Introduction
This is now our ninth week studying John’s first letter. And John has been doing two main things in his letter. He’s been writing about what we’re to believe about Christ; and he’s been writing about how we’re to live as Christ’s people. So, what we’re to believe and what we’re to do.
And he’s had to focus on these two things because of the many antichrists, or many false teachers, who were troubling the church in the days when John wrote his letter. The antichrists, or the false teachers, were denying one of the most fundamental doctrines which we’re to believe. They were denying that the Son of God had become human. They were saying that he did not really come in the flesh. They were saying that God did not really become one of us. And this was a denial of what the apostles taught, because the true apostolic message is that the Eternal Son of God came to earth as one of us in order to pay for our sins by giving up his life to death on the cross. That’s at the heart of what we believe. But the antichrists, the false teachers, denied this. And by denying the true gospel, the false teachers demonstrated that they did not have the Spirit of God in them, but the spirit of the antichrist.
And the antichrists, the false teachers, were not only denying what the apostles said we’re to believe, but they were also denying what the apostles said we’re to do. They were saying that sin does not matter. Obedience to God does not matter. They were saying that I can have a relationship with God and keeping on sinning, because sin doesn’t matter. And that too was a denial of what the apostles taught, because the true apostolic message is that God is light. He is holy and pure and good. And how can anyone claim to have fellowship with him and yet continue to live an immoral and sinful life? It’s impossible. If we’re to have a relationship with God, then we have to step out of the darkness and leave behind our old life of sin and disobedience; and we’re to walk in his ways. But the antichrists, the false teachers, were denying this.
And so, because of the efforts of the false teachers to undermine the true apostolic message, John has been focussing on what we’re to believe about Christ and how we’re to live as Christ’s people. We’re to believe that Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of God who has come in the flesh to save us. And we’re to live lives of obedience, doing what is right in the sight of God and loving God’s people.
And in today’s passage, John refers to both of these things: what we’re to believe and what we’re to do. Most of the passage is about what we’re to do and how we’re to love one another. But right at the middle of the passage, he mentions what we’re to believe. And what he’s saying in today’s passage is this: this is how you know you’ve been born of God; this is how you know God lives in you; and this is how you can face the day of judgment with confidence. And we can divide the passage into three parts: verses 7 to 11; verses 12 to 16; and verses 17 to 21. Verses 7 to 12 are about how you know you’ve been born of God. Verses 13 to 16 are about how you know God lives in you. Verses 17 to 21 are about how you can face the day of judgment with confidence.
Verses 7 to 11
Let’s begin then with verses 7 to 12 where he exhorts us to love one another. When he refers to loving one another, he’s referring specifically to loving God’s people. Yes, God commands us to love everyone. We’re to love our neighbour, whoever our neighbour is. And we’re to love even our enemies. We’re to love everyone. But when John refers to loving one another, he means we’re to love God’s people. He makes that clear in verse 21 where he says we’re to love our brother. That is, we’re to love our brother and sister in the Lord.
And having exhorted us to love one another, he gives us a reason for doing so. And the reason is this: ‘for love comes from God.’ So, we’re to love one another, because love comes from God. Love originates from God. God is the source of love. People go looking for the source of a river. And if we were to look for the source of love, we’d find it in God. It comes from God and it flows out from him into the world.
And he’s the source of love, because look at verse 8: God is love. That’s what he is. He is wholly and fully and completely love. His whole nature is love. His whole being is love. Love is not something he has. It’s not part of him. It’s all of him. It’s what he is, through and through.
And since God is love, and since love comes from God, then loving God’s people is a sign that we’ve been born of God and that we know him. When John says in verse 7 that we’ve been born of God, he’s referring to the new birth, isn’t he? He’s talking about being born again by the Spirit of God. So, the first time we’re born, we’re born into the world as a little baby; and then we grow up into adulthood. That’s natural birth. But then there’s also a spiritual birth, a new birth, when the Holy Spirit comes upon us and makes us new and enables us to repent and to believe the good news. And since those who have been born again are now members of God’s family, they begin to bear a resemblance to their Heavenly Father. They begin to bear a resemblance to him by loving their Christian brothers and sisters. Loving God’s people is a sign that we have been born of God and that we know God as our Father. And the opposite is also true, because not loving God’s people is a sign that someone does not know God. That’s what John says in the first part of verse 8.
So, love comes from God, because God is love. And all those who have been born of God will bear the family resemblance by loving God’s people. And so, loving God’s people is a sign that we have been born of God.
And what does God’s love look like? How has God revealed his love in the world? This is how God has shown his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. How does that reveal the love of God to us? Well, read on into verse 10 where John explains that God loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Do you know what an atoning sacrifice is? It’s a sacrifice which turns away the wrath of God from us and onto the sacrifice. In Old Testament times, God’s people would bring a lamb up to the temple to offer to God as a sacrifice. And before the animal was sacrificed, the priest would place his hand on the animal and confess the sins of the people. And it’s as if the priest was saying to God: ‘We confess our sins before you. We know that we deserve to die for these sins because the wages of sin is death. But we now transfer our sins from us and on to this lamb; and the lamb will now pay the penalty and die in our place.’ And then, the lamb was killed instead of the person who had sinned. God’s judgment fell on the lamb and not on the sinner. The lamb was punished in the place of the sinner. And the result was that God was no longer angry with the sinner.
That was how things worked in Old Testament times. And all of those animal sacrifices were to make do and to fill in until the time came for the true Lamb of God to be sacrificed. And the true Lamb of God is Jesus Christ. God the Father sent him into the world to be the true Lamb of God and to suffer in our place the punishment which we deserve for what we’ve done wrong. God’s wrath against us for our sins was turned away from us and onto Christ. He died in our place. He took the blame for us. God’s wrath fell on him instead of on us. And in that way, God revealed his love among us, because he was prepared to give up his Son for us and for our salvation. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us. And he loved us so much that he sent his Son to die for us.
And since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. So, his love for us was a sacrificial love. And that means we should love one another with a sacrificial love. Is my fellow believer in need? Well, is there something I could give up in order to help him? And God’s love for us was a love which made peace between us. And that means we should do what we can to live in peace with our fellow believers. And every day we’re to display the family likeness to our Heavenly Father who loved us and who gave up his Son to death on the cross so that we who believe might have eternal life.
Verses 12 to 16
How do you know you’ve been born of God? Are you loving God’s people? That was verses 7 to 11. Let’s now turn to verses 12 to 16 which are about how you know God lives in you. And there are two signs.
First of all, take a look at verse 12 where John says that if we love one another, then God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. That is to say, if believers love one another, then that’s a sign that God lives in them. And when he says God’s love is made complete in us, he means that God’s love is seen in us. In the past, God’s love was seen among us when he sent his Son into the world to be our Saviour. That was in the past. But now, God’s love is seen among us when believers love one another. So, no one has ever seen God, John says. No one has ever seen him, because he’s a spirit. But God is seen when his people love one another.
Isn’t that interesting? Christians often talk about how we can show the love of God to those who don’t believe. We want people to know God’s love. We want them to know it’s real. And we wonder how can we show it to them? And so, we come up with ministries of mercy in order to provide practical help to people in need. And so, we have our food banks, and our Vine Centre Christmas Appeals and our Op Shops and so on. And it’s good and right that we should do those things, because God commands us to love our neighbour and to do good to all. But perhaps we don’t put as much emphasis as we should on what John is saying. According to John in verse 12, how do we display the love of God in the world today? How do we show people his love? We show people God’s love when believers love one another. When people see how believers love one another, then they’ll understand that Christianity is true, because they will see the effect it has on our lives and how we are now patient and kind and good and faithful and gentle and self-controlled towards one another. But when we’re impatient and unkind and mean and faithless and harsh and bad-tempered towards one another, then the message we send is that Christianity is not true, because it makes no difference in the lives of its followers. And so, God loves is made complete in us, it’s seen in us, when we love one another. And when we love one another we know that God lives in us.
That’s the first sign that God lives in us; and it’s about what we’re to do. It’s about how we live as Christ’s people in the world. The second sign that God lives in us is to do with what we believe. Take a look at verse 13 where John says that we know that we live in God and he lives in us because he has given us his Spirit. And because we have the Spirit, we’re able to acknowledge and believe what the apostles have testified about Christ and how God the Father sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. No one is able to believe this unless the Holy Spirit convinces them that it is true. That’s why plenty of people, when they hear the gospel, are unmoved by it and they do not believe what they have heard. The preacher explains the good news of the gospel as simply and as clearly as possible. He sets before them the best news they have ever heard that God the Father sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world and to give up his life on the cross for sinners, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but will have eternal life in that new and better world to come. It’s the best news in the world. And even though it’s the best news in the world, they do not believe, because their hearts are naturally hard. They are, by nature, dead in their trespasses and sins and unable to respond to the gospel. And what it takes for people to believe is for the Holy Spirit to come and to take away their hard hearts and to give them believing hearts. That’s what it takes. And that also means that when anyone acknowledges that God sent his Son to save us, that’s a sign that God lives in that person.
And so, how do we know that God lives in you and you live in God? There are two signs. The first is what you do: Are you loving God’s people? The second is what you believe: Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God who was sent to save sinners? And if you look at verse 16, you’ll see that John emphasises once again what we’re to do. God is love. And therefore whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him. Do you live a life of love? Are you loving God’s people? Well, that’s sign that God lives in you and you live in him.
Verses 17 to 21
How do you know you’ve been born of God? The sign is: Are you loving God’s people? That was verses 7 to 11.
And how do you know God lives in you? There are two signs: Are you loving God’s people and do you believe in his Son? That was verses 12 to 16.
Let’s turn now to verses 17 to 21 which are about how you can face the day of judgment with confidence.
So, in verse 17, John refers to the day of judgment. And we know that the day of judgment is coming, when everyone who has ever lived will stand before God to give an account of their lives. And we cannot hide anything from God’s all-seeing and all-knowing eyes. He knows everything about us. He knows everything we have said and done. He knows everything we have ever thought. He knows all our sins and shortcomings, everything we have done wrong. And while those who do not belong to God will be condemned on that day and sent away to be punished forever, everyone who trusted in Christ and who belongs to God will be declared not guilty on that day. And they will be brought in to the presence of God to live with him forever in perfect peace and rest.
So, those who believe in Christ have nothing to fear. They have nothing to fear. In fact, they can look forward to that day, because on that day God will declare them not guilty and he’ll invite them in to their eternal reward. But how can we know that our faith is genuine and we’re not deceived? How can we know that we truly belong to God? And how can we therefore face the day of judgment without fear? What we need is some kind of sign which marks us out as belonging to God. What we need is a sign or mark to make clear that our faith is real and we really do belong to God. Just as a shepherd puts a mark on his sheep to show they belong to him, so we need God to put a mark on us to show that we belong to him. And if we can see that mark in us, then we can face the judgment with confidence.
And so, what is the mark of a true believer? What is the sign that my faith is real? Well, the mark of a true believer is love. The mark that shows that our faith is real and that we really belong to God is love for God’s people. On the other hand, the mark that shows that someone is not a believer and that they do not belong to God is their lack of love for God’s people.
So, you can tell who does not belong to God, because they do not love God’s people. And you can tell who the believers are, because they love God’s people.
And so, when we’re like him in the world — that is, when we’re like the Lord Jesus, and when we love God’s people the way that Christ loved God’s people — then it’s clear that we belong to God. And when we see his love displayed in us, then all fear is driven away from us, because that tells us that our faith is real; and we really belong to God; and we have nothing to fear about the day of judgment.
According to John in verse 20, the person who claims to love God, but who hates his brother is a liar. So, this person claims he loves God, but you can’t believe what he’s saying, because he’s not displaying in his life the mark of a true believer, which is love for God’s people. But those who are true believers demonstrate their love for God by loving the people they can see all around them. And so, whoever loves God must love his brother and sister in the Lord.
Conclusion
How do you know you’ve been born of God? The sign is: Are you loving God’s people?
And how do you know God lives in you? There are two signs: Are you loving God’s people and do you believe in his Son?
And how can you face the day of judgment with confidence and without fear? The answer is: Are you loving God’s people?
Do you see how important loving God’s people is? Now, I need to say that what we believe is vital. It’s essential that we all believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God who became one of us and who gave up his life on the cross for sinners. We must all believe in him, because the only way to receive forgiveness and peace with God and the hope of eternal life is by believing in God’s Son. We’re justified — pardoned and accepted by God — through faith alone. So, faith is essential. And if you have not yet trusted in Christ, then God is coming to you today in the preaching of his word to tell you that you need to believe. Confess your sins to God. Ask him to forgive you for the sake of Christ. And ask him to give you the free gift of eternal life.
Faith is vital for our salvation. However, when it comes to knowing whether or not we’ve been born of God and whether or not God lives in us and whether or not we should fear the day of judgment, love is essential. In other words, when it comes to the assurance of our salvation, love is vital. The way to obtain assurance of your salvation is by doing what you can to love God’s people. And you see, John has not written these things in order to fill us with doubts about our salvation. He’s written these things so that you will do everything within your power to love God’s people. And by loving God’s people, you will receive assurance that you have been born of God and that God lives in you and that you have nothing to fear.
Sermons and Stuff 