Bourland Family Blog

Top Level Notes for 1 John 5:18-21

Verse 18: WE KNOW with absolute confidence that anyone born of God does not deliberately and knowingly practice committing sin.

• Jesus within us carefully watches over us and protects us from evil.
• The devil does not lay hold (get a grip) on him or touch him.

Verse 19: WE KNOW that we are of God. Everything around us is of and under the power/control of the evil one.

Verse 20: WE KNOW that Jesus has come into this world.

• He has given us understanding and insight to perceive and recognize Him Who is True.
  • We are IN Him Who is True -> His Son Jesus Christ.
  • The True God and life eternal.

Verse 21: Keep yourself from anything that puts itself above God in your life (false idols)

• Anything and everything that would occupy the place in your heart He alone deserves to inhabit.
• From any substitute for Him that would take first place in your life.

 

• WE KNOW – that true believers do not go on knowingly and deliberately sinning (practicing/committing).
• WE KNOW – that we are OF GOD and no longer part of this world ruled by the power of satan.
• WE KNOW – that our King, the Lord Jesus Christ, was sent by the Father to teach us about Himself and give us a model of righteousness and truth.
• Keep NO idols in your life that replace the Lord in your life. Your idols and God cannot coexist in your heart.

Top Level Notes for 1 John 5:11-17

Verse 11&12: This is the testimony a person HAS that believes in the Son of God:

• God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son
• He who possesses the Son, HAS eternal life
• He who does not possess the Son, does not have that life

Verse 13: John writes this to believers so that they who believe in and trust the Son of God will know with settled and absolute knowledge they already have eternal life.

Verse 14: With this knowledge we can have the assurance and privilege of boldness which we have IN Him.

• This confidence is the knowledge that whatever we ask according to His will, He listens to and hears us.
  • What we ask will be in His will because we are following in His truth. His will becomes our greatest desire.

Verse 15: We can rejoice over our prayers to the Lord offered in faith and seeking His purposes; we can trust they will be answered and give Him the glory when we see those prayers come to pass as we had faith they would (how we expected).

• I must get better at obtaining this type of prayer life.

Verse 16: If I see a fellow brother in Christ committing a sin they routinely struggle with and that sin is not sin that leads to death (willfully denying the truth and existence of the One True God) then I can pray for God’s power to forgive and restore his life. If I know that someone has openly renounced Christ then praying for forgiveness for that sin is ineffectual.

Verse 17: All wrongdoing is sin. There are sins that do not lead to spiritual death that may be repented of and forgiven.

Top Level Notes for 1 John 5:7-10

Verse 7&8: Two or three witnesses were required by law to constitute adequate testimony.

• In heaven – the unseen Father, the Word before time, and the influence of the Holy Spirit are all that is needed in the spiritual realm. All powers and principalities know who the Father, Word, and Holy Spirit are.
• On earth we have 3 witnesses:
  • The Spirit of God:
    • Talked to Abraham
    • Talked to Moses, Joshua, Isiah, and the prophets.
    • Descended upon Jesus in His Baptism in the Jordan.
  • The Water:
    • Those who saw Jesus baptized and the ministry that followed the water and proclamation of the Spirit that Jesus is the Son of God.
  • We have the Blood:
    • The crucifiction and death of the sinless sacrifice that justifies and purifies us.

Verse 9: We accept man’s testimony -> the testimony of the apostles and men of God who witnessed the water, the Spirit, and death of our Savior. How much more then shall we depend on and believe the testimony of the Almighty.

• What the Lord has said will justify us for all eternity -> MUST be so.

Verse 10: So, if I believe in the Son of God, then I have the witness of God living/dwelling in me. When my heart is following and loving God in all that I do, all I need to do is listen to the Lord’s voice inside of me to hear His attesting of the Truth.

• The person who does not believe in God essentially throws the testimony of the witness of God out the window and virtually calls Him a liar. This person has not believed all of the evidence set forth by God regarding His Son.

Top Level Notes for 1 John 5:6

Verse 6: He (Jesus) that came by water AND blood.

• Jesus’ ministry was inaugurated by the baptism in the Jordan.       He received the Father’s testimony to His Messiahship and Divine Sonship.
  • In John 1:32-34, John himself, “saw and bare record that Jesus Christ is the Son of God”.
  • Baptism of the water and spirit with He has instituted as a standing seal and means of incorporation with Him.
• With His own blood He entered in once into the Holy place of heaven.
  • These two past facts as witnessed by John are this abiding testimony to us, by virtue of the permanent application to of their cleansing and atoning power.
• It is the infallible withness of the Holy Spirit that gives authority to the water and blood sacraments of purification into the body of Christ.

Top Level Notes for 1 John 5:1-5

Verse 1 & 2: How do I know that I am capable of a love that serves and cares for other believers?

1. I believe that Jesus is the Christ
2. I believe/know that I am a born again child of His
3. I have a deep inset desire from God (His nature) to care for and serve others

How do I know that I and loving the children of God the way He intends?

1. I LOVE God Himself!
2. I obey His commands

Verse 3: The true love of God defined:

1. I love God when I do what He commands in His word.
2. The commands are a true joy; not burdensome or loathsome.

Verse 4: God has conquered death and the power of sin (the world) in our loves. When I am IN Him, I too have victory over the world around me. Our faith is the fortress that keeps us safe; a refuge from the evil in this world.

Verse 5: The ONLY way to overcome this world is through the conqueror Himself -> Jesus Christ.

Top Level Notes for 1 John 4:18-21

Verse 18: Dread does not exist in love, but fully mature love shoo’s fear out the door and expels every trace of terror.

• This is the love we learn from God.
• Bold confidence, based on love, cannot coexist with fear.
• Fear, by anticipating punishment (through consciousness and deserving of it), has it even now, that is, a taste of the punishment to come.
• Godly fear of offending God is quite different/distinct from slavish fear of consciously deserved punishment.
  • The latter fear is natural to us all until love casts it out.

Verse 19: We on our part love God, our brethren, and fellow man because it was He who first loved us.

• When we understand the deep love God has for us (by internalizing the great act of sending His Son to die was), then we will know that with His love for us we do not have to fear…while we were yet sinners, God sent His Son to die for us.

Verse 20: The eyes are our leaders in love.

• Nature is prior to grace; we by nature love things seen.
  • Seeing is an incentive to love.
• If we do not love our brothers and sisters in Christ – the visible representatives of God -> how can we love God, the invisible One, the One whose children they are?
  • The true ideal lost in Adam is realized in Christ in Whom God is revealed as He is, and man as he ought to be.
  • Thus, by faith in Christ, we learn to love both the One True God, and the true man, and so to love our brothers and sisters bearing His image.

Verse 21: This was commanded by Jesus Himself.

• He who loves, will do what the object of his love wishes.