March 13, 2024
Author: Pastor Bernard Ibrahim
March 13, 2024
“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
1 John 4:13-21
I would like us to look at this passage through this idea of encouragement. The apostle John, by the Holy Spirit, has been writing this (you can see all along the way) to encourage the saints. To instruct them and to especially give them confidence that they are believers. Where did they get this confidence? How did they get this confidence? You can see in verse 17 of our passage, confidence of the believer, “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment.” This is the idea. How am I sure? You might have doubts if you’ve been in the way any length of time. You would come upon doubts based on your own sin, based on your coldness, based on your lack of love that you perceive. “Am I the real thing?” On the day of judgment, when all things will be made clear and apparent, will I be found wanting? This is a common tactic, I would say, of the devil, is to cause the doubt of the believer that we would doubt God and doubt that we are his.
Confidence for the Day of Judgment
1. Do you have the Holy Spirit? Verse 13, “By this we know that we abide in him. (I am not going to go into this ‘abide’, but it is going to unlock the passage for us. This Greek word, meno, is not ‘do we comply,’ because it is really used differently. It is a verb, both abide and abides, meno is translated both ways, is where do we live, where do we dwell, where is our existence? Of course this is metaphorically, conceptually, not physically, not what is our geographic address.) Where do we live? Do we live in him? “By this we know that we abide (or exist) in him and he in us because he has given us of his Spirit. The first evidence to support the confidence of the believer on the Day of Judgment, do you have God’s spirit? You might say, “I don’t know.” This opens up a whole other set of passages. Galatians 5:22, 23, is there the fruit of the Spirit? If there is the fruit of the Spirit, it is not by your own works, it is the work of the Spirit that produces that fruit. That is an evidence. Do you have spiritual discernment? 1 Corinthians 2:14, There were things in this life, no matter how intelligent you are, you cannot discern because Paul, teaching the Corinthians, they are only spiritually discerned by the Holy Spirit, they are spiritual realities; it is not about intelligence, it is whether you have or do not have the Holy Spirit. That is the first evidence, you have the Holy Spirit, the fruit and the discernment and many other things we could point to of whether you have the Holy Spirit.
2. Do you confess, do you believe in your heart of hearts, Jesus is the Son of God, sent by the Father to be the Savior of the world? Your savior and every other sinner’s Savior. Do you believe that fact? Verse 14, “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.” You know you are abiding in God, you have confidence on the day of judgment if you have the Holy Spirit, you confess Jesus is the Son of God and he is the Savior of the world sent by the Father.
3. Do you know and believe the love that God has for you? Do you know, do you understand, do you have some experiential comprehension of the love that God has for you and do you believe in it? Not perfectly, not all the time, but do you trust in the love for God or are you trusting in something else? Your works, or is it the grace that God shed his love upon you and you did nothing to earn it. Verse 16, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” You see this is another element of knowing that God abides in us and we abide in him. Do we know and believe the love that God has for us personally?
4. Do you love your brother? Do you have love for the brethren? Do you practice love both from the heart and in word and deed? Verse 19-21, “We love because he first loved us.” We don’t love because we somehow fabricated out of our own heart or out of our own thinking. We love because he first loved us. “If anyone says, ‘I love God’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” I think John is referring to 1 John 2 and John 13, “A new commandment,” Christ said, “I give to you, that you love one another.”
So here are the four evidences to give us confidence when Satan comes to tempt us to doubt the love of God for us and that we are truly abiding in Christ in this life until we get to heaven. 1) Do we have the Holy Spirit? vs. 13. 2) Do we confess Jesus as the Son of God sent by the Father to be the Savior of the world? vs. 14. 3) Do we know and believe the love that God has for us, every day. He came into existence for our salvation and every day since, vs. 16. 4) Do we practice love for one another, for our brothers and sisters here on earth?
These are four evidences that the apostle puts before us that we are abiding in God and God is abiding in us. I hope this is an encouragement to you especially when Satan comes to tempt you. These are the passages in the scripture we need to run to, to read and reread and meditate on when Satan comes to cause us to doubt both the love of God and his saving us and making us his own.
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