Living in the Light of God's Love
1 John Lesson Three-1 John 2:12-27You Are Maturing in the Light of God’s Love
1. You are concerned about maturing
2. You are concerned about the world’s influence
3. You are battling against the antichrists
Introduction
Describe the first car you bought. What were some of the first responsibilities you learned in caring for it?
A car needs maintenance to keep it running properly. As we remain in the light of God's love, spiritual maintainance takes place, and we mature in our faith.
Studying God's Word
You are concerned about maturing
Read 1 John 2:12-14
12 I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven because of his name. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the Evil One. 14 I have written to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God remains in you, and you have overcome the Evil One.
1. John did not want his readers to remain “immature.” What does he say is the source of growth in Christian living? (2:12)
2. A Christian woman once asked why the Bible says we are forgiven “by the name of Jesus” and saved “by the name of Jesus.” What answer would you give her? (Acts 4:12)
3. What help do fathers find in a Savior who “is from the beginning”? (2:13)
4. What encouraging words does John speak to young people? (2:13,14)
Passage List
Acts 4:12
“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”
His Word in My Life
At the right moment, in his own time, the Lord brought you to saving faith in Christ, your Savior. He has also planned your life so that you would mature and be strengthened in your faith. However, when Christians stop hearing the Word and stop receiving Holy Communion, they are thwarting the Father's plans. What will happen to the message of forgiveness in your heart if you do not maintain a close association with it? What will happen to your faith's growth and maturity?
You are concerned about the world's influence
Read 1 John 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world the lust of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, boasting about material possessions—is not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.
1. A person says, “I love the world.” She can mean one of two things. What does she mean if she is thinking of John 3:16? What does she mean if she is thinking about 1 John 2:15?
2. The same Spirit who witnessed the events in Genesis 3:1-6 inspired these words. Describe Eve's sin using phrases from 1 John 2:16. How could she have used this verse?
3. What sobering thought is brought out in verse 17?
Passage List
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Genesis 3:1–6
Now the serpent was more clever than any wild animal which the Lord God had made He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, 3 but not from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it. You shall not touch it, or else you will die.’ ”
4 The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die. 5 In fact, God knows that the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was appealing to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate. She gave some also to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
His Word in My Life
A Christian says, "I wish sometimes I didn't have so much material wealth. Then I'd really know that I'm not dependent on it, but on Christ." (Be careful what you pray for!) How do you measure your attachment to the things of the world?
You are battling against the antichrists
Read John 2:18-27
18 Dear children, it is the last hour. The Antichrist is coming, just as you have heard, and even now many antichrists have come. (This is how you know that it is the last hour.) 19 They went out from us, but they really were not part of us. If they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us. Instead they all showed that they were not part of us. 20 You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 21 I did not write to you because you do not know the truth but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is a liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is an antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father. But the one who confesses the Son has the Father as well. 24 Let what you have heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and the Father. 25 And this is what he promised you: eternal life.
1. John says, "This is the last hour." (2:18) What signs indicate that we are living in the last days? (See also Matthew 24:4,5.)
2. John distinguishes between the Antichrist and antichrists. (2:18) What is the difference? (Turn to 2 Thessalonians 2 for help.)
3. John says that "they went out from us, but they did not really belong to us." (2:19) What will happen within the visible church in the last days? (See Matthew 13:24-30.)
4. To battle against the antichrists, we need the Holy Spirit. What blessings does the Holy Spirit provide for us? (2:20,21; see also John 14:26.)
5. There was a religious group in John's day called the Gnostics They claimed to be Christians but taught that Jesus was not fully God from all eternity. According to them, he first became the Son of God at his baptism. What did Jesus say about himself in John 5:23?
6. What important message does every Christian hear in the earliest stages of instruction? (2:24,25) Why must the Christian cling to this important message in order to remain faithful?
7. The Holy Spirit is our best teacher. (2:26,27) What did Jesus say about the Holy Spirit in John 14:16,17; John 15:26; and John 16:13,14.
Passage List
Matthew 24:4–5
Jesus answered them, “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 Because many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will deceive many people.”
2 Thessalonians 2:1–12
Now, about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together with him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken from your composure or disturbed by a spirit, a message, or a letter thought to be from us, which says that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way, because that day will not come until the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed the son of destruction. 4 He opposes and exalts himself above everyone who is called God or every object of worship, so that he sits in the temple of God, displaying himself as God.
5 Do you not remember that, while I was still with you, I kept telling you these things? 6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 In fact, the mystery of this lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who is now holding him back moves out of the way. 8 Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy when he appears in splendor at his coming.
9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan, with every kind of miracle, that is, with false signs and wonders, 10 and with every kind of unrighteousness that deceives those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 And because of this, God continues to send them a strong delusion, so that they believe the lie, 12 in order that all those may be condemned who refused to believe the truth but instead delighted in unrighteousness.
Passage List Continued
Matthew 13:24–30
He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 When the plants sprouted and produced heads of grain, the weeds also appeared. 27 The servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where did the weeds come from?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy did this.’ The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather up the weeds?’ 29 ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because when you gather up the weeds, you might pull up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the weeds, bind them in bundles, and burn them. Then, gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
John 14:26
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I told you.”
John 5:23
“so that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.”
John 14:16–17
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him. You know him because he stays with you and will be in you.”
John 15:26
“When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father he will testify about me.”
John 16:13–14
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears he will speak. He will also declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”
His Word in My Life
A supervisor once gave his staff the following definition of a problem: “A problem is a deviation from standard.” Our Lutheran Confessions describe “justification by faith” as our standard, the doctrine by which the church rises and falls. Anything that deviates from that norm is a problem. Antichrists will attack the teachings that Jesus is God from all eternity and that we are saved by faith alone in the merits of Christ. Why it is important to show modern Gnostics, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, where they have deviated from the standard? How can we equip ourselves to do this?
Summary
Join together in your group to say or sing the following hymn verse: Help us to serve you evermore with hearts both pure and lowly; and may your Word, that light divine, shine on in splendor holy that we repentance show, in faith ever grow; the pow'r of sin destroy and evils that annoy. O make us faithful Christians. (CW 861:3)
In this chapter you have seen the importance of maturing in your faith. Such maturity involves regular maintenance of faith through Word and sacrament. What challenges does this section place before you? What divine resources has this section reminded you of? Share them with the class or think about them during the week.
Life with God
Throughout the week:
Read Ephesians 4 several times in your personal devotions. Read 1 John 2:28–3:10 in preparation for the next lesson.