What Is Authentic Faith In Jesus Christ? pt. 9 | Roche Coleman Ph.D.

Text: 1 John 4:7-21 Pt9
Title: What is Authentic Faith in Jesus Christ?

Vital Verse:
4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
4:21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also (1 John 4:20-21).

Date: The apostle John has been credited with writing 1 John during the 1st century. Apostolic fathers Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus, and Tertullian also attribute the writing to John.

Introduction:
The final verses of chapter four weave a tight-knit concept of God and love. First, God's essence is love. The emotion and action of love have their origins in God. Since humanity was created in the image of God, love resides in the fabric of our being. The community of believers should provide the best expression of the love of God. After the Exodus, Israel served as a testimony to the love of God as the nation received the stipulations of having no other gods due to the Lord's jealous nature. A salient feature of the law of Moses surrounds the command to love the Lord. The Shema, the Hebrew word for “hear” or “listen,” is recited twice a day among the Jews. Deuteronomy (6:4–9; 11:13-21) and Numbers (15:37-41) offer the text for the prayer of singular love and devotion to Yahweh. Israel must “love the Lord” their God with all their heart, soul, and might (Deuteronomy 6:5). Again, in Deuteronomy 7:9, the covenant people must love God first, then obey His commandments.
“Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; (Deuteronomy 7:9).
Sincere love for God leads to love for humanity and obedience to God’s statutes. Disobedience reveals a lack of abiding in God and love for Him.

Followers of Jesus Christ are called to a radically sweeping transformation that rejects every inclination of this world.

1. Love one another. 1 John 4:7-14

Selfless sending His Son
Sacrifice offering of His Son (propitiation)

Propitiation means the righteous demands of God for removing the sins of a person have been covered or met through the appropriate means. The word has connections to ark of the covenant in the Old Testament. The lid (kapporet), translated “mercy seat” that covers the ark links to kaphar which means "to cover." In the ritual to atone sin, kaphar meant “to cover” (Lev. 4:35; 10:17). 
On the holy day of atonement, the high priest entered the veil with the sacrificial blood of the lamb. Then he sprinkled the blood on the kapporet (lid or mercy seat) to atone for the sins of the people to make propitiation for them. The act reconciled sinful beings to a holy God through the lamb’s sacrificial blood. Sinners find grace and the bestowal of blessings and favor over their life through the pardoning of sin at the seat of mercy. According to Exodus 25:21-22 God met and spoke with the priest above the mercy seat (Exodus 30:6).

Fact #1
Followers of Jesus Christ are called to a radically sweeping transformation that rejects every inclination of this world. 
 
Fact #2 Love is not the absence of discipline, judgment, punishment, or abandonment. Rather, love requires contextualization. 
 
Fact #3
Love place responsibility on the one loving and the one receiving the love.

2. Love abides in the Believer. 1 John 4:15-21

Impact Fact:
Christians do not have the option to hate one another, since love and hate cannot dwell in an authentic Christian. 

John confronts the claims of the false teachers that created a schism among the community of believers. By using a series of conditional clauses and direct denials, the writer rejects a false teacher's claim to know God:

1. 1 John 1:6 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”

2. 1 John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

3. 1 John 1:10 “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”

4. 1 John 2:4 “The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

5. 1 John 2:6: "The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”

6. 1 John 2:9 “The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.”

7. 1 John 2:11 “But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

8. 1 John 2:22 “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.”

9. 1 John 2:23 “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.”

10. 1 John 3:6 “No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.”

11. 1 John 3:8 “The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”

12. 1 John 3:9 “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”

13. 1 John 3:10 “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”

14. 1 John 3:15 “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

15. 1 John 4:1 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

16. 1 John 4:2 “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;”

17. 1 John 4:3 “And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”

18. 1 John 4:8 “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

19. 1 John 4:20 “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

20. 1 John 5:6 “This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.”

21. 1 John 5:9 “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son.”

22. 1 John 5:10 “The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son.”