1 John

Love and Fellowship In Christ

A Personalized Account

by Allan H. Franks

Allan Franks has been a Pastor in the Church Of The Nazarene since 1977.

He currently resides in Loudonville, Ohio where he is Lead Pastor and Counseling Director at the Loudonville Church of the Nazarene.

He is married to Brenda and they have two married daughters and four grandchildren.

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Table Of Contents

Introduction – page 3 Introduction to 1 John – page 4

A Personalized Account of 1 John The Word of Life: 1 John 1:1-4 – page 8 Walking in the Light: 1 John 1:5-2:6 – page 11 Loving God’s Way: 1 John 2:7-17 – page 17 Believing Right: 1 John 2:18-27 – page 23 Children of The Father: 1 John 2:28-3:10 – page 28 Loving One Another: 1 John 3:11-24 – page 34 Clearly Counterfeit: 1 John 4:1-6 – page 39 The Source of Love: 1 John 4:7-21 – page 42 Loving God and Overcoming The World: 1 John 5:1-5 – page 48 The Witness of the Spirit: 1 John 5:6-12 – page 50 Confidential Knowledge: 1 John 5:13-21 – page 53

Bible Study Guide – pages 58-89

2 Introduction

My desire in writing in this personalized style is to try to help the reader hear what God is saying to them in a very intimate and personal way. It is not my desire to try to rewrite scripture, but rather to show that God really does speak to us individually and personally from His Word.

I am not a Biblical scholar, but I have spent hours and hours studying the individual words of every verse. I looked the words up in the original Greek language and in many different translations of the Bible before I wrote each personalized verse. Before I personalized each verse, I asked the Lord to speak to me from His Word and He has been faithful to do so over and over again. What you will read in this book has been personalized and internalized in my heart forever.

I have been personalizing the Bible for my own benefit for over 40 years. It has been a labor of love. I have heard the Lord speak to me from His Word in a way that has changed the essence of who I am. Over and over through the personalizing of His Word, the Lord has affirmed His love for me. I have found the Lord to be a personal God who knows me and wants to communicate with me at a very deep level.

My hope is that you too will hear God speak to you in a deep personal way as you read this personalized account of His word. May God’s voice come to you clearly and dearly as you read.

God bless you!

3 Introduction to 1 John

Tradition tells us that after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70, the Apostle John and a core group of followers moved to Asia Minor. The apostle settled in Ephesus and soon influenced churches in several major cities. Sometime around A.D. 75-80 John wrote his Gospel, which circulated both as a missionary tract and as a report of the Son of God’s life and teaching for believers. The Christian church was firmly established by now but, as we know from 2 Timothy, 2 Peter, and Jude, destructive heresies were introduced by false teachers. The letters of John, and particularly 1 John, were probably written as a response to this internal crisis. John’s final work, Revelation, was written near the end of the first century.

This first letter of John’s is warmly personal in character. John does combat heresy. But he does so in a pastoral way, by repeatedly emphasizing basic doctrines about Christ and the Christian lifestyle. Again and again we read that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh, that righteous conduct is essential in those who have been born of God, and that love is the mark of vital relationship with God. One story about John, reported in Jerome’s commentary on Galatians, tells how he was carried into the congregation when he was old and unable to say anything except, “Little children, love one another.” When asked why he always spoke these same words, John replied, “Because it is the Lord’s command, and if this only is done, it is enough.”

There may be no epistles in the New Testament that better remind us of the basic truths which Christians believe and which we are called to live.

Date

The letter is difficult to date with precision, but factors such as evidence from early Christian writers (Irenaus and Clement of Alexandria), the early form of Gnosticism reflected in the denunciations of the letter, and indications of the advanced age of John, suggest the end of the first century. Since the author of 1 John seems to build on concepts and themes found in the fourth Gospel, it is reasonable to date the letter somewhere between A.D. 85 and 95, after the writing of the Gospel, which may have been written in 85.

Recipients

1 John 2:12-14, 19; 3:1, 5:13 make it clear that this letter was addressed to believers. But the letter itself does not indicate who they were or where they lived. The fact that it mentions no one by name suggests it was a circular letter sent to Christians in a number of places. Evidence from early Christian writers places the apostle John in Ephesus during most of his later years (A.D. 70-100). The earliest confirmed use of 1 John was in the province of Asia (in modern Turkey), where Ephesus was located.

4 Clement of Alexandria indicates that John ministered in the various churches scattered throughout that province. It may be assumed, therefore, that 1 John was sent to the churches of the province of Asia.

Gnosticism

One of the most dangerous heresies of the first two centuries of the church was Gnosticism. Its central teaching was that spirit is entirely good and matter is entirely evil. From this unbiblical dualism flowed five important errors:

1. Man’s body, which is matter, is therefore evil. It is to be contrasted with God, who is wholly spirit and therefore good. 2. Salvation is the escape from the body, achieved not by faith in Christ but by special knowledge (the Greek word for “knowledge” is gnosis, hence Gnosticism). 3. Christ’s true humanity was denied in two ways: (1) Some said the Christ only seemed to have a body, a view called Docetism, from the Greek dokeo (“to seem”), and (2) others said that the divine Christ joined the man Jesus at baptism and left him before he died, a view called Cerinthianism, after its most prominent spokesman, Cerinthus. This view is the background of much of 1 John. 4. Since the body was considered evil, it was to be treated harshly. This ascetic form of Gnosticism is the background of part of the letter to the Colossians (2:21-23). 5. Paradoxically, this dualism also led to licentiousness. The reasoning was that, since matter – and not the breaking of God’s law – was considered evil, breaking his law was of no moral consequence.

The Gnosticism addressed in the New Testament was an early form of the heresy, not the intricately developed system of the second and third centuries. In addition to that seen in Colossians and in John’s letters, acquaintance with early Gnosticism is reflected in 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, and 2 Peter and perhaps 1 Corinthians.

Occasion and Purpose

John’s readers were confronted with an early form of Gnostic teaching of the Cerinthian variety. This heresy was also libertine, throwing off all moral restraints.

Consequently, John wrote this letter with two basic purposes in mind: (1) to expose false teachers (2:26) and (2) to give believers assurance of salvation (5:13). In keeping with his intention to combat Gnostic teachers, John specifically struck at their total lack of morality (3:8-10); and by giving eyewitness testimony to the incarnation, he sought to confirm his readers’ belief in the incarnate Christ (1:3). Success in this would give the writer joy (1:4).

First John was written to dispel doubts and to build assurance by presenting a clear picture of Christ.

5 Entering history, Jesus was and is God in the flesh and God in focus – seen, heard, and touched by the author of this letter, John the apostle. John walked and talked with Jesus, saw him heal, heard him teach, watched him die, met him arisen, and saw him ascend. John knew God – he lived with him and had seen him work. And John enjoyed fellowship with the Father and the Son all the days of his life.

The elder statesman in the church, John wrote this letter to his “dear children.” In it he presented God as light, as love, and as life. He explained in simple and practical terms what it means to have fellowship with God.

John opens this letter by giving his credentials as an eyewitness of the incarnation and by stating his reason for writing (1:1-4). He then presents God as “light,” symbolizing absolute purity and holiness (1:5-7), and he explains how believers can walk in God’s light and have fellowship with him (1:8-10) with Christ as their defender (2:1,2). John urges them to obey Christ fully and to love all the members of God’s family (2:3-17). He warns his readers of “antichrists” and the antichrist who will try to lead them away from the truth (2:18-29).

In the next section, John presents God as “love” – giving, dying, forgiving, and blessing (3:1-4:21). God is love, and because God loves us, he calls us his children and makes us like Christ (3:1,2). This truth should motivate us to live close to him (3:3-6). We can be sure of our family relationship with God when our lives are filled with good deeds and love for others (3:7-24). Again, John warns of false teachers who wrist the truth. We should reject these false teachers (4:1-6) as we continue to live in God’s love (4:7-21).

In the last section, John presents God as “life” (5:1-21). God’s life is in his Son. To have his Son is to have eternal life.

Do you know God? Do you know Christ? Do you know that you have eternal life?

First John was written to help you know the reality of God in your life through faith in Christ, to assure you that you have eternal life, and to encourage you to remain in fellowship with God who is light and love.

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A Personalized Account of 1 John

7 The Word of Life 1 John 1:1-4

New Living Translation: 1:1-4

1 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.

Personalized Account: v.1 I am real! I am not make-believe! When I lived on this earth, people heard me speak, and what they heard has been passed on until now. What I spoke continues to have lasting results. My Word still changes people’s lives.

People not only heard me, they saw me with their own eyes. I wasn’t a mirage! They saw me day after day and some saw me each day for 33 years.

People also touched me before and after I died and rose again. They had close contact with me. They felt my closeness.

I am the Word of Life. I am the expression of God in the world. I came to the world to show every person in the world who God is. I came to give spiritual life because the world was hopelessly dead in sin. Now anyone can have life and know me in a very intimate, close way.

I know you can’t hear, see, or touch me in a physical way, but you sure can, and have done so, in the spiritual realm. Keep seeking after deeper intimacy with me and one day soon you will hear, see and touch me in both body and spirit. v.2 I, as “The Life”, revealed myself in bodily form. I am a perfect representation of genuine, spiritual life. I know you can’t see into the spiritual realms right now, but if you will examine “The Life” I lived on earth, you will understand all you need to know about spiritual life and living.

I appeared and revealed and demonstrated and made absolutely apparent and clear that spiritual life is absolutely essential for someone to have if they want to know God and live with Him forever. You have this Life!

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I revealed myself to John and other eye witnesses so that they would testify to who I am and to the fact that I came. Through writing my word, eternal life was and still is being proclaimed.

I came into the world to announce that you can have eternal life. I brought the word about this life from my Father. I have told you everything.

You have eternal life in me. You have it now and you will continue to enjoy it and live it forever.

I was with my Father from the beginning. I have always been with Him and I came to show you what my Father is like. I am your God. You can see me through my Word and with your spiritual insight.

I, the eternal living God, live in you! v.3 You haven’t seen and heard me with your physical eyes and ears, but you have in your spirit. You have heard the announcement of salvation. You have heard my Word, you have read it with your own eyes and you have taken me into yourself as your own. Because I am in you, you can now realize and enjoy fellowship with me and others who have seen and heard me and accepted me.

You have fellowship with other saints. You are partners with millions. You are an equal partner and you can equally partake of me and all the eternal benefits. The fellowship you have with other saints is unique. There is nothing else like it. You can meet a Christian you’ve never known before and feel like you’ve always known them. The fellowship you have is a mark, an assurance, a confidence that you are in me. Your fellowship is with my Father and with me. It’s awesome! Rest in this fellowship, bask in it, and enjoy it. v.4 I had these truths written down so that you would know you are included in me and I want this truth to give you great joy. Delight in your position in me. Stand up and cheer about it. Be glad, be happy, let go of your inhibitions and your pressures and stress and enjoy being a Christian.

I have provided you with everything you need to have a complete, satisfying, full spiritual and eternal life. I have crammed you full of my joy. It’s in you. Now you just need to live it. You can’t get any more full of joy. You just need to let it change you from the inside out. Choose joy every day!

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I desire for you to break free from your stress and feelings of being overwhelmed. You have all you need to do so. Let yourself go! Let the stuff go! Live!

Your Savior and Lord, Jesus

10 Walking in the Light 1 John 1:5-2:6

New Living Translation: 1:5-10

5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

2:1-6

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.

Personalized Account: v.5 Here is “The” Message! You need to hear this announcement loud and clear and deep in your heart. This message comes from John who heard me say it with his own ears. He saw me live it with his own eyes. You can trust his word, which in reality is my word. John is like a reporter sharing historical and spiritual facts with you that you must make a choice about. You must either believe or not. The announcement is this. I am light! Everything about me is light. Light is the opposite of darkness and there is no darkness in me at all. Satan operates in the darkness, I operate in the light. And, the darkness is exposed by my light. I shine in the darkness. I have shown my light into your dark soul. I have brought into the light all your sin. I have illumined you to yourself. You have seen your darkness and you have let me burn up all that darkness so that you no longer walk in it. You now walk in me, “The Light.” You don’t have to go looking for me in dim, obscure places. I am not hidden from you. My truth, my will, my plan for you is always in the light and easy for you to find and live by. Let my light shine in you and through you.

11 v. 6 Walking in the darkness and claiming to walk in the light is a major hypocritical error. You can’t have fellowship with me and walk in the darkness because I am light. If you want to have fellowship with me you’ve got to be in the light, be in me, living like me and with me. Darkness equals lies. Everything in the darkness is a lie. Everything in the light is truth because truth equals light. Truth does not conceal or try to hide anything because it is filled with light. My desire for you is to live, walk and move in the light, to have no hint of darkness in you. You are in the light, you know the truth, and you live the truth. At times you come up close to darkness but I know your heart wants nothing to do with Satan’s lies. Keep walking in the light and in the truth and you won’t have to even worry about darkness and lies. v. 7 I am in the light. I am the Light! I know you want to be in the light so walk in it. Live in it! Move in it! Bask in it! Let it shine all over you and in you. You are really living and walking in the light. It shows all over you! Keep on doing it! Never take the light for granted. You have to walk in it, not stand or sit in it. Move forward and it will always shine on you and in you and through you. As you live in the light, you will have awesome fellowship with other Christian people. You will partake together with them of the benefits and blessings of walking in the light. The Light is not a spot light just on you, it lights the world. It shines on you and everyone else who walks in it. As you live, move and walk in it. My atoning blood that I shed for you on the cross cleanses you of all past sin and guilt, and it continues to do so every moment of every day. You are clean, pure and purged of sin. I have removed it from you. My light and blood keeps you cleansed from all sin in all its forms. You are clean and free! Walk in the light and rejoice! v. 8 You are a sinner! To refuse to admit this is just plain foolish and stupid. When I point out sin in your life and you try to say it isn’t there, you are just adding misery to your already miserable soul and inner being. Refusing to admit sin just leads you away from me. It will lead you further down the wrong path that you started when you sinned in the first place. Admitting you have sinned isn’t the end of the world. I know you like to be perfect, but you aren’t and you will blow it. If you don’t admit you have sinned, then my Truth will not be in you. The truth will not dwell in your heart if you refuse to see it. When I point out your sin and

12 convict you, you must see the truth about yourself and admit it. It is only then that you can be free. Accepting the truth about your sin will set you free. You very rarely hide your sin. You see it and you do what it takes to correct it, so you can keep on walking in freedom. You aren’t deceiving yourself. You are a truth- walker! Keep it up! v. 9 You don’t have to confess your sins. No one can make you do it. It’s your choice. But, if you want to be free from sin you will freely admit that you have sinned. I will convict you of your sin and then it is up to you to admit you’ve done it and agree with me about the sin in your life. When you confess your sin, you are owning up to it. You are saying, “I did it!” You are bringing the sin out into the open and into the light. Every time you confess your sin, you can count on me to forgive you. This is my solemn promise to you. I am faithful to keep this promise. You can trust me fully on this. I will never refuse to forgive you. Never! You can stake your life and eternal destiny on this promise. My whole nature as God stands behind this promise. If I don’t keep this promise, I am not God. My nature is to forgive and I will do it every time you confess. I am fair, righteous, pure, innocent and equitable. So, I can dismiss your sin. I will lay it aside and put it away. I will bury it where it is forgotten and never to be remembered again by me. Not only will I forgive you, I will purify you and remove the sin from you. I will pull out its root and purge you of it. I will continue to keep you clean. I will keep pointing out to you everything that is not in conformity to my purpose and will for your life. As you confess it you will stay pure and clean and forgiven. You are forgiven. You are cleansed. Just keep coming to me with your confessions and I will keep you this way. v. 10 Again, you have sinned! You know it and I can see that the desire of your heart is not to sin. But you do from time to time and when you do, you must admit it. Because if you claim that you haven’t sinned in the past, or if you claim that you haven’t sinned in the present, when you have, you go against what my word says. In Romans 3:23 it says, “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” To claim to not have sinned when you have is to call me a liar. And I can’t lie. I am Truth! There is no lie in me. And, if you make me out to be a liar, then my word is not in you. And if my word is not in you, you aren’t one of mine. To keep my alive, growing word in your life, you have to take care of any sin problems in your heat. I want to intimately communicate with you. My word is a verbal and written expression of who I am and you don’t want to block me out with sin you haven’t taken care of. Call sin what it is! Face it, confess it, repent of it and live and bask in the fact that my word is deeply implanted in you.

13 2:1-6 v.1 You are my little, dear child. I care for you in tender, compassionate ways. It is my love for you that compels me to share these important truths with you concerning sin. I want these truths to be engraved into your mind and heart. I am right now carving them into you. They are permanently cut into your mind. No one can erase or mark out these truths. I do not want you to sin. I have made myself available to you in the form of my Holy Spirit to warn you about sin, to point out temptation, to say “Don’t go there!” You don’t have to sin, but you probably will from time to time. So, when you do miss the mark in your relationship with me, you have my Son as your Advocate. He will come before me on your behalf. He is like your lawyer, your mediator. He has died so you can be forgiven. His pleading your case carries a lot of weight when your case comes before me. Jesus will plead your case night or day, any day. Court is always in session with me. So, when you sin, seek forgiveness. Take the sin to your defense advocate immediately and He will see to it that you are forgiven immediately. He alone can do this for you for He conforms to my will in every thought, purpose and action. He is holy. He will treat you fairly and with equality. v.2 I am the way out of your sin, me and me alone. I am not only your advocate that pleads for you before my Father, I am the foundation of your case before my Father. Because I died for you, because I shed my blood for you, whenever I go before my Father to ask Him to forgive your sins, He immediately forgives. Not solely because you have asked to be forgiven, but rather on the fact that I took your place when I died. I covered your sin so you wouldn’t have to die, so you could be forgiven. Your sins have been removed and they will continue to be removed because of my atoning sacrifice for you. But I didn’t sacrifice myself just for you and a select group of Christians. I sacrificed my life for the sins of all the inhabitants of the world. Don’t keep your forgiveness a secret, tell others, tell the world about your freedom and release from sin. v.3 There is a sure sign that you can be aware of that assures you that you know me. It is simply keeping my commands for your life. It’s living according to my word. If you live by my word, I guarantee that you will know me and my plan for your life. Every day I want you to grow in your knowledge of me. I want us to become better acquainted with each other every day. I hunger for you to know me better today than you did yesterday. As you live in my word, you will be able to discern my plan for you in every situation. You will see what I am doing so you can do it also. You will recognize my

14 promptings and my signals. You will understand more of who I am and how I work in and through your life. Keep my word in your mind at all times. Obey it, observe it, practice it in every part of what you do. My word is the final word on everything. It is authoritative. It is like my spiritual prescription for your life. If you will follow the prescription, I will bring more and more healing so you will know me better and better. My greatest desire is for you to know me. Keep my teachings and you will. v.4 If you claim to know me, if you claim to understand who I am, if you claim to be intimately acquainted with me and yet you do not practice my word, my teachings, and my truth, then you are a liar and my truth is not in you. I realize you will falter from time to time. I don’t mean that you will lose your salvation if you falter and sin. What I mean is that if you fail to keep my word and if you disobey me continuously, then what you claim and how you live doesn’t match up. You would be a hypocrite and a liar. The way you live would discount what you claim. If you will treasure my teachings and hunger for the truth, you will know me and you will know my plan and my will for your life. The truth will be plain to you and you will follow it. You know me. You aren’t a liar. I can see that you know me by the life you live. You love my teaching, you live the truth. v.5 You are a keeper of my word. You daily, hourly, even each minute, let my word influence and instruct you. My word is alive in you. You treasure my word. It is in your mind. You seek to obey it and observe its entire message. Because of your devotion to my word, my love, which is unconditional, is being perfected in you. My word is shaping and molding you into my perfect image. My word is moving you on to maturity. One day my work will be completed in you because you are living by my word. The maturity process is life-long. The actual perfection is a completed act in you, wrought by my Spirit when you totally committed your life to me. But this perfection isn’t instant maturity, it is an ongoing process. The fact that the process is going on in you is your assurance that you are securely in me. You don’t have to be perfect in performance to know that I am in you. You just need to be actively participating in the process. This is so freeing for you because of your perfectionist tendencies. v.6 You have said that you abide in me. You have declared this truth with your words, with commitment and with action. You profess to live in me day after day. My Spirit testifies with your spirit, your inner being, that this is true. You live in me! There is no doubt about it.

15 Because you live in me, it is your duty to conduct and live and walk as I lived my life. See this duty as a personal debt that you owe me. You are a reflection of me and when you walk other than the way I do, then your example and witness is hindered and in reality, you are giving me a bad name and reputation. You represent me and must take it very seriously. But, I don’t want you to live like me just because you have to, do it with joy. It is your joy to live in me and walk like me. I know you feel this way, so keep experiencing joy from being in me and living like me.

Your Perfect Example, Jesus

16 Loving God’s Way 1 John 2:7-17

New Living Translation: 2:7-17

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 fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness. 10 Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a fellow believer 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.

Personalize Account: v.7 This commandment of following my word and of living in me and living like me is nothing new to you. You have known this commandment from the earliest days of your life. You have known it all through your life and there have not been very many periods in your life when you haven’t sought to keep my word. You haven’t always done so. You have struggled and still do, but your heart is right. You have learned so much from your struggles with sin. You really do live and look like me for the most part. The old commandment is the word you have heard. You have heard a lot of my word so you are responsible for staying true to all you have read, heard and studied. Keep applying it to your life. Continue to live in the salvation I have given you. 17 Experience the freedom from bondage. Walk boldly and confidently. You are mine for all eternity. v. 8 I am re-emphasizing the old commandment of salvation in me alone, but I’m also issuing you a new commandment. I don’t want you to just love me, I want you to take your love for me, and the love I have given you, and love others like you love me. This new commandment of loving others was what I modeled while I lived on earth. It was true in me and now it is being realized in you and through you. The proof that you are living out this new commandment is that the darkness of your life is passing away. It’s clearing out of your life. Your darkness is lifting! You are living in truth. You are real and genuine. You are an open book and you aren’t trying to conceal anything. Because you live out and in the truth, my light is in you. My light in you will never be quenched. I am revealing myself to others through you. Your light is bright. It glows! It is brilliant! It’s my pure light in you and you are throwing light onto others and pointing them to me. v. 9 To say you are in the light, that you are on fire for me and with me, and that you shine brightly for me, but yet you hate another Christian is hypocrisy. You can’t say one thing and live another. If you are fully in my light, you will resolve your feelings of intense hostility toward someone who has hurt you. This is a battle for you. When you are hurt, you internalize it so much and you nurse it and it grows into hatred. You’ve got to admit the depth of these sinful emotions. You must confess them and repent of them before you can consider yourself in the light. Let go of hatred! It eats you up. If you feel it, confess it to me, bring it to me and I will free you from it. Those you struggle with have the same Father you have. I want all in my family to resolve their conflicts. Grace people! Trust me with your emotions. I will heal you! v. 10 Loving unconditionally is not always easy for you, especially if you’ve felt hurt by someone. I will give you this love. I know you are human and that you get hurt and I know how hard it is to love your enemies. Love isn’t always a feeling. It’s a choice of your will. You have to decide you are going to love and I will bring along the feelings later. Give up your hatred to me. Let it go and I will show you how to love. I will give you the grace and the desire to do so. Loving other Christians must be an ongoing, continuous part of your life if you desire to live in my light. Living in my light must be your goal so settle your accounts with those you hate. Give the hatred to me and on purpose do loving things. If you will do this you will be in me and you will have no reason to stumble around in the darkness.

18 v. 11 Your hatred of those who you have felt hurt by doesn’t hurt anyone more than it hurts you. To continue in a state of hatred toward others that are in me will continually keep you walking around in darkness. And the longer you let the hatred go without admitting it to me and to yourself, the further into the darkness you will go. When you are in the darkness, caused by hatred, you lose all sense of my path, plan and direction for your life. You are consumed by darkness and you stray around searching for the light, but your hatred blocks it out. You don’t know where you are going. You feel locked up, surrounded and in bondage. Hatred makes you blind. The blindness is a result of your own choice to hang on to the hatred. It stifles all growth because the light has a hard time getting in. The way out is to confess the hatred and give it to me and begin to take my love and minister it to those you have felt hatred toward. You are doing this. Please keep it up. Every time you feel the hatred, talk to me, let it out, and receive my forgiveness and healing. v. 12 You are my little child. I care for you as a mother cares for her infant. I look after your every need 24 hours a day. I never abandon you. My word is written for you. It is my personal letter from me as your father to you as my child. This is my love letter to you, and I’m writing to you because I have forgiven your sins. This is why you are my child. You have been adopted into my family when you confessed your sin and took on the name of my Son. Your name is now Christian! I have pardoned you from your sin. I have granted you relief from having to pay for your own sin. I have done this because my Son has presented your case before me. And because I trust Him, because of His character, because of His sacrificial death for you, I have accepted you. Your life brings glory to the name of Christ. You are a Christian. You live as one who is identified with Jesus. You are mine! v.13a My word is for you. It is my personal message to you. You must listen. You can’t survive in this world and in your job without hearing from me. You can’t go off half-cocked on ideas you haven’t even brought before me. Listen to me! Slow down and hear my word to you. I have written my word to you because you know me. You know me deep in your inner being. You recognize me at work in you, you are aware of me. You have a conscious real perception of my presence in your life. You understand me. You have intimate knowledge of me. That is why I speak to you from my word. Your intimacy leads you into hearing my plan for your life. Keep listening! Don’t charge out ahead of me. You are a leader. You are respected by many people. People know that you have an intimate knowledge of me and my plan for your life and the church. I respect you! I

19 believe in your ability to lead. I am calling you a “parent” in this scripture and I believe you are, and I stand behind you and in front of you with my full authority. I have given you my word because you know me and because I respect your ability to handle what I say to you with maturity. Go for it and listen to me all the way! v.13b You are my young person. Even as you get older you will be my young person. You are young at heart. You are open to change. I have written my word to you because I know you will listen to it. I have written it to you because you have overcome Satan. You are victorious in me. You now have superiority over Satan and his wicked conniving lying schemes. There is no immorality in you. You are morally pure. You are a winner. You have complete mastery over the enemy. Because of this victory, I trust you with my word. I know you will use it well. v.13c You are my child. You listen to my word like a child. You are eager to hear it. You are curious about it. You want to learn from it. Because of your child-like spirit and attitude, I have written my word to you. I speak to you from my word because of your ability to receive it as a child. You know me as your Father. You understand my deep love and acceptance for you. Your earthly dad introduced you to me and you came to know me as your Father in a way you never knew before. I love you so much. I know you can’t see me, but I am caring for you in ways you can’t see as a loving father cares for his child. I tenderly speak my word to you at times and at times I assertively correct you and discipline you when you need it. I give you lots of freedom and independence and at times I make my plan for you very specific. Again, you are my child. I am your Father. My word is directly from me to you. There is nothing between us. v.14 My feelings about you being a respected leader and someone I have absolute confidence in are so important that I have repeated the same words in this verse that I did in the one before it. Again, I believe in your ability to lead. You know me so well that I feel total confidence in you when I delegate to you my will and plan for you, your family and the church. You have known me since childhood. You have walked with me faithfully for years and I trust you to represent me. You are a strong person. You have great vigor. You hold back way too much. Let your vigor show. I trust you to use it appropriately. Your strength is in abiding in my word. I live in you! My word lives in you! It’s alive in you, just let it out. My word is forever in you. What you have learned will never be taken away. Set yourself free to let my word spill out of you.

20 v.15 When you love the world or the stuff that is part of the world, it stands in direct contrast to you loving me. It also makes it difficult for you to know the depths of my love for you. If your time and energy is invested in the world, then you have little or no time or energy to cultivate your love relationship between us. Loving the world is a choice. It’s a decision of your will. It’s the same with loving me. The world and I can’t co-exist in your life. You have to choose to love me or it. Loving the world is putting any person, place or thing in a more important or valued position in your life than I am. You just don’t want to do this because when you do, you miss out on my unselfish, on-purpose desire, and choices to love you. It’s not that I don’t love you if you love the world. It’s that, you have no room for my love when you are loving the world. Choose to love me! I have chosen to love you. v.16 The world pulls at you basically from three directions. First, there are the cravings or lusts of the flesh. These center in the sinful nature you inherited. These are cravings for sexual gratification. These cravings show up in filthy appetites and passions. Be assured that these lusts do not come from me. Your sexual desire is from me, but it is to be controlled and only satisfied in your relationship with your spouse. The second way the world pulls at you is through the lust of the eyes. Your eyes see a lot. It is important to guard your eyes, to turn your eyes away, to even close them, to not subject them to temptations. This applies to the opposite sex, food, advertisements, material possessions, television, magazines, and the possessions of others. Guard your eyes. They can be greedy and hunger for what you see. Set your eyes on me and eternal things. Third, the world pulls you toward taking pride in your earthly life and earthly achievements and earthly possessions. To place your trust in these earthly things is folly. It is not the physical that matters. The physical, the material is temporary. It is the eternal that you want to invest your life in. These three things of the world do not come from me. I am not in them. Avoid them at all costs. Choose my way, not the world’s way. v.17 You know that this world is only temporary. It is passing away. The earth itself will be no more and anything that is material will not last. There will be an end to all the stuff, to people, to things, to all the lustful cravings. Instead of doing the will of the world, do my will. Go after me and everything that I am in and I support. You know that involves my word and people, because they are the only things that are eternal. Carry out my plans, my purposes and as you do, you will gain great assurance concerning your eternal destiny.

21 You are doing my will. Your focus is on the eternal. You will live with me forever. Count on it!

Your Eternal Advisor, Jesus

22 Believing Right 1 John 2:18-27

New Living Translation: 2:18-27

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.

Personalized Account: v.18 You are my child, don’t ever forget it. Because you are my child, I am giving you this warning that you need to be alert to. The days that you are living in are the times when my plan for this world is coming to an end. These are the final days. I have fixed a time and it is quickly coming to the end of the age. When you were a child, you learned that “the anti-christ” is coming. He will pretend to be like me, but he will represent everything I am opposed to. He hasn’t come yet, but there are those now who are representing him. These anti-christs oppose me, they are for Satan. Some are actively trying to teach others that I wasn’t God, and that I didn’t die and rise from the dead. They are trying to make truth into myths. They oppose me in many ways which are obvious to you because you know the truth. All of their opposition, their blatant denial of me, is a major indicator to you that the days you live in are the end times. Please warn people and expose the anti-christs as liars, deceivers and tools of Satan. I will protect you and continue to give you truth. I AM the Truth! v.19 The anti-christs that you need to be concerned about are those that said and acted like they were part of the true church for a time. They may have been trained in the true Church, they may have even been given the true Church’s stamp of approval. But if they were really part of the true Church, they would have stayed in it. But they haven’t. 23 They left the truth. If they had been with you, they would have stayed with you in the past, which they did not. Their actions speak very loud. The fact that they are not with you now proves they were really never with you before. They were liars, deceivers and false. When they went out from among the called out ones, they revealed their true identities. They took the lid off of their disguise and they became visible anti-christs. Their actions have exposed them for who they really are. Steer clear of any who oppose me. Seek truth with a passion even if it means standing alone while everyone else leaves. Don’t pretend to be someone you are not, for if you do you will be susceptible to defecting also. Be true! Be real! Admit you don’t have all the answers. I share these facts and warnings because you are my precious child.

v. 20 I am all over you and in you! You are my special person that I have chosen to tell the truth to people. I have given you a sacred appointment. You are not where you are, or who you are, by accident or coincidence. I have placed my hand of anointing on you. I have given you the ability to tell others what I want them to hear. I communicate with you through my Spirit, and with His power, anointing and unction you share with others what they need to hear from me. I have great confidence in you. I would not have given you this anointing if I didn’t trust you. I trust you totally. You are my chosen, appointed messenger. You know Me! You know the truth! You know my voice, you know my character, you know what I’m doing and you are doing it. There is nothing between us. You can see with physical and spiritual eyes what I’m doing. You have an inward and outward spiritual sensitivity. You have experience in how I work. You are fully acquainted with me. There is nothing false in you. You see reality in the physical and spiritual realms. You have all of me. You have my anointing. My Spirit is in you and with you wherever you are and whomever you are with. I trust you! v. 21 You are not ignorant! You know a whole lot. You know more than you think you do. You often belittle your knowledge and intelligence, but you are smart. Believe it! You have great ability to perceive the difference between lies and the truth. You can read people, and you have great sensitivity to my Spirit. You are no dummy! I have great confidence in your mental abilities, and that is why I have entrusted you with the truth. You have all you need from me to see the lies Satan tries to implant in your mind. Every time he tries, I will be there with truth. Choose the truth over and over. Remember that you know it because I am the Truth and I am in you. As the Truth, I will always set you free.

24 v. 22 There are lots of liars in the world and even though they try to disguise themselves, they are easy to spot, easy to expose. Since you know the truth and since you have boldly declared that you are a believer in Me, and in my Father, and since I as the Truth live in you, when liars come against you, you will know in your heart and mind their true character. Liars are clearly people and evil spirits that refuse to acknowledge me as the only truth Messiah, Savior and God. When confronted with this truth, they will try to skirt around it, they will reject it and their denial will be ongoing, it is a habit to them. When pushed to a choice, they will choose to reject and disown me and my Father. These people and evil spirits are against everything I stand for and everything you believe. I want you to expose them as the anti-christs that they are. Don’t be afraid to stand up to them. Because you are standing on truth, they will flee from you. I am so glad you are in my truth. There is no habitual lying or denying in you. v. 23 If you deny me, you automatically deny my Father also. We are one! We are inseparable. If you have me, you have my Father, if you have my Father, you have me. We are a package deal. There are some who say they believe in God, but they deny me as His Son. They refuse to acknowledge my death, my resurrection, my virgin birth, my deity. Anyone who does not believe in these cardinal truths, does not know my Father. These truths were part of my Father’s plan from the beginning. I and my Father are one! There is no way to believe half of this truth. It’s all or nothing. You are willing to stake your life on my deity. You have sold out to this truth. Your whole life, now and eternally, is wrapped up in the fact that I am in my Father and my Father is in me. You’ve made a good choice. This is absolute truth! It is hope now and eternally. Without this truth, you are lost. I am so proud to have you as a confessor of mine. Your life acknowledges me. You declare my oneness with my Father. You have me and have my Father. I see your faith and I love it! v.24 You have heard the Word of Life from the beginning of your life. You have known my word; you have known the gospel message from infancy. You have known me personally since you were a child. Even before that you understood a lot about me. What you have heard and known still lives in you today. It has never left you. I am in you, my word is in you. You have life in Me! Because you continually live in my word, because you live the life of salvation, you will dwell in me and in my Father now and forever. Your salvation is guaranteed. You have it!

25 v.25 I have made a promise to you and I am so committed to keeping it that I have sealed it with my blood. The promise is that you will receive eternal life when you leave this earth. My promise is a gift I’ve given you. You don’t deserve it because of your sin, but I have graced you even before you came to me for forgiveness. I have given you this free gift of eternal life and it is a promise that has legal binding in heaven, which is infinitely more binding than any earthly promise. This promise to you is a public promise. I have announced over you that you are mine and you have my gift of eternal life. Eternal life has no beginning and no end. It is constant, and there is no time limit to it. It is different than anything you’ve ever known. It is spiritual. It is all of me, all of who I am. It is all of what I give to saints like you. Nothing will be left out or missing. It’s completely yours. v.26 Deception is everywhere! It’s all around you! It’s in books, even some written by Christian people. It’s on T.V. It’s critical that you be grounded in the truth because you can be deceived. Deception will always be in the world because Satan is in the world. He won’t give up on you easily. He is like a beautiful woman or a handsome man who would invite you to hug and kiss her or him and then she or he would envelope you into her or his trap. Satan wants to do this with you in regard to his lies. He wants to make you think his lies are truth. He worms his way into your mind in subtle ways. He lures you into creating truth for yourself. He leads you into accepting what others say as truth when it isn’t. He is behind many who would lead you astray. You must be careful. Be careful about what you read or let others read. Be careful in what you say to people that might make them feel good, but not be the truth. You must stay a student of my word. You can’t survive deception any other way. Submit to me and I will protect you. I will show you when you are being deceived and I will show you truth. v.27 I have given you my anointing. You have it and the Holy Spirit keeps my anointing in you and on you permanently. I have placed my hands upon you. I have given you a sacred appointment. No matter what you do, where you go, what your job is, where you live, you will always have a special unction upon you. I may call you to work at McDonalds and it will be no less a calling than to do what you are doing now. I have smeared my Holy Spirit all over you. You and He are in constant contact. He permanently lives in you. This relationship you have will endure all things. It will last every moment of your life. When all others may turn away, this anointing that you have will give you strength to be patient, to persevere, to stay put and to stand.

26 Because you are in constant contact with me in this way, you don’t need man’s teaching and instruction. It doesn’t hurt to learn from others who know the truth, but even if all your books and every teacher were silenced, you would have me and I am all you really need. I will teach constantly what you need to know and learn. My anointing teaches you all things. Everything you need to know, I will teach you. And everything I teach you is truth. There is no lie in anything I have written in my word, no lie in anything I reveal to you. The truth is the truth. It can’t be counterfeited. If it isn’t truth, I will show you. My teaching will help you to stay solid in me. As you follow it, you will be rooted in me. You will be knit to me. We have kindred spirits! I can tell you with confidence that you will never depart from me. You will be tempted to, but you won’t! You are in me forever. I’m so glad you are! I have total trust and confidence in you!

Your Anointing, Jesus

27 Children of the Father 1 John 2:28 – 3:10

New Living Translation: 2:28-29

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.

3:1-10

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. 2 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. 3 And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. 4 Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. 5 And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. 6 Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. 7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. 8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. 10 So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.

Personalized Account: v.28 You are my little darling. You are my child and I love you very tenderly. I have great affection for you. I am your teacher and you are my pet. And because I am God, I treat all my students as pets. I love to hold you and assure you of my devotion to you. I want you to stay in me, moment by moment, day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year. Keep on living in me. Remain in me permanently now and forever. If you will do this when I appear, when I make myself visible to your physical eye, when I come again, you will not need to shrink away or try to hide from me. You won’t be smaller spiritually, you will be great spiritually and you will be able to stand in my presence and look me in the eye with no shame. There will be nothing for you to feel guilty about. You will feel no humiliation in being in my presence. Instead, as you remain in me, you will have confidence when I come. When I draw near to you, you will be able to be bold, you will be certain that you belong to me. There will be freedom between us, no bars and no walls. I am so looking forward to the day when we will meet face to face. You can meet with me now as you know. Keep doing so, and when I come again, our meeting face to face will be as if we’ve known each other forever.

28 v.29 You are dead solid sure of the fact that I am the Son of God. You have staked your life on my equality with my Father. I know you would die before you would renounce this truth. As God’s Son, I perfectly conform to my Father’s purpose for me. All my thoughts and actions were free from any sin. I could have sinned. I didn’t have an extra advantage over sin because I was God’s Son. I became just like you. My secret was the intimate closeness that I had with my Father. I knew His purpose and plan for me. I knew I would not sin or that plan would be nullified. I chose not to sin. You don’t have to sin either. You have the same power over sin that I had. You have me living in you in the form of my Holy Spirit. He will always provide a way for you to escape temptation. Your heart beat is toward doing my divine will. I know this about you! You do not want to sin. This is a clear sign that you are born of my Father and that we are siblings. You look like me, talk like me and act like me more and more every day. You are righteous in my sight!

1 John 3:1-10 v.1 My love for you is great! It has incredible quality to it. My love for you is backed up by all that I am. My love is free, unconditional and very generous. I am showing you this love in many ways. I am blessing you, I am gracing you, I am teaching and growing you. I am disciplining you. I am convicting you! This is being done because I love you. I am lavishing my love on you and in you. It’s being poured on you on the inside and outside. It’s all over you. It is my riches that I am lavishing on you. It’s all yours. I have named you as one of my children. You have my name, my mark on your life. I have counted you in. You are one of my numbers. But, you are more than a number, you have a new name. As my child, I have great affection for you. I love to hold you in my arms and touch you and care for your every need. You are my child! You are, you are, you are! This is who you are. Your identity is in me now. The world and those in it can’t claim you as one of theirs anymore. You do not belong to the world. You are separated from its clutches and desires. You have a heavenly home now. You are no longer connected to the world. You are not one with it, like a husband and wife are one. You have broken free. The world doesn’t recognize you anymore, because they don’t recognize me and I am in you and you are in me. You are mine!

v.2 You are one of the ones I love dearly. You are my friend but you are also part of my family.

29 Right here and now you are my child. You are my son/daughter in whom I am very well pleased. I love you like I love my only begotten Son. In the future, your sonship/daughtership with me will grow and get even better. And, when I send Jesus back again, then you will have the kind of relationship with me that is beyond your ability to even comprehend. Right now, I haven’t made clear to you what our eternal relationship will be like because you just couldn’t fully understand it. Just take my word for it. Eventually you will know all you need to know. When Jesus comes everything will be made clear. He will reveal everything to you. Right now, it’s all invisible, but Jesus will make it visible. You will be like Jesus in eternity. You are growing into His likeness now, but then you will resemble Him through and through. You will be able to see Him just as He is. No human limitations and earthly barriers, all will be removed. You will see, know and understand everything you hunger to know now. I can’t wait for this time when nothing will stand between us. It will be awesome for you and for me! v.3 I am your hope! My coming again, the time when I will make everything clear to you, is going to happen. There is a time coming when you will be completely like me and you will see me in all my fullness, face to face. I’ve given you a taste of it now. This is your hope! It’s real! You can rest in it. Desire this hope. Long for my appearing. Set your focus on it and make it your highest goal. As you set yourself toward this hope of seeing me and knowing me in my fullness, you must purify yourself. I am pure! I am clean, holy, and sanctified and to have this hope become a reality, you must be clean and holy also. I am in you giving you strength to live the holy life. I am cleansing you and purifying you. But you must cooperate by setting yourself apart from anything that is not holy, pure and clean. Consecrate your entire inner life to me. Dedicate your life to me. As you do, I will sanctify you and give you power to live free from sin. You are holy! You are holy because I am holy and I live in you! v. 4 A doctor who practices medicine does it every day. A specialist gets so good at what he does, it is like a habit that he doesn’t consciously think about doing. Sin is like this. The more you practice it, the easier it is to do it without even thinking about it. It becomes a habit. After a while, you don’t even realize you are doing it. This kind of habit is so dangerous because it has eternal consequences. Habitual sin is breaking my law. It is going against my commands and my will that is given in my word. Sin is a personal deal between me and you. It separates you from me. The goal I have for you is to have an intimate relationship with you now and on into eternity. Sin makes you miss this goal. Avoid sin!

30 v.5 This verse contains facts that you know and believe and stand on. I came to earth. I came to you. I disclosed to you and the world all that I am and all that my Father is. I made God visible to you. I came in the flesh to make the message of salvation clear. I talked about it, I lived it and I died to make it happen. I took away your sin. It is no longer on your record. I placed your sins on myself. I lifted them off and out of you. I took them up, and I carried them to the cross. I removed them from you forever. You are free from the penalty, the guilt and the shame of sin. I was the only one who could absolve you. I did it because I was and am the Son of God. I never sinned so I could be the perfect sacrifice for you. I could have sinned. But I knew if I did, you wouldn’t ever be free of sin. So I didn’t sin. I resisted temptation. I did without, so you could go free. I did it with pleasure! v.6 A person who continues to live a habitual life of sin, after they claim to have known me, does not know me, because, anyone who really knows me will not want to continue to sin. They will want to be like me, and I was and still am without sin! A person who lives and remains in communion with me will see the sin in their life and they will take care of it by confessing it and turning away from it. You become like someone you commune with and live in. So, if you abide with me, you will want to flee sin and become holy as I am holy. I’m not saying that you won’t sin even if you know me, but you won’t want to sin, and if you do, you will want to be cleansed and forgiven as soon as you become aware of it. I want you to know that you won’t immediately lose your salvation if you sin, but if you continue to sin and make it a habit, a lifestyle, it will be like you never knew me. People who practice sin can’t get together with me. I am the opposite of sin. Take care of sin right away. Confess it! War against it! v.7 You are my child, my dear one. I have great feelings of affection toward you. I love you like you can’t possibly imagine. Don’t let anyone deceive you. Use my wisdom, your inheritance, your position with me to stand strong against anyone who might lead you astray. You know Satan is doing all he can to deceive you and lead you astray. I am proud of how you are standing up to him and using my armor, my word, the truth to defeat him, in your life and in the lives of others. If you practice righteousness, you are righteous. It is that simple. Don’t try to make it any more complicated. Practicing righteousness is setting your heart and mind on conforming to my will in purpose, thought and action. You won’t always be perfect in performance, but if your heart is set on living a consistently righteous life, that’s what matters to me.

31 I declare you righteous today. You are righteous because I am righteous and you are in me. You are like me in character. You are innocent and holy. Believe it! Live it! v.8 Someone who habitually sins is of the devil. They may say they are Christian, but if they continue to sin as they did before, they are of the devil. It’s that cut and dried. People who practice sin take on the likeness of the devil. They display his character traits. They become liars, deceivers, accusers, blamers and slanderers. They show their identity with the devil by the way they live. It’s obvious if you look hard enough. Satan has been sinning from the beginning of time. His nature is to sin. He violates my word and law over and over. He tries to disguise himself as something new, but he hasn’t changed. He is still a sinner through and through. The main reason I came into the world was to destroy Satan’s schemes and his works. I have thwarted his plan. I have defeated him forever. I have destroyed his power. I have loosened his chains and set people free from his clutches. I have dissolved his control. I broke him into pieces. He isn’t as effective as you think he might be. You are free. I have dissolved his power over you. I have destroyed his works in your life. You are no longer associated with him. You are mine! v.9 You are born of me. You have my divine nature in your life. I have imparted this nature to you and all the benefits that go with it. I live in you by the presence of my Holy Spirit. You aren’t me, but you are like me and you have my power in you to live victoriously over sin. You don’t have to sin anymore. Before you knew me you had no power over sin, it ruled in your life, but now you have my presence and power in you to give you the strength to say no to sin. You no longer continue to sin. Yes, at times you sin, but you don’t keep on sinning. You recognize your sin and you confess it and you receive forgiveness and you go on with growth because of that sin. You are not a habitual sinner. If you were, you would not be born of me. You cannot continue in sin and have my divine nature in you. You are mine because you have my divine spiritual DNA in you. This DNA is my mark identifying you as uniquely mine. This is a permanent mark. With my Holy Spirit in you, you can’t keep on sinning. He will convict you and you must repent if you want to stay born of me. I know there is much mystery in this. Just know that you don’t have to sin. You have power over it.

32 v.10 To tell the difference between those who are my children and those who are the devil’s children is very easy. It is obvious. Each one sticks out like fir tree would in a desert. Those who are my children are those who continually live free from sin. The habit of their lives is righteousness. Their thoughts, their actions, their goals, their mission consistently conform to my purpose and will for their lives. This is true of you. Your life shows that you are my child. You are one of my righteous ones. Your heart is set on doing my will and it shows in how you live. You aren’t perfect in performance, perfect in thought or action, but your bent, your leaning in life, is to conform to my will. It’s obvious! It shows! Those who love their brothers and sisters in Christ also show they are my children. This is an obvious sign that they are mine. I see this in you. Love for others is in your heart, it shows in how you treat others. You know you haven’t arrived here. We are working on prejudice and favoritism. You’ve got work to do. But we are getting there. If someone’s life suggests they aren’t practicing righteousness and they aren’t loving others, they are then children of the devil. I still want you to love these people. I want you to reach out to them, to extend grace and mercy, to help draw them to me. Again, the difference is obvious. It’s pretty black and white.

I am pleased with you! Jesus

33 Loving One Another 1 John 3:11-24 New Living Translation: 3:11-24

11 This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous. 13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. 15 Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them. 16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? 18 Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. 19 Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. 20 Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. 22 And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. 23 And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.

Personalized Account: v.11 The essence of the message of salvation is loving one another. It is as you love others that you get a chance to share the message. As you live out continuous, repeated, ongoing acts of love, people that you love will be drawn to me. I am commanding you to love others over and over. I want you to do this continuously, to never stop doing it. Wherever you go, look for opportunities to love others. As you do, you will be sharing the message of my love for others for you represent me. You are my messenger, my authorized representative, to love others all the way into a relationship with me. v.12 Not practicing on-going love toward others is a dangerous deal. When you don’t love, you hate or you become bitter or resentful like Cain did toward Abel. Cain gave Satan a foothold in his life when he felt envy and hatred toward his brother. His hatred led him to murder. Satan is the evil one. He is the author of all moral and spiritual evil in the world. If you give him an inch, he will take a mile. He will take hatred and move you toward murder faster than you can imagine. He may not get you to do the act of murder, but he may move you toward planning it in your mind. Cain compared his deeds to his brother’s and he became envious because his deeds were wicked and perverse and his brothers were righteous. He thought if he murdered Abel, his deeds would become pleasing to God. Evil can never please me.

34 v.13 I know that you struggle when others say things or do things that give you the feeling and impression that they don’t like you or that they even hate you. I want you to know that I understand your feelings, I understand your struggle. I know what it is like to be disliked and hated. I have felt the full brunt of hatred and because you are seeking to be like me and to do as I would do, you also will feel the anger and even hatred of others. If you recognize that you will be hated, it isn’t as hard to deal with it when it happens. I know that much of the hurt you feel comes from people who aren’t of the world, they claim to be Christians. I realize how that makes it harder, but I want you to forgive those who hate you whether they are in the church or in the world. Recognize that even the best of Christians can hate. You have hated others. Look at these acts of hatred and hurt as chances for you to learn more of what it is like to be like me. Use these hurts to run to me for healing and more intimacy. v.14 You have passed out of the clutches of spiritual death. You are no longer separated from me. You are now in the Life, the only life that is abundant now and on into eternity. You have constant communication with me because my Spirit lives in you and influences every part of your life. You have my light shining on you, in you, through you and out of you. You are free from spiritual death. It has no hold on you and it never will again. An assurance for you that you have passed out of spiritual death and into new spiritual life is that you love your fellow believers. You recognize that you are related to them closely through me. Your love for others just oozes out of you. You live and breathe love for others. In fact, your love for others is often why you get hurt so often and so easily. You want no barrier to be between you and others, you open up your life to them and when you do, they sometimes open up their negative, critical side to you. And it hurts you! I want you to know that I understand what it is like to be hurt by those you love. Even though they leave you I never will. Just keep loving them. Don’t let your hurt turn into hate or bitterness. Give the hurt to me. You know what it is like to choose not to love. You know the bondage it puts you under. You know the damage it does to you. It puts you back under death. You die inside. Choose always to love and forgive even if your emotions need to catch up later. v.15 Murder is a serious deal to me. No murderer who does not repent and seek my forgiveness will see eternal life. And, in my eyes and in my law, anyone who continues with hatred in his heart toward another Christian is a murderer. The person who hates is murdering the person they hate and the bottom line is they are murdering themselves! Hatred and bitterness are the worst way to die. It’s a slow, painful, excruciating death that people die when they hate others.

35 Choose to love even when you are hurt. Choose to forgive and walk through the forgiveness process. Hatred really doesn’t murder the one you hate, it murders you. Admit the hatred and release it to me. Let it go! v.16 I have given you the ultimate example of what real love is. The more you look at my death for you on the cross, the more you understand my love sacrifice for you, the more you will know what love is. I want you to progressively know recognize, perceive and understand love. You know it intimately because you have accepted my act of love for the atonement of your sin. You know that I laid my life down for you and that I continue to do that every moment of your life. The life I laid down for you was all that I am, body, soul and spirit. I gave up everything for you so you could have the eternal life I received when I rose from the dead. Love like I have loved you. Pick others up when they are at the bottom. Give them grace, forgiveness, mercy. You represent me! As you love them they will be drawn to my love and they will want me as their Savior. Love like I would love. Be willing to lay down your life, your body, soul and spirit, for those in the church especially, but also those who need to find me. Ponder on what it means to lay your life down. Look at what I did. I gave up everything to come to earth and be a man and die for you. Let me lead you in laying down everything to love others. v.17 You have a lot. You have more than you need. I have blessed you with an abundance. You have all the resources you need for sustaining and living a healthy prosperous life. You have material possessions galore. You have everything you need and a whole lot of what you want. I want you to give and give and give out of your great abundance. I will bring people to you who are in need and I want you to give as I direct you to do so. Don’t withhold what I ask you to give. If you close your heart against those in need, you will not have my love living in you. Have compassion for those in need. Let your love for them come from deep inside you. Put yourself in their place. See them through my eyes, then give! v.18 I want you to speak words of love to others. I want you to bless them with expressions of verbal love. I want you to say it out loud. I want you to take what I say in my word about others, and speak these affirming, loving words to them. Be sure that when you speak these words that those who receive them know they are coming from me. I want you to speak words of love, but I also want you to do it. I want you to put love into practice, into action. Back up your words with action. Make love your

36 lifetime occupation. Toil at it. Sometimes loving others is hard work. They can be hard to love, love anyway. At times show tough love. Work at loving! Do what I would do. v.19 If you are loving in both word and action, you will know without a doubt that you are living out the truth. Loving in action will set you free from hypocrisy and living a lie. When you are living in the truth, you will know it. My Spirit will assure you of it. You will be at rest. You will be able to be still, to be quiet, and to be at peace. Take my assurance. Have confidence in what I say to you. When I see your heart and the center of who you are, I see you loving in action. I see you walking in truth. You are doing very well. Stop and enjoy it. Cease striving. In your heart, experience assurance, rest, quietness and trust. You know by experience what the truth is. Look back at what you’ve learned. Live the truth and you will be at peace. v.20 There is a difference between conviction and condemnation. Conviction is when I point out sin in your life and when you confess it there is no condemnation. Condemnation is declaring a sentence upon your life. In this verse, it’s self- condemnation. You have no business condemning yourself. Condemnation is my job. And I have declared you righteous and forgiven. You are free from my condemnation because you are in me. So, when you try to condemn yourself, or when Satan tries to condemn you, remember that what I say about your heart is greater than what you say. I say your heart is clean and free and I know all things! I know your heart much better than you. There is nothing you can hide from me. My word about you is above your word about you. So, quit condemning yourself. Walk in freedom! v.21 Pay attention to your conscience. Because you are in me, you have my mind. So, when you feel guilty about something, come to me and I will help you discern if it is true guilt or false guilt. If it is true guilt over sin you’ve committed, you must confess it to me and I will forgive you and relieve you of the guilt. If your mind and heart are clean before me, then you have the freedom to come before me with boldness, assurance, and confidence. You can be blunt with me. You can speak your mind and heart. You can even express anger toward me. I can take it. I want you to be honest with me. I don’t want you to try to hide anything from me. Then I can show you the truth about you, your circumstances and about others. Speak what is on your heart. You can approach me at any time. Know that you will always gain my attention. I love talking with you.

37 v.22,23 If you believe in me and if you love others as I love you, you are keeping my commandments. This is the essence of obeying me. It’s a heart deal not a long list of rules. If you have this heart motivated obedience, you can receive from me more than you ever dreamed. Just ask! Crave after what I have to give you. Desire it! Beg for it. I want to pour out all I am and have into our life. Listen for my instructions. I will give you suggestions. I will show you what to do. Keep your eyes on me. You are pleasing to me. I see your love motivated obedience. I see your faith and trust. I see you relying on me. I see you giving me the credit for what I’m doing in your life. So, ask and you will receive! v.24 What I’m going to say to you here is a fact. No doubt about it! Because you believe in me and because you love others, you live in me and I live in you! You aren’t perfect in believing and trusting in me and in loving others, but I know that in your heart this is your desire and life goal. So, because of what is in your heart, you are at home with me and I am at home with you. The assurance of us living in each other is that I have given you my Holy Spirit. He lives in you. You know His presence. He is so active in your life. You would die without Him and all He does for you. The Holy Spirit is all over you. He is everywhere in your life. Enjoy Him! Let Him empower you, trust Him, let Him live my life through you. Be free from all the stress and pressure you put on yourself. Rely on His power not your own. Breathe in the breath of God. Breathe me in and breathe me out. I am your life.

I love you! Jesus

38 Clearly Counterfeit 1 John 4:1-6

New Living Translation: 4:1-6

Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. 2 This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. 3 But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. 4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 5 Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.

Personalized Account: v.1 I love you! You are my friend, you are family. Because I care about you so much, I don’t want you to get sucked into anything that would lead you away from the truth. Don’t believe everything you hear and read. Don’t automatically put your faith in people, programs, books, etc. Be careful what you commit to. Let me guard your mind so that you aren’t mentally persuaded to follow after something that I’m not in. I know you are living in the truth but don’t get complacent. Keep testing everything; especially test what is invisible and immaterial. Satan’s demons are powerful and they try to disguise themselves, so it is crucial that you test the spirits. There are many people who say they have the truth but they don’t. Their real motivation is earthly, temporal and not eternal. A good way to test the spirits is to see if they are pursuing the eternal. I am the Truth! Stay close to me and my word and you won’t be sucked in. Shine the light of truth on everyone and everything. v.2 Because there are so many false spirits and false prophets, teachers, writers, and preachers, it is critical that you know how to tell the false ones from the true ones. Here is the test! If you see evidence of my Spirit resting on and anointing people, then you can be assured they are of me. You will know my Spirit is on them and in them if they are acknowledging that I came to this earth as a man and that I was the God-man. If they agree with this crucial fact, if they hold to and speak out that I was both God and man at the same time, then you can trust them.

39 You may not agree with everything people say or do, you don’t have to. But, you can have fellowship with others even if you don’t agree, as long as they believe in my deity and humanity. These doctrines are essential. They are the foundation of my word and of Christianity. I know you believe them, live them, teach and preach them. Be very careful to guard against any who don’t believe them. I am God! I was a Man! You can stake your life on these truths. v.3 Anyone who will not acknowledge me with words and action is not from my Father. In order to acknowledge me, they need to believe that I came as a man to die for them. They also must believe that I was the Son of God, who took their sin and provided a way for them to be forgiven for their sin. I am the only way to a right relationship with God and if someone tries to tell you or convince you there is another way, that person, that spirit, isn’t with me. They are anti-me! They are against me. A person can be against me simply by not acknowledging me. Or they can actively be trying to destroy my work. They can be trying to cut people off from the truth. The spirit of the anti-christ is already in the world. It’s that spirit that tries to use anything to take the place of me. Anything that seeks to be master of your life is against me. Stay away from this anti-christ spirit. I see that you do acknowledge me, that you are for me and not against me. Oppose those who are anti-christs. Speak the truth. Die for it if you have to. I believe in you! v.4 You belong to me! You are of me! You are from me! You are solidly in me! You have already overcome Satan and his cohorts. You have defeated even the secret agents of the anti-christ, which are already in the world. You are solidly on my side never to go back to the other side. I am in you and I am so much greater than Satan. Yes, he is powerful, he is in the world and he is fighting with you. But I am greater than him and I live in you. The enemy can only get to you from the outside of your life, but I am on the inside. I am already in your mind. I am in your heart and in your soul so that when Satan comes against you, you have a huge advantage, a “greater than” defense system. I am proud of how you are fighting this battle. You are winning. I know at times it doesn’t feel like you are, but I am telling you today the facts. I am greater than Satan and I live in you and there is no way he can defeat you because you have already overcome him when you gave your life to me. Rest on this fact! v.5 Those with the spirit of the anti-christ in them are from the world. Their whole goal in life is material, temporal. They don’t care about the eternal or spiritual word. Some try to spiritualize their materialism, but their lifestyle shows them for who they

40 really are. They make money and things their god and they try to fit me into it. Their actions betray them. They are what they are investing their lives in. Their words betray them also. With your spiritually sensitive ears, you can pick up easily those who are sounding good on the surface, but actually they are against me. I’m sure you can see how the world listens to them and how so many are sucked into their trap. Keep investing in heavenly things. Keep pursuing spiritual and eternal things. Be content with what you have so you aren’t sucked into the trap of those in the world. They are in bondage, you are free. Stay that way. I will lead you! v.6 You are from me. You are one of my own. You are my child. My stamp is all over you. My image is in you. Those who know you see me in you. Because you are from me, those who know me will listen to you. They do listen to you, lots of them do. They hear me speaking to them through you. Those who are growing in their knowledge of me, those who are progressively perceiving me, those who recognize and understand me, those who know me inwardly and outwardly, will listen to you because you are from me. They will pay attention to what you have to say. They will hear with their ears and understand in their hearts. You are my mouthpiece. People who know me will listen to you. Those who don’t know me won’t listen to you. They won’t carry out the wisdom you share with them. They will question and criticize and ignore you. Count on having these kinds of people around you. Trust me to help you bear up around them. Those who listen to me and to you are filled with the Spirit of Truth. They see the truth and choose to live by it. Those who don’t listen are filled with the spirit of lies. They are deceived; they are straying away from the Truth. It’s easy to tell who is who by whether they listen to you or not. I will give you discernment. Keep sharing the Truth!

THE TRUTH! Jesus

41 The Source of Love 1 John 4:7-21

New Living Translation: 4:7-21

7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. 13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 19 We love each other because he loved us first. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.

Personalized Account: v.7 I love you! I count you as one of my loved ones. Because I love you, I want you to love others, especially other Christians. When you love other Christians, the world will see it and they will be drawn to me because of the love you show. Choose with your will to love. Even when you are wronged and hurt choose to love. There will be times when you want to hate, but choose to love instead. You can’t love in your own strength. There are too many that are hard to love, so get your love from me. I am the source of unselfish, unconditional love. Love springs from me. It’s like a well that never runs dry and flows over the top all the time. Keep loving, and do it continually. You demonstrate what family you are in by how you love. You show that you have spiritual life that comes from above when you love. You are born again. You have my life in you. My spiritual seed is in you. Because you love, you are born of me and you know me. The more you love, the more you progressively come to know me and understand me. It’s just common sense! If I am love, then loving others will draw you closer to me. Keep it up! Keep loving! v.8 Love is so important to me. I am the definition of love. My life was a walking example of love. I loved people the way they needed to be loved. Sometimes that

42 involved tough love. On many occasions I rebuked people, which was just as much love as when I compassionately healed them or forgave them. Love is so much more than a feeling. It is action. It is doing what is best for the one you are loving. Sometimes that is discipline, sometimes it’s forgiving, sometimes it’s letting go. If you don’t love like I love, you don’t really know me. In fact, without loving like I love you can’t have a relationship with me. Love like I love. This will help you know me better and it will further my cause in the world. Loving changes your life. Do love! Put it in action! v.9 I have shown you the perfect example of my love for you. I sent my son, Jesus, into your world! I paraded Jesus before the eyes of the world. I made him a public figure so everyone then, and in the future, would know the love I have for them. I put my only Son, my unique beloved Son, on display. He was as visible as it got in those days. He was one of a kind, uniquely mine. There was no doubt as to who I proclaimed him to be. My love is in you. I have shown you Jesus in the depths of your inner being. I have extended to you the grace that Jesus lived. He is seen in you and through you now. This is fact. Jesus was my Son. He was God. He was the God-man. He lived as a man without ever sinning. He was the perfect representation of me. Because he came into the world and died for you, and because you have invited him to live in you, he does. He is your life. Your life comes from Jesus. His Spirit is in you, thus you have spiritual life that will go on forever. Your life comes from me. v.10 Love started with me and my compassion for you. I saw you lost in your sin with no way to get into right relationship with me. My heart went out to you and I came up with a plan that would cost me greatly. My love for you compelled me to send my Son on a mission to tell you about my offer of forgiveness for your sin. I sent him with my full authority. I gave him my blessing. I gave him the power to redeem you and set you free from sin and its eternal punishment. I gave my Son to you, I sacrificed him for you. He made it possible for you to be free from all offenses you have or will commit against me. You would have missed the mark without his sacrifice for your sin. But now you are dead center in me because he died for you. Your sin is taken care of because Jesus died for you. v.11 I love you very much! I have proved my love for you by dying for you. And you can’t even count all the ways I’ve demonstrated my love for you. Your mind couldn’t hold all the love I have for you. I have loved you before the foundation of the world. Because I love you, it just makes sense for you to love others. I want you to continuously love others. Put your love into action. Show it like I have toward you.

43 Pour out the love I have given you into the lives of others. Do love! Make it the habit and practice of your life. Do it in my strength and your love for others will never wear you out or burn you out. v.12 No one has ever seen me with their eyes. No one could live if they saw me. But you don’t have to see me to know me. You don’t have to see me in person because you can see me in yourself and in others. As you love others repeatedly, even when they are unlovable, you will see me in yourself. As you love, I make myself more a part of you. I just get a stronger hold on you. I stand firm in you. I endure with you. I persevere in you. I will not let go of you. You can see me in yourself as you love like I love. And, as you love others continually, I will make my love complete in you. I will lead you on to perfection in your heart. I will make you holy and mature. Others will see me in you as you love them and I will draw them to myself. v.13 You live in me and I live in you. This is a fact! It is absolute truth! It is a done deal! No one can refute it, no one can change it. This will be true forever. This fact is something you can see, something you can recognize, and something you can understand. You can see the reality that I live in you and you in me by the evidence of the life you live. Others see this fact also. They see me in your life. The guarantee, the solid evidence of this fact, is that I have given you my Spirit to live in you. This gift of my Spirit to you is something I did when you first asked me to come into your life. But as you have grown and surrendered more and more of your life to me, my Spirit’s presence has grown. You are Spirit-filled. I see my Spirit all over you. I have imparted his fullness to you. He is gifting you, anointing you, empowering you. I am so pleased with you. I love you! v.14 You may have not seen me with your physical eyes, but you know me better than you know anyone else. You have seen me with your spiritual eyes. I am in your mind and your heart. I have literally taken over your body. I am as real to you as anything you’ve ever experienced. Over and over you have on purpose, and with persistence, taken long looks at me. We have seen each other face to face and heart to heart. I know every detail of your life. You can stand up and speak up along with the best about my reality. Your life is a miracle of my grace. You are a walking testimony of the fact that I am alive. You prove that my Father sent me to be the Savior of your life and that of the whole world. I came on a mission and you are a part of that mission. I came to preach truth and salvation to you. I came to bless you. I came to redeem you. You were my mission possible. I have changed your life and I still am, and I love doing it.

44 v.15 You have confessed me as the Son of God. You’ve done it time after time with words and with action. Your faith in me in the middle of all you deal with is a confession of the fact that I am God and you are not. You have acknowledged me with a one-time act, when you accepted me into your life. This confession, this agreeing with me about your sin and needing me as your Savior, continues to bring about huge positive results in your life. I live in you and you live in me. This is fact. It is truth! You are solidly standing on the truth that I am the Son of God. You live this and because you do, I am in you and you are in me. Done deal! Always will be! It’s just fact! v.16 You know about my love for you like you know about nothing else. You understand my love, you recognize my acts of love toward you, you are constantly conscious of my love for you. You know my love by observing your life and you know it inside of you by intimate experience. You have staked your entire life on my love for you. Your whole being is wrapped up in my love for you. Your self-worth depends on it. You would die without the knowledge and experience of my love. Here is the fact of all facts. I AM Love! If you live in love, you are living in me and I am living in you. Continue in this love relationship that we have and as you do you will continue to know me more and I will be freer to work more in you and use you more in my ministry. Oh, how I love you. Just as you are! I cherish you beyond your ability to understand. I accept you when you don’t accept yourself. I want you to really know the freedom there is in believing I love you no matter what. v.17 You are one with me. It’s a union of our spirits. It’s an intimate communion that we have. I have it with others but everyone is different. So, what you and I have together is unique because you are unique. It is in this oneness that we have, that your love of me, for yourself and for others is perfected. Love is made complete in our oneness. You don’t have to add anything to it or seek after something more. Love is perfected in what you and I have. The perfection started when you accepted me and it continues to be made complete the more time we spend together. Because of this complete and perfect love relationship that we have, you can have confidence now to approach me with anything. On the Day of Judgment, you will have complete confidence to stand before me. Our love relationship means you are free from any judgment and condemnation. Come before me with assurance and boldness. Face me, look me in the eye. When you do, you will see not just my eyes, but your own eyes. You reflect me! Believe it!

45 v.18 When you are in this love relationship with me, there is no fear. Dread does not exist. You have nothing to worry about because I am taking care of every part of your life. Even though it doesn’t seem like it today, your love relationship with me is full grown, it is complete. Because it is, fear has to go out the door. Satan may try to terrify you and he may tempt you to run away from me, but if you will stay in touch with me, if you will stay in this love relationship we have, then fear will flee. There is no hell for you. There is no punishment for you. You are full of my love. You are secure in my love. You are still growing, but you have the maturity it takes to live above fear. v.19 Your ability to love comes solely from the fact that I loved you before you even knew what love was. I loved you before I ever created the world. Before I created Adam and Eve, I loved you! I am the Author of love. You simply can’t love in the true sense of love without my power residing in you. Oh, you can love conditionally with strings attached, or you can love sexually like an animal, but in reality, these aren’t really love at all. They are called love, but they aren’t. They are self-centered. Real love is unconditional. It’s loving the unlovable. It’s loving even when others hate you or misunderstand you! This is the way I love you! As you learn to accept my unconditional love, then you can take my love I give to you and give it to others. Don’t try to love without receiving my love first. Oh, how I love you! You have my source of love welling up inside you every second of your life. Let it flow out of you! v.20 Hate in your heart toward another Christian brother or sister shows that you really don’t love me. To say you love me and yet not love someone I love makes you out to be a liar. Now I know that you are going to have conflict with other Christians. There will be times when they hurt you and you will feel anger toward them. Not dealing with your anger will lead to hatred. You know the progression. You have hated others who have hurt you. You know the misery it leads to. You know that you aren’t fully loving me when you have hatred toward others. Your hatred puts up a wall between you and me. If you can’t love someone you have physical contact with, that you can physically see, then you can’t really love me. v.21 It’s pretty simple! I have given you a new commandment! It is love me and love other Christians especially, but also love your enemies and those who don’t love me.

46 Your love for me is to be an ongoing continuous thing. It is to be something you do, an action not a feeling. You show me that you love me by loving others. I charge you to love me and others. I order you to do so. This commandment has my full authority behind it. When I give you a command, I will always give you the power and authority to carry it out. Just do stuff that shows love. You know how because you have seen and felt my acts of love for you over and over again. I will keep giving you opportunities. Just do love!

Your Loving Savior, Jesus

47 Loving God and Overcoming the World 1 John 5:1-5

New Living Translation: 5:1-5

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.

Personalized Account: v.1 You have staked your entire life and eternal destiny on the fact that I am “The Anointed One”, the Messiah. You have chosen to believe in me! You trust in me! You rely on me! You have placed your confidence in me! You are stuck to me! You continue to keep on believing in me! You have emphatically and boldly declared that I am set apart and anointed by my Father. Because of your belief, you are a child of my Father. You now have spiritual life that will last forever. You literally have my divine nature in you. You are just as much born of my Father as I am. You are securely in the family. Because you continue to daily love my Father, you will gain all the love you need from Him to love anyone else that is related to Him. You can love yourself also because you are a child that is born of my Father. Loving my Father helps you love yourself and others. If you really love me and my Father, you will love any child of God, including yourself. v.2 This is a pretty simple formula: The evidence of whether you love my children is seen in your on-purpose decision to love me and obey me. Love those to whom I have given spiritual birth. Love those who have come from me. You won’t always agree with those I love. You won’t always like what they do or say. You won’t always want to be around them, but you must love them. If you will look at their words, attitudes, and actions through my eyes, you will see them the way I do and then you can love them as I do. I love you in spite of your weaknesses, faults, failures, sin and lacking. I want you to love others the same way I love you. To gain love for my children, start by loving me and carrying out my commandments. Keep your eyes on my word and as you do this, you will have all the love you need for others. I love you and I see in you your love for me and for my children.

48 v.3 The only way to show your love for me is to obey me. I desire that you do what I want you to do. I want you to do as I would do. I want you to follow my teaching, to live according to my word, to follow hard after me. You know that my commandments do not cause you to be loaded down. It’s the opposite! When you live according to my plan and my word, you live in freedom. You are freed from oppression and bondage. I don’t ask you to keep my word because I want to irk you or load you down or cause you grief. I know that my word and plan for you is life, it is joy, it is freedom and that is why I want you to obey me. Keep showing you love me by obeying me. v.4 You are born of me. You are my born again, alive child. I have given you spiritual life. You have a new nature in you, my divine nature. I live in you! Because you are my child, you have overcome the world and Satan. You are victorious! You’ve won the battle! Sometimes you need to stop struggling and enjoy the victory. Remind yourself that you have won. You have conquered and prevailed over the enemy! You are no longer of the world. The world keeps trying to carry you off away from me, but it can’t. You aren’t of the worldly system anymore. You are already seated in heaven. Your faith in me is what keeps you victorious. You have proof positive, you are persuaded and full of assurance, that I am your God and that I have won the victory over the world for you. Because of your faith you have overcome the world and your on- going faith will help you to continue to overcome. I know it is a battle, but keep fighting. You are victorious! v.5 You are an overcomer! You are victorious over the world, sin and Satan. You are a conqueror. You have stomped the world, sin and Satan under your feet just as I have. You are an overcomer because of something very simple, but hugely powerful. Your belief in me as the Son of God is why you have power to live victoriously. You have on-purpose chosen to day by day and moment by moment believe and trust in me. I am the one and only Son of God. No one else is or ever will be. This title is reserved for me. You are a son of my Father too, but I am “The” Son of my Father. I have a relationship with him that no one else can have. I am sinless and I am one with my Father. I am part of Him and He is part of me. We are the only God, the True God. And, you have chosen to place your whole belief in Us. This is why you are and will always be an overcomer! I’m so glad you choose to believe in me!

Your Brother and Your Father

49

The Witness of the Spirit 1 John 5:6-12

New Living Translation: 5:6-12

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 — 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.

Personalized Account: v.6 I publicly testified through my baptism as to whom I am and I confirmed that I was the Son of God by shedding my blood for the sins of the world. Remember that at my baptism my Father spoke from the heavens concerning who I was. The whole world knew I had come into the world. I had to come or you would be eternally lost in sin. I had to live my human life and I had to die a human death so I could atone for your sin and so you could identify with me and me with you. I gave you an example to follow by being baptized and by dying on the cross. I want you to publicly tell the world I have cleansed you of your sin. And, I call on you to take up your cross, to sacrifice your life for me so I can use you to touch the lives of others who need me. I came and died for you. I love you so much! v.7 I have implanted my Spirit into your inner being. Because of this fact, I am with you every second of your life and this will be the case for all eternity. My Holy Spirit is a witness to you that I am yours and you are mine. He continually reveals me to you. He confirms to you repeatedly that you are mine. He continually affirms to you the fact that I am the Son of God. You have all of me in the form of my Spirit. Yes, He is invisible, you can’t see Him or touch Him, but you can feel His presence. You know His power, you sense Him breathing on you and in you. The way you know you have him is how he keeps standing up to the lies Satan tries to feed you. He fills your mind with truth. He helps you see reality the way I see it. He doesn’t hide anything about you or about me. He is the opposite of lying. If you will listen to his voice, his promptings, his convicting, his encouraging, you will stay on the path of Truth. 50 v.8 You don’t have to doubt for a second concerning who I really am. I am God through and through. And there are witnesses to this fact in heaven and on the earth. In heaven my Father, myself as the Word, and the Holy Spirit, are all in agreement concerning my deity and that believing in me is the only answer for eternal life. On earth, the witnesses are the historical facts of my baptism and my death. My baptism was when my Father declared me as His Son, come to take away the sins of the world. This event began my ministry through which I proved who I am. My life is still on the earth. People have not forgotten what I did and my life lives on in people like you. My death was the ultimate confirmation of who I am. By accepting my sacrifice for your sin, your life is totally changed. And, also my Spirit remains on the earth to testify of who I am. The evidence is there! I am the Son of God. I know you believe and you are living it! I’m so glad you do. I need people like you who will proclaim who I am and help people find me. v.9 Your testimony about me and who I am and what I have done for you and in you and through you, is good. It helps others believe in me. Your testimony has great authority behind it because I am in you and you are in me. When you speak for me you speak my word. But my witness is greater. My authority is stronger and higher. My witness about myself and the witness of my Father and the Holy Spirit are certification that I Am who I Am. We know! We are in the know. We are the inner circle! We have all authority on heaven and on earth! My Father shared with the world who I am. He did it when I was born, when I was 12, when I was 30 at my baptism, on the Mount of Transfiguration, when I died, when I rose, and when I ascended. And, now He constantly proclaims me as His Son. There is no higher power or greater authority. He has spoken! Take the authority I have given you and use it to draw people to me. v.10 You believe in me. You trust in me. You rely on me and adhere to me. Your belief in me is long-term, on-going, and consistent. You know for certain in your heart that I am the Son of God, the Savior of the world and the personal Savior of your life. You are in the know. You have the inside info. This witness within you is my Spirit testifying with your spirit. Deep in your inner being you just know I am yours and you are mine. Not believing in me is calling me and labeling me as a liar. To not believe in me is to say that my Father is a liar and that I too am a liar because over and over I asserted myself as the Son of God. It is a serious thing to call my Father and me liars.

51 It is ignoring our word. It is foolhardy to do so. I am the only way to eternal life and if someone doesn’t believe in me they are doomed and without hope. You are a believer! My witness is in you! v.11 The witness within you is eternal life. This is something I have permanently imbedded into your inner being. The evidence of my Son being the Son of God is that eternal life is now available to all. He died and rose again to provide this for you and for anyone who will believe in Him. This life you have in you is without end. It is continual, it will spring up in you for as long as you live on earth and then for all eternity. It is spiritual life. It is life that has made you into a new person and into a being that will never die. This life is oneness with me, it is indescribable, but you know you have it. This life of mine that I’ve given you is your life now. It is your reason for living. It’s yours, it’s free, it’s everything you ever wanted or hoped for. Bask in this life, let it help you see that the stresses of life now are only temporary and they just aren’t that important! Rest in your eternal life! v.12 You have me! You have all of me and I have all of you. Because you have me, you have spiritual life in your inner being that is changing you now and will lead you on into eternity. You must not take for granted the fact that you possess me and I possess you. Having me is something you must continually work on. Having me is a relationship, it isn’t an it. It’s growing, it’s progressing, it’s living and breathing. If you don’t have me, if you don’t work continually on our relationship, you will cease to grow. You will dry up. Your life will become dead. I am pleased with how you are working on our relationship. You haven’t arrived and you know that. Let’s’ keep working together to develop more and more spiritual awareness and a deeper yearning for eternal things. Keep meeting with me! Keep listening to my word as I speak to you from it. Let’s work on having more and more of each other.

I love you! Jesus

52

Confidential Knowledge 1 John 5:13-21

New Living Translation: 5:13-21

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 fellow believer 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.

Personalized Account: v.13 I have written my word deep into your heart. I used human authors like John to describe in detail all you need to know to assure you that you have eternal life. I have carved the truth into your inner being. It is no longer an external book to you, it is in you. My word is life to you. You know it! You have chosen to stake your entire life both now and for eternity on my word. You have read and studied my life, my death and my resurrection. You know all about me. You know everything that my name represents. You feast on the special services that my name represents. You know my character, you run to me; your life depends on me! You believe in everything my name represents. You have eternal life. It shows in your everyday living. I guarantee this quality of life for you now and I guarantee you will never die. You will live forever! I can guarantee you this because you have met the requirements for eternal life. You believe in my Name! v.14 Ask me anything! Because you know me, because you have believed in me, you have great privileges in approaching me. You have my guarantee that whatever you ask me for, as long as it is according to my will, I will listen to you. This promise gives you all the confidence you need to ask me about anything. You have the freedom to speak assertively with me. You can be bold in what you talk to me about. Be plain! Don’t try to coerce me with manipulating or controlling kinds of requests. I can’t be manipulated or controlled. Just come out with the full truth of what you want and need.

53 I will listen to everything. I’m not a selective listener. I hear not only your words, but what is behind your words. I know what you need even when you don’t know how to put it into words. I hear what is in your mind. You don’t even have to speak the words audibly because I know what you are thinking. I hear the requests, the cries, the pleadings, the praises. I hear it all and I love to listen to you and to grant the things you ask me for. v.15 Whatever you ask for is yours. Just pour out your heart to me! You know that I listen to you. You know I hear every thought in your mind. You can literally beg me to do things for you. Because you are in me and I am in you, you are on equal standing with me. I know that blows your mind and it is hard to believe. But it is true. Because of this fact, you can talk to me like a friend and like a brother. I am your Friend, I am your Brother. There are no barriers between us. Just ask, seek, and knock! Just pour it all out! I am interested in every part of your life. You know from your past, down to just the past minute, that I have given you what you’ve asked for over and over again. Never quit asking. I love to talk with you! v.16, 17 There are two kinds of sin. Sin that is habitual, on-going, defiance, willful and then there is sin that has a lot to do with you being human. It’s not planned ahead of time. The first kind of sin leads to spiritual death. The second kind does not. These two kinds of sin can both be ongoing. Sometimes the second kind we do out of ignorance. If someone sees this kind of sin in your life, I want you to listen to their correction. They are concerned about your holiness and they wouldn’t say anything to you unless they had prayed for you about it. I also want you to pray for others that you see caught up in sin not leading to death. Your prayers can bring more abundant life to these people. There are people who are stuck in the first kind of sin. It’s okay to pray for them, but your prayers won’t be enough for them to be forgiven and find life. They will have to confess their own willful sin and repent of it before I can forgive them. Whether it is the first or second kind of sin, your sin must be treated seriously. Both kinds need to be confessed. The second kind might not lead to spiritual death, but it hurts our fellowship and our relationship. You don’t want anything between us so take care of both kinds, either when I convict you or if someone else points it out to you. I know these verses are a little hard to understand. Just know that sin is serious and you need to confess it as soon as you realize it. I will help you! v.18 Since you are born of me, since you are new through and through, since you have spiritual eternal life, you no longer are caught up in the habit of on-going sin. You have a part in resisting this, but mostly you don’t sin continually because I have cleansed

54 your heart. I have purified you and made you holy. I have taken away your desire to sin. I daily, even every second, impart my holiness to you. I am like a century guard. I alert you to anything that might lead you into sin. I keep you holy and pure and I use my greatness and my full authority and power over Satan so that he cannot touch you. My power is so great in you and over you that Satan can’t manipulate you. He can’t get a grip on you. He can’t build strongholds in your life. He can’t have a modifying influence over you. You give Satan more credit than what he actually has. Stand firm in your position in me and he cannot touch you. This protection, purity and holiness are my precious gifts to you. v.19 You know you have absolute, positive assurance that you are of me. You are one in spirit with me. We are family forever! You have new eternal, spiritual life and because of this you are of me. Those who aren’t of me, those who are caught up in the material and the temporal, those who don’t have new, spiritual, eternal life, they are of the world. Their life pursuit is the opposite of what is eternal and because of this, they are under the power of Satan. There are two distinct opposing forces. One is the material world, the stuff that won’t last. The other force is spiritual, new, alive and eternal. Satan controls the first, but I control the second and my scope of control is so huge, it makes Satan’s look like a tiny grain of sand. Oh, he wants you to think he controls a lot, but he doesn’t. When I’m ready, I will squash him with my little toe. That’s how puny his power is. Believe this and live! v.20 You know positively you have seen me at work in your life. You know I have come into your life, into your world. I am alive in you! I have given you progressive insight to keep on knowing me better and better every day. Each day you have new experiences with me that make you more conscious of me, of who I am and how I work in you and in the world. This understanding is fact that confirms that I am the True One. I am Truth! I am reality! I cannot lie! I am the genuine, real, true God. I am everything you need for life now and into eternity. You are in me! You are living in Truth! You are living in and with me, the living Son of God! I am ultimate Truth! I am the Only Truth! I am your eternal life! I AM! And I will never stop being I AM! I am everything you will ever need. Put your whole trust in me! v.21 This last verse is huge! It goes back to the first commandment.

55 I must have first place in your life. I must be your only God! You must guard your heart from anyone or anything that might come and try to take my rightful place in your life. Anything, even very small things, can take my place if you let them. Guard against any substitute that you might be tempted to turn to for security or for assurance or for contentment. You know what can take my place. You know about pride, people pleasing, and material stuff. You tried them all and you know they just lead you into trouble, sickness and defeat. I love you! You are my little child and I want you to listen to this warning loud and clear. Make me God of every part of your life! I believe and see that you are doing this. I will be your one and only God and you will see that you need no one but me!

I love you! Jesus

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Bible Study Guide

1 John: Love and Fellowship In Christ

57 Lesson #1: Introduction to 1 John

Key Question: What does the Bible say about 1 John?

Read the entire letter of 1 John in one or more translations of the Bible and then answer the following questions: 1. Who do you think John wrote this letter to and what is the overall purpose of the letter of 1 John? ______2. After reading through the letter of 1 John what are some words you would use to describe the main themes of this letter? ______3. What would you say are some of the key verses in 1 John? When you were reading which ones stuck out to you? List four or five verses that you think are key verses and explain why you think they are important: ______4. Who was the Apostle John? Look up the following verses and write out what each verse says about John: Mark 1:19,20 ______Mark 3:17 ______Mark 10:35-41 ______Luke 9:51-56 ______John 13:23 and John 21:20 ______John 19:25-27 ______Revelation 1:1,2 ______

58 Life Application:

Key Question: What am I going to do about what God is saying to me from 1 John?

1. John wrote 1 John to do away with a lot of doubts and false beliefs about God and Jesus. We live in a world today where many people have doubts and false beliefs about Jesus. From your reading of 1 John how would you answer the following questions from a friend, co-worker or neighbor that you might be asked to answer sometime soon?

A. I have heard that Jesus was just a simple teacher. Is Jesus really God? ______B. I am interested in learning more about God? What is God really like? ______C. I have lots of needs in my life and sometimes I pray about them, but I wonder does God really care about me and my needs? ______

2. 1 John 5:13 is probably the key verse in the entire letter. Read that verse and answer the following questions: A. What is eternal life? ______B. How do you know you have eternal life? ______

59 Lesson #2: The Word Of Life

Key Question: What does the Bible say about “The Word Of Life?”

Read: Read 1 John 1:1-4 in several translations of the Bible.

Word Study: (Look up the following words and write out definitions for each word) heard:______seen:______touched:______Word of life: ______Eternal Life: ______fellowship: ______joy: ______complete: ______

Explore: (Answer the following questions to help you understand the scripture even better.) 1. Who is John talking about in these verses and what kind of experiences did he have with Him? ______2. A.Why do you think John calls Jesus “The Word Of Life?” ______B. What kind of “life” does John refer to in these verses? ______3. According to v.3,4 why is John writing this letter? What does he want to communicate? ______4. What words would you use to describe fellowship with God the Father and with Jesus? ______

60 Personalize: (In your own words write out what you think God is saying to you from your reading, word study and exploration of 1 John 1:1-4) ______

Life Application:

Key Question: What am I going to do about what God is saying to me about “The Word Of Life?”

1. We can’t hear, see or touch Jesus with our physical senses, but we can hear, see and touch Him in spiritual ways. In the space provided describe how you hear, see and touch Jesus in your life? ______2. How does knowing that the “life” of Jesus is your life and that His life lives in you effect the way you think about the past, present and future? ______3. What is the difference between fellowship with people in the world and fellowship with people that know Jesus like you know Him? ______

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Lesson #3: Walking In The Light

Key Question: What does the Bible say about walking in the light?

Read: Read 1 John 1:5-2:6 in several translations of the Bible.

Word Study: (Look up the following words and write out definitions for each word) light:______darkness:______fellowship:______walk: ______purifies: ______sin: ______truth: ______confess: ______forgive: ______defense: ______atoning sacrifice: ______obey: ______love: ______

Explore: (Answer the following questions to help you understand the scripture even better.) 1. A. According to these verses what does light represent? ______B. What does darkness represent? ______2. According to 1:7 what is our hope when it comes to sin in our lives? ______3. According to 1:9 what happens when we confess our sin? ______4. According to 1:8 and 10 what happens when we claim we don’t have a problem with sin? ______5. According to 2:1 what happens when we sin? ______

62 6. According to 2:2 what has Jesus done? ______7. According to 2:3-7 what are the things we must do that help us to know for sure that we know Jesus? ______

Personalize: (In your own words write out what you think God is saying to you from your reading, word study and exploration of 1 John 1:5-2:6) ______

Life Application: Key Question: What am I going to do about what God is saying to me about walking in the light?

1. A. Why do you think it is hard for people to admit they have sinned and to say “I did it” to God? A similar question might be why do people prefer staying in the darkness? ______B. From your past experience with not admitting your sin to God, what happens inside of you when you choose to stay in the darkness and not confess your sin? ______2. According to your life experiences what are the benefits of confessing sin, walking in the light, and obeying God’s Word? ______

63 Lesson #4: Loving God’s Way

Key Question: What does the Bible say about loving God’s way?

Read: Read 1 John 2:7-17 in several translations of the Bible.

Word Study: (Look up the following words and write out definitions for each word) truth:______darkness:______light: ______hates: ______loves:______lives: ______stumble: ______forgiven:______known: ______overcome: ______strong:______cravings: ______lust: ______pass away: ______will of God: ______

Explore: (Answer the following questions to help you understand the scripture even better.) 1. In vs.7,8 John refers to a new and an old command which is the command to love God. In these verses what does John say happens to us when we obey the command to love God? ______2. According to v.9 and v.11 what is true about a Christian who has hate in their heart? ______3. According to v.10 what is true about those who have love in their hearts for others?______

64 4. Vs. 12 through 14 contain truths about those who love God’s way. In the space provided, list the truths mentioned in these verses: ______5. According to v.15 what are we not to love and why? ______6. According to v.16 what are the specific things we are to stay away from? ______7. According to v.17 what is true about the world and what is true about those who do God’s will? ______

Personalize: (In your own words write out what you think God is saying to you from your reading, word study and exploration of 1 John 2:7-17) ______

Life Application: Key Question: What am I going to do about what God is saying to me about loving God’s way?

1. A. Have you ever hated someone? Be honest! Why did you hate this person? ______B. How did you overcome your hatred for this person? ______2. v.16 lists three things that we must avoid. The way to avoid them is to do the opposite of them. What opposite things or values do you think God would have us live out instead of the three things listed in v.16? ______

65 Lesson #5: Believing Right

Key Question: What does the Bible say about believing right?

Read: Read 1 John 2:18-27 in several translations of the Bible.

Word Study: (Look up the following words and write out definitions for each word) last hour: ______antichrist:______went out: ______belong:______remained:______annointing:______Holy One:______truth:______liar: ______denies: ______acknowledges:______eternal life: ______astray: ______teach: ______real: ______

Explore: (Answer the following questions to help you understand the scripture even better.) 1. According to vs.18,19 how will we know it is the “last hour?” ______2. What do you think an anointing from the Holy One is? (v.20) ______3. Who and what is the truth? (v.21) ______4. According to vs.22,23 who is the liar? ______

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5. What is it that needs to remain in us and what happens when it does remain in us? (vs.24,25 and chapter 1:1,2) ______6. According to v.27 what else is it that remains in us and teaches us and what does it teach us? ______7. From your study of all these verses why do you think John, in v.27, feels it is so important for us to know what is real (not counterfeit)? ______

Personalize: (In your own words write out what you think God is saying to you from your reading, word study and exploration of 1 John 2:18-27) ______

Life Application: Key Question: What am I going to do about what God is saying to me about believing right?

1. A. In our world today who do you think the antichrists (people who lure people away from Christ) are? ______B. What can we do in our day to day lives to avoid getting lured away from Christ?______2. A. What are some of the common lies you are bombarded with in your day to day living that make it difficult for you to live in the truth? ______

67 B. In the space provided write out a statement of truth that counteracts the lies you have just listed in question 2.A.: ______

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Lesson #6: Children Of The Father

Key Question: What does the Bible say about being a child of The Father?

Read: Read 1 John 2:28-3:10 in several translations of the Bible.

Word Study: (Look up the following words and write out definitions for each word) dear children: ______continue in: ______confident: ______righteous:______love:______lavished:______know:______hope: ______purifies: ______sin: ______take away: ______lives in: ______lead you astray: ______devil: ______destroy: ______born of God: ______

Explore: (Answer the following questions to help you understand the scripture even better.) 1. According to 2:28 what are we to do and if we do this what will happen in us?______2. According to 3:1- 2a what has The Father done for us and who are we to Him? ______

69 3. According to 3:2-3 what is our hope and how are we to respond to this hope?______4. According to vs.3:4 and 6 what is sin and what is true of those who continue to live in sin? ______

5. In 3:7-10 we find contrasting characteristics about those who are righteous and born of God and those who are children of the devil. List the characteristics of those who are righteous and born of God first and then list the characteristics of those who are children of the devil?______6. According to 3:5 and 9 why did Jesus appear? ______

Personalize: (In your own words write out what you think God is saying to you from your reading, word study and exploration of 1 John 2:28-3:10) ______

Life Application: Key Question: What am I going to do about what God is saying to me about being a child of The Father?

1. When you think about the fact that you are a child of The Father, and when you consider His amazing unconditional love for you, what are some words that you could use to describe your emotions and your thoughts about this love relationship? (Make a list of words or write a letter to God about how you feel about His love for you.) ______

70 2. A. In our world today how can you tell the difference between someone who is a child of God and someone who is a child of the devil? ______B. How do you know in your heart that you are a child of God? ______C. What do the people in your life see and know about you that helps them know you are a child of God? ______

71 Lesson #7: Loving One Another

Key Question: What does the Bible say about loving one another?

Read: Read 1 John 3:11-24 in several translations of the Bible.

Word Study: (Look up the following words and write out definitions for each word) love one another: ______murder: ______evil: ______righteous:______hate:______lay down: ______in need: ______action: ______truth: ______hearts at rest: ______condemn: ______confidence: ______obey: ______believe in: ______live in: ______

Explore: (Answer the following questions to help you understand the scripture even better.) 1. What are we commanded to do? (v.11 and v.23) ______2. What shows we are Christians and what shows that we aren’t Christians? (vs.14,15) ______3. According to v.16 what are we to do that Jesus did? ______4. How are we to love others? (vs.17,18) ______

72 5. How do we know we belong to Christ? (vs.19,20,24) ______6. According to vs.21,22 what happens when we obey God’s command to love others? ______

Personalize: (In your own words write out what you think God is saying to you from your reading, word study and exploration of 1 John 3:11-24) ______

Life Application: Key Question: What am I going to do about what God is saying to me about loving one another?

1. In this section of scripture we are called to love one another and we are also warned about the consequences of hating one another. Think about the following statement: “Hatred really doesn’t murder the one you hate it murders you.” A. From your own experience, how have bitterness and hatred harmed your life? ______B. How did you break free from the bitterness and hatred you felt? ______2. In this scripture we are called to love others by laying down our lives for others. A. What specific things are you doing, or do you need to start doing, to live out this command? ______

73 B. How can you join with other Christians and live out the command to love one another? ______

74 Lesson #8: Clearly Counterfeit

Key Question: What does the Bible say about counterfeits?

Read: Read 1 John 4:1-6 in several translations of the Bible. Word Study: (Look up the following words and write out definitions for each word) believe: ______spirit: ______acknowledges:______in the flesh: ______antichrist:______overcome: ______in you: ______greater: ______one who is in the world: ______viewpoint: ______listens: ______from God: ______knows God: ______Spirit of truth: ______Spirit of falsehood: ______

Explore: (Answer the following questions to help you understand the scripture even better.) 1. What do you think it means to “test” the Spirits? (v.1) ______2. What is a “false prophet?” (v.1) ______3. According to v.2 how can we know someone has the Spirit of God in them? ______4. According to v.3 who are those that have the “spirit of the antichrist?” ______5. Where do you see the “spirit of the antichrist” at work in our world today? ______

75 6. Read v. 4. Who is in you and who is the one in the world referred to in this verse? ______7. What emotions do you feel knowing the truth of v.4? ______8. According to vs.5,6 how do we recognize the Spirit of truth in people and how do we recognize the spirit of falsehood in people? ______

Personalize: (In your own words write out what you think God is saying to you from your reading, word study and exploration of 1 John 4:1-6) ______

Life Application: Key Question: What am I going to do about what God is saying to me about counterfeits?

1. In the space below write about an experience you had when you heard or read something that at first sounded like truth, but the more you investigated it you realized it wasn’t truth. A. What was it that you heard or read and who was the speaker or author? ______B. What sounded like the truth to you? What caught your attention and curiosity? ______C. How did you come to the conclusion that it wasn’t truth? What test did you use to determine it was false? ______

76 2. A. If someone you were talking to shared that they didn’t believe that Jesus was actually God what would you say to them about your belief that He was and is God? (Use scripture in your answer) ______B. If someone you were talking to shared that they didn’t believe that Jesus was fully a man what would you say to them about your belief that He was fully man? (Use scripture in your answer) ______

77 Lesson #9: The Source Of Love

Key Question: What does the Bible say about the source of love?

Read: Read 1 John 4:7-21 in several translations of the Bible. Word Study: (Look up the following words and write out definitions for each word) love: ______born of God: ______know: ______live: ______atoning sacrifice: ______sins: ______made complete: ______given: ______testify: ______Savior: ______rely on: ______confidence: ______fear: ______drives out: ______hates: ______

Explore: (Answer the following questions to help you understand the scripture even better.) 1. What is true of those who love and those who don’t love? (vs.7,8) ______2. How did God show His love for us? (vs.9,10) ______3. What are we to do because God loves us and what happens when we do this? (vs.11,12)______4. How can we know for sure that we live in God and He lives in us? (vs.13-16)______

78 5. What do you think perfect love is and what does it do in our lives? (vs.17,18) ______6. Where does our capacity to love come from? (vs.7,16,19) ______7. How does our love for God show up in our lives? (vs.20,21)______

Personalize: (In your own words write out what you think God is saying to you from your reading, word study and exploration of 1 John 4:7-21) ______

Life Application: Key Question: What am I going to do about what God is saying to me about the source of love?

1. Think about this statement: “Your love for God shows up in the choices you make and the actions you take.” A. What choices are you making right now in your life that are showing your love for God? ______B. What actions are you taking right now in your daily life that are showing your love for God? ______2. Think about this statement: “The real test of our love for God is how we treat the people right in front of us.” A. Who are the people that God has put right in front of you that you need to be loving? ______

79 ______B. Are you struggling with loving any of the people God has put right in front of you? If so, who are you struggling with loving and why are you struggling? ______C. What do you need to do on a daily basis to demonstrate your unconditional love for the people God has put right in front of you? ______

80 Lesson #10: Loving God and Overcoming The World

Key Question: What does the Bible say about loving God and overcoming the world?

Read: Read 1 John 5:1-5 in several translations of the Bible. Word Study: (Look up the following words and write out definitions for each word) everyone: ______believes: ______Christ: ______born: ______loves: ______child: ______carrying out: ______commands: ______obey: ______not burdensome: ______overcomes: ______world: ______victory: ______faith: ______only: ______

Explore: (Answer the following questions to help you understand the scripture even better.) 1. What do you think is involved in “believing that Jesus is the Christ? (v.1a) ______2. A. What does it mean to “born of God?” (v.1a) ______B. What happens when we are “born of God?” (v.4a) ______3. A. Who are we to love? (v.1b) ______B. Who do you think the Father’s children are? ______

81 4. A. How do we show our love for God? (v.3a) ______B. What do you think God’s commandments are? ______5. A. What gives us victory over the world? (vs.4b,5 ______B. What do you think “our faith” means? (v.4b) ______

Personalize: (In your own words write out what you think God is saying to you from your reading, word study and exploration of 1 John 5:1-5) ______

Life Application: Key Question: What am I going to do about what God is saying to me about loving God and overcoming the world?

1. We show our love for God by obeying His commands. A. Why do you think many people see obeying God as a negative thing? ______B. What do you think the secret is to making obeying God a joyful and positive experience in our lives? ______2. A. What do you think it means to be overwhelmed by something or someone? ______

82 B. What do you think it means to be an overcomer? ______C. Is there anything in your life right now that you are overwhelmed with? ______D. What do you need to do in your life to overcome what you are overwhelmed with?______

83 Lesson #11: The Witness Of The Spirit

Key Question: What does the Bible say about the witness of The Spirit?

Read: Read 1 John 5:6-12 in several translations of the Bible. Word Study: (Look up the following words and write out definitions for each word) came by: ______water: ______blood: ______The Spirit: ______testifies: ______truth: ______agreement: ______testimony: ______believes: ______heart: ______liar: ______eternal life: ______in: ______has: ______does not have: ______Explore: (Answer the following questions to help you understand the scripture even better.) 1. In v.6 what do you think “water” symbolizes in regard to Jesus? ______2. In v.6 what do you think “blood” symbolizes in regard to Jesus? ______3. What does The Spirit do and who is He? (v.6b) ______4. Why do you think it is important that the Spirit, the water and the blood are in agreement about who Jesus is? (v.7) ______

84 5. What is man’s testimony and what is God’s testimony and why is God’s testimony greater? (vs.9,11) ______6. What happens when we believe God’s testimony about Jesus? (vs. 10a, 12a) ______7. What happens when we don’t believe God’s testimony about Jesus? (vs.10b,12b) ______

Personalize: (In your own words write out what you think God is saying to you from your reading, word study and exploration of 1 John 5:6-12) ______

Life Application: Key Question: What am I going to do about what God is saying to me about the witness of the Spirit?

1. From your own experiences with the Holy Spirit what are some ways that the Holy Spirit has made it very clear to you that Jesus is the Son of God and that He lives in you? Describe some specific times, events, and scripture verses that have assured you of who Jesus is to you personally: ______2. A. Some people believe we need to wait for eternal life. What do you think the Bible teaches about this? ______

85 ______B. Some people think we need to work for eternal life. What do you think the Bible teaches about this? ______C. Some people think we need to worry about whether we will have eternal life or not. What do you think the Bible teaches about this? ______

86 Lesson #12: Confident Knowledge

Key Question: What does the Bible say about confident knowledge?

Read: Read 1 John 5:13-21in several translations of the Bible. Word Study: (Look up the following words and write out definitions for each word) believe: ______name: ______confidence: ______ask: ______hears: ______commit: ______sin: ______death: ______life: ______continue: ______safe: ______cannot harm: ______under the control: ______given us understanding: ______true: ______

Explore: (Answer the following questions to help you understand the scripture even better.) 1. What does it mean to believe in the name of the Son of God and what is ours when we do? (v.13) ______2. What do you think sin that leads to death is and what do you think sin that does not lead to death is? (vs.16-18a) (Hint: look closely at the word “continue”) ______

87 3. What four things are true about those who are born of God?(vs.18-19a) ______4. From v.19b who all is included in the “whole world?” ______5. According to v.20 what is true about those who know Jesus and what is true about Him? ______

Personalize: (In your own words write out what you think God is saying to you from your reading, word study and exploration of 1 John 5:13-21) ______

Life Application: Key Question: What am I going to do about what God is saying to me about confident knowledge?

1. In v.14 John tells us that if we ask anything according to God’s will He will hear us. The key is to ask according to His will. A. What do you think asking according to God’s will really means? ______B. What do you think it is okay to ask for and what isn’t it okay to ask for? ______C. How can we be sure, how can we have confident knowledge, that what we are praying for is really being heard by God? In your personal prayer life how do you know God is listening to you? ______

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2. A. With your study of 1 John as a foundation, if someone came to you and asked you, “Who is Jesus Christ?”, what would you say to them? ______B. How has this study given you more confident knowledge about who Jesus is and what He means to you personally? ______

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