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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.

This week we are going to continue our series from 1 John. The title of this message is, “We are God’s adopted children who are called to love”. Today we will look at the whole of 1 John 3 and then pull out three points that God placed on my heart to share.

Bible Reading – 1 John 3

1 John 3:1-24 NIV – See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. 4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. 7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. 11 For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

Message points

Today I want to bring out three keys points.

We are loved by God and adopted as His children

1 John 3:1a says, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

We are reminded that God loves us and we are His children when we come to Christ. We are adopted into His eternal family, now and forever. I love the way the NIV uses the word lavished. God lavished His love upon us.

The Bible says a number of things about us being chosen as His children.

Ephesians 1:4-5 NIV – For He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.

John 1:12-13 NLT – But to all who believed Him [Jesus] and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn–not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

Hebrews 2:11 NLT – So now Jesus and the ones He makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them His brothers and sisters.

Ephesians 2:19 NIV – Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.

The great thing about adoption is it is about being chosen – chosen before the foundation of the world. We are adopted because we believe in Jesus and have accepted Him – God gave us the right to be His children. We are brothers and sisters of Christ. We here are fellow citizens and members of God household.

As God’s children, we must not keep on sinning

1 John 3:5-6 NIV – But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

The Greek word used for sin in the thigs passage is ham-ar-tan’-o. This means to miss the mark. It gives us images of an archer aiming for the bullseye in the centre of the target and missing.
Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Therefore, to sin is missing the target and falling short of God’s best standard.

But as we know as Christians Jesus has paid the price for our sins and as verse 5 says, “appeared so that he might take away our sins.”

In the previous chapters, we saw that God is faithful and just and forgives us and purifies us of our sin when we confess (1 John 1:9) and that we have an Advocate in heaven (1 John 2:1).
So how do we reconcile verse 6? “No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”

We need to remember this in the context of the false teachers who were teaching the people that you could live how you want and be right with God.

There is a difference between committing a sin and continuing to sin. Even the most faithful believers sometimes commit sins, but they do not cherish a particular sin by thinking about it all the time or continually choosing to commit it.

A believer who commits a sin can repent, confess it, and find forgiveness. A person who continues to sin, by contrast, is not sorry for what he or she is doing. Thus, this person never confesses and never receives forgiveness. Such a person is in opposition to God, no matter what religious claims he or she makes.

Unlike the archer, instead of aiming at the bullseye of God’s perfect standard and missing. The false teachers or antichrists did not even have a bow, an arrow and a target! In their eyes, they didn’t need one.

God knows we will stumble. Jesus has paid the price for our sin and we receive forgiveness when we sin, but we must not make a habit of sinning. Sin is the most expensive thing in the universe – it cost Jesus His life.

Before I finish this point, there are two verses that help me to keep on track.

1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT – The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you can endure.

Romans 6:12 NIV – Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.

When temptations strike, God promises to help us stand against it and show us a way out. We also must not let sin reign. The only one who should reign in our life is Jesus.

John tells us what real love is

This is the second time in this short letter that John talks about loving one another. Without any spoilers, I suspect it is not the last time!

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).

We see in verses 12 and 16 there are two ways to live and love.

In verse 12 John warns us not to be like Cain – “Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brothers were righteous.”

In verse 16 John tells us a better way – “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

There are two ways to live and love.

One is sacrificial of others for selfish gain. It puts my needs first and uses others to get them.
One is sacrificial of self for others gain. Like Jesus who laid down His life for us.

So how does this love show itself? Verse 18 tells us, “Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions”. It is not enough to love in word only, actions must follow.

Verse 17 gives us a simple practical way of showing our love – helping a brother or sister in need. Those with much should help those with little. It asks the question if we don’t help, how God’s love can be in us.

This section closes with the commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another (v23). If we do these things we remain in fellowship with Christ.

Closing Summary

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

Amen

This week we will continue in the series that I started a couple of weeks ago on 1 John. This week we will look at chapter two.

We saw in the last message that the Apostle John wrote the book of 1 John in the late first century. We saw that John was one of the 12 disciples and had a very special relationship with Jesus. We saw that John knew Jesus personally and that he was present for all that Jesus said and did. We also saw that the main reason he wrote was to keep people on track with all the false teachers around.

The title of my message is “We have our advocate Jesus in heaven who calls us to love one another, not love the world and watch out for antichrists who would lead us a stray”.

Bible Reading

1 John 2:1-29
1 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the One who is truly righteous.
2 He Himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins–and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.
3 And we can be sure that we know Him if we obey His commandments.
4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.
5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love Him. That is how we know we are living in Him.
6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.
7 Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment–to love one another–is the same message you heard before.
8 Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.
9 If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is still living in darkness.
10 Anyone who loves another brother or sister is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble.
11 But anyone who hates another brother or sister is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.
12 I am writing to you who are God’s children because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus.
13 I am writing to you who are mature in the faith because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning. I am writing to you who are young in the faith because you have won your battle with the evil one.
14 I have written to you who are God’s children because you know the Father. I have written to you who are mature in the faith because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning. I have written to you who are young in the faith because you are strong. God’s word lives in your hearts, and you have won your battle with the evil one.
15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.
16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.
17 And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.
18 Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come.
19 These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.
20 But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you His Spirit, and all of you know the truth.
21 So I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies.
22 And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist.
23 Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24 So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father.
25 And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life He promised us.
26 I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray.
27 But you have received the Holy Spirit, and He lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what He teaches is true–it is not a lie. So just as He has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.
28 And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when He returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from Him in shame.
29 Since we know that Christ is righteous, we also know that all who do what is right are God’s children.

Message Points

1. We have an Advocate

Verse one sets the scene”

“My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.”

My heart as a Christian is to live in Christ and not sin, but as I said recently, sometimes I do fall short and I need to confess. It helps me to know that I have an Advocate, a Defender, and a Supporter in heaven who pleads my case on my behalf.

It helps me to know that when I let myself down and ultimately let God down, that our Advocate is there for me. Over the years I have wondered what Jesus says in my defense. We can never know, but it might be something like this”

Father, Dave loves Me and I love Him. He knows Me and I know him. He tries really hard to live in Me and he does really well most of the time, but sometimes he falls short. Father, I died on the cross for Dave’s sin. I took it on Myself. I paid the price. Dave is forgiven because of My efforts on his behalf. Please restore Him and help him to live right.

We can never really know what is said, but it helps me to imagine something like the above. It helps me to know the One who is truly righteous is on my side and pleading my case.

Here are some questions for personal reflection and application”

• Do you find it hard to confess your sin when you fall short? Does it take some time to approach God?
• Does it help you to know Jesus is your advocate, defender and supporter in heaven?

2. A new and an old commandment

The first verse sets the scene again”

Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment “” to love one another “”is the same message you heard before.

I like the old/new commandment idea to love one another. John reminds us that God has always wanted us to love on another. This goes back to Leviticus 19:18 where God says, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD”.

Jesus also gave us this command in John 13:34-35, “So now I am giving you a new commandment” Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

John reminds us the importance of loving one another. In the last section we saw that living in the light meant to follow God’s commands. In this section it shows that by loving our Christian brothers and sisters we walk in the light and we even make the darkness disappear!

So it is important for us to purpose in our hearts today to love one another. Let us love one another the way Jesus loved us. Let us also think of ways we can do this practically.

Here are some questions for personal reflection and application”

• Since coming to know Christ, do you find it is easier to love others? Has your love for others grown the longer you walk with Christ?
• What are some practical ways you can show your love for others today?

3. Do not love the world

The next section of the text tells us plainly ““ “Do not love this world”.

Verse 15 says, “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you”.

This is a strong statement about loving the world that we live in. At the heart of this verse is a reminder that this world is not all there is ““ it is not our eternal home ““ it is only temporary.

Verse 17 reminds us that this world has a use by date. It says, “And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave””.

In a sense verse 16 has bookends. Verse 15 says do not love this world and verse 17 reminds us to remember it is passing away. A day will come when God calls time.

In the meantime, we live in this world as God’s children and live in light of eternity. We live as members of God’s eternal Kingdom and seek to serve Him in all we do. We cannot get caught up in the shallow things of this world. The things of verse 16 ““

• a craving for physical pleasure,
• a craving for everything we see,
• and pride in our achievements and possessions.

John reminds us that these are not from the Father, but are from this world. So let us keep our hearts and minds focused on God and His eternal realities and live in light of our awaiting eternal home.

Here are some questions for personal reflection and application”

• Do you find it easy to get caught up in the things of this world mentioned in verse 16?
• Does knowing this world has a use by date help you to keep your mind on this above? (Colossians 3:1-2)

4. A warning against antichrists

In the last section the title is a warning against antichrists. Verse 18 says”…

“18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.”

In verse 18 it uses the term antichrist twice. One is used with a capital A and one with a lower case a. The lower case version is referring to false teachers that infiltrated the church and denied the Deity of Christ. The one using the capital A is about the Antichrist who is talked about in Revelation 13, 19:20, and 20:10. It is a figure empowered by Satan who functions as an enemy of Jesus Christ and the Church. In the context of end time literature, this figure performs false miracles, deceives many in order to discourage people from worshiping the true God, and persecutes God’s people.

In verse 26 we see that John is writing this section to warn against being led astray by these false teachers. As we have seen before they would deny key things about Christ’s being the Messiah and how we should live.

John says there are two keys to help us from being led astray. The first is to remember we have the Holy Spirit as our helper and teacher. In verse 27 he says, “But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true”.

The second is to remember the foundation teachings they were taught. That Christ is from the Father in heaven, that He is eternal, that He is the promised Messiah and He is the only way to find salvation.

This is why it is so important for us as Christ followers to walk closely with Him, to pray, to study our Bibles, to come to church and to rely on the Holy Spirit’s teaching and promptings. When we do this we can stand firm in Christ.

Here are some questions for personal reflection and application”

• Have you had a time when you have been led astray by false teachings? What did you do?
• What things have you got in place now to minimise the chances of being led astray?

Closing Summary

John wants his readers to remember 4 things from 1 John 2

• We have an Advocate and Defender (Jesus) in heaven pleading our case when sin.
• There is a new/old commandment to love one another. It goes all the way back to Leviticus!
• We are to not love the world and the things in it more than we love God and His Kingdom.
• We need to be aware there are false teachers (antichrists) in the world trying to lead us astray.