JESUS-REVELATION OF GOD’S LIFE
John, the same fisherman who wrote the Gospel, wanted to tell about his experience of the word of life (v 1-4). This eternal life, that was with the Father, had now been revealed to them. Jesus was that life who had come from the Father and John wanted his readers to come into that joyful fellowship of life, fellowship with fellow Christians through fellowship with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ.
WHAT IS FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD LIKE?
So what is this fellowship? it is all to do with God the Father’s light for in the Father there is no darkness (v5). We have to walk in the same light to have fellowship with each other and all our sin is covered by the cleansing blood of Jesus his Son (v7). It is not so much that we have to be sinless because v8 says that we all fall into sin, sometimes, but rather that we should not keep on sinning. It is a lifestyle transparency where we recognise our sins, bring them into the light, confess them (v9) and then receiving the Lord’s forgiveness and cleansing. John was writing these things to encourage his children in the Lord not to sin (2v1). But if they do, it is essential to know that Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world (v2), with no exception.
HOW CAN WE BE SURE THAT WE TRULY KNOW HIM?
IF WE LOVE OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS
The proof that we know Him is if we obey His commandments (v3). If the love of God is in us we abide in Him and walk the same way that He did (v5, 6). If we love our brother and sister we live in the light (v10), if we hate another believer we must be walking in darkness (v11). The message is for young and old alike, one of forgiveness, knowing God and victory over the evil one (v12-14).
IF WE DO NOT LOVE THE WORLD
Another barometer of whether we have the love of the Father in us is whether we love the world or the things in the world (v15). John specifies that love of the world comes down to three basic desires (v16):
The desire of the flesh
The desire of the eyes and
The pride of life
These three desires can be seen in both the temptation of Eve (Genesis 3v6) and the temptation of Jesus by the devil. These desires take our heart away from the Lord.
In Genesis, “the woman saw that the tree was good for food” and Satan tempted Jesus to make the stones become bread. So the desire of the flesh is all about bodily appetites and passions. It could be excessive love of food or drinking, drugs-legal or illegal and sexual immorality.
Eve saw that the fruit “was a delight to the eyes” while Satan showed Jesus the kingdoms of the world. The desire of the eyes is about seeing the attractiveness of people or things, tempting you to covet them and wanting to possess them.
Eve was impressed by the fruit that would make her wise but Jesus was tempted to go for popularity with a stunt to throw himself off the temple. The pride of life is self importance, self righteousness, a seeking of popularity, positions, power, beauty, strength, wisdom. It leads to arrogance, ostentatiousness and boasting.
The world and its desires, although seemingly attractive, will fade away but we will live forever if we do God’s will (v17).
IF ANTICHRISTS TRY TO DECEIVE US
The people had heard that the antichrist was coming in the last days of this earth but John says that antichrists were already with them and these were people who denied Jesus to be the Christ (v22) and therefore have no relationship with the Father. They should be careful because those antichrists could easily deceive them. They should abide in Christ and trust their true anointing from the holy one (v20), this anointing of the Holy Spirit teaches us the truth about all things (v27).
We have been born of Him (2v29) for His love (3v2) has made us children of God. When Jesus comes again we don’t know what we will be except that we will be like Him. This confirms the teaching of 1 Corinthians 15 (v35 onwards) that our physical body will be replaced by a more glorious spiritual body when (v52) “we will all be changed, in moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.”
IF WE DO NOT SIN BUT DO GOOD
John makes the powerful statement that everyone in the world is, initially, a child of the devil (v8) because we followed his sinning habits but the Son of God came to destroy his work in our lives. It is possible for His children not to sin because God’s seed of new life abides in them (3v9). There is an expectation that the Christian’s life will be absolutely transformed; doing right, loving our brothers and sisters (v10), even to the extent of laying down our lives for one another(v16). In practical ways, helping those in need (v17). There is that wonderful encouragement in v18 “little children, let us love, not in word and speech, but in truth and action”.
IF OUR HEARTS DO NOT CONDEMN US
Our relationship with God is right if our hearts do not condemn us (v19-21). If we obey the Lord and do what pleases Him we have a special boldness before God and we receive from Him whatever we ask (v22).
IF WE HAVE THE SPIRIT
Our special relationship is one of love for Jesus Christ and each other, us abiding in Jesus Christ and He abiding in us (v24). How do we know he abides in us? by the Holy Spirit he has given us (v24).
There are other spirits which are not from God (4v1) and there have been many false prophets. The true spirit will confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and is from God (v2). Those who cannot do this have the antichrist spirit that he talked of before (v3) and the world listens to them (v5). The one in us is so much greater than the one who is in the world (v4).
Just in case we are not fully with John in what he is saying he repeats it all in a magnificent, encouraging and sometimes poetic way through the whole of chapter 4.
He starts to repeat his encouragements to love one another (v7) for we are born of God and live through Jesus (v9) who loved us so much (v10,11). We know we abide in Him because he has given us his Spirit (v13). We abide in love and abide in God and He abides in us (v15). Lovers of God must love their brothers and sisters (v21). John adds, in verse 18, those marvellous and powerful words “There is no fear in love, but perfect love cast out fear”. It is not “burdensome” to obey his commandments (5v3) and our faith is the victory that conquers the world (5v4,5).
In verses 6-8 we see that Jesus came by water and the blood and the Spirit agrees with the water and the blood. The water speaks of rebirth (Titus 3v5) so you could say that the water of baptism speaks of this rebirth which involves both death and resurrection. The Holy Spirit brings renewal (Titus 3v5) and the blood of Jesus speaks of His humanity and forgiveness of sin. They all agree because we can see that they all make up the fullness of life we have in Christ. It is simply put in verse 12 “Whoever has the Son has life, whoever does not have the Son does not have life.”
THAT YOU MIGHT KNOW THAT YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE
Then we see from verse 13 the reason why John is writing this letter, that we may believe and know that we have eternal life. Remember in his gospel how John explained why he was writing that book (20v31); again, that they should believe and have life. This letter was written to help us “know” that we have life. So lets look back at this letter to remind ourselves how we know we have life:
Sin is dealt with in our life
We are filled with love for God and each other
There is not that great desire for the things of the world.
We obey the Lord, do good and seek what pleases him
There is a closeness in abiding with him
Our hearts do not condemn us and God answers our prayers.
We have received the Holy Spirit.
IF WE ASK
Verses 14 and 15 say, “this is the boldness we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of Him”. Remember from chapter three this is dependent on our hearts not condemning us as we obey His commandments and do what pleases Him.
Sadly, people do fall into sin and then we should pray to God that they receive life (v16) and it is wonderful the protection we have from the evil one (v18) for he cannot touch us.