I John 4

This passage starts out with a warning about listening to people who claim to be of Christ, but teach a different message from Him. God tells us through John to make sure we are testing the spirit of the person to make sure they really are of God and not trying to deceive us. Many people today claim to have a word from the Lord, but the word they are giving out is not from God because it does not measure up to God as He has revealed Himself to us in Scripture. The passage tells us one way we can know if the person speaking is really of God. "By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God."  Are there people who confess this truth and still teach wrongly and their word needs to be taken with great care? Yes. Many prosperity ministers will teach true elements of the gospel and yet the word they give relating to their area of sin is not in truth.

We are give a huge word of comfort in verse 4 when we see that He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. Those who are not followers of Christ have a tendency to ignore key teachings of the gospel. Not walking in truth leads to a great deal of despair and hopelessness. We who are in Him can know we belong to Him. The passage goes on to talk again about love. God is love. If we say we hate someone, don't like them, etc... and then say we love God, we are lying. God is love and we cannot love God and hate others. God's greatest act of love was to send Jesus Christ to be our Savior. God took on human flesh, became part of His own creation and was willing to not only do that but suffer and die  because he became sin for us. His self-sacrifice serves as our example of how to love others, whether they deserve it or not.

Verse 12 talks about how love each other and abiding in Him are uniquely tied together. We have someone special in our lives who allows us to do what is otherwise impossible. Loving others is hard, and it actually goes against our human nature, which is to be pretty self-absorbed. We have the Holy Spirit, and therefore all we need to genuinely put away our hatred and antipathy toward others and to love them through Christ. Many people in our lives are hard to please, hard to deal with and just not a joy to interact with. Loving them is the highest form of loving God in many instances because it takes a supernatural measure of grace to bring it about.

The last topic I pull out of this passage is how perfect love casts out fear. I struggle with fear a lot. I do not have perfect love for my Savior. I love Him, but not as He deserves. Each day as I remember these words in this passage and think about what His love for me caused, and gives me I learn a little bit more to be less fearful and to walk by faith instead. It is an uphill battle that is worth the burn in my spirit to bring about the endurance to run the race before me. Really this passage, at its heart, is all about loving God by loving others and how this shows the world our genuine faith. After all, like I have pointed out already, loving others, especially those who don't deserve it, is hard, and takes God in order to really do it.

Thought Questions

1. Which ministers or programs do you listen to on a regular basis? What are they teaching? Are they teaching true to scripture or are there parts of the teaching you are listening to that are really not according to God's word?
2. When the words, "God is love," come to mind, what does that mean to you? Is it what the world is teaching about love, or what the Bible teaches about love?
3. Who do you say Jesus Christ is?
4. Is there anyone in your life now, or from the past that you do not love, and in fact hate, or dislike that you need to ask God to give you a new attitude about? Will you take that step today and start working on resolving this in your heart?
5. What are you fearful of? What steps can you start to take today to trust God and let go of the fear?