This week, we shall be finishing the study of the book of 1 John, 2 John and 3 John in the New Testament.
Testing the “Spirit”
(1) Reread the closing verses at the end of the last chapter (3:23-24).
a. How do we know that Christ lives in us who “believe in the name of God’s Son, Jesus Christ”?
b. How does the Apostle Paul reinforce this truth in the book of Romans 8:15-16?
c. Do you really know now that Christ lives in you? Why or why not?
(2) There are many who knock at our door and claim they are Christians and that their belief system is quite biblical.
a. Are they necessarily Christians?
b. What if they can even perform miracles? (Mk. 13:22)
c. What should we do? (4:1)
(3) How does John teach us to test if the “spirit” is from God? (4:2)
(4) This one-sentence test has actually three parts:
a. “Jesus Christ”: What does it mean for the spirit to acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ?
- What if Jesus is not the Christ? (See today's Meditative Article.)
b. “has come in the flesh”: What does it mean for the spirit to acknowledge that Jesus Christ has “come in the flesh”?
- What if Jesus Christ had not come in the flesh (“the Word became flesh”; see Jn. 1:14), but simply appeared in the form of a man, as the Angel of the Lord often did in the Old Testament?
c. "is from God": What does it mean for the spirit to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is from God?
- What if Jesus was just a man?
(5) What results if any spirit does not acknowledge part or the whole of the statement in v. 2?
a. Is this spirit from God?
b. What spirit is it?
(6) We read in the Gospels and in Acts that evil spirits often appeared and spoke through people that they possessed (e.g. the slave girl in Acts 16:16-18).
a. Should we be afraid of them?
b. Why or why not? (v. 4)
(7) Why do cults, like Jehovah Witness and Mormons, attract so many followers? (v. 5)
(8) Should we still try to evangelize them? Why or why not? (v. 6)
(9) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
After a little detour in addressing the spirit of the antichrist, John jumps right back to something he obviously sees as of utmost importance to his hearers: It is to love one another.
(1) What is its importance in the following areas?
a. Our Christian life
b. Our relationship with God
c. The community of believers (i.e. the church)
d. Our witness of the gospel that we preach
(2) John gives several aspects of the love involved. (vv. 7-8)
a. The source of love (v. 7a):
- Where does love come from?
- Does it mean that those who do not know God or belong to God cannot love?
b. It is natural (or rather supernatural)(v. 7b)
- In what way is “loving one another” part of our new nature?
- Why is it a mark of those who know God?
c. The flip side (v. 8a):
- Is it true that “whoever does not love does not know God”?
- Why or why not?
d. Which of the above speaks to you most? Why?
(3) If none of the above moves us to love another, John then uses the most powerful of all to speak to us. (vv. 9-12)
a. What is the supreme example of love? (v. 9)
b. Use the following questions to understand the supreme definition of love. (vv. 9-10)
- Who is God?
- Who is Jesus?
- Who are we?
- What do we deserve?
- What does God desire for us?
- What did God do?
- What did Jesus do?
- What is the result?
c. How then would you define God’s love?
d. Since love was “not that we loved God” (v. 10),
- How then should we love God now?
- How then should we love one another?
(4) In our effort to evangelize the world, would it help if the world could somehow see God?
(5) In essence, John is saying that God can be seen. How so? (v. 12)
(6) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
Under the command of love, John reiterates two main emphases that he just made: (1) God lives in us and we in Him, and (2) Love is made complete in us.
4:13-16—God in Us and We in Him
(1) Once again, John reiterates that we do know we live in God and He is us (v. 13)
a. How do we know this?
b. What does it mean that “we live in Him and He in us”? (3:24)
(2) How then can we have Him live in us and we in Him? (v. 15)
(3) Why is John so sure who Jesus is? (v. 14)
(4) Can we live in God and not in love? Why or why not? (v. 16)
4:17-18—Love Made Complete
(5) How is love made complete? (vv. 12, 16)
(6) What is meant by love being made “complete”?
(7) What is the result (or benefit) of having love made complete in us? (v. 17) Why?
(8) Are you afraid to face God on judgment day? (v. 18)
a. If one is not afraid, what is the basis of his/her confidence?
b. If one is afraid, what is the reason?
4:19-21—Love Made Visible
(9) What is difference between love that has nothing to do with God and love that is based on God’s love? (v. 19)
(10) How can we prove whether we truly love God? Why? (v. 20)
(11) V. 21 concludes this admonition about love by stating that it is a “command”. What is the difference between a mere suggestion and a command?
(12) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
5:1-5—Faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God
(1) How do we show our love for God? (v. 1)
(2) How do we know we love the children of God? (v. 2)
(3) If we love God, does it mean we are necessarily able to carry out His commands? (vv. 3-4)
(4) What is the key to overcoming the world? (v. 5)
(5) What is the flip side of not believing Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? (vv. 1, 5)
5:6-12—Who is Jesus?
(6) “Water” likely refers to the baptism of Jesus Christ (see Note below).
a. According to John, is the Jesus who was baptized the same Jesus who died on the cross? (v. 6)
b. What is the meaning of the baptism of Jesus Christ?
c. What is the meaning of His death on the cross? (4:10)
d. How are His baptism and death on the cross related?
e. How does the Holy Spirit testify about who Jesus is at both events? (Matt. 3:16-17; Eph. 1:18-21)
(7) John calls the three—the Spirit, the water and the blood—witnesses. In what ways are the three testimonies one? How are they in agreement? (v. 8)
(8) How do the three witnesses still testify today? (vv. 7-8)
a. The Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:16)
b. Believers’ baptism (Rom. 6:3ff)
c. The Holy Communion? (1 Cor. 11:26)
(9) Human testimony versus God’s testimony—Since the Bible is the Word of God, why is it that most people are more inclined to believe in human testimonies (as in science and philosophy), and not the testimony of God?
(10) According to John, what is the ultimate testimony of God in the Bible? (v. 11)
(11) What then is the definition of eternal life? (vv. 11-12)
(12) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
Note:
As previously explained, John is combating early Gnostic heresies, notably those of Cerinthus who “held that the heavenly Christ descended upon Jesus at his baptism but withdrew from him before his death, so that it was only the earthly Jesus who died and not the heavenly Christ” (Marshall, 232).
(1) John has given various reasons for writing this letter, and in his “concluding affirmation”, he ends with another, perhaps, the most important reason for his writing (as Howard Hendricks says, “Last words are lasting words”).
a. What is this reason for his writing? (v. 13)
b. How important is it?
c. Do you know that you have eternal life? Why or why not? (see 5:11-12)
(2) One of the results of having the eternal life of Christ (1:2) is the privilege to approach God in prayer as His children:
a. Does God necessarily answer whatever we ask for?
b. Why or why not?
c. What is meant by asking “according to His will”? (v. 14)
(3) In talking about asking according to God’s will, John seems to have intercession in mind in particular (vv. 16-17):
a. For whom and for what does John want us to intercede?
b. What can we expect God to do with such an intercession?
c. Since all wrongdoing is sin, what kind of wrongdoing belongs to the kind that leads to death within the context of this letter? (1:10; 2:18, 22; 4:3)
(4) Who is in control of this world right now? (v. 19; Jn. 14:30)
a. Whom can the evil one harm and whom can he not harm? (v. 18)
b. Why? (4:4)
c. What is the sign that we are born of God? (v. 18)
(5) Now John reiterates who Jesus is. (v. 20)
a. Who is Jesus?
b. What are the results of our believing in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, the true God and the eternal life?
(6) Why does John end his letter by admonishing his hearers, “Keep yourselves from idols.”?
a. How may this exhortation apply to you today?
(7) How does this “concluding affirmation” (5:13-21) wrap up the entire letter?
(8) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?