Children of God

May 10, 2026

This week we will continue in our series on 1 John. In fact, we are up to chapter 5, so this is our final week of the series. I have been really encouraged by this series and revisiting this book. As I have, I realised just how much the writings of John have shaped my life and ministry.

Last week we saw three things in chapter 4…

1 . He wanted to warn us about false teachers who would try and lead us astray.

2 . He wanted to remind us of the importance of loving our brothers and sisters in Christ.

3 . He wanted us to remember that perfect love drives out fear.

This week we will look at five things that God wants me to draw out of this chapter.

Bible Reading

1 John 5:1-21 NLT

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves His children, too.
2 We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey His commandments.
3 Loving God means keeping His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.
4 For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.
5 And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
6 And Jesus Christ was revealed as God’s Son by His baptism in water and by shedding His blood on the cross–not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit, who is truth, confirms it with His testimony.
7 So we have these three witnesses [in heaven–the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. And we have three witnesses on earth]–
8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood–and all three agree.
9 Since we believe human testimony, surely we can believe the greater testimony that comes from God. And God has testified about His Son.
10 All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has testified about His Son.
11 And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.
13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.
14 And we are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him.
15 And since we know He hears us when we make our requests, we also know that He will give us what we ask for.
16 If you see a Christian brother or sister sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it.
17 All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death.
18 We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them.
19 We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.
20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and He has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and He is eternal life.
21 Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

Message Points

As I mentioned earlier I have 5 points to bring out today.

1. Children of God love God and obey His commands

1 John 5:2-3 NLT – We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey His commandments.  3 Loving God means keeping His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.

We become children of God by putting our faith and trust in Jesus. This is when we are born again into God’s eternal family. This is when we receive His Holy Spirit and our lives are changed forever in an instant and they progressively change over time into the image of Christ.

One of the ways that John says we measure this change is by our love for God, our love for His other children, and our obedience to His commandments.

When we look at the 10 Commandments from the Old Testament, we see that the first four look to how we should relate to God and the next six look at how we should relate to each other. Likewise, in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount He spoke about relationship with our Father in Heaven and our relationship to each other.

As Jesus, Himself said in Mark 12:30-31 NLT “And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’  31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

Children of God need to love God, love one another and obey His commands.

2. Children of God overcome the world

1 John 5:4-5 says, “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.  5 And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.”

Children of God overcome the world. How do we overcome the world? We overcome the world because of our faith in Christ. The world says we are hear by chance. Our faith in Christ says we are hear by God’s plan and purpose. The world says we are born, we live and we die and that is the end of us. Our faith in Christ says we are eternal beings with a future hope of spending eternity with Christ in His Kingdom. The world says we are measured by what we do and what we own. Our faith in Christ says we are measured by who we belong to and how much He paid to purchase our freedom. Jesus paid it all.

For us as children of God to overcome the world, we must keep standing firm when all seems against us. When we are tempted to follow the worlds systems of doing things, we overcome when we follow God’s principles. We overcome the world when we continue to set our hearts and minds on things above. We overcome the world when we stay strong in the Word and remember that “every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith”.

Faith brings victory over this world. Faith is how we overcome.

3. Children of God have assurance that Jesus is the promised Messiah

As regular readers of the Bible we know that after Adam and Eve sinned and were caste out of the garden and God promised to send a Saviour and Messiah. There are over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament about this and point to Jesus as the fulfillment of these prophecies. Not only do we have fulfilled prophecies, but we have testimony from the “water, the blood and the Spirit”.

In verses 7 and 8 of today’s text it says, “So we have these three witnesses [in heaven–the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. And we have three witnesses on earth]– 8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood–and all three agree.”

Over the centuries, Bible Scholars have held different opinions of what this means – water, blood and Spirit. If we read verse 6 it tells us plainly. “And Jesus Christ was revealed as God’s Son by His baptism in water and by shedding His blood on the cross–not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit, who is truth, confirms it with His testimony.”

If we read the account of Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3:16-17 we see that “After His baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on Him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is My dearly loved Son, who brings Me great joy.”

From this we see God’s confirmation of Jesus as His Son and Messiah. We also see God’s confirmation in the resurrection of Jesus. He was crucified, He died and He was buried. But Jesus didn’t stay in the grave. He rose to life by the power of the Holy Spirit. In His death, He defeated sin and its hold on us. In His resurrection, He defeated death and its hold on us too.

As Christians, we can have confidence that Jesus is the Messiah. From the fulfilled prophecies, from the testimony of water, blood and Spirit, and by His resurrection from the dead.

4. Children of God have assurance of salvation and relationship

1 John 5:13-15 –  I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.  14 And we are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him.  15 And since we know He hears us when we make our requests, we also know that He will give us what we ask for.

Two main points come out of these verses. One is that we have assurance of salvation because we believe in the name of the Son of God – we have put our hope and trust in Jesus. The second one is that we have relationship with God because He hears us when we pray.

God hasn’t saved us and left us to our own devices where we just get through this life and wait for death. He saved us and helps us through this life. One way is by hearing and answering our prayers. Now it would be easy to just read verse 15 and think that God will give us whatever we ask for. “Dear God I want a new Mercedes. Dear God I want a mansion to live in. Or in Larissa’s case – Dear God I want a really handsome husband!”.

Verse 14 gives us context – “And we are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him.” A big part of prayer is asking according to His will.

When I pray, I am conscious of asking for what I need for our family and to do His will. I use the A.S.K. principle.

A – Acknowledge that God is sovereign and He can do all things

S – Seek His will in all situations and what He wants

K – Keep on praying and keeping it before the throne.

I know this seems like a simple principle, but it puts God in His rightful place – sovereign and all powerful, and me in my place – totally dependent on Him.

As children of God we can be assured of our salvation and relationship with God. I know because I am resting in Jesus for my salvation, that I am in relationship with God and He hears me.

5. Children of God need to look out for each other

In the last section of the text it reminds us that we are all in this together and we need to look out for each other.

1 John 5:16-17 says, “If you see a Christian brother or sister sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it.  17 All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death.”

It is just so vital for us to look out for each other. This life gets tough at times and temptations come at us all. That is why we need to stand together and help each other through. If we see someone caught up in sin, we need to help get them back on track.

Galatians 6:1 touches on this when it says, “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.”

Before I finish I want to touch on this last idea of a sin that leads to death. The sin that leads to death is in the context of false teachers leading people astray. So, it a sin that distorts the Biblical reality of Jesus and downplays His Deity, His eternal existence or coming as Messiah in bodily form. One that we wrongly believe ourselves or we teach to others and they follow.

Because as we know, we need to have a right view of Jesus to be saved. We need to believe that He is the eternal Son of God. We need to believe He is the one who was born into this world and died on the cross for our sin. We need to believe that He was raised to life and now sits at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. We need to accept Him as our Lord and Saviour. A right view of Jesus brings salvation. A wrong view of Jesus is a sin that leads to death.

So children of God need to look out for each other and help each other stay on track with the Lord.

Closing Summary

As we finish this series and our look at the Book of 1 John I want to list the main points that God prompted me to bring out today.

• Children of God love God and obey His commands

• Children of God overcome the world

• Children of God have assurance that Jesus is the promised Messiah

• Children of God have assurance of salvation and relationship

• Children of God need to look out for each other

Amen

He will come again

May 8, 2026

Here are some more catechisms from the book “To be a Christian”. This talks about Jesus coming again.

What does the Creed mean when it says,“He will come again”?

Jesus promised that he would return (Luke 21:27–28). His coming in victory with great glory and power will be seen by all people and will bring this age to an end. The present world order will pass away, and God will usher in a fully renewed creation to stand forever. All the saints will be together with God at that time.(Proverbs 30:4; Daniel 7:13–14; Luke 21:27–28; Acts 1:10–11; 1 Thes­ salonians 4:13–18; 2 Peter 3:3–13; Revelation 21:1–4)

Can we know when Jesus will return?

No. We cannot know when Jesus will return. Jesus patiently waits for many to repent and trust in him for new life; then he will return unexpectedly, which could be at any moment. (Matthew 24:36–44; 1 Thessalonians 5:1–3)

(Source: To be a Christian. #76, #77)

The light of the world

May 5, 2026

John 8:12 NLT – Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

Jesus is the light of the world. If you follow Him you will not walk in darkness any more. This is a promise right from His lips. Following Jesus starts with prayerfully making your connection with Him.

A – Admit and Ask

We need to admit to God that we have sinned and fallen short of His standards and to ask for His forgiveness.

The Bible says…

Romans 3:23-24 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

1 John 1:9-10 – If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

When we admit to God that we have sinned and not fully followed Him or His ways, it is like a huge weight is lifted from our shoulders. We can know that we are right with God and our sins are forgiven.

B – Believe and Become

We need to believe in Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for our sin.

The Bible says…

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 1:12 – Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

When we believe in Jesus and what He has done for us, we become God’s children and have the promise of eternal life with Him. We can know in this life that our eternal destiny is sorted out by God. God promises us this in the Bible.

C – Call and Confess.

We need to call on Jesus to save us and we need to confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.

The Bible says…

Romans 10:13 – Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Romans 10:9-10 – That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

The final step in the ABC of salvation is to call and confess. We call out to Jesus to save us and we confess Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. This means we are trusting Jesus to save us from our sin (our Saviour) and we are asking Him to be our King and ruler of our life (our Lord).

Prayer to find salvation

Responding to God is as simple as praying a short prayer that expresses our thanks for what He has done, confessing your sin and asking Jesus to be our Lord and Saviour. You can pray this prayer right now.

Heavenly Father,
I thank You that Jesus came and died on the cross for my sin. Right now I ask for Your forgiveness for all of the wrong things I have done in my life. Jesus, I believe You are the Son of God, that You died on the cross for my sin and that God raised you from the dead. Right now I surrender my life to You and I ask you to be my Lord and Saviour. Please guide me and lead me in all I do. Help me to live for Your Kingdom by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Amen

Further Reading

Accepting Jesus and your Lord and Saviour is the start of a new journey in your life with God. Please visit our Discipleship page to find some things you can do to help you grow in your faith and commitment to God. You can also download our free discipleship Bible studytoo.

The chief danger

May 4, 2026

I read this quote from William Booth recently. He was the founder of the Salvation Army. From my understanding it was written over 100 years ago. He could have wrote it today…

“The chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, heaven without hell.”

A call to love one another

May 3, 2026

This week we are going to continue with our series from 1 John. We are up to chapter 4. Last fortnight in chapter 3 we saw three things…

In chapter 3 John wanted us to know that…

  1. We are loved and chosen by God – we are His children
  2. As God’s children we need to live right as we wait for Jesus to come back
  3. Real love is sacrificial and focuses on the good of others

Chapter 4 has some more warnings and some more encouragements for us as Christians. As with the other chapters before it, John wants us to be on track in our relationship with Christ and with one another.

The title of this message today is “A call to love one another, live without fear and watch out for false teachers”.

Bible Reading

1 John 4:1-21 NIV84

1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. 4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Message Points

1. A warning against false teachers

In verses 1-6 John gives us a warning against teachers who speak of things not from the Spirit of God.

1 John 4:1-3 NIV – “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.  2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”

John recognised that false teachers with ulterior motives were coming into the church to lead people astray. John warns us to test the spirit that is behind what they are saying.

When someone says, they have a word or teaching from God there is three places it can come from – God’s Spirit, the human spirit or Satan. Messages from God’s Spirit line up with Scripture and have a sense of rightness or truth about them. Messages from the human spirit feel like they miss the target and have a sense of selfishness, worldliness or ambition attached to them. Messages from Satan are designed to lead us astray and can often sound right, but are not right when tested.

So how do we test if someone is from God or not? We can observe them over a period of time and prayerfully ask these questions.

  • Does what they say line up with the Bible, or as one of my Bible teachers used to say, “Does it sound like God?”
  • Does their life and character line up with Scripture? (Titus 1:5-9, 1 Timothy 3:8-12)
  • Do they bear fruit worthy of Christ or what is the fruit of their ministry?
  • Do they respect other believers and have good standing in the church?
  • Does what they say about Jesus line up with the Bible? (v2-3)

These things, especially what they say about Jesus is key to knowing if what they are saying is from God. John warns us to test the spirit behind what people say. That is why we need to take it slow when new people come to the church before we give them opportunities to serve in a place of responsibilities in our church.

Over the years, I have been at churches where new people have come in. They wanted to introduce themselves to the Pastor and talk about all their experience and training. It was like a job interview for a position of authority in the church. Most of my Pastors have told the people to come and be part of the church for about six months and just get to know everyone and sit. Build relationships and let people get to know them and see what they are really like. In some cases people stayed and did become part of the church and take on a role in time. At other times they left because they did not get recognised with authority straight away.

Like John is saying here, we need to test the spirit that is at work in the person’s life and what they are saying or teaching. Remember the spirit at work can be from God, the human spirit or from Satan. Prayer and time usually reveal which one it is.

2. A call to brotherly and sisterly love

In verses 7-16 John reminds us again to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is the third time in four chapters. It is something John is pretty passionate about.

The first time was in chapter 2. It says, “10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.”

If we love one another it proves we are living in the light. The second time was in chapter 3. John again reminds us that this “is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another” (v11). He goes on to say that our love for one another shows we have passed from death to life (v14).

It was the old/new commandment to love on another which goes back to Leviticus 19:18.

In today’s passage verse 12 says “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” And in verse 16 it says, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”

I don’t know about you, but I want a complete love. I want God’s love to be made complete in me. I want to follow Christ’s example of sacrificial love and I want to help my brothers and sisters in Christ who are in need as we saw in chapter 3. I want to love my brothers and sisters in Christ so it will be obvious I truly belong to Jesus (John 13:34-35). I don’t want to love only in words, but my faith and my love to have actions attached to them (James 2:26). I want to show I have passed from death to life. I want people to see my love and good deeds and give glory to my Father in heaven as Jesus said in Matthew 5:16.

So once more John reminds us to love one another.

3. Perfect loves drives out all fear

My last point for today is perfect love drives out all fear. Tucked away in verses 17-18 is a powerful point about fear – perfect love drives out fear.

Verses 17 and 18 in today’s readings says, “In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

The context of the statement “perfect love drives out all fear” is in the case of the coming judgement at the end times. When the Bible talks about judgement, it talks about two main happenings. The “judgment seat of Christ” in 2 Corinthians 5:10 and the “Great white throne judgement” in Revelation 20:11-15.

In 2 Corinthians 5:10 it says, “For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.” This is traditionally seen as the judgement of those who are righteous in Christ – people who have believed in Jesus and trusted Him for their salvation. It is neither the judgement of the nations where sheep and goats will be separated in Matthew 25:31–46 nor the great white throne in Revelation 20:11–15.

Revelations 20:11-15 says, “And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. 12 I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. 14 Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. 15 And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.”

This judgment is based on faith in Christ and if your name is in the Lambs Book of Life. If your name is in there because you have trust Christ, you are ok… if not, you are a bad place.

The judgement seat of Christ should be viewed as the “reward seat”, rather than being viewed as a judicial bench. Good deeds will receive a greater reward, and bad deeds will lessen the reward. Yet the judgement seat remains only for believers in Christ who have already been justified and found worthy to stand before a judge, having their lives inspected to determine their rewards.

For us as Christians this is good news, no scratch that, it is great news! Our judgment is not about salvation – we are saved and our names are recorded in the Lambs Book of Life. The judgment we will face is about rewards. Rewards for what we have done with what we know about Christ.

So, in the context of our passage today. We can have confidence on the day of judgement, because we trust Christ. We know and have experienced His perfect love that reaches out from eternity and drives out all fear.

I have heard it said that the letter of F.E.A.R. stand for false evidence appearing real – F E A R. Whenever I am fearful about the future I ask God is this is false evidence or is this real, then His love comes in and gives me peace, His Word comes in gives me assurance and His Spirit helps me to focus back on the eternal realities that are true, real and pure. Perfect love drives out fear.

Closing

So, in closing today and as we finish with 1 John 4, I want to encourage with three thoughts that John wanted us to understand.

  1. He wanted to warn us about false teachers who would try and lead us astray.
  2. He wanted to remind us of the importance of loving our brothers and sisters in Christ.
  3. He wanted us to remember that perfect love drives out fear.