2. 1Jn 3:1-3 NKJV Behold what manner of love
the Father has bestowed on us, that we should
be called children of God! Therefore the world
does not know us, because it did not know
Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God;
and it has not yet been revealed what we shall
be, but we know that when He is revealed, we
shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
3 And everyone who has this hope in Him
purifies himself, just as He is pure.
3. • The Love of God in Revelation
• Degrees of Separation
• Past, Present, Future
4. 1Jn 3:3-5 NASB And everyone who has this
hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is
pure. 4 Everyone who practices sin also
practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. 5
You know that He appeared in order to take
away sins; and in Him there is no sin.
• We know our sin is removed
5. • 1Jn 3:14 NASB We know that we have
passed out of death into life, because we love
the brethren. He who does not love abides in
death.
• Not mere theory but we experience it.
6. • 1Jn 3:16 NASB We know love by this, that He
laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren.
• He defines love.
7. • 1Jn 3:19-20 NASB We will know by this that
we are of the truth, and will assure our heart
before Him 20 in whatever our heart
condemns us; for God is greater than our
heart and knows all things.
• We have the truth in us and we know Him
that knows it all.
8. • 1Jn 3:24 NASB The one who keeps His
commandments abides in Him, and He in
him. We know by this that He abides in us, by
the Spirit whom He has given us.
• We have the testimony of the Spirit
Editor's Notes
Each of us attempt to build for ourselves the best life possible, we do so by building our lives on a foundation we believe to be trustworthy. Such a foundation is built with the justified beliefs we hold to be true and trustworthy. These truths are also sometimes referred to as presuppositions and are the truths we believe about the world and our place in it. As long as these truths are consistent with our experiences we are at peace and can be happy but our lives are thrown into crises when we become aware that our presuppositions cannot be trusted. An example of such an event is described by Matt Richard “A common example that authors have shared in describing an epistemological (presupposition) crisis is with a story of a wife discovering a hand written note from another women in the pants pocket of her husband. The note says, “I Love You.” This new knowledge, if accepted, has drastic consequences. In other words, the inescapable result of these three simple words on a note will bring into question the truthfulness of what her husband says about their marriage and the status of the marriage. The note will also bring into question her marriage values, her behavior and feelings towards her whole family. The conflict between her prior knowledge and the new knowledge collide, which creates an epistemological crisis. As a result of the collision, she may accept the new knowledge, which could potentially bring about an alternative reality and reveal that she has been living in a lie for countless years. She may also reject the new knowledge or try to rationalize it away so that things will stay relatively the same, with the exception of possible lingering doubts. Painfully she may choose to neither fully accept nor reject the note but try to absorb the new knowledge into her prior knowledge, thus attempting to hold the two truths together in an obviously painful contradictory unit.”
The book of John was largely written as a defence against Gnosticism that was confusing some of the believers. Gnosticism holds that the physical or material is corrupt and should be rejected while the spiritual is pure and should be accepted. According to them Jesus cold not have come in the flesh because that would’ve made Him evil and therefore Jesus did not die on the cross. John’s defence against this attack is powerful in that it is based on his personal witness of the life and death of Jesus. He is not merely debating a theory but giving testimony to what he saw first hand. How do we know we can trust scripture and our own knowledge of God? The scripture is based on testimony and our lives contains the testimony of the love of God at work in us. This experience is not just subjective but over time and through the collective validation of millions has been proven to be trustworthy knowledge.
God’s love is seen in the fact that He does not hide or is unknowable but that He makes Himself known. He reveals Himself, calls attention to himself, steps into plain sight so that we can know Him.The line of separation in this world does not run along concepts of morality, ethnicity, nationality, wealth or status but along the knowledge of God. Do you know God or don’t you?We may not know exactly what the future holds but we know Him that holds the future. He forms the basis of all our knowledge, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom” Psalm 111:10
There are two levels of sin that John addresses. The first level is acts of sin committed by the Christian. In 1Jn 2:1 (NASB) he states “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” As believers we do not want to sin but when we do acts of sin (Greek aorist form) we repent and receive forgiveness. Acts of sin is a result of our humanity in a broken world and not because we have a sinful nature any more.Secondly is the practice of sin as seen in 1 John3:4 and refers to the continuation of sin (Greek present continuous tense) it is because we do not know God and what He has done for us. The issue is do you know God or not, if you knew Him your life would testify of it.
The result of knowing God is that our hearts are renewed in its capacity to love. Remember we spoke previously about the flesh (law) being dead and beyond the capacity for life but that the Spirit brings life. This life is evidenced in the love we have for each other.
His actions become the standard for us, by it we define what we know and understand. Our concept of love is formed by His actions and it is what we aspire to.
Even where our knowledge fails and our hearts lack we know we can trust the one that knows all things. We are not our own judge but God is our judge
The Spirit of God is in us and continues to testify that God is with us. Remember the truth for us is not simply based on a theory or a law or an empirical experiment but on a living God with whom we have a relationship.
