for all our sins (4:10)

  Since God has already shown his great love for us (4:11):

  Since God lives in us, so that His love is [can be] complete in us (4:12)

  Since no one can see God, yet He displays Himself by our love for others (4:12)

  Since we are able to live in God, by means of His Spirit (4:14)

  Since by our love we testify that God has send His Son to be the Savior of the world (4:14)

       Since God is love we can rely on God’s love for us, living by His love in us (4:16)

Therefore: We do not fear we will be judged and found guilty on the day of Judgment, because God’s love is made perfect in us (4:17,18)

His Love is Completed or Perfected in Us 

  The Greek word for complete is teleioó which means: “To complete, to perfect, to accomplish, to bring to an end.” It carries the idea of spiritually growing to reach a goal. What is this goal? The Love of God is to be made complete in us, we are “live in Him and He in us” and to make this possible “He has given us of His Spirit” (1 John 4:13).

  The Love of God is the most potent, powerful influence we can possess in our life. Because God’s love dwells, abides, in us it has a holy influence that transforms us. Thus it can be said, “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Pet 1:16), since a holy God dwells in us, lives in us, abides in us, holiness is His influence on our lives. God’s love placed in us is what makes us complete, ready of the Day of the Lord. “God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God and God in them” (1 John 4:16), meaning God’s love is alive, living in us.

The Love of God Is Made Complete When it is Demonstrated Among Us

       Although our commitment to Jesus our Savior is an individual experience, it is not gained by a larger fellowship group. It must be very personal, in which we know for ourselves the love of God is in us. And we know it is true, not by someone telling us.

       Yet, John teaches us that the love of God is to be completed or perfected only by means of a group or fellowship individuals that are “Born of God” (1 John 4:7). The experience of the love of God is made complete, is to be completed by a group of believers. Sure, we know it must start individually, but it is truly only completed in a group that loves one another. The plural or group expressions of “we”, “them,” “us” are repeated 15 times and the individual is repeated 3 times.

       What is this telling us? God’s love completed in a fellowship, a group of believers, which are to love another—then the love of God is made complete, among us. Fellowship wide love, mirrors God’s love for the world more perfectly. The same as God’s love that is given and displayed all over the world, as God, through his Son, draws all of us, together, to Him—we will love one another.

1# “If we keep his [Jesus’] commands” and “obeys his word [Jesus’], love for God is truly made complete in them and this is how we know we are in him” 1 John 2:5

2# “To love one another as He [God] has commanded us. The one [the individual] who keeps God’s commands, lives in him [individual] and he in them. And this is how we know that he live in us: We known it by the Spirit that he gave us” (1 John 3:23, 24)

3# “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another [always]. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us, and his [God’s] love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:11,12)

4# “God is love. Whoever [the individual] lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how [God’s] love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment. (4:16,17)

       John wants us to know what will give us confidence, give us bold assurance that we will be welcomed by God into life everlasting. It is God’s love that lives in us “we live in him and he in us” (1 John 4:13), but more it is that among a fellowship of believers, God’s love is in and among them all.  

Love Is an On-Going Process

       Love is not a one step process. It is on-going every day of our lives. We will meet many different situations, that we know we should love someone, but we feel that they don’t deserve it. We feel that we should give them back some of the injustice and lies that they have given to us. The thought is satisfying. But, if we are “Born of God”, we can’t do it, when God is dwelling in us and we are dwelling in Him. It is just not possible unless we step out and away from the love of God that has filled our hearts. It would break and hurt our hearts if we did just that.

       The love of God motivates, cleanses us of thought patterns that are evil, because the love of God is the center of all things. The more we “love God” (1 John 4:20) and “love one another” (1 John 3:12,23; 4:7,11-12), the more in this world we are like Jesus.

Love Perfected or Made Complete Among Us

       The love of God is to be known among us. All throughout our fellowship, between each other, no exception, no one excluded, no one left on the outside. To hate another in their fellowship makes their entire Christian faith a lie. If love is not seen in and throughout the church members, they are not made complete, until they can love each other. “Whoever claims to love God, yet hates a brother or sister is a liar” (1 John 4:20). Which in turn places faith unto salvation on shaky ground.

       How is this possible? It seems impossible with so many different temperaments, political viewpoints, doctrinal variations and opinions that differ in sports, entertainment and lifestyles that are messy or clean.

       When one of us was a pastor. One of the ladies in the church was a “cleanee.” When she cleaned the church, she would unscrew the offering holders and hymnal racks to clean under them. When visiting her home she would boil her dishes and silverware. Then place the clean ones underneath the neatly stacked forks and spoons. The cereal boxes were all in perfect order, as was everything else in her home.

       One day I was visiting another lady in the church that was just opposite. Her home was a mess, everything out of order, with nowhere to sit. While visiting her, the lady that had an internal desire to keep everything in perfect order came by for visit. I was surprised that they were good friends. The lady the needed perfect order in her home was comfortable with her friend who was just the opposite. She sat down at the table with us, ignoring the disorder. If you asked me, I would not place them as good friends. Her love made her overlook the disorder of her friend.

       The answer: We are to be “Born of God”, born into the “love of God” (1 John 3:17; 4:8). Then we can love others “through Him” (1 John 4:9). That is to love others, seeing them as loved by God, thus we can overlook the conditions of someone’s life and hobbies that are opposite of ours. We love with the eyes of God, the same God that looks upon us, with all our faults with love.

John delivers to us a strong message, that we can’t ignore. We must, we ought to display love among all of us, in the fellowship. If we want to be confident in the day of the Lord, the coming day of judgment.

• Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister, is still in darkness (2:9)

• Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light (2:10)

• Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor anyone who does not love their brother or sister (3:10)

• For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another (3:11)

• If we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (4:12)

• We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other (3:14)

• Anyone that hates a brother or sister is a murderer (3:15)

• God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them (4:16)

• Love one another as he [God] commanded us. (3:23)

• Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. (4:7)

• Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (4:11)

• If we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. (4:12)

• Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar (4:20)

• Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (4:21)

• Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been fathered by God, and everyone who loves the father loves the child fathered by him. (5:1 NET)

  We show that God is in us when we love others. We can’t love selectively. If we feel no guilt over disregarding those among us that we just dislike, the chances are we are living in darkness, unready for the day of judgment. For “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment” (2 Pet 2:9).

Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble.

When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,

for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being snared.

Prov 3:13-16

  Just to be clear, the love John is talking about is like God and His Son demonstrated. Thus it is as far from a fake love that would take advantage, sexually, physically, mentally or financially of another. It is pure love, an honest and upright love, a love that is never embarrassed by any words or conduct.

  A love that would never ever break commitment to their spouse, choosing to marry another person in the fellowship. “For the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce” (Mal 2:16 NKJV). What believer in the world would want to openly do something that God hates?

  If anyone has “love of the flesh” toward other men or women in their fellowship. They should know that “the love of the Father is not in them” (1 John 2:15,16). They lose everything. The Love of God our Father dwelling in us, is the most important possession we can own. Lust for young women will give every young man, terrible fear in the coming judgment. Where they will be “cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 8:12), of deep regret.

The LORD preserves all who love Him,

but all the wicked He will destroy [those with no love].

Ps 145:20

Perfect Love Drives Out Fear

       Dictators of their countries such as in North Korea and Kyrgyzstan, rule by fear of punishment. If citizens disobey the rules or disrespect their leaders, they are punished. If any religious leader, institute or church operates out of fear, they do not know God at all. Religious cults are known for keeping their followers in line by fear. They don’t know God, even if they carry a Bible and preach from the Bible.

       If a church should choose a leader that uses fear as a motive, run far away from such organization. If any church leader always needs to have the final word and speaks against anyone that disagrees with them. Do not be afraid of their threats but run far away if possible. Don’t believe a word they say, they are in darkness.

Because he loves Me,

I will deliver him; because he knows My name, I will protect him.

When he calls out to Me, I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble.

I will deliver him and honor him.

Ps 91:14-15

The One Who Fears is not Made Perfect in Love

       To be made perfect in love, is to know that God loves me. To rely on it and trust in it, with no doubt, even if trouble overtakes us. We can pray:

  “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” (Ps 118:6). Yet, the Lord loves me, Jesus has made atonement for, all my sins are forgiven, leaving me with no guilt. I love the Lord, I love songs of praise. I know my heart is far from perfect, my words are not always as loving as I wish, my secret thoughts I am often ashamed of and repent as if I did them. My children are not perfect. I have made many mistakes in life, in love, in romance, in the workplace and in my home.

       Yet, I know that God is love, to me. He wishes me no harm but forgives me in his love, in behalf of His own nature that seeks to express love to the unworthy. I know I can trust His love, for in many ways I have seen its influence in my life. Thus I know for sure, without a doubt He loves me and now 'we can set our hearts to rest in his presence'” (1 John 3:19).

Truly my soul finds rest in God,

my salvation comes from him

Ps 62:1

For God has not given us a spirit of fear,

but of power, love, and self-control.

2 Tim 1:7

The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save.

He will rejoice over you with gladness;

He will quiet you with His love;

He will rejoice over you with singing.

Zeph 3:17

Imperfect Love in Authoritative Leaders

  Jesus taught the disciples, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them. It must not be this way among you! Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt 20:25-28).

       The “first among you must be your slave” or servant leader. This kind of leadership in the church is evidence of love made complete among us. When a leader is a servant leader, they are just as interested in what you think, in your opinion, as much as their own. Servant leaders wish to make the lives of others better. Rules are moral and reasonable. True leaders don’t use fear of their authority to control others. They don’t manage boards that exclude others, unless in matters of privacy for others. They are open to all investigation with loving honesty.

       Beware of religious leaders that flaunt their degrees, their books and often speak about themselves in favorable ways. Leaders which use their position, their education as a means to lord their authority over you. Leading you to feel that your opinions are not important to them, for they are closer to God then you are. This is not perfect love, for fear is its product.

       Lastly, beware of religious leaders that claim to have a special connection to God, above others, to persuade you to dress, to eat and live in the way they say God has told them. Beware of religious leaders, often founding members of the church, who claim to have special truth that is not found in the teaching of Jesus or His apostles.

  If leaders claim to have special relationship with God, which does not include much about the love of God and our need to love others—Beware for “many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).

To be Made Perfect in Love Is

  First to have no hate for anyone in your fellowship, but to love them in the sense you will endeavor to do them good. You will not wish to avoid them or not speak to them, if possible. You will not neglect the socially backward, the aged, the morally weak, the widow woman that has few friends—love will endeavor to include them in your circle of friends. “Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever” (Ps 37:27)

  Second, to “live in Him and He in us” because “He has given us the of His Spirit” (1 John 4:13; cf 3:24). “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you” (Rom 8:11).

  Third, to be perfect in love is to “know and rely on the love that God has for us” (1 John 4:16), for you. You can do this because you have experienced for yourself the love of God. When things that trouble you drop you into despair. Turn to lean on, to stand besides, to rely on, to trust with your life, to draw it into your conscious thoughts—The love of God for me personally. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1). Then with this love that God has given you—love others in their flaws, as God has loved you.

  Fourth, to serve one another in humility. “As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Col 3:12). Humility will let love for others dominate over oneself. In love that is based on your love for God, since God loved you, just as you are. So you can love others just as they are, even if they are deeply flawed and mistaken in many things. “May you be blessed by the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Ps 115:15)

1 John 4:19 We love [God] because He [God] first loved us [me]. NIV & NKJV

4:19 We love, because He loved us first. NET

4:19 Let us therefore love God, because God first hath loved us. Douay-Rheims 1899

4:19 So you see, our love for him comes as a result of his loving us fir st. Living Bible

4:19 We ourselves love now because he loved us first. Complete Jewish Bible

God’s Loves Is First: The First Cause, It Is Foremost, Is Primary, Is Essential, Is Life Giving, Is Necessary For Spiritual Growth In Faith and Peace

• God first forgave us, because He loves to forgive, it’s His nature

• God first sought us out, to draw our hearts from His own supply of love

• God first meets us with mercy and grace, to give us undeserved favors

• God gives us enough love, so we can give love away to other, just as He does.

• God’s love is to be received by us, must be shared to keep His love ever flowing.

• God’s love sought us out, not are free will.

• God frees our will, because he loved us before we even though about it

• God’s love generates love in us, making it possible and certain we can love others

• God’s love generates love, if His love does not lead to love of other, we don’t know God

• God’s love is dependable, when we trust in his love

• God sets the stage in his favor, so we can say yes to his calling of love.

• God loved us, before we had a chance to say no to His love

• God puts into our hearts a desire to love, with love that originated from God

• Love comes from God; love is sent from God. Thus we give birth to love.

• God is invisible to our eyes, God’s love makes him visible, when received by us

• The Love of God makes us complete; self-seeking and sin cannot flourish

• God’s love removes stains from long held habits

• We can rely on God’s love and let our problems rest right there.

• Because God’s love lives in us, we can love others, even those who appear unlovable.

• Without God loving us first: We could not love others, but in selfish ways.

• Without God loving us first: We would love only ourselves, our pleasure the more we can. Or until it kills us.

• Without Responding to God’s: We would take on some of these characteristics: We will become more: critical, racial, sarcastic, unkind, oppressive, short-sided, rude, neglectful, dishonest to vows, love money foremost, not generous with others, justify stealing, greedy for more and more, leadership with fear, not hospitable with strangers, but self-seeking in all things. We will love alcohol, drugs, exploring sexual encounters and all the misery that comes with it.

God demonstrates his own love for us in this:

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us

Rom 5:8

The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying:

 “I have loved you with an everlasting love;

 I have drawn you with unfailing kindness”

Jer 31:3

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

His love endures forever.

Ps 136:1

The Lord’s loving-kindnesses, indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning.

Great is Your faithfulness [forever].

Lam 3:22,23 NAS

1 John 4:20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 4:21 And he [Jesus] has given us this command[ment]: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. NIV

4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 4:21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

John Repeats This Theme: Again and Again and Again

       John repeats this theme so often; to love one another through living in the love of God. How can we miss it? If your fellowship does not dwell on this theme of love—it is because they don’t really know God. John has taught us clearly, to know God is to love God with all your heart, mind and life. When God’s love is alive in us, we will be loving to all, friends and strangers alike. All visitors will feel a non-judgmental warmth, coming from those who love God.

• Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light (2:20)

• Anyone who does not love their brother and sister… is not God’s child (3:10)

• For this is the message from the beginning: We should love one another. (3:11)

• We have passed from death to life because we love each other, or we stay in dead. (3:14)

• Jesus laid down his life for us, so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (3:16)

• This is God commandment: to love one another (3:23).

• Love one another, for love comes from God, they are born of God and know God (4:7)

• Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (4:8)

• Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (4:11)

• No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made complete in us. (4:12)

• God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them (4:16)

• We love because he first loved us (4:19)

• Everyone who loves the father loves his child as well (5:1)

Yet Hates a Brother or Sister

  The Greek word for hate is miseó: which is a very strong word meaning “To hate, detest and abhor and denounce them.” Although the word of hate has a strong definition, it is used also in terms of strong dislike, but not downright murderous hatred. Hate can mean “exclude you and insult you” (Lk 6:22).

       In English hate can be used to describe the weather, a vehicle one dislikes, a roadway or dog that will not obey its commands. Plus there are other ways, from the clothes we ware, the food we dislike eating, the house we live in, the job we work at or the broken city and state committees that create laws that everyone hates. We use this word of many things around us, such as long stop light that we hate the delay. Many of these expressions are harmless, as long as they are not directed to another person, for whom we hate or dislike.

When We Hate—Man, Women or Children in our Fellowship Circle

       Hate can take on the form of shunning someone because we prefer the company of the more educated and popular. We may feel a little sorry for their troubles, but that’s their problem, not ours. They made their problems themselves, so they need to suffer the full consequences.

 If they were in the hospital, we would not feel any obligation to visit them. It their car is broken down, and we meet them at church, we are too concerned about other things and have no time to care about them.

       If this is the case, our tithe paying, our church attendance, our belief in church doctrines, our Biblical knowledge is a lie.

Christians should “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” (Matt 26:41)

       Neighborly love: Would do them good, help and support them if you can. Never hurt them, tell private judgmental accounts about them, never betray their trust. Follow the Golden Rule as a consistent pattern.

1. Christians should keep a watch against envy and malice and every kind of bitterness of Spirit toward our neighbors. For these are reveal of the real essence of Christianity. We should suppress the very first beginning of ill-will and envy.

2. That which hinders love to men hinders the exercise of love to God. A cold- or hard-hearted Christian, it just cannot be. 

3. Christian struggle with resentment, the NT address it often to show its importance.  Once there is root of bitterness, we feed it and allow it to affect our whole spirit. And bring us to ruin. WE are all vulnerable to malice and bitterness and resentment. Beware of those things that quince the spirit and destroy the power of love within us.

Love one another.

·       The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. (2:10)

·       Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. (3:10)

·       For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. (3:11)

·       We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. (3:14)

·       We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (3:16)

·       But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? (3:17)

·       Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. (3:18)

·       This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. (3:23)

End of 1 John Chapter 4

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