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Tag: I John

Greater is He that is in me

Written by LWOM Amsterdam on . Posted in What’s new?.

What does it mean that greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4)?

In writing to his “dear children” in the Lord, the apostle John tells them that “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). The contrast here is between the Spirit of Christ and the spirit of antichrist; in short, God is greater than Satan.

First John 4 begins with an exhortation for believers to test the spirits of prophets or teachers: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). What a prophet or teacher proclaims reveals whether he is of God or a false prophet of the world. John tells us how to recognize a false prophet: “Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist” (verse 3). Anyone who teaches or proclaims falsehood about Jesus, such as denying His divinity, is a false prophet. These false prophets are actually speaking in the spirit of the antichrist on behalf of “the one who is in the world,” Satan.

The word antichrist means “against Christ.” Satan is the ultimate spirit against Christ. He is the father of lies and is against truth (John 8:44). He is called “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11) and “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). He is “the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:2). Satan uses false prophets to lead people away from Christ by deceiving them with a false view of Jesus. Twisting who Jesus is perverts the gospel. It keeps people in the bondage of sin and in darkness. Yet Satan is not as powerful as God, and John reminds the believers in 1 John 4:4 that greater is He that is in believers than he that is in the world.

The bodies of believers are the temples of the Holy Spirit who dwells within them (1 Corinthians 6:19). John encourages those in whom God lives: “You are from God” (1 John 4:4, ESV). They are not of the world. John reassures them that they have “overcome” those who teach false doctrine and who can rightly be called “antichrists.”

John uses the concept of “overcoming” five other times in 1 John: believers have overcome the evil one (1 John 2:13, 14) and have overcome the world (three times in 1 John 5:4–5). The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now indwells believers in Christ (Romans 8:11). The Holy Spirit is far stronger than Satan or any of his minions, the Spirit’s wisdom is greater than any of Satan’s schemes, and the Spirit’s protection is more than enough to thwart any of Satan’s attacks. Because he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world, we have confidence in God and at the same time put no confidence in the flesh. The power is not ours but the Holy Spirit’s.

By these encouragements believers can have peace and rejoice because Jesus has “overcome the world” (John 16:33). Believers need not fear Satan; rather, they trust in the Lord and obey Him. By the living Spirit of God within them, believers can overcome the lies and temptations of the powers of darkness. Those who are of God can boldly say, “Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world.”

He first loved us

Written by LWOM Amsterdam on . Posted in What’s new?.

What does it mean that we love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19)?

John makes the powerful assertion that “we love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19) in a section in which he is writing about how we should be expressing the love of God to others. He says a bit earlier in the letter that, “if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11). John explains that we have come to know (experientially) and believe the agape love that God has for us (1 John 4:16), and because of that there is an expectation that we should act on that love. If love originates with God, then the one who is walking with God should be demonstrating love (1 John 4:17).

But what kind of love should we be expressing, and with what kind of love do “we love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19)? His love is completed (or perfected) in us, in that we have confidence in the day of judgment. His love has kept us (by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ) from condemnation—that kind of life-saving love is what He has showed us and is what we are expected to show each other. That kind of love is free from fear, because there is no punishment in our futures (1 John 4:18). His love has given us great confidence, because He has removed our fear.

“We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Love made the first move; our love for God is simply a response to His love for us. We have the capacity to love, now understanding what love really is and how we can express that without fear because He first loved us—because He modeled for us what love looks like. As John said a bit earlier, we have come to know and believe His love (1 John 4:16), so we are neither ignorant nor incapable of showing His kind of love to others. In fact, loving our brother is not only an expectation; it is an imperative.

“We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19), and because He first loved us, we can and must love others. If someone claims to love God whom we have not seen but doesn’t love his brother whom we have seen, then John says that person is lying (1 John 4:20). If we aren’t loving our brother, we aren’t loving God. John goes further, reminding his readers of Jesus’ commandment that we love our brother (1 John 4:21). John adds to the logic of love when he asserts that the believer in Jesus is born of God, and anyone who loves the Father should obviously love the child born of the Father (1 John 5:1). It would be nonsensical for a believer, then, not to love his brother in Christ. John explains it from a different angle as well: when we are loving God and observing His commandments, we can know we are loving the brethren (1 John 5:2).

To love God means to obey Him, especially considering that His commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:3). John reminds us that our love should be a sincere love—like the love the Father has for us. We should not love simply with words, but with sincerity in our deeds (1 John 3:18). Loving in truth and sincerity is so important that John lists it as a logical next step after believing in Jesus—“This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as He has commanded us” (1 John 3:23, ESV). But God hasn’t simply told us to do something He wasn’t willing to do first, instead, “we love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

The wicked one

Written by LWOM Amsterdam on . Posted in What’s new?.

Who is the wicked one (1 John 5:19)?

In the apostle John’s first letter, John discusses a number of characters. Of course, he talks about God and about believers—especially referring to them as brethren, little children, children, young men, and fathers. But John also makes repeated mention of the evil one or the wicked one (1 John 5:19).

John explains that the young men he was writing to have overcome the wicked one (1 John 2:13–14). John observes that Cain was “of the evil one” or the wicked one (1 John 3:12). John encourages his readers by explaining that those who are born of God are not touched by the wicked one (1 John 5:18), and he reminds them that this world is “in” the wicked one; that is, the world is in the power of the wicked one or under his control (1 John 5:19). Still, with all these cautions, John doesn’t directly identify the wicked one in his first letter. He writes as if his readers are already familiar with the identity of this wicked one.

In John’s Gospel, John recorded a prayer of Jesus in which He asks the Father to protect His disciples from the evil one, or the wicked one (John 17:15). Matthew also recorded Jesus as explaining that the wicked one snatches away the word of the kingdom (Matthew 13:19) and that those who choke the growth of the sons of the kingdom are the sons of the wicked one (Matthew 13:38). Paul adds that the wicked one attacks believers with flaming arrows (Ephesians 6:16), that the Lord will strengthen and protect His believers from the wicked one (2 Thessalonians 3:3), and that the flaming arrows of the wicked one can be extinguished by the shield of faith (Ephesians 6:16).

While it may be curious that in these contexts the wicked one is not directly named, it seems clear that this is indeed Satan. Note Paul’s description of believers being rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of Christ (Colossians 1:13). Because of that transfer, believers should be focused not on the things of earth but on the things above where Christ is (Colossians 3:1–4). This world is still part of the domain of darkness, and it is governed by a prince (Ephesians 2:2) who is an enemy of believers. In Paul’s defense of the gospel before King Agrippa, he recounted his conversion, saying that Jesus had sent Paul to Jews and Gentiles “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18). Further, in Revelation 12:11 John again records that “the brethren” overcame the accuser—specifically identified as Satan (Revelation 12:9). This corresponds with 1 John 2:13–14, which says that believers have overcome the wicked one. The one believing in Jesus overcomes the world (1 John 5:4–5), because Jesus has overcome (Revelation 5:5). Based on these contrasts of light and darkness and God’s kingdom and Satan’s dominion; and based on Jesus’ overcoming and His believers’ overcoming of Satan, it is evident that the wicked one is another title for Satan.