Message Summary
This is the third message in the series “Knowing, Growing, & Sowing.” Today’s message emphasized love, in particular, love as the identifying characteristic of believers. Unity in Jesus’ church, among its members, is one of the marks of a healthy thriving body of believers. As 1 John 4 states, we love God because he first loved us and expressed his love through the giving of his Son to pay the debt for our sins so that we might live through him. Because of this undeserved love, we then ought to love one another. Notice why we are to love others: not because of what they have done or can do for us, but because we who deserved death were given life in the Son of God. This lesson provides the answers to the questions (1) How do we know we are believers and (2) What motivates us to love others?
HOW DO WE KNOW WE ARE BELIEVERS?
1. We practice righteousness (1 John 2:28–29; 3:10; 3:16–18)
1 John 2:28–29 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.1
What does John command us to do if we are to have confidence when Jesus comes for his church?
What does it mean to abide in Jesus? Why is it necessary? cf. John 15
Do we practice righteousness to abide in him or do we practice righteousness as a result of abiding in him? This is the difference between religion and the gospel.
Does practicing righteousness assume perfection? cf. 1 John 1:8–10.
2. We mirror the image of Christ (1 John 3:1–3)
1 John 3:1–3 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
What does it mean to be a child of God? We identify with him and look like him in some way (cf. Matt 5:9; John 1:9–13).
How do we know we are loved by the Father?
What is the relationship between our being called God’s children in the present and our looking like Christ when he returns for his church?
3. We love fellow believers (1 John 3:10–11; John 8:44; 17:1–26)
1 John 3:10–11 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message we heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
What additional evidence does John give so that we may know that we are children of God (cf. 3:4–9)?
Who is contrasted in vv. 10–11?
What are the two characteristics that identify one as a believer or an unbeliever according to vv. 10–11?
WHAT MOTIVATES US TO LOVE OTHERS?
1. A righteous/new/regenerate heart (1 John 3:12–18; Gen 4:1–8; Matt 5:21–26)
1 John 3:16–18 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
What example are we given to follow? cf. John 13:1–20
What example does John give of believers laying down their lives for one another? Is this what you expected? Does this exclude actually giving one’s life for another?
How does one’s heart affect one’s ethics (what one does)? cf. Matt 7:15–23
Application
Find another brother or sister in Christ whom you can show love to in the next couple of weeks. If possible, do it anonymously, so that we do it expecting nothing in return.
Read all of 1 John to see how love is described and expressed in a variety of ways.
Further Study
For more on the church and church unity you could read:
D. A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God. This may be downloaded for free online at http://s3.amazonaws.com/tgc-documents/carson/2000_difficult_doctrine_of_...
