I Jn 3:11-4:21

11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should 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 actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.

q  from the beginning! The message has never been different! Love one another.

14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

q  Anyone who does not love remains in death!

o   This is not a choice of comfort, but of life or death! 1Jn 4:7-8

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For 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 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his (love)-commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his (love)-commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

CHAPTER 4

1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. 4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

q  You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them

o   because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world!?

§  Who? The Holy Spirit? Yes and No. He is there pouring the Love of God out, Ro.5:5, 1Jn 4:12,15,16(God in us!)*

5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

q  Not that we loved God, but that he loved us.

o   Not that you love me, but that I love you! Before you say yeah that is the way that it is supposed to be, you loving me. YOU SAY IT NOW! 1Jn 4:19

o   1Jn.3:16 and Jn.3:16 are very similar.

§  To believe in Christ is to lay your life down for others!

11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.

q  In this way Love is made complete in us:

o   How? Loving one another!

o   So we will have confidence on the day of Judgemnet.

§  Because in this world we are like him!

q  We can see two different Bible verses that we jhave quoted as statements of Faith and as a confession. But I don’t think that we have understood the condition of these two. BECAUSE WE LOVE ONE ANOTHER---“GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN US” AND “IN THIS WORLD WE ARE LIKE HIM”:

18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19 We love because he first (protos) loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. (NIV)

q  We love because he first (protos) loved us 1Jn 3:16

o   First (Protos) the root word is where we get the word Prototype. The model, the example. He has shown and demonstrated how it is supposed to be. This is not talking about the ability to Love.

q  World overcomers are lovers of people!

q  Saved people love people

q  Love is a command, that means if you are not doing it you are sinning!

q  Love is “IN THE FLESH PRACTICAL”

o   Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God

§  He demonstrated his love by coming, giving, doing! In the flesh!

§  The spirit of Anti-Christ? False Prophets? Words-no-deeds!

§  Do you know what resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead? LOVE! 1Jn 3:14

·         No greater love than to lay your life down …