1 John 4 - Introduction

ANALYSIS.

Believe not false teachers that urge the acceptance of their false doctrines upon you, for such are in the world. First try them. Here is a certain test. If they do not confess that Jesus Christ came to earth in the flesh, they are antichrist, and are of the world and speak for the world. We apostles are of God, and speak for God. This is the plain and certain test between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Love is of God, and we shall know that we are begotten of God if we have love one for another. God declared his love for us in sending his Son into the world, that we might live through him; and if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. While it is true that no man has seen God, yet it is equally true that if we love one another, God dwells with us, and by this we know that we dwell in him, because we have this spirit of love, which is his. One that confesses that Jesus is God's son, dwells with God, and God with him, and while we do all his commandments, including his commandment to love one another, our love is made complete, and we will have assurance of acceptance at the day of judgment. With such an one no fear of rejection will be present; love being complete, such fear is banished. We love God because he first loved us, and no one can say that he loves God while at the same time he hates his brother, for in so saying he is a liar. The reasoning is plain; we see our brother, and yet hate him. How can we love God whom we have not seen? Loving the unseen, we must love the seen, for the unseen whom we love has commanded it.