1 John 3:24-4:11

4:1-3 | Christians must not believe everyone who claims to have a message from God. Rather, they must test the spirits (1 Cor. 12:3). False teachers can be exposed by comparing how their lives and their words – especially their words about Christ – align with the Word of God.

4:2 | The false prophets of John’s day, with their gnostic-type teaching, denied the incarnation – the truth that Jesus is eternal God who came to earth and was born as a baby. He clothed His deity in a human body – conceived of the Holy Spirit and yet born in the flesh, fully divine and also fully man.

4:3 | The false teachers who denied the Incarnation were some of the early church’s first heretics. The spirit of the Antichrist was alive in them and is alive in this world. Any view that attacks either Jesus’ humanity or His deity is the work of antichrists (2 Thess. 2:3-7).

4:4 | What an amazing promise! Regardless of the opposition – false teachers, worldly pressures, skeptics – believers can live confidently, assured of their status and victory (Rom. 8:31-37).

4:5 | False teachers speak from the world’s point of view. They reject Christ’s wisdom and shape their teaching according to worldly categories rather than biblical ones.

4:6 | In contrast to the false prophets within the church, John claims that his message is from God Himself – the author of all truth. The hard reality, however, is that the world is deaf to this truth. When God’s children hear the truth, they respond with obedience (1 Cor. 2:14).

4:7 | Hate cannot characterize a true Christian. Love is the new nature of a believer because it is God’s nature. But this is not an ordinary love, such as unbelievers have; it is a love like God’s – holy, unconditional, passionate, and sacrificial. Christians respond to the love of God by loving others. This testifies that they are walking in the light and in the life of God.

4:8 | God is not just “loving,” God is love. All that anyone knows about real love is rooted in the character and nature of Almighty God, who is the origin, originator, and orchestrator of all true love. The biblical concept of love means seeking the best for a person while asking nothing in return. Only God can produce that kind of love in a person.

4:9-10 | Jesus Christ is the expression of God’s love and the heart of the gospel message. Propitiation means “atoning sacrifice” (John 3:16-18).

4:11 | Believers cannot love others in their own strength; they can love only out of the reservoir of God’s love. How can a Christian love someone who is unlovable? By realizing how unlovable they were when God first loved them. If God can love us, then He can love through us.