Remember that John is writing this letter because there are “those who try to deceive you” (2:26). They have the Anointing, the indwelling Holy Spirit, who is the true Spirit of God. He enables the believer to detect those who deny Christ, the “antichrists.” Thus, for us to abide in the truth, we are called to do certain things. First, test the spirits (4:1-6). Then, we are to love one another (4:7-11). We must engage with our brothers and sisters in Christ, joined together in a love that we all recognize because it is the love God showed when He “sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” Our local fellowship of believers is like a “godly peer group,” that encourages us as we live in these last days.
·
4:12-16: Look carefully at the progression of
this paragraph. It begins saying that we
have never actually seen God. And by the
end it says we abide in God and God in us.
Here is how we arrive at that end.
o
4:12: We cannot see God. But if we love one another there are two
things that happen: God abides in us (v13-16) and His love is perfected in us
(v17-19; in other words, we come to know the fullness of God’s love.)
o
4:13-16: What is involved in God’s abiding in
us? First, it is brought about by the
fact that we have His Spirit, the Anointing, who is at work in us (v13). This is a tremendous gift of love from
God. Furthermore, we have this
relationship because we have come to Christ by faith. Again, in Christ, we see deeply the love of
God. He sent the Son as the Savior of
the world. We have come to confess Him
as Lord, as the Son of God (cf. Rom. 10:9-10).
And then, as our loving God abides in us and we in Him, we experience
day by day His love in our lives. We
regularly experience His forgiveness and the cleansing through the blood of
Christ.
o 4:17-19:
As we have this close communion or fellowship with God (He abides in us, we
abide in Him) and as we continue to experience His love, the next thing is that
His love is perfected in us. This means
it comes to fullness or completion or maturity of that love. And when we truly come to grips with God’s
love, we leave behind the fear (being afraid) of God. And when that happens, we have come to the
place where we can love as God loves. We
love (Him) because He first loved us.
A great “restatement” of this paragraph is
found in Paul’s prayer in Eph. 3:14-19.
The Holy Spirit strengthens our inner man so that Christ dwells in our
hearts. Then, having been rooted and
grounded in God’s love when we came to Christ, we now comprehend God’s love in
all its dimensions, coming to fully understand the love of Christ which
surpasses knowledge. The end result is
we are “filled with all the fullness of God.”
I highly recommend you memorize this prayer and meditate on it and pray it
for yourself, your family and for your brothers and sisters in Christ.
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