We discussed on Bible Study 1 John Chapter 4 Discernment & True Love.
Discernment First - Don't be Deceived by those that come using Jesus Name.
There are many false prophets in this world and want to push their teachings to us. Many come in the name of Jesus, Bible, and God. John gave us the key test - Jesus Christ, the Son of God coming in the flesh of man to die for us. There are doctrines that preached that Jesus was only a man or Jesus as man was symbolic only. Christianity is built on Jesus. Remove Jesus and there is no Christianity. Not believing in Jesus as coming from God the Father, as a man to die for our sins and resurrected to give us new life also make Christianity belief void (1 Cor 15:13-19).
We discussed that there were 3 groups for people - the believers, the anti-Christ, and the undecided. The anti-Christ will try to deceive believers and others away from following Christ. Believers has the Holy Spirit inside that is greater than them in the world. So, believers should not be afraid of the challenges in the world and from the anti-Christ spirit working through men.
True Love - Exemplified by God and Working in Us & Empower Us to Reach out.
We are empowered to love others because God first loved us and sent His only Son Jesus Christ to die for us. Our love show that are in God and God in us 1John4:16. Love is perfected, showing a growing degree of love, through our practices of love for one another. True love is unconditional, proactive, sacrificial, others-centric, and build upon the foundation of Jesus' love for us. Counterfeit love is performance and self-benefits based. I love you because I gain good things from you such as beauty, service, respect, money, etc. Once you are doing what I want, I withdraw my love. Such is counterfeit love.
True love cast out fear - fear of punishment.
True love provides the environment for openness, transparency and trust. There is no fear of punishment. Fear of punishment creates cover-up, lies, distance. We compare discipline vs punishment. Discipline is firstly concern about you, your benefits, character molding and growth. It is future oriented. Discipline may be painful in the short-term. But the person being disciplined must understand its purpose and know it is for him. Discipline is done in private. Punishment is about past wrongful acts being committed. It is more concern about the rules being violated than the person committing the wrongful act. It is meant to be a warning, of fear, to all others as well. It is to make sure all follow the rules. It is enforcing a behavior. Discipline is about internalizing a good value. I don't steal because stealing is bad not because it will be punished.
Let's Be Real - Don't Kid Yourself - Loving God includes loving His People
John is brutally frank about love. 1 John 4:20 If you hate a brother than you are a liar if you said you love God. He who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. There are people who tell you should put God and ignore the people. That's sound great but is misleading. Loving God also means loving the people that God gave His Son Jesus Christ for. He who cannot be concern about his brothers or sisters cannot love God who he cannot see.
For an exposition on True Love, see here.
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