Logos Bible Study

1 John 4–5

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THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AND THE SPIRIT OF ERROR

4Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spiritsh to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the fleshi is from God,j 3but every spirit that does not confess JesusA is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist,k which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.

4You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in youl is greater than the one who is in the world.m 5They are from the world.n Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us;o anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.p

KNOWING GOD THROUGH LOVE

7Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of Godq and knows God. 8The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9God’s love was revealed among usB in this way: God sentr his one and only Sons into the world so that we might livet through him. 10Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved usu and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrificeCv for our sins. 11Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.w 12No one has ever seen God.x If we love one another, God remains inD us and his love is made complete in us. 13This is how we know that we remain in himy and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.z 14And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Sonaa as the world’s Savior. 15Whoever confessesab that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment,ac because as he is, so also are we in this world.ad 18There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear,ae because fear involves punishment.E So the one who fears is not complete in love.af 19We loveF because he first loved us.ag 20If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister,ah he is a liar.ai For the person who does not love his brother or sisteraj whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.G 21And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

5Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,ak and everyone who loves the FatherA also loves the one born of him. 2This is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God and obeyB his commands. 3For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden,al 4because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.

THE CERTAINTY OF GOD’S TESTIMONY

5Who is the one who conquers the worldam but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?an 6Jesus Christ—he is the one who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by waterao and by blood.ap And the Spirit is the one who testifies,aq because the Spirit is the truth. 7For there are three that testify:ar 8the Spirit,as the water, and the bloodat—and these three are in agreement. 9If we accept human testimony, God’s testimonya is greater, because it is God’s testimony that he has given about his Son. 10The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar,b because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about his Son. 11And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12The one who has the Son has life.c The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13I have written these things to you who believe in the named of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

EFFECTIVE PRAYER

14This is the confidence we have before him: If we aske anything according to his will, he hears us.f 15And if we know that he hears whatever we ask,g we know that we have what we have asked of him.h

16If anyone sees a fellow believerD committing a sin that doesn’t lead to death, he should ask, and God will give life to him—to those who commit sin that doesn’t lead to death. There is sinE that leads to death. I am not saying he should pray about that. 17All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that doesn’t lead to death.

CONCLUSION

18We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the one who is born of God keeps him,Fi and the evil one does not touch him. 19We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one. 20And we know that the Son of God has comej and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one.G We are in the true one—that is, in his Son, Jesus Christ.k He is the true God and eternal life.

21Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

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Footnotes

  1. AOther read confess that Jesus has come in the flesh
  2. BOr in us
  3. COr the propitiation
  4. DOr remains among
  5. EOr fear has its own punishment or torment
  6. FOther add him
  7. GOther read has seen, how is he able to love … seen? (as a question)
  8. AOr loves the one who has given birth
  9. BOther read keep
  10. D sees his brother or sister
  11. EOr is a sin
  12. FOther read himself
  13. GOther read the true God

Cross references

  1. h1Th 5:21
  2. iJn 1:14; Php 2:7; 3:3
  3. j1Co 12:3
  4. k1Jn 2:18,22; 2Jn 7
  5. lRm 8:31; Col 1:27; 1Jn 3:20
  6. mJn 12:31
  7. nJn 17:6; 2Pt 2:20
  8. oJn 8:47
  9. pMk 13:5–6; 1Co 2:12; 1Tm 4:1
  10. q1Jn 2:29
  11. rMk 9:37
  12. sJn 1:14,18; 3:16,18
  13. tJn 10:28
  14. uJn 3:16
  15. v2Co 5:21; 1Jn 2:2
  16. wJn 13:14; 15:12; Rm 13:8; 1Th 4:9; 1Pt 1:22
  17. xEx 33:20
  18. yJn 15:4–7; 1Jn 2:6,24,27–28; 3:6,24; 4:15–16
  19. zRv 3:22
  20. aaRm 1:3
  21. abJn 9:22; Php 2:6
  22. acMt 10:15; 11:22,24; 12:36; 2Pt 2:9; 3:7; Jd 6
  23. adJn 14:10–11; 15:9–10; 17:11,15,18
  24. aeRm 8:15
  25. afEph 4:11–16
  26. ag2Th 2:13
  27. ah1Jn 2:9,11; 3:15
  28. ai1Jn 1:10
  29. aj1Jn 2:10; 3:10,14–17
  30. ak1Jn 2:29
  31. alDt 30:11; Mt 11:30; 23:4,23
  32. am1Co 15:57; 2Pt 2:20
  33. anJn 5:19; 14:1; Heb 1:2
  34. aoMk 1:11; Jn 1:34
  35. apJn 17:1; 1Jn 1:7; 4:10
  36. aqJn 15:26; Ac 26:5
  37. arDt 19:15; Mt 18:16; Jn 8:17–18
  38. asJn 1:32; 19:30; 20:22
  39. atJn 19:34
  40. aJn 5:36–37; 8:18
  41. bGn 3:4
  42. cJn 3:15,36; 5:24; 6:40,47
  43. d1Jn 3:23
  44. eMt 7:7; Jn 14:13; 1Jn 3:22
  45. fMt 7:8; Jn 9:31; 11:22
  46. gJms 1:5
  47. hJn 11:22; 16:24
  48. iJn 17:12; 1Pt 1:5; Jd 24; Rv 3:10
  49. jJn 1:14; 8:42; 1Jn 1:2; 3:5,8
  50. kJn 10:38; 15:9; 17:21; 1Th 1:1; 1Jn 2:23–24

Copyright 2017 Holman Bible Publishers