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Fellowship with the God of Love (3:11-5:12)John's reiteration of the phrase “this is the message you have heard from the beginning” (also found in 1:5), denotes a transition in the book. He is moving from a discussion about fellowship with the God who is light to fellowship with the God who is love. Up to now the focus of the book has been on how those in and out of fellowship relate to sin and righteousness. Now the focus will be on how those who are in and out of fellowship love either the brethren or love the world. John's message which they have heard from the beginning is that they should love one another (3:11). Fellowship Means Acting in Love (3:11-24)Hatred and Death Contrasted with Love and Life (3:11-22)If you hate someone, that reveals that you have the same desire in you which leads to murder (3:15. See also Matthew 5:21-22). Cain is an example of one whose hatred of his brother led to murder (3:12). If you have that inner desire which leads to murder, that shows that you have contempt for life. Those who have contempt for life (i.e. those who hate) do not possess eternal life (3:15). However, those who love their brothers and sisters demonstrate that they have passed from death into life and possess eternal life (3:14). Those that hate wish to see their brother die. Those who love wish to die for their brother, just as Jesus did for us (3:16). John gives an example of what love for one another looks like. If we see a brother in need and we have the capacity to meet that need, but we fail to act, that demonstrates that we don't have the love of God (3:17). Love is manifest in action, not in words (3:18). If our heart possesses love, it will be revealed in our acts of love (3:19-22). The essence of Christianity (3:23-24)There are two key elements to the Christian message. First that we must believe in Jesus Christ (3:23a) and secondly that we must love one another (3:23b). These two things define all of what Christianity is. If we believe in Jesus and love like Jesus, then we are true Christians. If you have these two things down, then you are remaining ("abiding") in Jesus and He in us through the Holy Spirit (3:24). Fellowship Means Discerning the Truth & Love (4:1-21)Those in Fellowship Tests the Spirits (4:1-6)While true believers have the Holy Spirit, there are other spirits as well who are not the Holy Spirit. Not all things spiritual are holy. We must test spiritual things to see if they are from God (4:1a). Likewise, not all prophets are true prophets of God, for there are many false prophets in the world (4:1b). John gives us three tests to see if the spirit or the prophet is true: • Do they teach that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (4:2a)? In the time of the early church, many denied the humanity of Jesus. The prevailing belief was that all things physical were inferior and all things spiritual superior. The goal was to transcend the physical and become purely spiritual. But Jesus transcended the spiritual and became physical. When he rose from the dead, he received a new and perfect physical body. The goal of Christianity is not to transcend the physical, but to have the physical made perfect through the resurrection. Anything teaching which denies Jesus humanity also denies the resurrection and denies our hope. • Do they teach that Jesus Christ has come from God (4:2b-3)? To say that Jesus has come from God does not merely mean that Jesus is a man sent by God, but to say that Jesus was with God in the beginning (1:1, 2:13, 2:14. See also John 1:1), that Jesus is the Son of God and that the Son and the Father are One and the same (4:15). Those who deny the deity of Jesus are false teachers. • Does the teaching correspond with the teachings of the apostles (4:6)? John states that anyone who does not listen to him and his fellow apostles does not know God. Those whose teaching does not correspond with the apostles are not true prophets. Today the testimony of the apostles is found recorded for us in the New Testament. Therefore, teaching which contradicts the New Testament scriptures are false teachers. Those who fail these tests are not from God, but are from the world. Even though their message may sound spiritual, it is merely worldly wisdom disguised (4:5). There message is that of the antichrist (4:3). But we need not fear these false teachers, for we know that we have overcome them, for Jesus is greater than the antichrist and is greater than the world (4:4). Those in Fellowship Have the Love of God (4:7-14)These verses give us a full picture of love, as demonstrated by God. It tells us exactly how God's love was manifest for us. Love is Sacrificial (1 John 4:9)God sending us his Son into the world made God's love evident, manifest. God the Father voluntarily gave up the thing most precious to him- his own son. He gave Him up for us as a sacrifice. Love is always sacrificial. Love requires that we give up something precious to us, something to which we have a right, and give it for someone else. Without sacrifice there is no love. Love is Beneficial (1 John 4:10a)God's love benefits us. He gave us His son so we could live through Him- so that whoever believes in Him could find eternal life. That He might be the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation has the idea of appeasement. Jesus' death was the propitiation for our sins, the satisfaction or the appeasement of God's wrath towards us. Jesus death was for our benefit. Beneficial love seeks what is best for the other person. God loved us that we might live, that we might have eternal life. Love is Proactive (1 John 4:10b)God's love was proactive. God initiated the act of love. He didn't give us his son because we loved Him. We were not merely indifferent to God, but the apostle Paul in the book of Romans says that God loved us while we were his enemies. God initiated the action. Proactive love seeks to reach out first to those who not only didn't initiate the relationship, but even those who are the enemy. "God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."(Romans 5:18) Our Response (1 John 4:7)God is love. His love is sacrificial, beneficial, and proactive. What should our response be? Verse 19 says: We love, because He first loved us. If we have experienced God's love, we should respond in love for each other. Verse 7 says. (1 John 4:7) Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Unfortunately, too often this verse is looked at backwards. It does not say, “If I want to know God, if I want to be born of God, then I better go and work really hard at loving one another.” The verse is saying, if we know God, if we are born of God, we will love one another. The natural result of knowing and experiencing God is to love one another. Therefore, if we want to show love for one another, then we need to get to know God better. The danger is to think that we must therefore really strive to love each other. We think we must work hard at going out of our way to be sacrificially and proactively doing things for each other. While sometimes it can be hard work to love, it should never be based on compulsion or based on guilt. It needs to be an outpouring of God's love for us. Because we have encountered God, God's love is shown through us to each other. We become the manifestation of God's love to others. (1 John 4:11-12) Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. When we show love for one another we become the visible manifestation of God to each other. We are God's agents of love to one another. How does God show he loves me? How does God encourage me? How does God meet my needs? Through his agents of love. Those who know Him will be used by Him to express his love to the whole world. If we are having trouble loving others, then we need to go back and look at God's love for us. We need to experience the love of God, the forgiveness that is possible only because of the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. Those in Fellowship Confess Jesus (4:15-21)John provides a two step test to see if one abides in God. First, you must confess that Jesus is the Son of God (4:15). Secondly, your character must abide in love. Because God is love, if you are dwelling in God, then you will have love as well (4:16). If we understand the love of God, then we do not fear God in the Day of Judgment (4:17). Perfect love throws out our fear, for we no longer face the wrath of God if we have placed our hope on the love of God (4:18). However, if we hate our brother, then we do not understand the love of God (4:20), for God's love is a proactive, unconditional love (4:19). If we truly understand that God loves us when we are unlovely, then we will have no reason to hate our brother. Fellowship Means Knowing the Testimony (5:1-12)Those in Fellowship Find Obedience Not Burdensome (5:1-4)Love one another is the cornerstone commandment of Christ (5:2). But this commandment is not a burdensome commandment (5:3). Love for our brothers and sisters in Christ should come naturally out of our understanding of God's love for us. If we find ourselves “burdened” by the need to love others, then we have failed to understand God's love for us. We are walking in darkness, unaware of our own sinfulness and God's love for us while we were yet sinners. If we find loving others burdensome, then we must walk back in the light, where we realize how sinful we are and how amazing God's love is towards us. Those in Fellowship Believe in the Testimony of Christ (5:5-13)John states there are three tings that testify that Jesus is the Son of God: the water, the blood and the Spirit (5:9-10). John is addressing those who did not believe that Jesus was truly human, but that the man Jesus had received the Spirit of Christ at his baptism, but that this Spirit left before his death. But John says the testimony about Jesus is not just the water (i.e. baptism), but is also the blood, that is, his death. The death of Jesus is as critical as his baptism to understanding why life is found in Jesus. If you don't believe that Jesus was the Christ, not only through his baptism, but also through his death, then you can not have eternal life. For he who has the Son has eternal life. He who does not have the Son does not have life (5:12). John reiterates that this is the whole purpose to his writing: that those who believe in the Son of God might know for certain that they have eternal life (5:13). Conclusion (5:14-21)The Sin that Leads to Death (5:14-17)Finally, John explains some of the benefits of having fellowship with God. Those in fellowship can approach God with anything, and if we are asking according to his will, He will hear us and respond (5:14-15). One specific prayer request we can ask if for God to restore those in the fellowship who are in sin. If you see a brother or sister committing sin, if we ask God, God will restore life to them (5:16). However, John qualifies this by saying we God won't restore those who have committed the sin leading to death. There are two viewpoints on what this “sin leading to death” might be:
God Keeps Those Born of Him (5:18-2)Given the context of the passage, the second option seems more likely. For John, in verse 18, goes on to say that those who are born of God are kept by God and the world cannot touch him. Those who have left the fellowship to follow after the worldly false teachers, these were not people who had been saved and now have lost their salvation. Those who are born of God are kept by God and cannot be touched by the evil on. Those who are of God, however, need not worry about the sin leading to death, for if we know that the Son of God has come, then we know the truth and we know confidently that we have eternal life (5:20) Guard Yourself from Idols (5:21)John then ends abruptly, calling us to be on guard from idols (5:21). There is much conjecture that the original writing may have continued, for it seems that John has introduced a new topic just as the book cuts off. However, it does fit his conclusion. We have eternal life because we believe that in Jesus there is life. However, those who reject Jesus to follow after idols and false teaching do not have life. This final exhortation is for believers not to go after the false teachers, but to remain in the life. John is warning them not to follow those false teachers who have left them, but remain with the true God and eternal life (5:20)
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