JEAN'S BIBLE STUDY COM

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1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.

1Jn 5,1-5

(8m) Responsibility >> Responsible to defend God’s cause >> Laying the foundation of freedom

(85l) Thy kingdom come >> Belief >> Treating the knowledge of God as fact >> Believing the Son by obeying the Father >> Obeying the law by faith in the cross >> Obedience represents our faith

(156b) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Evidence of salvation >> Loving God is evidence of salvation >> Keeping His commandments -- These verses go with verse 18. This is love, keeping the commandments of God. This is also what overcomes the world. The entire book of First John is in a sense a list of proofs that we can use to determine who is our brother and who is not. He just said that those who love God also love the children of God (1Jn 4-20,21), and now he is saying just the opposite, that those who love the children of God also love God. One proves the other, as though we were talking about an equation; he simply flipped it upside-down to show the one-to-one correspondence. We love God as much as we love the children of God, and we love the children of God as much as we love God, no more and no less.

1Jn 5,1-3

(90c) Thy kingdom come >> Keeping the law >> Law is our tutor >> It prepares your heart to receive Christ

(90h) Thy kingdom come >> Keeping the law >> Righteousness of the law >> We must keep the law because it is righteous – John is referring to the ten commandments of the old covenant law, meaning that we are still required to love God with all our hearts and to love our brother as ourselves. The Old Testament used the word “neighbor.” One of the few differences between the old and new covenants is to replace the word “neighbor” for “brother.” The fact is that this itself is not a real change, because the word “neighbor” of the old covenant really meant fellow Israelite. That is, when God said to love your neighbor, He meant the neighbor across the street, not Israel's neighboring countries. To Israel, then, the neighbor across the street was a fellow Hebrew, who was a brother, so there is no difference between neighbor and brother. John said that God’s commandments are not burdensome, but historically they were, so why are they suddenly no longer burdensome? The old covenant law was so burdensome that Paul said it was impossible to fulfill it. The reason the law is no longer considered burdensome is the result of the Holy Spirit, who works in us to fulfill the commandments of God.

(110g) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Born of the Spirit by the truth >> Conceived by the Spirit of truth -- These verses go with verses 18-20

(153a) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> Witnesses of the father >> Church bears witness of the Father through Christ -- These verses go with verses 9-12

(208f) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Personal relationship >> Being the friend of God >> Relationship with God through obedience >> We are His friends if we keep His commandments – A few verses earlier we read, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us” (1Jn 4-10), and now he is saying that loving God is important. When we put the two together, we see that loving God is important, but that God loves us is even more important. When we come to a deeper understanding of this, we see that it is important to love God by loving our fellow man, but it is even more important to have a revelation of His love abiding in us. This suggests that we must work harder for the revelation of God’s love than we do actually loving our fellow man. Our ministry toward God is that we come to a revelation of His love, whereas our ministry toward people is that we put that revelation to work.

1Jn 5-1

(132a) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holy Spirit is in God’s people >> spirit of God in the spirit of man >> Spirit of the Father – Keep in mind that it was important to John that we know who is our brother and who is not, in order to protect the doctrines of the Church from charlatans and the people of God from spiritual abuse. The apostle John was fascinated with the trinity to no surprise, since the trinity is a fascinating subject. His first epistle was riddled with inferences of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit interacting with each other, using them to prove our personal faith and to deduce the faith of our fellow Christian. For example, in this first verse he is using our love for the father to prove our love for Jesus. With respect to earlier instances in his first epistle, this is proving our love for God in opposite fashion. What did he mean by the love of the Father? In the old covenant this would have referred to the love of God’s law, as the psalmist writes so poetically in chapters like psalm 119, but here in the new covenant the love of the Father is in reference to our personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. John is saying that those of us who cling to the Holy Spirit as a child clings to his mother is proof that we will do the same to Jesus when we get to heaven.

(150f) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness of Jesus >> Confessing Jesus as the son of God – There are a lot of beliefs out there about Jesus; in fact, virtually every religion of the world incorporates Him into their belief system in some way or another. Most consider Him to be nothing more than a prophet, whereas Christianity sees Him as the Son of God. To call Jesus the Son of God is the same as calling Him God in human flesh, in that such a title declares Him to be the prodigy of God, His offspring. Note that no son is identical to his father, though he has half his congenital makeup, which has mixed with his mother to create a completely different person. Similarly speaking, just as Jesus had His Father’s input coursing through His veins, He was a completely different person from His Father, yet mirrored His Father’s attributes, while holding a different office within the trinity, as well as a human identity.

(173a) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Catholicism >> Scripture that contradicts the Catholic faith >> Relationship between Jesus and His mother >> Jesus is our savior, not Mary – Although Jesus was made of the same stuff as Mary, and Mary was no different than any other human, Jesus’ physical body was no different in nature than ours. Moreover, the fact that the Father duplicated Himself in Mary shows the humanlike nature of God the Father, suggesting at the same time that there was something in Jesus that was not entirely human.

(238d) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Transferring the kingdom >> The kingdom is transferred to the Church >> Born again >> Jesus is born again from the dead -- This verse goes with verse 18

(248f) Priorities >> God’ s preeminence >> Jesus is first >> Jesus is first born of the Father -- This verse goes with verse 18

(253d) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is equal with the Father >> Jesus has all the internal qualities of the Father >> Jesus is the exact representation of the Father – It was His soul, His innermost being that God conceived in Christ that made Him the exact representation of the Father. In this way He had the soul of His Father! He thought like God; He behaved like God, yet He found Himself in a body that was just as capable of sin as our own.

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2&3 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 

1Jn 5-2

(33i) Gift of God >> God is our Father >> Children need to obey their Father – A motive for perfecting our relationship with God is that we might encourage the brethren to continue in the faith, which is how we love them. James implied the inverse, that we love God by loving the children of God (Jm 2,1-26); so did Jesus (Mat 25,31-46); hence, one acts as evidence for the other. We see that observing the commandments of God is evidence of loving both God and His children. Our works become evidence of these things, but they can easily be faked, if not indefinitely then but for a season. Nevertheless, if we see someone who calls himself a Christian observing the commandments of God, we can be relatively sure he is committed to the interests of Christ and the needs of the brethren. Conversely, if we see a person who calls himself a Christian but does not observe the commandments of God, he is a liar. He does not love God, nor His children. Anybody who would enter the assembly of the righteous and attempt to defraud the saints is most likely a reprobate, someone devoid of a conscience toward God. Beware of him, because whenever he wants something he just takes it, often using nefarious means without the least concern for our welfare. John is referring to the ability to trust somebody; those who observe the commandments of God can be trusted, and those who don’t we cannot; it is just that simple. It may not be absolute proof, but it is good enough.

(86n) Thy kingdom come >> Obedience >> Be doers of the word from the heart >> Love the truth

(122f) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Confidence in yourself as you die to sin >> Confident in what you are doing

(131f) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Unity >> Brother depends on you >> To do the will of God – Love is defined as keeping His commandments, whereas Jn 15-12 says just the opposite, that keeping His commandments is love, indicating that they are interchangeable, essentially one and the same. Consequently, the love of God and the keeping of His commandments must both be present before we can love the children of God. In other words, a good person who is not saved cannot love the brethren without becoming a child of God himself. The children of God have special needs, to be loved by the Spirit of God who dwells in His people. Someone who is not born of God does not have His word abiding in Him. If the ability to impart something divine into another person is what it means to love the brethren, and if we have nothing divine to impart, then we cannot love the brethren.

1Jn 5-3

(6b) Responsibility >> Advocate God’s cause >> Jesus’ yoke of love – The love of God is to keep His commandments, and what was His commandment? Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another;” and He said in another passage, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 13-34,35; Jn 15-13). We need to have that same kind of love for one another. God wants to give us a willingness to lay down our lives for our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord; that is profound! Jesus was not talking about laying down our lives for some godless heathen in the world who couldn’t care less about God or us or anything. Rather, He was talking about laying down our lives for one another in the faith, and He said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” If we had this kind of love for one another, the Church would unify, and through that unity the world would come to a revelation of Jesus Christ. Our ministry toward God is even more important than this, because it is the foundation of our love for one another, meaning that we cannot lay down our lives for the brethren if we haven’t come to a spiritual revelation of God’s love for us.

(89c) Thy kingdom come >> Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom >> Wisdom never exceeds what is appropriate

(115e) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Through your ministry >> By the word of God – Jesus went to the cross and laid down His life for the Church, and John said that it was not burdensome to Him. How could John say that? We do all things through the Spirit, and it is not hard, because the Spirit of God is doing it through us. Just as God has commanded us to live through Him, so He simultaneously lives through us. It is called working (with) the grace of God, and it is the most ethereal subject of the Bible, and it is the lost knowledge of the Scriptures. The relationship we have with God is symbiotic: We are the body of Christ; we represent Jesus in the world; He wants the lines between us to disappear so that we become Him.

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4&5 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world -our faith. 5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

1Jn 5-4,5

(39e) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Victory >> Jesus overcame the world

(106b) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing from God >> Attaining the hearing ear >> Knowing the sound of His voice >> Having confidence in His voice

(110l) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Spiritual substance follows the truth – Verse four says, “This is the victory that has overcome the world -our faith,” and the next verse says we must believe that Jesus is the Son of God, so he used both words “faith” and “believe”. Most people think these two words mean the same thing; in fact, even the Bible uses them interchangeably, so they are synonymous, but they don’t mean the same. Generally, when Jesus used the word “believe” He meant “obey”, but when Paul used the word “believe” he was referring to a revelation of Jesus Christ. When we reread these verses with this in mind, this is what it says, ‘This is the victory that has overcome the world –a revelation of Jesus Christ.’ By this we understand Jesus by revelation that He is the Christ. When we jump to verse five, it teaches that we behave like Jesus is the Son of God, for we live like we believe it. Putting these verses together (4&5) this is what overcomes the world, that we live according to our revelation of Jesus Christ. If we don't live by the revelation, then we don’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God, leaving us open to the many false religions of the world, including the belief that there is no God at all, and the depraved lifestyles that these false religions entail. In other words, we cannot overcome Satan by merely believing that Jesus is the Son of God; we must have a revelation of it. Once God convinces us of the truth of His Son through the Spirit, we maintain our faith by living like we believe it; otherwise we don’t believe it.

(112d) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Light >> Jesus light in us overcomes darkness >> The light of His power

(165b) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world is at enmity with God >> The world is accountable to God

1Jn 5-4

(46c) Judgment >> Spiritual warfare >> Subjecting your flesh >> Revelation knowledge is our weapon – Jesus' divine nature allowed Him to rise above the temptations of his flesh, which was by far His greatest miracle, and was the power He used to defeat Satan. As a result, those who believe that Jesus was the Son of God have overcome the world. He said we overcome the world by our faith in Jesus as the Son of God. It’s not just faith alone, but faith in Jesus. Faith alone does not have power. There are those who think faith has some kind of power of its own, but that is mere humanism. Our faith is completely dependent on the Son of God to empower us. There are a number of things that John could have said that overcomes the world, such as love, but love does not generate faith; quite the opposite, faith generates love, along with all the other fruits of the Spirit, not to mention the gifts of the Spirit, and as Paul said, “the work of faith with power” (2The 1-11). Faith has the power to overcome the world in that it is the great equalizer. Faith allows us to suffer for His namesake, knowing we will be rewarded in heaven. Faith is the means by which we receive everything from God; it is the means by which we obtain the Holy Spirit of our salvation. Faith is how we walk by the Spirit and come to know God, and through that relationship we perform His will and endure all things. Faith is how we please God. Faith is how we introduce Jesus to the world and how we conduct spiritual warfare against the principalities of darkness in high places. We defeat him through faith, which produces love, being the opposite of our spiritual opponent.

(238b) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Transferring the kingdom >> The kingdom is transferred to the Church >> Born again >> Born of the Spirit by the will of man

1Jn 5,5-20

(253e) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is equal with the Father >> Jesus has all the internal qualities of the Father >> Jesus is the Son of God >> Declared the Son of God by angels and believers – We must understand that Jesus is the Son of God or the world will overcome us. Every false religion is defined by its rejection of Jesus as the Son of God, so if we don’t believe in Him as the Christ then we will fall prey to one of the lying deceptions that are in the world, and if we are not the religious type, we will fall prey to the belief that there is no God at all. Either way the world will overcome us. What did John mean by overcoming the world? Each person overcomes the world by dying in faith that Jesus is the Son of God. By this we will go to heaven, and later God will give us new bodies at the resurrection of the righteous, and then He will cause us to inherit the earth, and by that we will have overcome the world. So what does it mean to overcome the world if we will inherit the earth? John is not talking about the earth itself but overcoming the ruler of the world, which is Satan, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We come to a saving knowledge of Jesus, believing that He is the Son of God, for there is no salvation apart from understanding Jesus as God. Anyone who believes that someone lower than God paid for their sins doesn’t understand the gospel, and doesn’t understand what God has done for us, doesn’t understand salvation or God’s vision for mankind or his vision for the Church, His plan for us in eternity.... Without understanding Jesus as the Son of God, they don’t understand anything about God; they could read the Bible and not properly interpret any of it, because the key of knowledge is in the fact that Jesus Christ is God (Lk 11-52).

6-8 This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

(141a) Witness — Key verse for entire chapter – God has acquired many valid witnesses in Scripture throughout history, starting with Abraham and ending with the apostle John, whose most valid witness is Christ Himself. The degree to which God's witnesses can validly confirm His identity is the power of their testimony. This chapter will solidify in the reader's mind the validity of Jesus' witness of the Father, the Father's witness of Christ and the Church's witness of God.

(151h) Witnesses Of The Father (Key verse)

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1Jn 5,6-8

(38a) Judgment >> Blood of Jesus >> God judged the devil through the blood of His son – Jesus came by water and blood. The water represents the virgin birth, in that every fetus is contained in a water sack inside the mother’s womb, and the blood represents Jesus’ humanity. John’s point is that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary and that His physical composition was completely human flesh by evidence of His blood. When they whipped Him, He bled profusely, and when they nailed Him to the cross a bloody mass, He died like any man. Ironically, His humanity is what destroyed the power of Satan, because He was without sin. If He were not human, but of some other substance. Heb 2-17 says, “For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.” Jesus proved that Satan had no power over Him, not even in His weakest hour. Hence, the blood of Jesus frightens the demonic world because it proves He defeated their world of darkness in the frailty of human flesh. Thus, He created a doorway through which we may pass into the light of His glorious kingdom. Jesus said after His resurrection, while they were questioning Him as to who and what He was now that He had been raised from the dead and conquered the grave, “Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have” (Lk 24-39).

(87c) Thy kingdom come >> Obedience >> Jesus obeyed all the Father’s will – This passage refers to the obedience of Christ in submitting to the cross, and it refers to our faithfulness to fulfill the works that God has prepared for us. It says that Jesus came by the water and the blood. The water represents His natural birth since His physical consistency was sixty percent water, and He was encased in a water sack in His mother’s womb. The blood represents the obedience of Christ, who willingly went to the cross and shed His blood for the sins of the world, and the Spirit testifies of these things, for the Spirit is the truth. The water represents the fact that Jesus was born a human being through His mother, Mary. Physically, He was just like us with a human body, but the soul of Christ was the Spirit of God. Jesus did not have two spirits: His own and the Spirit of God, as we have who are born-again; rather, the Spirit of Jesus was the Spirit of God. Jesus incorporated all three of these aspects into his life: the Spirit, the water and the blood, and He is calling us to do the same. The Spirit and the blood are one, for the Spirit led Jesus to the cross, which was the epitome of God’s will for Christ. So too, Christ is calling us to obey the Holy Spirit, who leads us into the epitome of God’s will.

(103a) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> God’s cleansing power >> Blood of Jesus

(103f) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> Spirit like water >> Cleanses you from the desire to sin

(111d) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Water and the word – The importance of this concept: the Spirit of Truth, cannot be overstated. It is a combination of the Holy Spirit with the word of God, which is something different from the Bible we can hold in our hands. When the Holy Spirit wields the word of God, He is able to transform the letters written on a page into the power of God, and this is what God did when He conceived His Son in the Virgin Mary. The word "Christ" is literally translated "Anointed One," and Jesus is often called the word of God. So, when we put the two together we see Jesus as the word of God in the fullness of the Spirit. These are words saturated in the Holy Spirit, which literally defines the power of God.  

(153c) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> Witnesses of the father >> Holy Spirit bears witness of the father

1Jn 5,7-10

(255f) Trinity >> Father, Son and Holy Spirit >> The process of imparting the substance of God >> Father discloses the word by the Spirit – When it says that the three are in agreement, it means that the three are one in reference to the trinity. Therefore, since it was God who deposited His seed in Mary, the water represents the Father; the blood obviously symbolizes Christ; and the spirit is the Holy Spirit. Hence, the trinity is spelled out for us. The Father conceived in Mary Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, “and these three are one,” one meaning all persons of the trinity were involved in the conception of Jesus Christ in the flesh, the manifestation of the word of God (Rev 19-13).

1Jn 5-7,8

(255b) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> God’s word is Spirit >> Spirit of the word >> Words of His Spirit are truth – The Spirit, the water and the blood represent Father, Son and Holy Spirit, where the blood represents Christ, the Spirit is the Holy Spirit, and the water represents the Father, in that He conceived Jesus in Mary’s womb. The fetus developed in her womb in a water sack; therefore, the water represents the Father’s idea to send Jesus to give His life a ransom for the sins of the world. It wasn’t pity or mercy on the part of Christ, but the pity and mercy of the Father that led to our salvation.

1Jn 5-7

(109c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Revelations of the Holy Spirit >> Things revealed by the Spirit

1Jn 5-8

(131k) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Unity >> Working together for one cause

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9&10 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. 10 The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son.

1Jn 5,9-12

(111e) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Father and the Son – The one who does not believe the testimony of the Father that He has born concerning His Son has rejected the indwelling Holy Spirit, and has made God a liar, for to reject the Spirit is to reject the message. If we have heard the message of salvation preached to us, we must believe it, and if we are willing to believe the message from men, we will receive it from God too. When we believe the testimony of God in our Spirit we fashion our lives around it. Worshipping His testimony is to worship God Himself, because God and His word are one. That doesn’t mean we can worship the Bible; rather, the testimony of the Spirit is God in this world. We do not have the person of Christ in our presence, so the word of the Spirit stands in His place, and we worship His Truth in our spirit as we would worship God. The word that God planted in our hearts is tantamount to God Himself, for He lives in our hearts by the truth we believe.

(153a) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> Witnesses of the father >> Church bears witness of the Father through Christ -- These verses go with verse 20. The testimony of men is what the evangelist offers, and John is saying that the one who believes the evangelist’s message must also hear the same message from God who bears witness of His Son. Believing the message of the preacher cannot save a person; he must then seek God for himself and allow Him to breathe the message into his heart. The testimony He gives is the indwelling Holy Spirit. John is talking about the difference between a person who hears a message from the preacher and the one who hears the message directly from God. The one who hears the message of the gospel without receiving the testimony of the Holy Spirit has not yet come to believe the truth about God. The preacher tells us the message, but God tells us the truth about that message. The message and the truth may be one, but the difference is in the one who bears the testimony.

1Jn 5,9-11

(147i) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness to Jesus >> Evangelism >> Solemnly testify about Jesus

1Jn 5-9

(77e) Thy kingdom come >> Humility >> Refusing the glory of man >> Refusing to be exalted by men

(169i) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Seeking the glory of man >> Loving the approval of men rather than the approval of God >> Coveting the favor of men

(198i) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Ordained by man >> Ministries ordained by men will falter

1Jn 5,10-12

(169a) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world is blind to God >> Blind to Jesus >> Blind to the glory of God in Christ – John prefaced this statement by the contrast between the testimony of men and the testimony of God (v9). These things that John is saying is in reference to the testimony of God as Paul also wrote, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8-16). However, the testimony of men is important too in reference to the great commission. Jesus commanded us to preach the gospel to all creation and to make disciples of all men, but if they only believed the word of men, having never received the testimony of the Father by the indwelling Holy Spirit, their eternal fate would still be in jeopardy. We go to church these days and meet a lot of people who believe in the testimony of men but fail to be born-again; having rejected the testimony of God, they have also failed to receive the preacher’s message.

(200e) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Rejecting Christ >> Rejecting the faith of God >> Rejecting Christ through unbelief – There are many messages God would have us know, yet the message of eternal life is what He wants us to know more than anything else. There are many who believe the gospel coming from men, but they don’t actually want to know God, for in their hearts they still have not made peace with Him. There are people who would deny or even denounce the message of eternal life. What could a person possibly gain from such foolishness? John says they are liars and unbelievers, “because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son.” With the promise of eternal life why isn’t everybody a Christian (Rom 6-23)? Why don’t they want to live in paradise forever? They are stuck on this life and the few menial pleasures they can get from it to bother with any life beyond this one. They can’t imagine a life better than the one God has already given them in the flesh.

(20ca) Sin >> Nature of sin >> Unbelief >> Having a mind that is unable to receive >> Unbelief cannot distinguish light from darkness – Receiving this gift of eternal life seems to infringe upon man's will, because if he receives it, he will become the children of God, and God will ask them to act like His children by submitting to Him, but the world will never submit to God. It prefers to walk on its own trail of darkness and evil. This is the real reason people reject God’s offer of eternal life: Jesus said in Jn 3-19, “Men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil.” To choose their darkness over the light is what God calls evil. They love their darkness, and they don’t want to change, and if they do, they want to be in total control of those changes. Being in control is what they think makes them like God, but Jesus completely submitted to His Father, so for us to emulate Jesus is more like God than those who resist Him, for their rebellion resembles the devil. They are willing to sacrifice eternal life, just for a few purposeless years of self-determination.

(95a) Thy kingdom come >> Perspective >> False perspective in the world

(154i) Witness Of The Believer (Key verse)

(155g) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Witness of the believer >> Holy Spirit bears witness of the believer

(203d) Denying Christ >> Dishonor God >> Lying to God – Imagine someone standing in front of God, right in His face, pointing his finger at Him and calling Him a liar. How do we think that will end, especially when we remember that He is a stranger? His aloof stance while He refrains from judgment is another clue to the world's demise, compared to the love that He shows His people simply by believing in Him. God interprets the world’s unbelief in Jesus Christ as calling Him a liar after testifying that He has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. We can’t stop God from thinking this way, any more than God is willing to stop the world from doing what it wants, for now. The world thinks it controls God because He has chosen to temporarily withhold judgment against its unbelief. God has given man the freedom to reject Him, and through that freedom man thinks he's bigger than God, as though He cannot do anything about his unbelief. The world feels that it can do anything and God can’t stop them, but a day is coming when God will recall everything that everybody has done throughout their lives. On the one hand, He will go over each person’s record and judge him for every infraction and then throw him into the lake of fire for rejecting His Son, where he will be tormented day and night. On the other hand, the one who believes in Jesus has the testimony in himself, and that testimony is the Holy Spirit, who acts as the seal of our redemption and God’s testimony concerning His Son that He has given as the Savior of the world. The seal of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us acts as proof that we believe.

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11-13 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

1Jn 5-11,12

(205aa) Salvation >> Verses useful in evangelism

(254f) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is the life of the Spirit >> Jesus is the substance of God’s life >> Jesus is the manifestation of God’s life -- These verses go with verse 20

1Jn 5-11

(35k) Gift >> God gives Himself to us >> Gifts from the Holy Spirit >> The gift of life -- This verse goes with verse 16

(244e) Kingdom of God >> The eternal kingdom >> Eternal life of the trinity >> Father is the source of eternal life – The core message of the gospel is eternal life. Isn’t it wonderful that it wasn’t something else, like being healed of our diseases, or receiving the Holy Spirit, or fulfilling the great commission? These things are wonderful, but eternal life is the key promise. What greater gift could God give us? All other gifts are embedded in this one, for the one gift of eternal life affords us all the time we will ever need to receive everything else He intends to give us, and it will take an eternity before God is finished giving us His vast treasures and His wealth and glory.

1Jn 5-12 

(25k) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Dead in sin >> The human condition without Christ – That’s a pretty straightforward statement. Again, this is not rocket science, but very simple concepts based on invulnerable logic, using the Son of God as its premise. There are a lot of people who think they have Jesus, but if they don’t see Him as the Son of God, He is probably just one of many prophets in their religion. Belief systems like this must fudge this term “Son of God” and explain it away. It takes a lot of work, but where there’s a will there’s a way. This is the power of man in his ability to think and reason his way right out of heaven.

(26d) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death is separation from God’s life

1Jn 5,13-15

(30l) Gift of God >> God favors you through your prayers

(114f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Obeying the Holy Spirit >> Receiving a revelation from God through obedience

(122e) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Confidence in yourself as you die to sin >> Confident in your salvation – Many people do not feel secure in their salvation. Although they believe in the doctrines of Jesus’ atoning blood to cleans them from all unrighteousness, they still have doubts, not about Jesus, but about themselves. They fear they don’t really believe, or that their strength of faith doesn’t meet some nebulous criteria, or perhaps they accuse their hearts of being permissive in regard to sin. Some people fear they don’t know enough about the Bible, or they have not been committed enough in their faith, and their lack of commitment makes them feel distant from God. All these examples are aspects of the human condition that Jesus sacrificed His flesh to forgive. None of us are committed enough to deserve God’s love and grace, and we all take advantage of His mercy, but what are we supposed to do? We can’t save ourselves. These are the very reasons Jesus came to save us. It is true that there are verses in the Bible that speak of a terrifying expectation of judgment (Heb 10-26,27), but this is talking about unbelievers; a person who is in pursuit of God’s forgiveness is by no means guilty of such spiritual atrocities. If some people do feel this way, then why don’t they become students of the Bible to bolster their confidence? They don’t have to guess or wonder. They say, ‘I imagine I’m going to heaven, but I don’t really know.’ John said, “These things have been written… in order that you may know you have eternal life.” Our salvation should not be a point of concern. A person who doubts his salvation can’t possibly be fulfilling his calling from God, because whenever he puts his hands to the work, he questions whether he’s even going to heaven. God wants us to know we are His children, so we have the strength to pick up the works that God has prepared for us and accomplish them. He wants us to fulfill our purpose in life, and we can’t do that if we are wondering if we are even saved. “This is the confidence we have with Him, that if we ask anything in His name he hears us.” The proof of our salvation is answered prayer, since God does not hear sinners (Jn 9-31). So, answered prayer affords confidence in our salvation, and this confidence affords an expectation to receive, and these two build on each other. Confidence in our salvation is directly linked to confidence in prayer.

(248a) Priorities >> God’s priorities >> The will of God >> We play our part in the will of God >> Knowing the will of God

1Jn 5-13

(67g) Authority >> Jesus delegates authority >> The name of Jesus is the salvation of God

(92f) Thy kingdom come >> The narrow way >> Trail of good works >> You must be born again to walk on this trail – Unbelievers can read this verse and claim to be Christians, because this is what the Bible says. They assert a set of doctrines to be true, and they read this verse that says that those who believe can know for certain that they have eternal life, but this verse doesn’t apply to them until they are born of God. This is what John meant by those who believe: having a genuine faith in God. He did not mean to believe in a set of doctrines, but to believe in God. The Bible doesn’t teach easy-believism; James said to those who would try, “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder” (Jm 2-19). Also, the first three chapters in the Book of Revelation describe the last generation, and only two of seven churches were acceptable. So God knew that people would adopt the tenets of easy-believism when He said things like, “who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan” (Rev 2-9). We can easily replace “Jew” with Christian in that verse. Many people in our generation claim to be Christians but are not; God said of the Laodicean Church, “I will spit you out of My mouth” (Rev 3-16). We don’t casually believe in God and expect the Scriptures to confirm our easy to believe doctrines, because at the end of the day, we won’t know we are going to heaven anymore than the godless man and the sinner. John was careful to describe the person who truly believed in God throughout his epistle, even in this chapter, prior to this verse, so by the time he made this comment the word “believe” was well defined. Anyone who wants to casually believe in God after everything John said is only fooling himself.

(109b) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Revelations of the Holy Spirit >> Revelation of the gift of God

(155j) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Witness of the believer >> The word of God bears witness of the believer – Why do people need to know they are saved if they already believe? God has given us His Spirit, who leads us back to Him crying “Abba! Father!” in our hearts (Gal 4-6), and He gives His word as confirmation and clarification to our faith that the things we sense in our spirit are true. The witness of the Spirit who lives in us testifies that we are the children of God, but just to ensure that we are not going crazy or living by a vivid imagination, God gives us His word to confirm that the indwelling Holy Spirit leading us back to the Father is real and true. There are most likely countless people in third-world nations who have heard the gospel and are born-again, but don’t have a Bible in their hands to read. The Scriptures are not confirming their spiritual experiences, and they are not entirely sure that what they sense in their spirit is real. There is something transpiring in them that is greater than themselves, and they have someone living in them that is greater than their conscience, and God is commanding them to yield their lives to Him. It is scary enough this with Bible-in-hand, let alone without confirmation of the Scriptures.

(244d) Kingdom of God >> The eternal kingdom >> Eternal life of the trinity >> Jesus is the source of eternal life -- This verse goes with verse 20

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14&15 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 

1Jn 5-14,15

(34i) Gift of God >> Generosity >> God is willing to Give >> His natural blessings

(79f) Thy kingdom come >> Renewing your mind through prayer – We don’t see this kind of faith in the Church these days, not even among individuals. God hears all kinds of requests every day all around the world, and He answers some of those requests, but most go unanswered. Why doesn’t God answer our prayers? The reason for this is mostly due to the condition of the Church overall that it is not obeying the Lord as it should, but what about individuals who are serving the Lord with all their hearts; why doesn’t He answer their prayers? If God answered their prayers, it would not bear witness to God working in His Church, and God wants His people united. Some people, if God answered their prayers, would find a way to turn it into an opportunity for the flesh to glorify themselves, instead of what answered prayer is supposed to do, glorify God. Few believe in God enough to see Him working in their lives in that their obedience is lacking, as is their understanding of the Scriptures, so what good would it do if God answered prayer if the end result were disobedience and distortion of the truth? God would be found participating in the sins of those who would use His generosity for their own purposes; they would make grandiose claims about themselves that everybody must pay homage to them if they want to see the glory of God. Therefore, adding up all these reasons for rarely seeing answered prayer, we must conclude that it is the consequence of a lack of humility in the body of Christ.

(152ia) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> Witnesses of the father >> Prophets >> The Church holds the position of a prophet >> Church operates under a prophetic anointing >> Delivering a prophetic message from God

(154j) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Witness of the believer >> Conscience >> Having a good conscience >> God is my conscience

1Jn 5-14

(104f) Thy kingdom come >> Pure in heart shall see God >> Shall see the Father >> Being in the presence of God – If we didn’t have confidence in Him, He wouldn’t listen to us, indicating the difference between hearing us and actually listening to us. John was saying that if we know He hears us, we also know that we will receive answer to our prayers; that is, we know when we have made contact with God. The level of confidence and faith that John says we need is not just based on God’s promises in Scripture, but is also based on real-time knowledge that God is present with us and is listening. When we pray, most of the time we know God is up there somewhere and on some level is listening; otherwise, how could He judge the world if He didn’t know what was happening down here. He knows everything; He hears everyone's every word and records it all, so when John says that He hears our prayers, He is not talking about His omniscience. The confidence required for answered prayer is realizing that He is personally listening to us, that He has in a sense stopped what He was doing and is paying His full attention to us. In that moment, whatever we ask of Him according to His will, we know we will receive it, because He is loving and generous, and He also wants to show Himself to the world, and He wants our faithfulness to be an ongoing practice, not a one-time event. He wants answered prayer to be an ongoing experience with us in our prayer closet. God promises these things in His word, but the difference is that we know He is actually present with us, because of the confidence we have in Him.

16&17 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.

1Jn 5,16-18

(28f) Gift of God >> God is our advocate >> Protect us through our walk >> Wise conduct – John was just talking about a sin leading to death, and now he is saying that no one who is born of God commits this spiritual atrocity. It sounds as though he is saying there are three kinds of people in the world: those who are born of God, those who are not born of God, and those who think they are born of God. Since two groups believe they are born-again (of those who are and those who think they are), it reduces the kinds of people in the world to just two, but God sees three. Those who are truly born of God do not commit the unpardonable sin, because God protects them from the evil one. It is the devil that tempts us to blaspheme the Holy Spirit and to commit sin that leads to the death of our faith in God, the death of our hope of eternal life and the death of our love of the brethren.

1Jn 5-16,17

(26a) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death >> Dead to God through sin

(26h) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death is the result of sin

(218f) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> Reaping the harvest >> We choose our actions, not their consequences >> wages of sin is death

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1Jn 5-16

(9g) Responsibility >> Strengthen us by the sword of His Spirit >> Through prayer – God wants us to pray for one another, so we may be healed of our mental and physical ailments, but He excludes praying for someone who commits the unpardonable sin—blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. God wants to answer our prayers, but for this there is no antidote.

(21g) Sin >> Disobedience is backsliding 

(21i) Sin >> Premeditated sin >> Intending to abuse the grace of God

(35k) Gift >> God gives Himself to us >> Gifts from the Holy Spirit >> The gift of life -- This verse goes with verse 11. When John said, “give life,” he was talking about granting repentance. Many of our sins we commit in bondage, and God grants His power to overcome that bondage. When we work repentance into our lives, the end result is an anointing that God will use in place of the sins we commit, and once we have broken the bondage of sin, we can continue using the anointing to do His will. However, there is a sin leading to death, the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, blasphemy against the work of God in our lives, the sin of renouncing our faith, as though God were not worthy of our service. John says, “I do not say that he should make request for this.” We should not pray for somebody who is blaspheming the Lord, being not only a waste of time and faith but it is even sin to pray for such a one, since John previously told us not to pray for him. That is, our prayers participate in his sin. When someone blasphemes the Lord and begins to develop a reprobate mind, the best thing to do is run from that person and don’t look back. The one who gives up on God will end up our worst enemy. They are the ones who hate God the most; they blame God for everything about themselves; they even blame Him for their own rejection of God. They do not have fond memories of serving the lord or believing in Him or entertaining the hope of eternal life or the joy of forgiveness, and once they renounce their faith, these things become weapons in their arsenal against us.

(64f) Paradox >> Anomalies >> Limits of God >> God cannot directly violate the will of man

(82b) Thy kingdom come >> Three elements of prayer >> Direction (Attitude) >> What not to pray for

(116b) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Through worship >> In prayer

(130e) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Unity >> Committed to caring for the needs of the body >> Committed to holding up one another

(131b) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Unity >> Interdependent on each other to pray

(162e) Works of the devil >> Being a slave to the devil (Addictions) >> Bondage >> A slave to unbelief >> Bondage to an inability to believe

(185e) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Mystery of lawlessness >> The mystery of sin

(185i) Works of the devil >> The result of lawlessness >> Blasphemy >> Responding with contempt to the Holy Spirit >> Evicting the Holy Spirit – The one who treats the Holy Spirit with contempt tells God that he doesn’t want help to be rid of his sins and that his state of bondage is perfectly fine with him, and he tells God to leave him alone. This is blasphemy. If we tell God to leave us alone, He will, and now how can we repent? We can say these things and not really mean them, but if we tell God to leave us alone and really mean it, we run the risk of committing the unrepentable sin that if we continue will lead to a reprobate mind and to the loss of our salvation. Jesus said that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a sin that cannot be forgiven, for with all forgiveness there must also be repentance, meaning God does not forgive what we don’t repent. In the next life, at the believer’s judgment He will not reward us for overcoming the sins from which we did not repent. Many pooh-pooh the rewards, but on the day of judgment when He is giving out the rewards we will not pooh-pooh them; we will wish we could receive a full reward (2Jn-8). Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a different kind of sin, one that has no conjugate repentance, and for that reason it is unforgivable. it is the kind of sin that hardens our hearts, classified as a spiritual sin in the sense that it causes us to retreat from the Lord instead of approach Him, an obstacle over which we cannot hurtle. A person who blasphemes the Holy Spirit is not automatically barred from heaven, for probably all of us are guilty of this to some degree, but if blasphemy continues, every regression becomes the new resistance from which we cannot progress. The further we step from God, the more willing we are to further step from Him, until He becomes a distant memory, and then we just turn and walk the other way, and at that point we have developed a reprobate mind and are barred from heaven. This has happened to Christians and non-Christians alike, non-Christians after they have heard the message of the gospel by a powerful anointing (Lk 10,10-12).

(193g) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Turn from sin to God >> Repent >> God grants repentance

(207a) Salvation >> God makes promises on His terms >> Eternal security? >> Perish By Losing Your Faith >> The apostasy (walking out the same door you came in) – There are two types of sin, one leads to death and the other does not. “Leading to death,” what does that mean? John is referring to a sin that leads to the death of our faith, suggesting that if the premise of our salvation dies, then so does our salvation. This flies in the face of the ever-popular Eternal Security doctrine, which is not supported by Scripture. To whom is John referring? He must be talking about born-again Christians, whose faith dies as a result of a catastrophic sin. He’s not necessarily talking about a single sin, but a type of sin, called blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. When a person blasphemes the Holy Spirit, they know exactly what they are doing. This is not sin committed in ignorance that Jesus shed His blood to forgive us (Heb 9-7), in other words, sins not leading to death. Instead, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is an unforgivable sin that if repeated, eventually erodes a person’s conscience until the he can no longer believe, otherwise known as the reprobate mind. Those who practice a lifestyle of resisting the Holy Spirit, John says he doesn’t even want the saints wasting their faith and prayers on such a person. On the lighter side, there is a type of sin that does not lead to death. We should pray for our brothers and sisters who are caught in such fleshly bondage.

(217d) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> God gives up on you >> When you give yourself over to sin

18&19 We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 

1Jn 5,18-20

(110g) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Born of the Spirit by the truth >> Conceived by the Spirit of truth -- These verses go with verses 1-3

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1Jn 5-18

(43i) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Perfected by God – When John said that no one born of God sins, he was talking about two things: no one who is born of God practices sin, and no one who is born of God commits the unpardonable sin. To say that no one who is born of God practices sin is setting the Christian standard for freedom. This doesn’t mean Christians are totally free from sin; rather, it means Christians are working toward the goal of freedom. Moreover, no one who is born of God blasphemes the Holy Spirit to develop the reprobate mind, for in doing so they are no longer Christians.

(46k) Judgment >> Spiritual warfare >> Demons are subject to the Church through Christ

(156b) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Evidence of salvation >> Loving God is evidence of salvation >> Keeping His commandments -- This verse goes with verses 1-5

(228h) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> God working in you >> God works in you to keep you in His will – Passages in the Bible like this are difficult to understand when we compare them to our observations, nor do they dovetail well with our personal experience. When we were first saved, just about everybody had problem areas regarding sin that they needed God’s help to resolve, and slowly He brought us from these things over a period of years, but during that time how did our immaturity square with this passage? It is much like construction works erecting a building; we have all seen the beginning stages of development where everything is torn-up with piles of dirt in various places; the site is an eyesore. Wait a year or so and return to the same location and we will see a completed building that has been carefully landscaped with grass, sidewalk and bushes. This is like the newborn Christian; he/she is a construction zone where only the workers are allowed beyond the yellow tape. God works with us over a period of years, and the Christian really wants to become free but is struggling. There is no blasphemy in that, and so long as they are working to become free, God doesn’t even recognize their bondage as sin.

(238d) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Transferring the kingdom >> The kingdom is transferred to the Church >> Born again >> Jesus is born again from the dead -- This verse goes with verse 1

(248f) Priorities >> God’ s preeminence >> Jesus is first >> Jesus is first born of the Father -- This verse goes with verse 1. A person is born of God in many of the ways that Jesus was born of God through His mother Mary, in that the Father placed His seed in her womb, which began to grow. In the same way, God placed the seed of His Holy Spirit in us and we began to grow into his likeness. We nurture that growth and make sure that the things God is doing in our lives is watered and cultivated and given every opportunity to blossom and flourish. In this way the devil does not touch us while we are growing in the faith, but the minute that growth process is stifled or paused, it becomes an opportunity for the devil. Rev 1-5 says that Jesus was "firstborn of the dead," and we will follow Him in the resurrection of the righteous.

1Jn 5-19

(164c) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world system >> Satan rules the world >> The world is his kingdom – That is quite a statement! It has the potential to fuel a paradigm shift in anyone who truly believes this. Unbelievers are mostly offended by the preaching of Jesus, but they can also be offended by verses like this, because it speaks against the world they love, whereas John advised the Christian earlier in this epistle not to love the world for this very reason: it is of the devil! There are really a lot of people who don’t believe this, yet even Jesus called Satan the ruler of the world (Jn 14-30). It is God’s earth, but it’s the devil’s world. What does that mean? Every civilization of mankind throughout all human history was and still is under the power of the evil one. Satan’s influence on the world is very much like an overcast sky that covers our perspective from one end of the horizon to the other, so that we cannot see the sun. This overcast sky creates an atmosphere of gloom and despair in the world that is conducive to sin. This spiritual cloud hangs over the minds of those who are of the world, establishing an environment in which Satan operates in them. Although every civilization is different from all others and every people have had their own personalized culture, yet they all have a few beliefs in common. First and foremost, all cultures have secularism as its premise, which is the belief that what the five senses can perceive is all there is to life, meaning there is no unseen spiritual realm. Our five senses tell us about the world and act as five witnesses, all testifying and agreeing with each other regarding our perceptions of reality. Secularism becomes the platform of two other fundamental beliefs: materialism, which has embedded in it the value system that the more we have the more we are worth; and humanism, which is man’s replacement of God with himself. Many secularists are atheists; they don’t believe God exists, but there are also agnostics who don’t find it necessary to even have a theory about the existence of God, or they don’t care. Almost every culture has had at least one religion to explain the existence of life and the universe. Those who miss the mark do so either intentionally or unintentionally, in order to live alongside their society with the added benefit of appeasing their conscience with an answer to the question of God, which gives them hope for the afterlife. The Bible says that if anyone truly seeks God with all their hearts, they would find Him (Deut 4-29), suggesting that those who don’t find Him never really tried, which makes their religion no different from the secular world. 

(183g) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Spirit of Error (Anti-Christ / Anti-Semitism) >> Spirit of the broad road >> Spirit of the world – Life seems to make sense to unbelievers, but they don’t know that their understanding of the world is masterminded by the devil. This is the premise of Satan’s power over mankind; he forms their perceptions, and in the formation of their perceptions, he guides them through the process of developing their perspective in order to assure they come to many wrongs conclusions about God. Almost everyone in the world comes to one of three conclusions: either God doesn’t exist, or there is something wrong with Him, which is why He doesn’t like us, or He’s unknowable. The devil leads people into their belief system, making sure that their beliefs about God insufficiently encapsulate the truth. He has the power to convince them that everything they believe is true. The fact that so many people believe relatively the same thing has the effect of solidifying their beliefs under the misguided impression that if so many people believe the same things, they can’t be wrong, but the world is wrong. God does exist, there is nothing wrong with Him and He is knowable! 

(219e) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> The elect >> God transforms the world into the Church >> God selects us from the world

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20&21 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

1Jn 5-20 

(68f) Authority >> Jesus Delegates the Holy Spirit to us >> He guides you into all truth

(112a) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Wisdom of the spirit – It is the case with many Christians these days that they want to be self-determining. Although they believe that Jesus is God, they flat-out reject the Holy Spirit in their lives, and for this reason He is almost never mentioned in Christendom. We can believe that Jesus is God without it changing our lives, but if we believe in the administration of the Spirit that He is the change agent of Christ, and that He wants to impart the knowledge of His will in our hearts so we can obey Him and accomplish all that He has prepared for us, we will no longer be in charge of ourselves, and this is the very thing that "Christians" these days are trying to avoid. They want to be self-determining just like the cults. When we eliminate the administration of the Holy Spirit from Christianity, it really does become just another false religion, and we are back to a works-oriented salvation. Those who obey the Holy Spirit aren’t working but are merely lending themselves to God, and He is working through them. They are performing the works of God, not the works of men, and that cannot be classified as a works-oriented salvation. Instead, it has a fundamental, transformative impact primarily on those who obey Christ and secondly on all those around them.

(153a) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> Witnesses of the father >> Church bears witness of the Father through Christ -- This verse goes with verses 1-3

(208j) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Personal relationship >> Being married to God >> Knowing God >> Sharing intimacy with Him – When John used the word “know”, he meant that we know the truth by God revealing it to us by the Spirit. When we read the Bible and believe it, we “think” certain things to be true, but when the Spirit reveals the word of God, we come to know Jesus who is true. So when John said, “We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding,” he was saying that His understanding has come by revelation of the Spirit. John and the other apostles wrote the Bible by revelation; therefore, we must read it by revelation. The difference between understanding the Bible by revelation and understanding it on a mere cognitive level is illustrated by the ignorance of the disciples when they walked with Jesus. They were all a bunch of clumsy oafs trying to understand what Jesus was saying and doing, but what they understood was by the Spirit, as Jesus said to Peter, “flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Mat 16-17). Jesus was unable to get through to Peter and the other apostles while He lived among them; but once Pentecost came and the Lord sent the Holy Spirit in His place, that is when they really began to understand the gospel of Christ.

(244d) Kingdom of God >> The eternal kingdom >> Eternal life of the trinity >> Jesus is the source of eternal life -- This verse goes with verse 13. There are passages speckled throughout the New Testament that testify of Jesus being God, and this is one of them. Of course to those of a reprobate mind who have decided on an alternative religion that denies the divinity of Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter how many verses we quote to them speaking about Jesus as God, they would deny them all. We could quote them this verse and they would tell us how their religion explains it away, instead of recognizing it for what it says. They seek ways of looking at the Bible differently, so they don’t have to believe the truth that Jesus Christ is God. They think it would take away their freedom; they don’t want to believe the truth because their demons won’t let them. These cults and false religions that deny the divinity of Jesus Christ are in bondage to a works-oriented salvation that must "produce" in order to please their leaders so they can receive honor from man, instead of seeking glory for the one and only God (Jn 5-44). If they believed that Jesus was God and wanted to reveal to them His specific will for their lives, they would have to wait to be honored by God in heaven, and that would take faith, and they are fresh out of that. Diligence, dedication and commitment they have by the bushel basket, but faith, not so much. If they sought to fulfill God's purpose and calling by faith, it would alter the essence of their identity in the most fundamental of ways, changing just about everything about them, but that is the very thing they are trying to avoid. They would rather be slaves of men and work for their salvation and remain autonomous, which is actually the height of paradox. Instead of giving the right to God to determine the path for their feet and letting Him determine who and what they become, they would rather give up the hope of eternal life in heaven to remain self-determining, even though they have gurus breathing down their necks telling them what to do at every corner.

(254f) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is the life of the Spirit >> Jesus is the substance of God’s life >> Jesus is the manifestation of God’s life -- This verse goes with verses 11&12. John just called Jesus the true God. That shouldn’t surprise anyone who believes He is the Son of God. Jesus was the true God in human flesh. He came and spoke to us and gave us understanding about God, but the one who speaks to us now is the Holy Spirit. He speaks to us the word of God, and the two of them, the written word and the Holy Spirit, together give us understanding so we might know Him who is true. John mentioned Holy Spirit, Jesus and the Father all in one verse, the trinity!

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1Jn 5-21

(7g) Responsibility >> Protecting the gospel >> Defending your territory

(195h) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Idolatry >> Worshipping other gods >> Worshipping other gods as a servant – This is John’s last comment in his first epistle, but it is not the least. If idolatry were so easy to identify and avoid, John wouldn’t have to warn us about its insidiousness. It creeps behind us and takes control without our even knowing it if we are not watchful. This is why Jesus told us to stay on the alert (Lk 21-36), watching for His return but also guarding ourselves from idols. Idolatry was the great sin of Israel, the sin of Adam; it is the sin of mankind. If we can rise above it, virtually everything else in our Christian walk will fall into place. The reason so many Christians are struggling in their walk with God is because of idolatry, and they are not very aware of it. Idolatry is entertaining to demons, because they know it has a blinding effect on the idol worshipper, and if allowed to continue, it will erode their faith until it disappears altogether, and when they pass from this life to the next they will fall headlong into the hands of the living God (Heb 10-31). Every time we say no to God, we are saying yes to something else, and that is the worship of certain idols that we consider more valuable than obedience and faithfulness and pleasing the living God who created all things. The number one idol of mankind is pleasure. It comes in many forms. We idolize happiness and pleasure and pursue them with all our hearts like we should pursue God. We are really idolizing ourselves through our five senses.