Opening Prayer Pg.1
Father God we praise you for giving us your word which enlightens our life and gives us thoughts of eternity with you, and for your word to us through the Apostle John. We pray that tonight, you will impart to us that which you would have us learn from Your word. We pray for the members of our group who cannot be here tonight and we ask that you share our blessing with them and give them a speedy recovery. Be with us now as we seek your will for our lives through this study tonight. In Jesus name, Amen
1st Jn 3:1-6; Children of God
1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. 4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
Discussion
John expresses great wonder at the love God has showed in making us His children. We must always remember that God was under no obligation to save us from our sin. Even less was He obligated to grant us the privilege of sonship that we might receive an inheritance in His Son. God would have been rightly justified to leave us in our sins or simply to call us slaves, without the great love and honor a child receives from a good father. Yet in His great love, He has not only saved us but has adopted us into His family, and has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. May we never become ungrateful for this tremendous love!
To be a child of God means to be like Christ, This is made explicit in 1 John 3:2, At Christ’s return we will be like Him, but even now this likeness is a present reality in part, since we are already God’s children. At His return we will be more like Jesus, even though we do not know all of what this will entail for us. John tells us that he is not teaching we can be sinless. Rather, he teaches that although believers will sin, lawlessness will not define their lives. Jesus came to take away sin, both its guilt and ultimately its presence by His death and resurrection. However, this latter work of sanctification is finished in our glorification and not before hand. Though we will not be perfectly holy until our glorification, we can still live righteously in this life.
While our good deeds never merit our right standing before God, the obedience of God’s people is pleasing to Him, and, by His grace, He calls us righteous when we do His will. The righteous approval that God gives to us according to our obedience is not the same as the Father’s judicial declaration of righteousness based on the perfect, holy obedience of Jesus. We must always make this distinction. Yet we would also be wrong never to describe ourselves or others as righteous when the predominant orientation of a professing believer’s life is to please God.
Questions
1. What feelings should one have for God if they are called a Child of God?
2. What is stated as the reason the world does not know us (Christians)?
3. How is it so that we have been adopted into the family of God?
4. Why does John tell us that our good deeds do not merit a right standing before God?
5. What is the predominant orientation of a professing believer? How is that accomplished?
False Teachers Pg.2
The proto-Gnostic teachers the apostle John had to confront in his first epistle caused him to emphasize the importance of personal holiness. The nature of the Gnostics false teaching regarding sin is a bit unclear, but they claimed not only to be without sin, they claimed they had never sinned. Perhaps they did this because many Gnostics did not view acts done in the body as important to one’s spiritual state. In any case it is clear that their denial of sin’s gravity in word and deed revealed them to be liars. In today’s passage, John warns us of such teaching again by linking our character with the character of Christ. All of those who practice righteousness are righteous as Christ is righteous
1st Jn 3:7-12; Love one another
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God's child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. 11 For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.
Discussion
By His death and resurrection Jesus broke the power of Satan in order to destroy his evil works. Jesus has secured this victory but has not yet consummated it, and He has given us a role to play in destroying the works of Satan until He returns in triumph (2 Cor. 10:4–6). We fulfill this role in preaching the Gospel and working to make it a reality in this world (Matt. 28:18–20). Evangelize, feed the hungry, and work for justice so that the works of Satan would be destroyed.
On the other hand, those whose lives are continually bent toward sin are of the Devil. Their claim to be of Christ is false because the Son of God came to destroy the works of the Devil; therefore, all who do his works of sin oppose Jesus.
Then John reminds us that Cain, like all other children of the Devil, loved this evil world, and because he loved it, he hated the righteous acts of his brother Abel. As we cease loving the world by doing God’s will, so too will the world hate us just as Cain hated Abel. If we hate our brothers and sisters, we are acting like children of the Devil just as Cain did and so reveal ourselves to be born not of God but of the world.
For those in Christ, the power of sin has been broken and they no longer are influenced by the evils of this world, nor the evil influences of those who oppose Jesus. Those truly in Him demonstrate this by loving holiness instead of sin. Christians strive to please God, repent when necessary, and live in gratitude for their salvation by submitting to the law of Christ (Galatians.6:1&2).
Questions
1. Read verse 7, Can we explain how a believing Christian might be lead astray?
2. How can we recognize the Children of God, as opposed to the children of the devil?
3. What can the Christian believer do to fulfill the role of one who opposes the works of Satan?
4. What was the reason Cain murdered his brother? (Read Genesis 4:3-9)
5. How is the true believer to recognize the false teachings of this world?
Pg.3
Scripture readings
2Corinthians 10:4-6 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.
Matthew28:18 -20 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Galatians 6:1&2 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Genesis 4:3-9 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 And Abel also brought an offering--fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it." 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"
Closing Prayer
Father God, although we say we are Christian we fail in this life to always act out the part, or to speak the words of love and righteousness. We are neglect in all of the attributes that Christ would have us learn. We still strive dear Lord to study Your word. And live a life that is true and righteous, that reflects the teachings of Jesus, and that is worthy of the name Christian. We try to find it in our heart to love our fellow man, but sometimes we feel we must flee from any such feeling, because they profess another faith, a Pharisaical righteousness, from which we are told to flee. One that even Jesus refuted. We pray that You will guide our hearts at such times, and give us the wisdom to act as we should. We pray now for those of our group and for those on our hearts who are suffering tonight.___________We pray that you will bring your healing touch to them, that they be given encouragement and the strength and hope to keep on fighting to regain their peace that only you can give. Go with each of us now as we leave this place keep us safely out of harms way and give us peace in this troubled world. I Jesus Holy name we pray, Amen.
Meditation Pg.4
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Bestowed on us speaks many things. First, it speaks of the measure of God’s love to us. What is it that makes us slow to believe the love of God? Sometimes it is pride, which demands to prove itself worthy of the love of God before it will receive it. Sometimes it is unbelief, which cannot trust the love of God when it sees the hurt and pain of life. And sometimes it just takes time for a person to come to a fuller understanding of the greatness of God’s love.
So If we are truly children of God, then it should show in our likeness to our Father, and in our love for our “siblings.” It should show in all that we do all that we say and in how we live, it would be a moral characteristic of how we live our life, that being our response to God.
Everyone is not a child of God in the sense John meant it here. God’s love is expressed to all in the giving of Jesus for the sins of the world (John_3:16), but this does not make all of humanity the children of God in the sense John means it here. Here he speaks of those who have received the love of Jesus in a life of fellowship and trust with Him; But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name. (John_1:12).
Whoever abides in Him does not sin: John’s message is plain and consistent with the rest of the Scriptures. It tells us that a life style of habitual sin is inconsistent with a life of abiding in Jesus Christ. Then the question is not “do you sin ?” We each sin. The question is, “How do you react when you sin?
There are some people so great and so wonderful that seeing them or knowing them will change your life forever. Jesus is that kind of person. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil: John gave us one reason why Jesus came in 1John_3:5 (He was manifested to take away our sins). Here, John gives us another reason, that He might destroy the works of the devil. In this the children of God, and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. They are children of the devil.
Righteousness and Love are the moral signature of true believers, all who believe will exhibit these attributes throughout their lives. How do righteousness and love “balance”? They don’t. We are never to love at the expense of righteousness, and are never to be righteous at the expense of love. We aren’t looking for a balance between the two, because they are not opposites. Real love is the greatest righteousness, and real righteousness is the greatest love.
Some might think John is far too harsh in saying some are children of the devil, supposing that John did not love people as Jesus did. But Jesus called people children of the devil also. Look in John_8:41-45. In this passage, Jesus’ point was important, establishing the principle that our spiritual parentage determines our nature and our destiny. If we are born again, and have God as our Father, it will show in our nature and destiny. But if our father is Satan or Adam, it will also show in our nature and destiny - just as it showed in these adversaries of Jesus.
John had already emphasized the command to love as being the word which you heard from the beginning. In remembering this message to love one another, he remembered the command of Jesus in John_13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Christ says that we are to love one another: The basic Christian message has not changed. Perhaps some have thought that because Christians talk about a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” that it is only us and Jesus who matter. But how we treat others, how we love one another really matters before God. Amen
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