In these short letters, John emphasizes God’s love for us as revealed by the life of Jesus Christ. It is because he came in the flesh that he could also pay the price for our sin and open the way for us to be reconciled to God. By faith in Jesus Christ, we have eternal life, we have access to God, we in Christ overcome the world. Or we might say, nothing can prevent us from stepping in to God’s Kingdom, nothing can separate us from God if we choose to believe that “he (God) first loved us”.
We Know What Love Is Because
1 John 4:7–21
John says that we know what love is because in 1 John 4:19 “he first loved us”. If God had not loved us, we would be as animals in the world, devouring and being devoured, and in 1 John 4:18 afraid, with only the punishment of death waiting. But God loved us and in
1 John 4:10 In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
John says, “In this is love … propitiation for our sin” but we don’t know that word. Propitiation means “expiation” or “atoning sacrifice” but these terms are still too distant in their use to have real meaning for us. We might say propitiation is the “means of forgiveness … the remedy for defilement … expiation focuses on the means for the forgiveness of the sin, propitiation would focus on God’s view of satisfaction or favorable disposing”.1 Maybe the better approach in understanding God’s love is to read what Paul says in
Romans 3:23–26 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God made publicly available as the mercy seat through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness, because of the passing over of previously committed sins, 26 in the forbearance of God, for the demonstration of his righteousness in the present time, so that he should be just and the one who justifies the person by faith in Jesus.
This isn’t something that we did or have had any part in other than our simple acceptance of what Jesus Christ did by giving his life. “GNB (‘God offered him, so that by his death he should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in him’)”2
But God did not just forgive our sin, just as he raised Jesus Christ from the dead, he has also given us this same life in
1 John 4:9 By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God sent his one and only Son into the world in order that we may live through him.
The One Who Has the Son Has the Life
1 John 5:1–12
John says in 1 John 5:1 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been fathered by God” and then in 1 John 5:4 he says “everyone who is fathered by God conquers the world”. Now, we might think this means at some future time we will conquer the world, but he goes on to say, “this is the victory which has conquered the world: our faith”.
There isn’t anything in heaven or hell or on the earth that can prevent us from accepting Jesus Christ if we choose to. People often quote
Romans 8:38–39 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
and there is a powerful truth here, but “our faith, “the one who believes” “conquers the world” in
1 John 5:5 Now who is the one who conquers the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Eternal life is ours now, in 1 John 5:11.
This is the Confidence That We Have Before Him
1 John 5:13–21
Many people feel that God is far off, that He spun up the world and walked away. But God has revealed himself through Jesus Christ so that:
- “you may know that you have eternal life” in 1 John 5:13
- we can have “confidence … before him” in 1 John 5:14
- “if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” in 1 John 5:14
- “whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests” in 1 John 5:15
The problem that many people have is that in 1 John 5:19 “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” and it is only those that believe, that have faith in God through Jesus Christ, that have access to Him. And to these that believe, he says in
Hebrews 4:16 Therefore let us approach with confidence to the throne of grace, in order that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
I Found Some … Walking in the Truth
Confess Jesus Christ Coming in the Flesh
2 John 5–11
This is a very short letter from John that gets straight to the point in
2 John 7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess Jesus Christ coming in the flesh. This person is the deceiver and the antichrist!
Apparently some who seemed to have begun in the faith have gone off into other doctrine so John cautions strongly in
2 John 9 Everyone who goes too far and does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who remains in the teaching—this person has both the Father and the Son.
John takes a hard line saying “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching (that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh)” in 2 John 10, “do not receive him into your house and do not speak a greeting to him” because they are deceived and will deceive others so by “speaking a greeting” you are helping them gain acceptance and, even if it is unintentional out of you gentle and good heart, you “share in his evil deeds”. Jesus said it this way in
Matthew 10:16 “Behold, I am sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
Speak Face to Face
2 John 12–13
In our age of technology we sometimes forget the importance of speaking “face to face”. Whether you accept the 55% of communication is body language theory or not, there are some things that are better said in person. When we look at the life of Jesus, we find that he connected personally and often individually with people and he is a good role model for us.
Study Verses
- 1 John 4:7–21 We Know What Love Is Because
- 1 John 5:1–12 The One Who Has the Son Has the Life
- 2 John 5–11 Confess Jesus Christ Coming in the Flesh
Today’s Reading
- 1 John 4:7-21
- 1 John 5:1-21
- 2 John 1-13
References
- 1. Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) (electronic ed.). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
- 2. Bruce, F. F. (1985). Romans: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 6, pp. 110–111). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.