HillThread ~ Supporting Missions

1 John 4:13-21

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

We love because he first loved us. 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. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

What is love? is a question asked by theologians, philosophers and ethicists; by romantic poets and adolescents; by betrayed spouses and abandoned children; by the hope ful and the hopeless; by the dreamy-eyed and the cynical. Answers to the question are many. And, sadly enough, many of the answers betray a hard-edged cynicism. The familiar folk song “Lemon Tree” has a father giving his son this advice: “Don’t put your faith in love, my boy. . . . I fear you’ll find that love is like the lovely lemon tree . . . very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet, but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.” In short, dream about love, sing about it, write about it–but avoid it, for it does not bring hope and joy, only hopelessness and bitterness.

The author of 1 John has a different view of the matter. Simply and boldly he writes, God is love. Inadvertently this often gets turned around to read “love is God.” If love is God, then it is what we live for, what we serve, the ultimate standard of all. Augustine wrote that, prior to his conversion, “I loved not yet, yet I loved to love. . . . I sought what I might love, in love with loving” (Confessions 3.1). Love itself was what was sought, cherished, hoped for. Love is, as one pop song of the sixties had it, “all you need.”

But John does not write “love is God,” that love is the final and supreme good. He writes, God is love. If we want to know what love is, then we must let God define it. As Frederick Buechner comments, “To say that love is God is romantic idealism. To say that God is love is either the last straw or the ultimate truth” (1973:54). For John, it is indeed the ultimate truth. God is not hate, anger, bitterness or deceit, but love. Love does not de scribe the fullness of God, but God defines the fullness of love. In this section of the epistle (4:13–5:5), we are shown that God is the standard of love (4:13-16); the one who encourages us in love (4:17-18); the source of love (4:19-20); and the one who commands us to love (4:21–5:5).God Is the Standard of Love (4:13-16).

1 John 4:7-12

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

God’s life-giving love is the theme of this passage. As John develops this theme, he makes three important points: God is the source of all love (4:7-8); God models what genuine love is (4:9-10); and God commands us to love each other (4:11-12). We move from the assertion that God is love to the command that we are to love each other. Indeed, the whole point of the passage is to trace the relationship between God’s love and human love, and to show how human love flows from God’s own love, which is the source of love

In short, God not only gives us the command to love but has also modeled for us what true love is, just as Jesus modeled love for his disciples when he washed their feet before his death (Jn 13:1-17). Love that does not express itself concretely and in service to others is not love (1 Jn 3:16-18). But even more, God also empowers us to love. By confession of the Son whom God has sent, we are born of God and come to know God, who is love (v. 7); we are given life (v. 9); our sins are forgiven (v. 10). We come into the realm of life and love, in which we are given life and are empowered to extend the same kind of life-giving love to others. In Christ, we have come to know the source of love.

1 John 4:1-6

“Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.

But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because greater is He that is in you than the one who is in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.”

What this passage gives us is a “field guide” to identifying or discerning “spirits”. (Don’t be overwhelmed by the word ‘spirit’. Basically, a person is either inspired by God through the Holy Spirit, which is someone we want to listen to, or they are not inspired by God, which we definitely want to avoid.) Specifically, it calls attention to two distinct “field marks” of various spirits: first, what they say or teach; second, who hears or accepts their teaching. That seems straightforward enough. With this knowledge in mind, we ought to be able to venture forth to spot and identify a variety of spirits, simply by checking each species against our guide. Why, then, does it seem that so many people cannot see the spirits for what they are and fall prey to all varieties of heresies, misin terpretations of Scripture, cults and fads? And even when we can discern truth from error and determine that a particular teaching, person or group is wrong, what are we to do? Such questions are not easily answered.

Our best defense is to remain in a close relationship with God through Jesus by means of committing to personal worship time, reading our Bible, prayer, corporate worship with other believers, Bible studies and times of praise.

1 John 3:1
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

The most amazing thing about God’s love is that is is unconditional.

God doesn’t say, “I love you if . . . ” There are no “ifs” in God heart. His love for us doesn’t depend on what we say or do, on our looks or intelligence, on our success or popularity, or even our performances. His love for us existed before we were born, and it will exist through all of our mistakes. His love exists from eternity to eternity, and is not bound by time or circumstances.

Jesus showed exactly how much He loves us this way, while we were still living in sin apart from Him, He died on a cross for us. (Romans 5:8)

Now, unconditional love doesn’t mean that og doesn’t care what we say or do. No Way! Love without condition isn’t love without concern. Unconditional love isn’t unconditional approval. God doesn’t approve of our disobedience.

Loving unconditionally means that God loves us even when we blow it. God waits for us with love and anticipation the way the father waited for the prodigal son to return. We must rest in the assurance that, even through we sin, God’s love never fails, He never gives up on loving us. We need to know that, because sin has a way of making us think that no one can love us after all the bad stuff we’ve done.

Even though God doesn’t approve of our mistakes, He still loves us so very much! God’s love is the magnet that draws us back to Him.

Related Text:
Romans 5

Matthew 25:25
“I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.”

If you weren’t afraid of failing, what would you attempt today?

In Matthew 25:14-30, a wealthy businessman entrusted his entire estate to 3 key workers. He gave the first worker 5 talents, the second worker 2 talents, and the third worker 1 talent.

A talent is believed to be worth about 1 year’s salary. Knowing that helps us understand exactly how marvelous of an opportunity this was for the workers. It was a defining moment in their lives that gave them the chance to:
1. test their skills
2. practice good judgement
3. profit from their investment

Two of the workers accomplished all three of these things, but the third was afraid of failing his master. In his fear, he decided t play it safe and bury the money he was given. Playing it safe got him called wicked and lazy. (Matthew 25:26)

Fear of failure always makes us play it safe. Without the courage to start, we are already finished. Everyone will either overcome their fears or give into them.

Refuse to let fear stop you from making God a return on His investment. His investment is YOU. How we use the gifts that Go has given us is a matter of utmost importance. We all could use a little reckless faith.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
“You are not your own; you were bought at a price.”

1 John 3:16-20
16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

John 15:9-15
9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.

True love requires sacrifice. It’s true. To truly give of your love, you must be willing to sacrifice for it. According to the dictionary, the word sacrifice means “destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else”. In Other words, to give up something.

Sacrifice, that’s kind of a hard word for most of us. Really, it’s a word we don’t like to use all that often. We don’t want to sacrifice much, not money, not time, not our possessions, and not our lives. To truly understand what sacrifice is, and what it would look like in our lives, we have to consider what God sacrificed for us. Stop and think for a moment. Stop and just thank Jesus for being the ultimate sacrifice for us. Without Christ, we are nothing (John 15:6). He paid it all so we could be free. Take time right now to praise and worship Him for His most excellent sacrifice.

One of my favorite songs from Third Day is Offering. Here are a couple lyrics that penetrate my heart:

“Who am I that You should suffer
Your very life to set me free
The only thing that I can give You
Is the life You gave to me

This is my offering, dear Lord
This is my offering to You, God
And I will give You my life
For it’s all I have to give
Because You gave Your life for me”

Have you sacrificed your life and they way the world tells you to live? Have you declared to God that you will live your life in obedience to Him who died for you?

Related Text:
2 Corinthians 5:15
“And Jesus died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

Genesis 9:16
“Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

When Noah preached about the coming rain, it was a symbol of blessings.

After the flood, God said, ” . . . and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life. When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth. Then God said to Noah, ‘Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.’” Genesis 9:15-17

When God turns something that should have destroyed you into a blessing, you’ll be able to look back and say, “The suffering, even though it was horrible, did me some good. It taught me to pay attention to God.”

Without suffering, we would never discover:
1. that isolation creates determination and makes us lay hold of God
2. the power of prayer
3. what God can accomplish in the face of adversity
4. that God alone brings us through suffering

Suffering will come, but after the rain comes the rainbow! God has a way of turning suffering into blessing.

Related Text:
Psalm 119:71
“My suffering was good for me,
for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees.”

Habakuk 2:3
“If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently,
for it will surely take place.
It will not be delayed.”

God sometimes post-dates His promises.

He takes His time getting us fully prepared for our destiny, even when we feel we’re more than ready. We may think God’s promises and plans for our lives are delayed, but they are only delayed according our time; God’s timing is perfect. This tends to be one of the hardest things for us as Christians to wrap our heads around: Completely trusting in God that His plans and His TIMING are perfect.

God finds some of His most useful people in some of the worst places. He found Gideon hiding in a cave and He found Rahab working in a brothel. But no matter where He finds us, He can always use us if we are willing to follow His direction.

Is that where you are? Have you been asking God why are you stuck where you are when your passions are somewhere else? Joshua was stuck for a time. He went to scout the Promised Land, and when he and Caleb came back to the Hebrews, they were met with opposition and unwillingness to trust God. (Numbers 13-14)

Don’t despair! As hard as it may be, trust in God. “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” – Philippians 1:6

Related Text:
Psalm 36:7 “How precious is your unfailing love, O God!
All humanity finds shelter
in the shadow of your wings.”

Romans 8:35, 38-39
35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 John 4:16-19 (The Message)
13-16This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.

To Love, to Be Loved
17-18God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment— it is a sign of a person not yet fully formed in love.
19We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

Unconditional love is the way God loves you and me. God’s love isn’t based on grades, personality, looks, money, past actions, present actions, future actions, friendships, athletic performance, business ethics, or anything.

READ it right there in one of the related texts, Deut. 7:7-8 (I basically says, God loves us because He loves us. Wow, wrap your head around that. The reason the Bible gives for God loving us is that it’s because He loves us!)

If God loved you for what you did, that would be called conditional love. But God’s love is unconditional because His love has no strings attached. Sure there are things that you and I do that God doesn’t like, but He will never keep His love from us!

NOTHING you or I do will separate us from God’s love. Believe it or not, there is no sin that is too gross, no language that is too bad, no action that’s too evil, and no thought that’s too wild to stop God from loving you! Wow, doesn’t that make you feel all warm and cozy, and want to crawl up in the lap of our Heavenly Father!

Digest this, God shows us unconditional love! Got it.

Reread Romans 8:35, 38-39 from the perspective as YOU showing God unconditional love. (I know, did your mind just melt!?!?)

Nothing that we go through, nothing that happens to us, no amount of pain we experience should cause us to stop loving God.

God loves us no matter what. Now throw that amazing love right back at Him, and love God no matter what you are going through.

Persevere!

Related Text:
Deuteronomy 7:7-11
John 3:16-19
Romans 5:8-11
Ephesians 2:4-10

Proverbs 20:7

“God-loyal people, living honest lives,

make it much easier for their children.”

In 1927, a Georgia real estate and insurance company folded, short-changing 500 stockholders. The owner, a man called Mercer, was a person of integrity who vowed if possible to repay everyone every single penny. But despite his best efforts, his company never did make a comeback. After he died, his son remembered his father’s vow and 28 years later deposited a check in a Savannah bank to reimburse every last stockholder.

That young man was the successful singer/songwriter Johnny Mercer. One of the songs he wrote from which he earned the royalties to pay the stockholders back was “Accentuate the Positive.”

When you go, leave your children – both biological and spiritual – something more important than money to remember you by; leave them a legacy of integrity: “God-loyal people, living honest lives, make itmuch easier fr their children.”

The person who can’t be trusted on all counts can’t truly be trusted on any. Ethical principles are not flexible. A little white lie is still a lie, no matter what kind of excuses we make; theft is always theft, whether it’s one dollar or a million. Character is made in the small moments of our lives when no one is there to check up on us.

Sociologists suggest that people of poor character might have been different if they’d grown up in a better environment. Character is a choice. Our circumstances are no more responsible for our character than the mirror is for our looks. What we see only reflects what we are – and what we are is what we’ve spent our lives building.

And the choice of making Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior is the foundation on which to build character!

Related Text:

Matthew 7:24-27