[Day 15] A Study of 1 John

Top Level Notes for 1 John 3:11-15

Verse 11: The message from the beginning -> LOVE ONE ANOTHER

  • When we love one another there is no room for sinning against each other.
  • This is speaking about loving our brethren in Christ, the children of the same family of God; of whom we have been born again.

Verse 12: Once again John contrasts belonging to the evil one or the One True God. 1 John 3:8 and 1 John 3:10

  • Envy and hatred produce murder. This is why John says ‘and one who hates his is a murderer’.
  • Cain’s deeds, activities and works were evil -> God overlooked Cain’s offering because of his heart.
    • That same evil heart beget jealousy over God’s acceptance of Abel’s offering.
    • Cain’s eyes were blinded to God’s reason for honoring Abel’s sacrifice over his own.

Verse 13: The counter statement would be – Be totally surprised if the world loved you.

  • Just as Cain, the world feels tacitly reproved by our good works.

Verse 14: When we love our brothers and sisters in Christ, we know that we have passed from this earthly spiritual death into life.

  • He who does not love their brother or sister remains and lives in death.
  • Love on our part is the evidence of our justification and regeneration; not the cause of them.
    • Don’t mind that your glory is still hidden when you search your heart and find love, that is your confidence.
    • Not unlike the plant during winter time, whose roots are full of vitality and vigor yet its leaves and branches will not spring forth until the summertime.

Verse 15: Hate == love not. There is no medium between the two. Love and hatred are like light and darkness.

  • Life and Death necessarily replace each other as well as exclude.
  • Indulging in hatred will lead to its natural consequences which is murder.
    • Whomever one hates, one wishes to be dead.
    • Such a one “abideth” in death, not the future state, but its present.
    • The person who hates (loves not) his brother cannot in this present state have eternal life abiding in him.

[Day 14] A Study of 1 John

Top Level Notes for 1 John 3:7-10

Verse 7: John is making a big deal about not being led astray in this book.

  • He wants his church to keep their noses in the word and to lean on the Truths they learned at the beginning.
  • What I do does not make me righteous, but my being righteous (justified by the righteousness of God in Christ, Ro 10:3-10) makes me to do righteousness: the opposite in familiar language, logical in reality, though not in form, as in Lu 7:47; Joh 8:47.
  • Works do not justify, but the justified man works. I infer from someone doing righteousness that they are already righteous (that is, has the true and only principle of doing righteousness, namely, faith), and is therefore born of God (1Jo 3:9); just as we might say, The tree that bears good fruit is a good tree, and has a living root; not that the fruit makes the tree and its root to be good, but it shows that they are so. 1 John 3:7 [Jamieson, Faucett, and Brown]

Verse 8: Likewise, the person who is of the devil is sinful – takes his character from the evil one.

  • The reason Jesus came was to undo what devil has done.

Verse 9: Once we have given our lives over to Jesus and been born of God by receiving His free gift, will lose the desire to sin.

  • We will be indwelt with the seed of the Divine Nature and we will hate sin.
  • We are fallible and will miss the mark but through God’s grace alone can we be forgiven of that momentary lapse in judgement or control.
  • What is true is that our aim forever more becomes the bullseye of God’s will and purpose in our life.

Verse 10: John is telling us that we can have a litmus test to see whether someone is a child of God or not.

  • A person who is justified, does righteousness.
  • A person who does not correct a wrong or easily goes against what is right is not of God.
  • If a person hates their brother or sister is not child of God.

[Day 13] A Study of 1 John

Today I spent time dwelling on and consuming the analogy that God had laid on my heart last night when reading some of the commentaries on 1 John 3:1-3.  This picture of a Target being our ultimate goal of being like Christ (doing what He did and operating in our mind and action as He did here on earth).  There are the winds of the world that try to blow our arrows off target (anything missing the mark is sin).  The elements of satan like rain blurring our vision and frightening us.  The distraction of media and things as well as our own pursuits constantly draw our aim away from the Target.  But!  We have the straight ruler of God’s Word to set our aim down range; we have the work of Jesus through the Holy Spirit spotting scope to give us direction and changes based on the Winds of the World and this flesh that loves to receive the signals (elements) of satan that threaten to get in our way.  With the Holy Spirit spotting scope our trajectory can still be true.

Target

 

[Day 12] A Study of 1 John

Top Level Notes for 1 John 3:1-3

  • Verse 1: God’s love has to be so great because that love has compelled Him to make us one of His own, like Jesus, but through Him. Jesus is our Savior and Big Brother. WE ARE HIS KIDS; WE ARE PARTAKERS IN THE INHERITANCE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
    • We as children of the Almighty are not understood or known by the world because they do not know or understand Jesus.
    • The world’s whole course is one great act of non-recognition of God.
  • Verse 2: Again, John states that we are God’s children (here and now).
    • Though not recognized as such by the world. As a consequence we look for the visible manifestation of our sonship, which ‘not yet’ has taken place.
    • We do not yet know the inconceivability glorious “what we shall be” — What further glory we shall attain by virtue of our sonship.
    • “We shall see Him as He is” – more like we will perceive Him in all that He is with all knowledge of/in spiritual wisdom.
    • “We will be like Him” – We will have the facilities physically, spiritually, and mentally to comprehend all that He is and does.
  • Verse 3: Resting upon Him -> grounded in His promises we are made righteous. God justifies completely and those justified are glorified.
    • In order to be justified you must be called.
    • When you have the Hope of seeing Jesus how he truly is and becoming who we will become then we act in such a way that we are always ready to see Him confidently; not needing any adjustment of the heart when we are caught up to be Him when he returns. When we live this way then we naturally strive to live in a way that we are ready -> we cleanse ourselves to be pure as He is pure.

[Day 11] A Study of 1 John

Top Level Notes for 1 John 2:27-29

  • Verse 27: Huge verse! As for those of us who have kept the Gospel in our hearts from the beginning->we have the Holy Spirit residing in us…therefore we don’t need anyone to instruct us. Everything we need is in Him and He is in us.
    • Because God now abides in us through the Holy Spirit, we can find all answers through Him and His word.
      • Jeremiah 31:34
      • John 6:45 & 16:13
    • The Anointing -> Giving of the Holy Spirit
    • Abides -> Live permanently in you.
    • You must abide in -> An active, minute by minute, effort to stay in close relationship and knowledge of God.
      • Being rooted in His word
      • Knit to Him
      • We do this but the exact word of God we are studying tells us to.
  • Verse 28: Once again John uses his term of endearment ‘little children’ to emphasize the reason we stick close to God through His word, prayer, and righteousness.
    • That we might be overjoyed and not dismayed or embarrassed when He returns.
    • That we will be able to run to Him in confidence and boldness that He has been the object of our affection and study. [Horrible analogy coming but all I could think of] Like getting to know someone as a pen pal for years, learning all of their likes and dislikes, and who they are and then finally getting to meet them. You know them without having seen them and so you run and hug them and connect immediately because seeing them face to face has not mattered.
  • Verse 29: If our faith is true and we have the deep internal knowledge that Jesus is the Son of God and came in flesh as a man to earth to live a perfect life and then die for the sins of the entire world -> then we will have the discernment to know those who are righteous and true believers in in the same. We will know by their heart in works and how they live their life that they live for the One Who purchased them from death.

[Day 10] A Study of 1 John

Top Level Notes for 1 John 2:22-26

  • Verse 22: Who is more of a liar than the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? That person is an “anti-Christ”; one who over and over again denies and refuses to acknowledge the Father and the Son.
    • Anti-Christ here is meant in the abstract not personal. To deny that Jesus is the Christ, or that He is the Son of God, or that He came in the flesh, invalidates the whole.
  • Verse 23: Anyone who has denied Jesus has also denied God the Father. However, anyone who confesses and acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
  • Verse 24: As for you -> the church, hold fast to what you have heard from the beginning. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we continue to hold onto what we know to be true then we will actually be dwelling with the Father and the Son always!
    • (Keep in your heart what you heard from the beginning) Seed that has taken root
    • You will dwell -> that seed in us will transform us into the likeness of Him.
  • Verse 25: Jesus Himself has promised us THE LIFE, the ETERNAL LIFE.
    • Permanent consummation of abiding in the Son and in the Father.
  • Verse 26: The reason that John is writing these down is so that we have something to reference when others are attempting to lead us astray.
    • I think this is so important -> that we should always look to the word ourselves so that the Lord through His Holy Spirit can confirm in us the truth.

[Day 9] A Study of 1 John

Top Level Notes for 1 John 2:18-21:

  • Verse 18 – John is using words that Jesus used to keep the church in a constant state of vigilance and readiness.
    • This has been continuing for 2018 years
    • Anti-Christ -> Hostile person: someone claiming to be Jesus but counter to everything Jesus taught or the way He lived.
  • Verse 19: These people who went out from us but were never of us are those who came to church for what it could do for them, having never been called by God; then when not finding what it could do for them, leave and talk badly of the church or defining their own version of christianity that befits them.
    • The fact that they went shows that they were not called and therefore did not have the perseverance needed to last to the end.
  • Verse 20: Anointing -> The ability to discern the Lord’s instruction through His word. Having an anointing and knowing the Truth is the same thing. Verse 2:27 also captures this.
  • Verse 21: John is writing these words not to correct but to reinforce what we know through our anointing.

[Day 7] A Study of 1 John

1 John [Day 7] – John starts to apply the pressure even more that you can not have one foot in the world and one foot in the Lord’s work. Your entire existence and all that you do must be focused solely on the Kingdom of the Father and the purposes for which He put you here. Any deviation from this path is loving the world more than Him. This is why selflessness, caring for the poor, and leading people to Himself are all that the Lord Jesus was about and John knew this.

Top Level Notes for 1 John 2:12-17:

  • Verse 12 – John loves his congregation. You get the sense that he deeply cares about them and wants them to understand what they have in their Savior. It is through the Name of Christ alone that we have forgiveness of sins; through His name who we have put our faith and trust in.
  • Verse 13/14 – Fathers characterize knowledge. Young men by their activity in conflict. The Fathers would have been old enough to have known Jesus. The young men have victory over the wicked one in verse 13 but in verse 14 they have the Word of God (the Sword of the Spirit) abiding in them. The boys (or lads) mention that they have come to know the Father. The other difference between 13 and 14 is that the tense of 13 is “I am writing to you” (the perspective of the reader) and 14 is “I write you” (the perspective of the writer).
  • Verse 15 – This is a simplification but I see this as – you can’t love the Father and spend all of your time dwelling on Him when you chase after loves of the things here on earth. You see this in overwhelming focus someone will put into a hobby but not devote the same or more time to the Lord in His service, worshipping, or learning more about Him.
  • Verse 16 – John covers all of the bases:
    • Craving for sensual gratification
    • Greedy longings of the mind
    • Assurance in one’s own resources of in the stability of earthly things
    • These are all things of the world and not of God. Don’t fall into the trap that somehow through the pursuit of these things you can argue living for God alone.
  • Verse 17 – The things you do for the Lord in your life here on earth last forever but the indulgence on the things list above are only temporary.

[Day 6] A Study of 1 John

John starts into his real focus of the book -> LOVE, and how powerful it is in determining our walk with God. Love is foundation to our walk and sanctification process. Without it we are lost; living in darkness.

Top Level Notes for 1 John 2:7-11:

  • Verse 7 – The old commandment that John is speaking of is Love.       The same love that Jesus spoke about as the one of the 2 most important commandments. Love your God with all your heart, soul, and spirit and Love your neighbor as you yourself would want to be loved. Love one another as I have loved you – Jesus
  • Verse 8 – John decides to take a negative approach and create a new commandment which essentially interrogates the one on Love in verse 7.       When you are walking with Jesus then the Truth of the statement in verse 9 shines through.
  • Verse 9 – You cannot say that you walk in the Light if you hate your brother or sister in Christ because that would be going against the commandment Christ gave above.
  • Verse 10 – When you love your Brothers and Sisters in Christ you LIVE in the Light and the Light is in you. In the Light there is not room to stumble.
  • Verse 11 – If you hate your Brother or Sister in Christ YOU ARE WALKING in darkness. Not may be or could be…YOU ARE. This person is straying away and is truly blinded to where he/she is going.

[Day 5] A Study of 1 John

1 John [Day 4 and 5] – Background on 1 John: This was likely written towards the end of the first century after the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. It is also likely that John was the pastor of a church for the years after Jesus ascended into Heaven. The reason that it is believed he was a church pastor and not a traveling missionary like Paul was because there are no letters written by him to remote churches with salutations customary when writing such letters. John had seen personally many of the miracles, the death, and resurrection of Jesus. Based on the timing of this letter (late first century) he is up there in age and has a well founded church; so it is with enduring love that he refers to his church as his children.

On Friday (Day 3), I read through verses 1-17 of 1 John 2 but did not have a quiet time on Saturday (Day 4). Today I am re-reading through 1 John 2:1 – 6 and will dwell and meditate on that passage.

Top Level Notes for 1 John 2:1-6:

  • DO NOT SIN!
    • Refrain, resist, turn, and don’t indulge
  • If you sin:
    • Thank goodness we have an advocate in Jesus a the right hand of God in heaven interceding on our behalf.
      • It is like Jesus is our filter only representing the best of what we are and absorbing the cost of the sin we commit. So, when I sin I must have the picture in my mind of Jesus absorbing the blow that I most definitely deserve.
      • I decided to do a little word picture to represent that thought.

Propitiation

  • PROPITIATION: Turning away of wrath by an offering. Similar to expiation but expiation does not carry the nuances involving wrath.
    • Jesus is the propitiation of my sins and the sins of the whole world.
  • How am I able to see for myself that I am growing in my knowledge of Jesus?
    • I bear Him in mind in all that I do.
    • I observe, obey, and practice His teaching and commands.
  • What does it mean to KNOW?
    • To perceive Him
    • To recognize Him
    • To understand Him
    • To be acquainted with Him
  • If I say I know Him but fail to keep and obey His commands then I am a LIAR -> The Truth (Gospel) is not in me.

BUT!!

  • He who treasures God’s Word in its entirety -> the love of and for God has been perfected, completed, and reached its maturity.       When this happens I will know, recognize, and be sure that I am IN Him.
    • When I say I abide in Him; as a personal debt, I owe it to Jesus to walk and conduct myself in the same way in which He walked and conducted Himself.