Main Scripture: 1 John 4:13-5:4
• When it comes to determining whether one is a Christian or not, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Thinking you are born again when you are not is the most costly mistake one could ever make.
• At the same time, being unsure of your salvation, when you are indeed a Christian can cost you as well. It can rob a person of the joy and confidence that is to be found by knowing that you are born of God. And it can hinder your growth and maturity if you are continually unsure of your birthmarks.
• The good news, is that we can know whether we’ve been made alive in God.
• We can know whether we’ve been born of the Spirit of God and John gives us some indicators of the new birth in these verses.
Main Idea: The marks of being born of God are faith, love and obedience
“We cannot believe in Jesus Christ without loving the Father and His children; we cannot love the Father without obeying His commands and overcoming the world; and we cannot overcome the world without believing in Jesus Christ” - John R.W. Stott
• Faith and love and obedience will be the fruit produced in one who has been made born again.
1. The new birth is marked by faith (4,13-15)
• When the Holy Spirit makes us alive, He enables us to respond and place our faith in Him.
• Prior to being born again by the Spirit, we are blind and selfish, completely unable to believe and unable to truly love.
• We know that we live in God and that He lives in us because He has given us His Spirit. And we know that He has given us His Spirit because we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and we live in love for Him and our brothers & sisters in Christ.
• Our confession – our acknowledgement by the Holy Spirit that Jesus is the Son of God gives testimony to the fact that we live in God and God lives in us.
2. The new birth is marked by love (4:16,19,20,21; 5:1)
• He sacrificed His own Son to save us who came from the world and were once a part of the world. And He loves you personally because He personally came to live in you.
• If we know and believe the love that God has for us, this is evidence that we are abiding in God and He in us.
• Before we were made alive to God, we were selfishly motivated as the world is but the Holy Spirit has enabled us to love God and each other
• Living in love is the result of living in God – it is because we have a relationship and fellowship with God that we can live in love.
• Abiding in love in this verse includes an awareness of living as a recipient of God’s love, while loving God and loving one another
• It is clear in our verses that the new birth is marked by love for God and love for one another
• We cannot claim to love God and yet not love our brothers and sisters
• We know that we love our brothers if we obey God’s commands
• We are able to love – we are people of love in fact and not people of fear, because He has loved us.
• Why do we love? Why can we love God and love each other – because He loved us first.
• And our very capacity to love, comes entirely from the fact that He has loved us objectively and placed His love in us specifically.
• If we really are mature in our love for God, not only will it be seen in confidence before Him, it will be seen in how we love our brothers and sisters in Christ.
“the perfect love that drives out fear, drives out hatred also. If God’s love for us is made complete when we love one another, so is our love for God.” - John Stott
• John is not ambiguous. If how one behaves contradicts their confession that they love God and love the brothers, then they are liars.
• Here John completes the third way that liars are revealed – in 1:6 and 2:4, he said that to claim we Know God and walk in darkness is to lie and in 2:22-23 John said that to claim to have the Father and yet deny the Son is to be a liar and here, if we claim to love god while we hate our brothers, we are liars.
• It is difficult to love God that we do not see and it is easier to show love to our brothers, who we can see and have in front of us all the time.
• Yet, if we claim to love God who we do not see (which is more difficult) but we fail to love our brothers and sisters, it is evidence of the fact that we are not loving God.
• Everyone who has been born again loves the Father
• In the same way, loving God the Father is evidenced by loving whoever has been born of Him
• The truth of our claim to love God will be plain to see – if we love God, we will love His children that are right here.
John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
John 15:12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
John 15:16-17 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
• If we love God, it will be seen in love for our brothers and sisters and this is one of the primary ways we obey God’s commands.
3. The new birth is marked by obedience (5:2-3)
• The Holy Spirit enables us to obey.
• We know that we love God, that we’ve been born again if we obey His commands
• Here John is saying in effect that - you cannot love God and obey His commandments if you do not love God’s children and you can’t love God’s children if you don’t love God and obey His commandments.
• Jesus said in John 14:15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
John 3:23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
• A commitment to keeping His commandments is a sign of our faith in God.
• Just like in human relationships, true love is not just an emotional experience, it is evidenced in a commitment and lifestyle that seeks to live out that commitment.
5:4 “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world- our faith.”
• If we are tempted to think that the kind of love and obedience that God calls us to is too hard for us, these verses are meant to give us hope – He will give us the ability. If we love God, it is evidence that we have His Holy Spirit within us and His Spirit will enable us to do what was previously impossible but now has been made possible precisely because we’ve been given the new birth.
• Jesus said in Matthew 11:40 that, “my yoke is easy and my burden is light”
• If we love God, we will see that His will is good and pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2)
• When we were born again, we were taken out of the realm of darkness and placed into the realm of eternal light.
• We were taken out of Satan’s kingdom and adopted and given a home with the King’s other children.
• When we believed in Jesus Christ as our Savior and when we trusted in His love for us, we were given power to say no to the things of the world.
• Those who have been born of God have overcome the worldly tendency to satisfy their own sinful cravings, and as a result they are free to show love to others and so fulfill God’s command.
• Because Jesus has overcome the world and all of its enticements and allurements, we too, through Him have the ability to overcome the world – to say no to a worldly way of thinking and living, through faith in Him.
• The indwelling power of the Spirit that enables us to overcome false prophets also enables us to overcome worldly temptations and worldly ways of thinking.
• We have faith in the fact that Jesus has already overcome and as we live in Him, we live in faith that He will enable us to overcome through Him.
17: By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world
• By believing God’s love, knowing God’s love personally and living in God’s love, His love is made mature in us, so that we can have confidence when He returns.
• We can have confidence that we’ve been born again and that God is for us, as we experience faith in God, love for God and obedience to God.
• This kind of faith in the very love of God that has made us born again is meant to result in confidence to stand before the throne of God each and every day and ultimately, so that we can stand in confidence before the throne on the final day of judgment, fearing no wrath, no punishment – because His perfect love casts out all fear.
• Just like Jesus could call God Father, we too can call Him our Father.
• We have been saved by the Son of God and made like Him. We are not perfect or complete yet but we can stand with confidence today knowing that all of our sins have been taken away and that no wrath or punishment for our sins remains.
18: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love
• Because God has loved us and His love has been made mature in us, we never need to fear.
• We have a Father now who has sent His Son because He has loved us. We have an advocate – Jesus Christ the righteous, who makes intercession for us. We have the Holy Spirit who is interceding for us.
• If the entire Holy Trinity is for us – if God is for us, who can be against us!?
• His love – knowledge of His love, experiencing His love and abiding in His love give evidence of the fact that His love is mature in us and we don’t ever need to fear punishment from God.
Potential Application Questions:
1. Where do you find evidences of faith in God, love for God and His children and obedience to God at work in your life? How is this encouraging or discouraging and why?
2. How can we practically love one-another by encouraging each other in these areas?
(If someone n your group is particularly discouraged, take some time to encourage them in these three areas)
3. How is love for your brothers and sisters in Christ (that you see in our local body) currently being expressed?
4. Do you treat all of His children equally or do you play favorites? If you do play favorites, how can you pursue change and grow in love?
5. What are some specific ways we can help each other grow in the areas of faith, love and obedience?
6. How does knowledge of God’s great love for you produce confidence in you each day?
7. What are some of the areas of God’s love we should meditate on more to encourage us in our Christian walk?
