Category: 1 John

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

John summarises everything he has said in the first four chapters in this last chapter. Meditate on verses 11 and 12. What idols do you have to keep yourself from?

SJA Notes

* Mighty God, Father in Heaven, please teach us today that we might know a little more of You and of how to please You.

“Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.”

There are many false religions throughout the world that seem different but all converge on this one point – They proclaim that Jesus cannot be God.

We God’s people are to stand firm in what God’s word tells us.

John knew the reality of Jesus. Jesus was God become man, the SON to the FATHER, giver of the SPIRIT.

Here John points us to the truth – If you do not believe the testimony of God toward the Person of the Son (remember Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan river), then you make God to be a liar.

Unbelief comes in many forms, sometimes tricky to nail down.

God’s word is clear – Anyone who says Jesus is not God is not a believer in God.

God has He is revealed int he scriptures, the old and the new testaments.

One God. Three Persons (Father, Son and Spirit).

Let us be encouraged and exhorted in this today.

* God Above,

Please ground us each day in the truth of You, of who You are.

Please help us point people to Jesus, the Saviour of the world.

Please write Your word on our hearts this day. Teach us what You want us to know.

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

What verse in today’s reading do you think would be a good one to memorise. This is another famous chapter on love.

SJA Notes

* Lord God, thank You for Your love for us, even though we are unworthy. Please refine us today.

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Here is the order of things.

Here is what true love looks like.

True love is not from us, we don’t do God a favour by showing our love to Him.

Instead it is’ God’s favour to us that shows us what it means to love.

His love for us is so mighty, so deep, so full that God in the Person of the Son would come down to live as a man and be crucified and take the punishment for our sins and be the payment freeing us from our sin.

What a God this is, what a love He shows us!

* Loving Father,

Thank You for Your love that we see clearly in the work of Jesus on the cross.

Thank You for Your grace and Your mercy.

Thank You that in You we find life!

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

We are called to two things – to discontinue in sin and to love our brother Christian. 1 Corinthians 13, Zechariah 7:9,10 and 8:16,17, Leviticus 19:18 and much else of the case law in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy will tell you what loving your brother means in practice.

SJA Notes

* Holy God, You are all we need in this life. As You write Your word upon our hearts, may our love for You grow ever onward.

“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

This is a deep and meaty passage, full of hard truths.

John clearly points us again and again to the true/false absolute nature of sin and righteousness, of light and darkness, of God and of the devil.

John exhorts us in a very practical exhortation.

“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

How do we love one another?

We _do_.

Our doing, actions, arise out of our hearts.

Following Jesus is not a matter of the surface, of the outward.

God’s people are on a narrow road, a path of walking and action, of decision-making through life, seeking God’s wisdom at each step.

We need to _do_.

Let us be encouraged to love in action out of the truth of the Spirit that lives within us, our hearts remade.

* Father God,

Thank You for Your love for us, that shows us how to love.

Thank You for Jesus, who showed us on earth what it meant to love, to obey.

Please help us to love in action and in truth today.

Amen.