Slices
Prepare
Suppose you had to devise a list of non-negotiable characteristics for a true group of Jesus’ followers. What would be on that list? How should the church be distinct from every social group in modern society?
Bible passage
On denying the incarnation
4 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 recognise 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. 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 recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
God’s love and ours
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. 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.
Explore
In yesterday’s passage, John stated that Christianity involves believing in the Son and loving one another (3:23). He now deals with both aspects in more detail. Our assurance comes from the Spirit of God living in us, but there are other spirits in the world too. In chapter 4, verses 1 to 6, John tells the believers to test the spirits. The Holy Spirit will always celebrate the truth of who Jesus is – and the Holy Spirit is living in us and at work in us! False spirits undermine the truth of who Jesus is and what he has done (vs 2,3).
In verses 7 to 12, John addresses the issue of loving one another. This command is not just a pragmatic suggestion. Our love for one another reflects the great truth of who God is. True love comes from God himself (vs 7,8)! We do not have to look into ourselves and try to pump up some loving effort from within. No, the love comes from God to us – then it will flow from us to one another.
Respond
How might false prophets be at work in your life to point you away from the truth and love of Jesus Christ (v 1)? How might the Holy Spirit want to stir your heart with the reality of Jesus’ love today?
Deeper Bible study
Lord, thank you for your Father’s heart of love, revealed that first Christmas. Thank you that it is not dependent on me, but on what Jesus did at Calvary.
The virtual world is never silent. Its voices can often be negative, harsh, or even hateful. Similarly, in John’s day there was a cohort of false preachers who wanted to ‘cancel’ him and his teachings about Jesus. To progress spiritually, therefore, we need to exercise caution about the sources we trust and the voices to which we listen. The spiritual gift of ‘distinguishing between spirits’1 was probably never needed more than it is now. Thankfully, though, we know that he who is in us is far greater than the one who mobilises all forms of communication to oppose the purposes of Christ. The word ‘antichrist’ (v 3) means just that – against Christ. Love, however, can conquer all, even for we who have never seen God (v 12).
Love is the hinge on which John’s whole letter hangs and turns. The word is used 13 times in verses 7–12 alone, 43 times in the entire epistle. God’s love is active and effective (v 9), leading to the coming of Jesus into the world to be our ‘atoning sacrifice’ (v 10). We need to receive that love and then to give it away. That means sometimes shutting our ears to the clamour of those who seek to deconstruct Jesus as being less than God, or less than man. If he was not fully divine, then he could not have been the amazing deliverer from sin that we needed him to be. If he was not fully human, he would have been a spiritual entity that could not have suffered on the cross in our place. John confounds his first-century critics with his clear declaration that God is love and that he has himself acted in love to save fallen humanity. The Word has become flesh and ‘We have seen his glory’.2
Christmas reveals that ‘God is love’ (v 8). Write down some of the evidence of that love in your life today. Thank God for Jesus, your ‘atoning sacrifice’ (v 10).
1 1 Cor 12:10 2 John 1:14
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Micah 6,7; Revelation 13
Pray for Scripture Union
Many of the Faith Guides and Local Mission Partners in the north will be involved with Christmas activities in schools, clubs and churches. Please pray for a lasting impact from these activities and that many children and young people would want to find out more about Jesus.
Mission Support
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