I John 4:13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
In verse 13 we are reminded of the importance of the Holy Spirit in the life of a true saint. The Holy Spirit never adds to God’s Word. He never speaks of Himself.
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
The devil is known for his lies. He seeks to make a mockery of the Truth. Those who are saved have the Holy Spirit indwelling them and they will demonstrate that honouring God’s Word. The excesses of the Charismatic movement do not honour God. That movement is not of God. It is a movement that is designed to keep people from the truth. Sadly, it is doing that quite well.
In verse 14 we are reminded that John was an eyewitness of the truth. He was told to write about this in chapter 1. Now he was told to remind the readers again that his message was of God. He witnessed the truth of what he wrote and he wrote with confidence that God the Father sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world. Jesus Christ did not just die for the “elect”, as the Calvinist would suggest. He shed His blood for all. Sadly, many will not benefit from that fact because they choose to reject the truth.
In verse 15 we have another verse that is misunderstood and misused regularly. If we take the book of I John in context and keep that in the context of the rest of the Bible, we know that God never tells us to be flippant about the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The devils acknowledged that Jesus was God while He was on earth. Jesus did not accept them. It is more than head knowledge that is required to be known of God. God dwells in the heart of those who actually confess that Jesus is the Son of God. Those who do so are also following Jesus. That excludes the majority of those who make that claim today.
Brainwashing is a powerful tool. The New Evangelical philosophy, which is morphing into the Emergent church philosophy, has done much to keep people from the truth. That philosophy is not so powerful that a person cannot break from it through the power of God, but in the flesh it is powerful. Those who are saved have the Holy Spirit indwelling them and He will not accept compromise. Thus the true child of God that is walking in compromise will not be content. God’s love will not allow His child to be content to live in sin.
In verse 16 we have a further reminder of the love of God. That love is expressed in Its’ greatest way in God sending His Son to die on the cross and shed His blood for mankind. Those who are saved can begin to acknowledge that love and benefit greatly from being recipients of that love. God is love. Regardless of how we perceive things, God is love. We are finite beings. We generally look at life through our human lens. When we take God’s Word as our authority we can see what true love is and how necessary it is for us. Jesus demonstrated true love while on this earth. John 6 tells us that many of His disciples left Him as He taught them the truth. He was left with the twelve. He asked them if they would leave Him as well. Peter assured Him that they would not leave Him. The Jews at Jesus’ trial lied about Him, and the Roman soldiers used that hatred to beat Him mercilessly. They mocked Him and were glad to nail Him to the cross and then raise that cross and place it in its’ hole. They gambled for His robe. We do not understand the love of God very well unless we accept Him as our God and Saviour and spend quality time in His Word. This again is not possible for those who align themselves with the New Evangelical crowd.
In verse 17 we see that the love of God dwelling in His true child gives that child the boldness needed in the day of judgment. True believers will face Jesus Christ at His judgment seat. This is not the great white throne judgment. The judgment seat of Christ that saints will be at is mentioned twice in the New Testament.
Romans 14:10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
II Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
It is also referred to in other passages. Every true saint will be at that judgment and we know that is the place where rewards will be given out or held back. The boldness we can have is not an arrogance in God’s presence. We have an example of what that boldness is like when we read the apostle Paul’s final words to Timothy in II Timothy 4. He was looking forward to that crown of righteousness that was there for him and was also available for all faithful saints.
True saints can have confidence that when they function within the bounds of God’s love, He will reward them. As we are seeing in this text, everything revolves around the love of God.
We see further that we can live holy lives in this world. Jesus never sinned. He was tempted in all points like as we are but He never sinned. We can live righteous lives if we know the Lord and walk humbly with Him.
In verse 18 we see that perfect love casts out fear. We do not need to fear death if our hope is in the Lord. We do not need to fear evil men if our hope is in the Lord. We see a boldness in Peter and John and in Stephen and in the apostle Paul. We also see that boldness in Silas who was Paul’s companion. We can do the work that God has called us to if we know Him and walk with Him.
When we walk in fear, we prove that our faith in God is weak. We have not allowed God’s love to dwell in us as It must. We can change that by knowing Him and submitting to Him.
In verse 19 we see that except for God’s love toward us, we cannot love Him. All the hype of the deceived is a corruption of God’s love. Those who are saved care enough for others to be willing to seek to help them even though they may hate us for it. Family ties are real, but they cannot supersede the spiritual family ties. Loving one’s neighbour as himself is important. That love may cause the neighbour to reject us but we want to see the neighbour saved. We do not sit down for a beer with the neighbour, but we will gladly have a visit with him and seek to help him to know the truth.
In verse 20 God again brought the relationship of the brethren into focus. We cannot love God and hate our brothers. God is very clear here. We lie if we reject His standard of love and yet claim to love our brother. We can see our brother. We cannot see God. If we cannot love the brother whom we can see, how can we love the God Whom we cannot see? We cannot even see the true God with our spiritual eye if we cannot love our brother.
This chapter ends with a clear command to love our brother, if we have the love of God in our hearts. Our flesh may want to act differently, but the true child of God needs to operate within the bounds of the love of God. That is the fruitful way to live the Christian life. It brings blessing to the true child of God and also blesses those who are observing the true child of God.
Pastor Bartel
