Living a Balanced Life

(An In-Depth Study of First John)

Week 15

Commentary

The Commands of God are not a Burden

1 John 5:1-5

 Outline

I have two wonderful grandsons. One is four years old, the other two. One of my favorite times together is “the walk”. Together we walk through the neighborhood, along sidewalks and lakeside paths, in a process of discovery. The world is a fascinating place for toddlers. Both are finally past the stage of exploring everything with their mouth. However, nothing escapes their watchful eye. Consequently, everything the eye sees the hand wants to touch.

The world is filled with thorn and thistle, claws and fangs. My neighborhood is no different. As you can imagine, I spend a majority of our time along the journey barking out commands. “Don’t get too close”, “that’s very sharp, don’t touch”, “that duck will bite you!”; well, you get the idea. My love for them is so intense that allowing them to get hurt is unthinkable. However, not even ‘Grandpap’ is perfect.

My youngest grandson fell in the lake. After countless dissertations regarding water safety, a thousand instructions on how to hold tight and not get too close, my grandson, with all the skill of a gymnast, unlocked from my hand with a leap into a perfect hand stand and performed an Olympic style half gainer right into the lake. Only inches from his diving platform, I was able to quickly fish him out. But not before he was completely submersed and completely soaked. The air was cool that day and the water much cooler. Needless to say, he emerged screaming at the top of his lungs. Being submersed in that cold “ucky” water was not his idea of a good time. Several weeks have pasted since the “incident”, and my grandson still blames me for the whole ordeal.

One thing has changed; my grandson no longer sees my commands to stay away from the lake’s edge a burden. As a matter of fact, he rarely leaves the sidewalk while exploring the lake area. He remembers what it is like to be soaked and scared. He now understands my commands as loving and safe. (at least as far as the lake is concerned)

John begins to unfold a new idea for his readers. Loving God is about keeping His commands. That thought is nothing new. However, John now states that keeping the commands of God is not a burden for those of have been born of God and are people of faith. There is something about commands and love that cause those who know God to see them in perfect harmony; perfect balance. John teaches his readers that ‘love-prompted’ obedience to God’s commands is not a burden to His child. Simply stated, the commands of God draw us near to the Father and cause us to live like Christ. None of the commands are meaningless laws that do not affect the heart.

The Test of Genuine Love (vs 1)

If you love God, you must love your brother (4:20-21)

Born of God (those who believe Jesus is the Christ) (vs 1)

If you love the Father you love the Children of the Father (vs 1)

A New Look at Love (vs 2-3)

How can you know if your love is genuine toward people?

By loving God:

• Keep commandments
• Commandments are not a burden

Overcoming the World (vs 4-5)

What kind of person doesn’t consider God’s commands a burden?

• Born of God
• Victory by faith
• Truth regarding Jesus

LIFE APPLICATION

True love never departs from the commands of God

To love someone is to move them closer to the commands of God

The commands of God are never a burden, and we are never found apologizing for them

Living a Balanced Life

(An In-Depth Study of First John)

Week 14

Commentary

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

1 John 4:13-21

 Outline

Today’s text deals with a subject that is relevant to every person on planet earth. I have never spoken with anyone who has even remotely said something like this; “I want to have more anxiety and less confidence in my life.” As a matter of fact, at least one of the reasons given by most people for going to college or technical training is to achieve confidence in what they do. Most believe deeply that proper education and training will drastically reduce anxiety and give bold confidence in the workplace. In other words, what you have learned will manifest itself in your occupation. When having a degree in accounting proves itself, in real corporate life, by accomplishing the balancing of the books, one would describe that as an education becoming complete. Once you have experienced education manifesting itself in the workplace and successfully accomplishing its intended goal, fear is gone. You know that next month you will be able to do the same great job with the books. You have confidence!

Everyone wants to have confidence. Everyone wants to be rid of fear. The Apostle John wants the same things for all his readers. John offers everyone confidence on the ‘day of judgment’ in whom love is perfected. Of course, John is not speaking of sinless perfection; that would contradict previous chapters. The word John uses best fits our understanding of ‘complete’ or ‘accomplished’. In other words, John is stating the fact that everyone who abides in God does so by God’s Spirit, and it is by the Spirit that love is perfected in our lives. So love is perfected when it’s not just talk. Love is perfected when love moves into action. When love reaches its goal, which is to love the children of God, John says it’s complete or perfect. A proper way to summarize verse 17 from our text would be: “When you love someone with more than just talk, when the love of God manifests itself in action, you will experience an unshakable confidence before God.”

Christ-likeness is the result of abiding in God, and God in us, by the Spirit. Our text, in a way, asks the following rhetorical question: “Who would lack confidence or be in fear of judgment when we look very much like the Son of God?” Of course, compared to Jesus, all fall short. However, John states that everyone who has forgiveness of sins by the Blood of Jesus will be found walking in the light. (1 John 1:7) The Blood of Jesus atones for our sins, AND experiencing a certain “walk”, namely love in action, confirms the genuineness of our faith.  John is calling all his readers that have placed their faith in Christ alone and are experiencing the love of God manifesting itself by God’s Spirit toward others to rejoice with confidence and cast out fear.

The Spirit in us (vs 13)

• We know we abide in God by perfected love (vs 12)
• We testify the Son of Son is Savior (vs 14-15)
• We know the love of God (vs 16)

What abiding does (Vs 17)

Perfected Love

• When love reaches its goal (mission accomplished)
• From internal and subjective to external and objective

Confidence for the day of judgment

• Love not in word or speech but in deed and truth (3:18-19)
• Theme of John’s letter (3:14)

Christ-likeness

• Having the Spirit of Jesus
• God doesn’t condemn His Son or those like Him

He first loved us (vs 19)

• We don’t love our way into God’s favor

We rest in God’s favor and then we love

• No confidence from being good enough

But confidence in abiding in God

LIFE APPLICATION

Our normal lifestyle is always more than just talk

Living a life of love we never consider punishment

The only way to cast fear from life is to love

Working out a lifestyle of comfort always makes one fear

 

Living a Balanced Life

(An In-Depth Study of First John)

Week 13

Commentary

Love in Resurrection

1 John 4:7-12

 Outline

Holy week; a time on the church calendar when the central focus is the week of Jesus’ life when He came to Jerusalem to die on a cross and rise again on the third day – on purpose. The Scripture informs us that Jesus turned His face toward Jerusalem and never looked back, never hesitated, never missed a step. (Luke 9:51-53) It also says that, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) This week of Jesus’ life, as recorded in the Gospels, perhaps is the clearest view of God’s love for us.

One of the most significant statements in the Bible comes in three small words found in our text; the beautiful fact that “God is Love.” Now the Bible through this revelation teaches that love and God are one in the same. Love does not only come from God, it IS God. So these facts result; God is the highest order of the universe (creation), so love is the highest order. God created all things, so Love created all things. God has always existed, so Love has always existed. God is eternal, so Love is eternal. Jesus prayed and revealed to us that Love has always existed; “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24)

In John’s Gospel, Jesus sets love apart from all else when it comes to the identity of His disciples; “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35) Jesus is making the statement that if we are born again, born of God, then God’s love is within us. John has already made the same claim from a different view; “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers” (1 John 3:14).

As we focus on the events of Holy Week, God’s love is on display for all who have eyes to see. God’s love is made manifest in sending his Son and in his Son laying down his life. This shows us what the Father’s love is like. The connection between God’s love for us and our love for each other is made clear in the Gospel. John states that if we are born of God we will know Him and love like Him. (vs 7) Just like last week we determined that the power to know truth from error comes from the Spirit of God within us, so this power to love is enabled by the same Spirit.

God’s love overflows 

New birth:

Father’s seed:

Father’s nature:

Father’s nature is love:

We now have the Father’s nature:

Therefore, we love

God is Love (vs 7-8)

Love is from God (vs 7)

God is Love (vs 8)

Love made manifest (vs 9-11)

God sent His only Son

God so loved us, we ought to love one another

Greatest love that ever was/is

Good Friday and Easter Sunday is the choice of Jesus

His Love (vs 12)

Origin of love is God, not you

God abides in us, making love complete

LIFE APPLICATION

Love rejoices in the presence of all God’s children

God commands us to become what we already are

If we ever doubt the love of God; remember the love of God

Living a Balanced Life

(An In-Depth Study of First John)

Week 12

Commentary

Power to Overcome

1 John 4:1-6

 Outline

There is a beautiful church building a short two minute walk from my house. The solid brick construction rests in the middle of a flawless green lawn adorned by majestic oak trees. It is always well maintained. On the outside it is very attractive. On the inside however, there is a confession of Jesus Christ that is very different from the confession found in God’s Word spoken by the Apostles. In the words of the Apostle John, “who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?” (1 John 2:22) Despite the outward attraction, something in my spirit will not allow me to unite myself with this church.

John loves those to which he writes. This section of text once again begins with a term of endearment; “beloved”. It is clear that John is warning his readers through a heart filled with love. He knows the dangers to the faith in this world. His warning is clear: behind every statement is a spirit, a pneuma(gk.), but not every spirit is the Spirit of God.

Many years ago a mentor of mine (in the business world) taught me a valuable lesson regarding understanding between two parties.  He made this statement which I have never forgotten; “every business deal has a spirit”. He went on to explain that each time he shakes someone’s hand in agreement to provide or purchase a good or service, he already knows how he wants the deal to benefit both parties. “Legal documents”, he stated, “never reflect the proper spirit of any agreement. They are filled with fine print stating what will happen when one party fails.” He went on to explain his model of always including a cover letter to every agreement he signed. The cover letter was always entitled, “Spirit of Agreement”. This letter stated in clear plain terms the intention of the agreement and the bright future my mentor intended for all parties entering the agreement. Like the Apostle John, my mentor knew all to well that many in the business world had a spirit that was not in accord with his own. This cover letter attached to the legal document and signed by all parties brought a unity or made clear any division of each spirit involved.

Like this cover letter, John commands us to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God”. (1 John 4:1) John makes it clear that all believers are to exercise the responsibility of discerning truth from error. However, John doesn’t allow us to believe that somehow by ourselves this could be possible. No, John calls each of his readers “overcomers”. (vs 4) His reason for naming us as such has one basis, and only one; “for he who is in you is greater that he who is in the world.” This should be a source of great joy for every believer.

Work of the Holy Spirit

From last week: (2:24)

Evidence of His work:

Produces Faith

Produces Love

Focus on Confession of Faith (vs 1-6)

What we say (vs 2)

                        Confesses Jesus has come in the flesh

Genuine confession (like confessing sin in 1:9)

How we listen (vs 6)

Listen to the truth and accept it

Hear the false teachers and reject it

Sovereign work of the Holy Spirit

Why are we able to overcome the false teachers? (vs 4)

To overcome or conquer

The Holy Spirit is greater

LIFE APPLICATION

We can only give God the glory (credit where credit is due)

Use this truth to work in mighty ways          

 

Living a Balanced Life

(An In-Depth Study of First John)

Week 11

Commentary

Being of the Truth

1 John 3:19-24

 Outline

Assurance; both powerful and freeing.

Today, the 17^th of March (first declared in the early 17th century), remembers Saint Patrick as the one who led the fifth-century Christian mission to Ireland. Unlike Britain, the Emerald Isle lay beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire. The Irish were considered uncivilized barbarians, and many thought their illiteracy and volatile emotions put them outside the reach of the gospel. At age sixteen, Patrick was taken captive by an Irish raiding party and spent the next six years on Irish soil as a slave. He learned their language, their culture, and most importantly, developed a heart for them.

Patrick escaped his captors and returned to England in his early twenties. In those years God had touched Patrick’s heart. He stepped foot once again on British soil, now a Christian. He studied for vocational ministry, and led a parish in Britain for nearly twenty years. At age 48 (past the life expectancy for a man in his century), when most retire; Patrick began his most accomplished ministry. Patrick and a team of dedicated missionaries took the Gospel to the ‘pagan’ Irish. The rest of the story is what movies are made of…

Whether God plans for us to evangelize a nation or a neighbor, no one can accomplish such a task without love in action. Last week we ended with the Apostle John’s encouragement, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” This week John continues this thought with the result statement, “By this we shall know that we are of the truth.” It is by loving one another in deed and in truth that we can reassure our hearts before God.

There are two themes which reoccur regularly throughout this letter; assurance before God and love for one another. Assurance that God is for us and that we are in a right relationship to him and genuine visible practical love for our brothers and sisters in Christ go hand-in-hand in the life of a true believer. John wants his readers to understand the amazing power that confidence before God has toward freedom to live a life of radical love. The only way we can exercise Christian love, the kind of love that lays down its life for another, is if we are first confident that the almighty God loves us. That he is for us and not against us. This confidence is the most valuable thing, the most freeing thing that anyone could ever possess. It was in this confidence and love that Patrick took the Gospel into the darkness in Ireland. Instead of coasting out life, he gave nearly thirty years transforming an entire nation. Patrick is a prime example of John’s precepts in chapter three.

Confidence Gains Strength (Vs 19-20)

19a:                 “In this [the love and obedience we exhibit; vv. 11–18] we will know that we are of                               the truth.”

19b–20:           “We will reassure our hearts in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us,                                     because (1) God is greater than our hearts, and (2) God knows all things.”

 

Motivation for Prayer (Vs 21-22)

Take on the nature of the Father

Love what God loves, Hate what God hates

Union between Faith and Love (Vs 23)

Cannot believe without loving

Cannot love without believing

Abiding in God, and God in us (vs 24)

Not human effort

By the Spirit

LIFE APPLICATION

Confidence in God frees us to love.

Loving each other is reassuring evidence that we are in the truth.