1 John 4 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 1 John 4:1-3

1 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.

A. Find Out:    

1. What are we not to do? v.1a
2. But what are we to do instead and why? v.1b,c
3. What test does John give? v.2
4. What about those who don’t acknowledge Jesus? v.3a
5. What spirit is that? v.3b

B. Think:

1. How do these verses continue on from chapter 3?
2. How is John still dealing with truth?
3. What is his basic message here?

C. Comment:

     John again and again refers to “truth” 1:6,8, 2:4.8,20,21, 3:18 ,19, 4:6, 5:6 and warns against error and those who bring it. Here he identifies the spirit behind the person bringing the error.

     First, he warns them not to believe everything they hear or, more particularly, not to believe every spirit who speaks. This goes beyond the outward speaker to the spirit of them. Test them, he says, see if they are from God, for not every person comes from God.

     Second, he teaches how to discern the spirit of someone speaking: see if they believe Jesus came in the flesh. That is the crux of these people coming and teaching strange things. Do they believe that Jesus, the Son of God from heaven came and lived on earth, died for us and rose again. That is all implied in this. Anyone who denies Jesus is God’s Son is against him, that is obvious, and whatever else and however plausible such people seem, they are antichrist.

     Now we may think that this is all very obvious, but when we consider some of the multi-faith activities in the West in these days, we realise that this is very practical. However “nice” other people may be, any religion that denies that Jesus is THE Son of God who came from heaven, lived died and rose again from the dead on the earth, is antichrist, is in fact against God!

D. Application:

1. The test of any person or spirit is whether they believe in Jesus.
2. Any one who denies Jesus is antichrist.

Passage: 1 John 4:4-6

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.

A. Find Out:

1. What does John say about his readers? v.4a
2. How can he make that claim? v.4b
3. How do others speak? v.5
4. Who is it that responds to John? v.6a
5. What does that show? v.6b

B. Think:

1. What does John say our position is in respect of antichrists?
2. How do people’s responses to us reveal things about them?
3. How does John make this a “black and white” issue?

C. Comment:

      In the apostle John’s mind, the position of Christian and non-Christian is crystal clear, it is pure black and white, chalk and cheese, no similarity! If only church leaders today would have John’s clarity of proclamation the world would recognise their need more clearly and more would turn to Christ!

      To his Christian readers he says, you are from God, you have overcome the lies and untruths of these “antichrists” and have held to the truth, and you do that with the help of the Spirit who is in you who is so much greater than the enemy spirit in the world. It IS a “them versus us” situation and we have won through to the place of truth. They have been defeated by the lies of the enemy and are in bondage to him. This isn’t being unkind to non-Christians, it is merely stating the truth of how things are as declared by God.

     The way people respond to each other, John continues, is also important. World people agree with world people and, as he’s said before, they will disagree with us. That merely shows their state before God. As we speak, anyone who listens and responds to us shows that they are people seeking after God. That, says John, is how you know the spirit behind each person. It is that clear!

D. Application:

1. As a Christian you ARE radically different from non-Christians. Don’t be ashamed of acknowledging that truth.
2. People reveal their hearts by their response to the Gospel truths.

Passage: 1 John 4:7-10

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.

A. Find Out:

1. What does John exhort them to do and why? v.7a
2. Who is it who really loves? v.7b
3. What about the person who doesn’t love, and why? v.8
4. How did God show His love? v.9
5. What is real love? v.10

B. Think:

1. Real love must be practically expressed. How did God do this?
2. What does our expressing love reveal?
3. Why is it that love is so important in the Christian life?

C. Comment:

     It seems as if John repeats himself again and again, saying the same thing but in different ways. He keeps saying that IF we know God THEN we will show a particular kind of life. In 1:6 he talked about the necessity of walking in the light. In 2:4 he talked about being obedient. In 2:9 he talked about not hating. In 3:6 & 9 he spoke about being free from sin . Now he speaks yet again about love in the same way; if we know God then we WILL love others. Why? Because God is love and if God by His Spirit lives within us, then He will express Himself in love to others.

     Look, says John, love is expressive. When God, who is love, encountered us He had to express His love. He did that by sending His Son Jesus to die for our sins. Love isn’t a nice feeling (although it can sometimes include that), it is an act. God acted in time and space history to express His love by sending Jesus to die on the Cross. THAT is love, the selfless giving to those who don’t deserve it.

     This is really a foundation stone in the Christian life, we love because He first loved us. He showed us what real love is and then says love each other in the same way. It’s almost as if He gives us an example and then says you do the same. See also Jn 13:15 and Jn 15:12-17 which shows us why John was now teaching as he was.

D. Application:

1. God is love, so if we know Him we WILL love.
2. No excuses! Do we really love each other?

Passage: 1 John 4:11-15

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. 13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.

A. Find Out:

1. What does John say we ought to do and why? v.11
2. What does loving one another show? v.12
3. How do we know intimacy with God? v.13
4. To what was John testifying? v.14
5. What does anyone testifying that Jesus is God’s Son show? v.15

B. Think:

1. What has Jesus done for us historically? (see earlier verses)
2. What resource has God now given us?
3. How should those things affect us in the way we behave?

C. Comment:

    John has just said that true love can be seen in the way Jesus died on our behalf. Extending that John now says that because He has so loved us we ought to love one another. Why?

     The first reason (not given here but implied) is that if we are children of God we will want to please our heavenly Father and do what He does. He clearly loves other people and therefore we should love them as well.

     The second reason, given here by John, is that God dwells within us by His Holy Spirit, and as he expresses Himself through us, and we allow Him to, then His love to other people will be expressed through us and we will love one another.

     By implication, the other side of this particular coin is that if we are not loving one another we must question a) whether we are children of God, and b) whether we are allowing God to express Himself as He wants to through us. Both possibilities are not good!

     Look, says John, if you have acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God then His Spirit does live in you and if He lives in you then (by implication) we have no excuse not to show God’s love one to another. This is a critical point and it reveals whether or not we are grieving the Holy Spirit by not allowing Him to express himself through us.

D. Application:

1. Like Father, like child?
2. Is the Spirit free to love others through me?

Passage: 1 John 4:16-21

16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: in this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

A. Find Out:

1. Upon what do we rely? v.16a
2. When will we have confidence and why? v.17
3. What does perfect love do and why? v.18
4. Why do we love? v.19
5. What is the person who hates his brother, and why? v.20
6. What command has been given? v.21

B. Think:

1. What essential characteristic of God is being spoken about?
2. How should that affect how we feel?
3. How should that affect how we act?

C. Comment:

      John has been saying these same things again and again. At the end of this chapter it is really all summed up.

      First, the character of God: He is love. Everything about God is love, everything He thinks, says or does is an expression of love. Any contact we have from God is a contact with perfect and pure love. We can’t emphasise this enough, for so many Christians query this truth when it comes to a personal crisis or misunderstanding God’s word. Everything, but everything about God is love!

     Second, the effect that should have upon our thinking. It should bring us total confidence, that the all-powerful, all-knowing God only expresses Himself in total love towards us. That means that we can have total confidence for our future on earth, because everything He plans for us is an expression of His love for us. It also means that we can have total confidence about the last judgement day, because on that day we know that the perfect of work of love, the death of Jesus, will mean we simply receive further expressions of His total love.

        Third, the effect that should have on our behaviour one to another. Everything he has done towards us is perfect love and when that truth really touches us, we WILL love one another.

D. Application:

1. EVERYTHING about God is love.
2. That should dynamically change our thinking & behaviour. Has it?