Day 338

Daniel 11:36–12:13; 1 John 4:1-21; Psalm 123:1-4; Proverbs 29:2-4

AS WE’VE READ John’s first letter, we’ve seen that many in the early church were being deceived and abandoning faith in Jesus. Some began to follow new teachings, while others became antagonistic and anti-Christ. Of the many skewed teachings that were developing, one in particular claimed that Jesus was a spiritual apparition rather than a flesh-and-blood human. The question was ultimately whether Jesus was the divine made visible or the divine made flesh. This teaching would later be called Docetism. John addressed this issue specifically in discerning the Spirit of God.

According to John, those who abandoned what they had first been taught in favor of a false teaching did not have God’s Spirit. Instead, they were embracing the antichrist spirit. In that context, John said something that became very famous: “You belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Essentially, John told his readers that the Spirit of God was not distant and esoteric —as some of the false teachings were suggesting. Rather, the Spirit of God resides within those who believe and is greater than any deception from the world.

But John’s point was far deeper than theology. John wanted his readers to comprehend the unfathomable reality that the Spirit of God was within them. In other words, because of Christ, the human and the divine could be in collaboration, as with Christ. What would be the evidence of this?

Love.

John explained it like this:

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love —not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

Jesus was the physical, human embodiment of God’s love for us —a love we could see in action. It wasn’t demonstrated by an apparition; it was offered by God in the flesh. When we love one another, we are making that same love visible in the flesh —our flesh —as Jesus did. John said it like this:

God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.

The implications are truly colossal. As John pointed out, we can’t see God. However, we can see one another. When we live within the reality that the Spirit of God lives within us, we begin to understand that being the body of Christ is more than a metaphor. We can physically bring the love of God to the world —as Jesus did —because the same Spirit is animating and guiding our lives. God’s love is made perfect in us as we live into this. And perfect love casts out all fear.

The apostle Paul gave us a beautiful description of love in 1 Corinthians 13. But if there were ever a case to be made about why we must live in love, it is here in the fourth chapter of 1 John. When we love, we are assured of God’s Spirit within. When we love, we are physically demonstrating God’s love to the world. When we love, we are being perfected. When we love, we are being Christlike. How must we respond to this? In the words of the apostle John, “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God.”

MEDITATION:

If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.