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Prayer
In the previous sections, John has been exhorting us with “don’t believe every spirit” (1 John 4:1-6) ; and “love one another” (1 John 4:7-12)
We evidence that God abides in us when we experience the abiding presence of the Spirit, confess the historical Jesus, and live in the love of God.
By so doing, fear of punishment is cast out of us, God's love is perfected in us, and we love God by loving our brothers.
The remaining section will assume that the person has love for God and one another.
This sections we will be covering today will assume that love is present.
Once it assumes that love is present, we will then tease out some barriers to love, and some implications.
God Abides in Us:
“Evidence of Conversion”
John begins by giving some evidence of conversion in the life of the believer.
The first implication if a person loves his brother is that God abides in Him and He in God.
The Double Witness
The double witness is made up of two parts, “because He has given us His Spirit” (1 John 4:13), and “the Father has sent the Son” (1 John 4:14).
We will look at each component and flesh it out a little more.
Subjective (Experiential)
“Spirit’s Testimony”
Now at the beginning of this book, we talked a lot about the objective, unchanging nature of our faith.
We talked a lot about the historical Jesus and the need to recognize that our faith is is a historical unchanging independent of us faith.
But John is going to give evidence for the fact that we know we are Christian by the subjective experience.
“By this” refers to the statement after it..
Where he says it is by the fact that God has given us His Spirit that we know we abide in Him.
His reasoning is that we know that we abide in God because He has given us His Spirit.
How do we know we have the spirit?
We DON’T see the Spirit’s activity by a feeling, by a leading, or by a critical attitude...
But listen to how Paul describes the inner life of the Spirit.
So there is a bearing witness to our Spirit that we have been born again.
The bearing witness within us which makes our hearts to cry out, “Abba!
Father!”
The inner workings of the Spirit can be recognizable in us when they draw our hearts back to the Father.
The “finger prints” of the inner workings of the Spirit are reliance on God, and glorying in Jesus.
John goes on to describe the second of the double witness....
Objective (Historical)
“The Son’s Mission”
Notice how clear the trinitarian understanding of God is for John…
God has given us His Spirit, and His Spirit produces in us a belief that the Father has sent His Son into the world.
John expresses much like he did in 1 John 1:1-4, that they (the Apostolic witness) has seen, touched, and now witness to the risen Lord.
The objective/historical fact is that the Father has sent the Son into the world to save the world.
The subjective/experiential fact is that the Spirit that He has given to us has enabled us to make that declaration.
John is linking up the believers experience with the rock-solid foundation of the coming of Christ.
The test for the reality of spiritual gifts is whether those who possess them also hold to the apostolic faith.
Tied closely with this is the evidence of confession...
Confession of Christ
This confession is simply just the expression of what has already happened within the believer.
The confession is simply the overflow of the experiential happenings of the Spirit in the believer.
The confession is the overflow of belief in the historical Son’s mission to save the world.
The person who confesses that Jesus is the Son of God is the one who has God abiding in Him.
This confession is similar to the confession of the disciples in the boats when Jesus comes to them on the water.
He just finishes feeding the five thousand.
He goes up on a mountain to pray by Himself.
John gives one more evidence of the assurance for the believer...
Living in the Love of God
This is the third evidence that a believer is authentic is that they know that God really loves them.
They rest assured in the fact that God loves them.
God is love, the very definition of what love is.
And those who abide in love are ones who abide in God and God in them.
Paul says in another place....
We evidence that God abides in us when we confess the historical Jesus, experience the abiding presence of the Spirit, and live in the love of God.
This is real nice.
We can just put a bow on it and move on.
But it only takes a moment of reflection to realize that though this may be true of an ultimate sense, we functionally don’t live in God’s love all the time.
What do you think it looks like when we don’t live in the love of God?
How does a person begin to function when they are wrestling with the question, “Does God really love me?”?
This may be surprising to you, but when a person does not believe in the love that God has for them, they will fear.
Since the garden, the natural disposition of humanity is one of fear.
Fear of judgment, fear of death, fear of mankind around us.
Listen to the way the author of Hebrews describes Christ’s work of salvation.
Did you catch that?
To “deliver those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery”
That is the natural position of man.
And when a believer does NOT have assurance that God really loves him or her, their unbelief leads them back into this position of fear.
Fear of judgment, fear of death, fear of God.
Example of Fear
Steven has been avoiding church for several months now.
He loves the message, he loves the Word of God, he loves being encouraged.
He has been avoiding church since his last relationship there imploded.
He has been so hurt by the people in the church that he is terrified to come back.
What is going on with Steven?
Betty had a scare last year with her health.
She is a mother of young children and couldn’t imagine dying so young.
Since then she has become petrified with dying.
Every time she considers the thought she has a panic attack.
What is going on with Betty?
Love looks for opportunities to give; it asks: “What can I do for another?”
Fear keeps a wary eye on the possible consequences and asks: “What will he do to me?” Love “thinks no evil”; fear thinks of little else.
Love labors doing today’s tasks and is so busy that it has no time to worry about tomorrow.
Because it focuses upon tomorrow, fear fails to undertake responsibilities today.
Love leads to greater love—fulfilling one’s obligations brings joy and peace and satisfaction and greater love and devotion to the work.
Fear, in turn, occasions greater fear, since failure to assume responsibilities brings additional fear of the consequences of acting irresponsibly.
Jay Adam’s point is very simple: Where fear exists, love cannot.
Where fear is present, love is hampered.
Love is self-giving; fear is self-protecting.
Love is a giving of ones self.
Whereas fear is a self-protecting defensive posture.
Fear → moving away from (problems, persons), hiding and covering up, self-protection
Love → moving toward (problems, persons), revelation and openness, vulnerability
The inverse is equally as true; for love to thrive, fear will cast out.
God’s Love is Perfected in Us
“Love Casting Out Fear”
Confidence at the Judgment
Now we need to remember that just last week we saw that love was perfected in us when we love our brothers and sisters.
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