Living in the Light of God's Love - A Study of 1 John. Lesson Five - Walking in Love 1. John helps us to understand one primary goal of our life with God: to love others that God has put in our path. This goal is not easily accomplished in us, but God has worked powerfully to bring it about. 1 John 3:11-18 This is the message you have heard from the beginning: Love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the Evil One and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own works were evil, while those of his brother were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have crossed over from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. 16 This is how we have come to know love: Jesus laid down his life for us. And we also should lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 Whoever has worldly wealth and sees his brother in need but closes his heart against him—how can God’s love remain in him? 18 Dear children, let us love not only with word or with our tongue, but also in action and truth. 2. God has always wanted people to love each other. But from very early on in human history, people have not loved each other. Recall the Cain story: how did he get so far from God’s desire that he love his brother Abel? 3. Why should it not be surprising if the world hates you? 4. John compares loving others to crossing over from death to life. How hard is it to cross over from death to life? (How hard is it to love other people?) 5. So, how can you or I or anyone actually love other people? 1 John 3:19-24 19 This is how we know that we are of the truth and how we will set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God. 22 We also receive
from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. 23 This then is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and that we love one another just as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps his commands remains in God and God in him. This is how we know that he remains in us: We know it from the Spirit, whom he has given to us. 6. Let’s pretend you’re interacting with someone who has a condemning heart. What do they look like? Sound like? Act like? 7. A heart at rest before God. What a promise! How do we actually get that, according to John? 8. Now let’s go back and imagine the same person who has been given a heart at rest before God. What do they look like? Sound like? Act like? 9. When you believe in Jesus, you receive what you ask for. Does this mean that a person who believes in Jesus can ask for any amount of money and they’ll receive it? If not, what does it mean? 1 John 4:1-6 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world. 4 You are from God, dear children, and you have overcome the false prophets, because the one in you is greater than the one in the world. 5 They are from the world. That is why they speak from a worldly perspective and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we can distinguish between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 10. Spiritual naivety can get a person into danger. How do we test the spirits to see if they are from God? 11. Why is it so important to maintain that Jesus has come in the flesh?
12. The one in you is greater than the one in the world. Who is “the one in you”? Who is “the one in the world”? 13. So which comes first: being from God, or listening to the truth? 14. Is this an arrogant thing for John to say: “If someone listens to us, they know God; but if someone does not listen to us they are not from God.” Why or why not?