1 John 4 – Abiding, loving (and testing)

This letter of 1 John has themes that come around again and again. So in chapter 4 we read again about the opponents of Jesus (which John calls antichrist), the love of God, our sins, and the idea of abiding with God.

In this letter these themes are intertwined, and John seems to be saying that they can’t easily be separated. We can’t look at one of these and then move onto the next. To gain a fuller understanding we must keep turning the ideas over and over.

So, thinking about others people John gives a simple test: what do they think of Jesus? ‘Every spirit that confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh is from God.’

Perhaps you’re starting to think about Christmas. What happened at the first Christmas is really important, John says. Baby Jesus was God born in human flesh, and that is really important to who Jesus is and what he did.

John goes on to say that this sending of Jesus into the world was a revelation of God’s love, and through Jesus we have life because Jesus was ‘the atoning sacrifice for our sins’. Theologians argue about what that means, and in what way Jesus was a sacrifice (and how that relates to the sacrifices of the Old Testament). But John is clear that through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we have been put right with God – in fact ‘God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us’ as we love one another.

Twice in this chapter John states that ‘God is love’. God is the ultimate model of love – it’s not that we love God, John says, but that God loves us. And as a result of that love, that sacrifice, that revelation, we can abide in God and God abides in us.

What does this mean for our lives now?

First, John says that perfect love drives out fear – we need not fear what might happen to us because the one who is in us in greater than the one who is in the world – the Spirit of God wins!

Second, and returning to one of his big themes, John says that it means that we should love one another, showing the love of God as we do so. 

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