The Epistles of John Week 6 – 15 Nov 2011 Miracle Life School of Power Ministry

Seven Tests 2:3-29 a.Test 1: Obeying God’s commands 2:3-6 b.Test 2 : Loving one’s neighbour 2:7-11 c.Test 3 : Remembering your Spiritual growth 2:12-14 d.Test 4 : Not loving the World 2:15-17 e.Test 5 : Guarding against Anti-Christ’s or False teachers 2:18-23 f.Test 6 : Letting the Gospel remain in you 2:24-27 g.Test 7 : Continuing, Abiding in Christ 2:28-29

Test 1 : Obeying God’s commands 2:3-6 1.The Test : Do we obey God’s commands? v3 2.The professing man : Says he knows God but does not obey His commands v4 3.The obedient man: Obeys God’s Word v5 4.The responsible man : Lives up to his profession v6

How do we know if we know God? Take a test Do we obey God’s commands? Then we believe in Jesus Christ, that He is God’s son, and we love one another. We surrender all we are and have to Jesus Christ and to loving one another Unless we are doing these two things, we do not know God. No matter what a person may say, he does not know God if he has never given his life to Jesus Christ

How do we know if we know God? Take a test And He does not know God if he criticizes, grumbles, and back-bites his brother and commits adultery, kills, steals, lies, covets, or does anything else against his brother. If a person really knows God, he wants to please God. He wants to know more and more about God, and the only way he can know more and more about God is to follow God. He has to do the things that God does, to walk and love as God walks and loves. If we obey His commands we know Him. John 7:16-17, 8:31, 8:51, Hosea 6:3

How do we know if we know God? Take a test Some people seek to know God. They seek after God, but they do it in the wrong way. Some speculate about God. This is the route most people take in trying to know God. They imagine what God is like and hold that image in their mind and try to live by what they imagine. They have their own teachings and their own images of what God is like, and they govern their lives by that image. Some try to seek and know God by mystical or emotional experiences They seek to know the spiritual world and its focus through spiritists, astrology, magic, and a host of other man-made mystical experiences.

Test 1 : Obeying God’s commands 2:3-6 1.The Test : Do we obey God’s commands? v3 2.The professing man : Says he knows God but does not obey His commands v4 3.The obedient man: Obeys God’s Word v5 4.The responsible man : Lives up to his profession v6

Man who makes a false profession Scripture is direct and pulls no punches V4 It is absolutely impossible to know God and not to obey His commands. Why? For one clear reason: if God really exists, then He created us. We came from God. He created us for some purpose; He put us on earth for some reason. Therefore, he is bound to tell us why He created us; he is bound to tell us what He wants us to do exactly how to do it. He would defeat his purpose if He did not. Therefore, God would never leave us in the dark, groping and grasping and trying to find out the truth. He would be a God of hate if He left us in the dark, and He is farthest thing from hate.

Man who makes a false profession Jesus Christ has shown us that God is love, that God loves us so much that He has given us the Holy Scriptures to tell us what to do. God has shown us His love by giving His son to live the truth out right before our eyes. He has given us the written Word to tell us how to live. He has given us the Living Word in the life of His son. God has sent His very own son to live the perfect and ideal life upon earth so that we might know how to live. Jesus Christ lived out the will of God; He lived just like God commands man to live. Therefore, He knew God perfectly. He had perfect communion and fellowship with God.

Man who makes a false profession If a person says that he knows God and does not keep God’s commands, he is a liar. A person has to follow the perfect and ideal life of Jesus Christ. He has to walk and live as Jesus Christ walked and lived; he has to follow Jesus Christ and do exactly what Jesus Christ says in order to know God. Jesus obeyed all commands of God; therefore, He knew God perfectly. This is exactly what man must do. Man must follow Jesus Christ and do exactly what Christ did; obey the commands of God. When man obeys the commands of God, then he will come to know God.

Man who makes a false profession Converse is also true. If a man does not keep God’s commandments, then he does not know God. This person makes a false profession. His knowledge of God – what he thinks God is like – is false. His image of God and the ideas within his mind of God are not true. They are False, counterfeit, not genuine. The person does not know God at all. How can we tell? Because he does not obey the commands of God. He has not truly believed in Jesus Christ, nor is he loving his brother like God commands He is not walking like Jesus Christ walked. Mat 7:21, Mark 7:6, John 13:35, Titus 1:16, Eph 5:1-6, Psa 78:35-36, Eze 33:31-32

Test 1 : Obeying God’s commands 2:3-6 1.The Test : Do we obey God’s commands? v3 2.The professing man : Says he knows God but does not obey His commands v4 3.The obedient man: Obeys God’s Word v5 4.The responsible man : Lives up to his profession v6

Obey God’s Word Obedient man obeys God Word and knows God and loves God. Note how obedience is tied to knowing and loving God. The only way to know anyone : To get near them, study them, learn all about them – all about their will, desires and wants, their nature and thoughts and behaviour The same is true with God. The only way to know God is to get near Him and study Him, learning all we can about His will, desires and wants. But how can we do this when God is in the spiritual world, another whole dimension of being, a world that is far removed from this world? By Jesus Christ Jesus Christ came to earth to reveal God and to show us how to draw near God. To know God we must draw near Jesus Christ and follow Jesus.

Obey God’s Word We must follow the Word of Christ; we must keep the Word of Christ, living exactly as He lived. This is the person who knows God. The person who obeys God’s word has God’s love made complete in his life. Meaning : when we draw near God and begin to keep His Word, we begin to establish a relationship with God. It is just like a boy who meets a girl and begin to draw near her. So it is with God, the more we draw near Him and obey His Word and please Him, the more we learn about Him, and love Him. Obeys is continuous action. It means to continue on and not to stop. Means day by day obedience.

Obey God’s Word If we obey God’s Word day by day, then we learn more and more about God; we learn to love Him more and more. His love becomes completed and fulfilled in us. Obedient person is the person who knows God and loves God. He is the person who knows the love of God; he knows all the fullness of life that God’s love brings. No matter what a person may profess – no matter how religious a person may be – if he does not obey God, he does not know God. Neither does He love God. Mat 7:25-27, 12:50, John 7:17, 14:23, 14:31, 15:10, 15:14, Rev 22:14, Deu 5:29.

Test 1 : Obeying God’s commands 2:3-6 1.The Test : Do we obey God’s commands? v3 2.The professing man : Says he knows God but does not obey His commands v4 3.The obedient man: Obeys God’s Word v5 4.The responsible man : Lives up to his profession v6

Responsible Man Responsible man lives up to his profession. The word ‘Walk’ is continuous action. It means to keep on walking; to continuously walk. If a person says he abides in Christ, he must be a responsible person. He ought to walk as Jesus Christ walked. In fact the word ‘must’ means debt, constraint, obligation. The person who professes Jesus Christ, who claims that he knows God, is obligated to walk as Jesus Christ walked. He is in debt to walk as Christ walked.

Responsible Man How did Christ walk upon earth? He walked believing and trusting God, Worshipping and praying to God, Fellowshipping and communing with God, Giving and sacrificing all He was and had to God, Seeking and following after God, Teaching and telling others about God, Loving and caring for others just as God said to do Obeying all of God’s commands This is the responsible man, the man who lives what he professes.

Responsible Man If he professes to know God, he walks even as the Lord Jesus Christ walked upon earth. He believes and trusts God; he worships and prays to God, and he does all the things that Christ did. He walks in the footsteps of Christ, doing exactly what Christ did. This is the person who knows God. Rom 6:4, Gal 5:16, Eph 4:1, 5:2, 5:15, 1 John 1:7, 1 John 2:6, Mat 16:24, John 13:15, Phil 2:5, Col 3:13, Heb 3:1-2, 1 Pet 2:21

Seven Tests 2:3-29 a.Test 1: Obeying God’s commands 2:3-6 b.Test 2 : Loving one’s neighbour 2:7-11 c.Test 3 : Remembering your Spiritual growth 2:12-14 d.Test 4 : Not loving the World 2:15-17 e.Test 5 : Guarding against Anti-Christ’s or False teachers 2:18-23 f.Test 6 : Letting the Gospel remain in you 2:24-27 g.Test 7 : Continuing, Abiding in Christ 2:28-29

Test 2 : Loving One’s Neighbour 2: The Test : The supreme command – Love v7-8 2.The professing man : Professes God but hates his brother v9 3.The obedient man: Loves his brother v10 4.The bitter and hating man v11 Is in darkness and walks in darkness Has no direction and is blind.

Loving one’s neighbour How do we know if we know God? Do we love our neighbours? If we criticize, grumble, gripe, backbite, ignore, neglect, curse, abuse, slander, hate or mistreat our neighbours in any way, then we do not know God. No matter what we may claim nor how loudly we claim it, we do not know God if we do not love our neighbours. God is love; therefore, any person who truly knows God is bound to love. Loving others is a strong test of our knowledge of God We can tell whether or not we know God by testing our love for others Introduction

The Supreme command - Love How do we know if we know God? There is a test that shows us: do we follow after the supreme command, the command to love our neighbours? Three significant facts Is an old command : Already in the scripture. John does not come right out and say that he is talking about love, not immediately. He says that the command he is about to talk about is not a new command but an old command Is the command that they had heard from the beginning of time 1

The Supreme command - Love Man must love his neighbour Lev 19:18. Why John did not mention it straight away? Why take a back door approach to the subject of love? John had a very good reason: what John is about to say is new, so new that people would say that it was his own idea and not the truth. Therefore, John had to establish the fact that God had said the same thing from the beginning of time., how can it be a new command? What is there about the command that might upset people and cause them to turn away from John’s exhortation? This is the second thing discussed by John. 1

The Supreme command - Love Is a new command that is in Christ and His disciples It is not only an old command but a new command. Again what is so new about love? Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ gave love a new meaning. Jesus Christ ……………. Loved not only friends, but enemies Loved not only good people, but bad people. Loved not only the righteous, but the sinner Loved not only the acceptable, but the rejected Loved not only the clean but the dirty Jesus Christ himself stated the fact as clearly as it can be stated Mat 5:

The Supreme command - Love This was totally new concept of love. Man has always felt free to mistreat others, especially those who had mistreated him. He has felt free to ….. Hate criticizestrike back Hurtbe unkind backbite Ignoreretaliateneglect But Jesus Christ has shown that we cannot mistreat people no matter what they have done, that we must love everyone no matter who they are. Note His words ‘That you may be sons of your father in heaven’ Mat 5:45 2

The Supreme command - Love The only way we can become like children of God is to love even as God loves. If we do not love, then we do not know God, for God is love. He is the love that loves all people no matter who they are Note another statement of Jesus Christ. John 13: Jesus Christ says an astounding thing: the only way people can tell that we are His disciples is by our love for one another. 2

The Supreme command - Love Our discipleship and our knowledge of God can be measured by whether or not we love our brothers and sisters in the Lord. This is exactly what John says in v8 ‘ A new command it’s truth is seen in him (Christ) and you (True believers) The person who truly follows God has the love of God in him. The love of God dwells not only in Christ but in the believer also. 2

The Supreme command - Love Love is now made known by the true light that shines and erases the darkness. ‘the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining’ v8 The darkness refers to man’s old idea of love, that he could react against anyone who mistreated him. But Jesus Christ, who is the light of the world, has now shone forth the truth. Man is to love his neighbour no matter what the neighbour does. God is love ; therefore, man is to be as God: man is to love. It is by his love that man knows whether or not he knows God. No man knows God, unless he loves as Christ loves, loves even his enemies. John 8:12, 12:35, 2 Cor 4:6, Eph 5:12, Isaiah 9:2 3