1John 4: 7-16a NLT 7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. 13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. The 5 Love Languages are popular nowadays even outside of the church. Some people can misuse and abuse them to get what they want from others but biblically speaking we are to love someone because we choose to not for something in return. This is the love that John writes about over and over in his letter. He reminds us that our love should be a response to God's perfect love that fuels us and allows us to love others expecting nothing in return because we choose to. There are two words in Greek language that John wrItes about. One is understood by your mind and the other by experience. I can say I love you and mean it and you can believe me because you choose to. I can also demonstrate my love and you would experience it or know it. God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8 NLT Knowing this, John says, our response should be to love God in return by loving others. This is God's command from the beginning- To love Him and love our nieghbor. But there is special place in God's heart for His own and thier should be one in our as well. Ask Youself:
By this I do not mean do you have cuddly feelings towards them. I know we can be impossible sometimes. I am asking if we are a making a conscince choice to care for God's people as He would. Difficult task but not impossible. He has shown His love and given us His Holy Spirit that we would Know Love and Live this out. Have great day, Loved Ones, and God bless you real good!
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1 John 4: 1-6 NLT 4 Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. 2 This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. 3 But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. 4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 5 Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception. Just a couple of chapters ago John wrote about antichrists and he mentions them again here. Antichrists are not only those who are against Christ. The really creepy and dangerous ones are the ones who try to take the place of Christ and, in some sense, they do for those who fall for their lies. God wants us to live in the truth and the confidence that comes from that truth. In our passage today John tells us how to know if what someone is claiming to be from God actually is from Him. The test John writes is if they actually have the Spirit of God in them. We will know they do not if they deny that Jesus came in a real body. Remember, the false teachers believed that anything, including our bodies, are evil. So Jesus could not have really been in body like ours. Yet God says otherwise. Not only did Jesus have a body like our but He also lived a perfectly righteous life and died in the place of sinners, and was raised again in a body.
The Holy Spirit is the One who lives and works in the believer to help them both receive and share the truth of God. He is even called the Spirit of Truth. John, the same writer of the letter we're studying, wrote- The Helper is the Spirit of truth. The people of the world cannot accept him, because they don’t see him or know him. But you know Him. He lives with you, and He will be in you. John 14:17 ERV He will lead believers into all truth. He is our seal, our guarantee that we will be saved eternally and that when Jesus returns we will be with Him forever. Ask Yourself:
You are not alone! You have people who love you and can help you figure that out. But you have to willing to ask or be corrected. The same Spirit lives in you that lives in me if you are a child of God. God cares deeply about us and that is why He corrects us through the writer John as well as others that He brings into our lives. I will always make myself available to you if you have any questions, comments, even complaints. Have great day Loved Ones, and God bless you, real good! 1 John 3: 23-24 ERV 23 This is what God commands: that we believe in his Son Jesus Christ, and that we love each other as he commanded. 24 All who obey God’s commands live in God. And God lives in them. How do we know that God lives in us? We know because of the Spirit he gave us. Vacations for me make me long for home more than enjoy a break from it. With all the busyness of the day to day, I long to just sit at home doing little to nothing. It not that I don't love my family, job and the people around me, I just hardly get time to sit around and relax. Home should be a place you long to return to. Consider the word live in our passage today. God wants us to make our home in him and His home in us. He doesn't just want us to go to church, or read the bible, those are great things but He wants us to be connected to him in such a way that we can honestly say- there's no place like home. Yet some people actually think God is out to get them, like the silly gif above of the house dragging the person back in. God should not have to drag people back into himself. He wants those who believe to live in him and he in them. He actually commans this and those who belong to Him should have ears to hear and obey Him. Ask Yourself:
This is truly God's best for and if you do not believe it you are setling for wax- (a lie, something inauthentic). I love the words of the song below: Could it really be this easy That You love me like You say You do I've got years and years of striving When there was nothing left to prove Could it really be this simple Your kindness changes everything It's like Your grace is on a mission To tear down my religion You're all I really need Hallelujah All this time How You love me How You love me Hallelujah It blows my mind How You love me How You love me Oh, How You love me Could it be I'm finally seeing That You're not who I thought You'd be You're not mad and You're not scary And all the shame and guilt I've carried Is why You died for me May God tear down our religion that we would know Him for who He really is and enjoy time at home in Him and Him in us. Have a great day, Loved Ones, and God bless you real good! |
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