1 John 2:1-6; 4:9-17
SS Lesson for 04/13/2025
Devotional Scripture: Rom 3:20-26
Today, the cross of Christ is recognized the world over. We see it on church buildings, use it for headstones, depict it in paintings, and wear it as jewelry. The latter is particularly surprising for becoming so common, given that the cross was the instrument of torture and death for notorious criminals in the Roman world. In that era, crosses along roadsides symbolized the ultimate consequence for challenging the Roman Empire’s power. How could such a terrible object become the universal symbol of a faith that preaches love and offers new life? The answer to that question lies in the purpose of Jesus’ death on the cross: today’s lesson. Our text comes from two parallel sections of the New Testament epistle designated 1 John. It is one of three letters by John among the General Epistles. This is a section of the New Testament consisting of the eight letters: Hebrews; James; 1 and 2 Peter; 1, 2, and 3 John; and Jude. The epistles of 1, 2, and 3 John are not explicitly ascribed to the apostle John by name, yet the early church ascribed these epistles to him, just as they did with the Gospel of John. The three letters have close connections to the language and themes of the Gospel of John, so it is reasonable to conclude that all came from the same author. In doing so, we carefully distinguish the apostle John from John the Baptist or John Mark (Acts 1:5; 12:12; etc.). The letter 1 John and the Gospel of John explicitly state that the author was an eyewitness of Jesus’ life and ministry (John 1:14; 1 John 1:1-3). These two works of Scripture have similar purpose statements (compare John 20:31; 1 John 5:13). Both purpose statements find their basis in what the readers can “know” as a certainty. This is a distinctive emphasis of the author. He wrote about 14 percent of the New Testament, but his writings feature over one-third of the New Testament’s 250 uses of the Greek word that is underneath the idea of “to know” (more on this in the commentary below). The letter 1 John addresses growing controversies in the first-century church about the nature of Christ and the Christian life. It seems some believers were influenced by a common concept of that day that said all material things are by nature evil, but that which is spirit is by nature good. On this basis, some began to deny that Jesus was both fully divine and fully human. After all, if material things are evil, then it would be impossible for the good God to exist as a human in a body. The letter of 1 John refutes this. Some students see the growing heresies of Gnosticism and Docetism as playing a part in this problem.
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
(Scriptural Text from the New King James Version; cross-references from the NIV)
1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4 He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
24 For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence.
25 "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
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.
2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.
6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
13:1 It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.
9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
5 But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
2:1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.
10 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, 'A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel." 32 Then John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'
11 "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth." 34 The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?" 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
15 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.
23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. 24 The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
13 Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."
6 So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
28 "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 " Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 "So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.
13 And again, "I will put my trust in him." And again he says, "Here am I, and the children God has given me." 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Verse 9
The proof of God’s love for people is that He sent His only begotten Son (lit. only born one) to provide eternal life for us (cf. John 1:14; John 1:18; John 3:16). [Note: For a good explanation of why a loving God allows people to go to hell, see Hodges, The Epistles . . ., p. 184.]
Verse 10
This was not a response to man’s love for God. God took the initiative in reaching out to us (1 John 4:10). Jesus Christ became "an atoning sacrifice" (NIV) for our sins.
Verse 11
That demonstration of love by God is our model for showing love to others. As God manifested love in (among) us then by sending Jesus Christ, so He manifests His love among us now as we love one another (1 John 4:12-13).
"Since no one in all humanity is beyond the reach of our Savior’s sacrificial death, no brother or sister should be beyond our sacrificial love." [Note: Ibid., p. 187.]
Verse 12
No one has seen God in His pure essence without some kind of filter (cf. John 1:18). Instances in which the biblical writers said that people saw God were theophanies, manifestations of God in human or angelic form (e.g., Genesis 18:1-22; Exodus 33:18-23; et al.). [Note: See Baker’s Dictionary of Theology, s.v. "Theophany," by Wick Broomall.] Whenever we love one another we make it possible for God to "abide" in close fellowship with us. Furthermore God’s love reaches a fullness and depth in us that is possible only when we love one another. It attains its full flower (1 John 4:19).
There are three stages of God’s love in 1 John. These stages are love manifested to the world (1 John 4:9), love given to the family of God (1 John 3:1), and love perfected in a smaller group within this family (i.e., those who abide in God, 1 John 4:12). The love of God does not reach perfection until it finds objects of love beyond itself. When it does, God, whom no one has seen, will be visible in this manifestation of love.
"God’s love for us is perfected only when it is reproduced in us or (as it may mean) ’among us’ in the Christian fellowship." [Note: Stott, p. 164. Cf. Westcott, p. 152.]
The same phenomenon occurs in human families. When a child says or does something just like one of his or her parents, we see the parent in the child’s behavior (cf. 1 John 3:9).
"The love of God displayed in His people is the strongest apologetic that God has in the world." [Note: Bruce, p. 109.]
Verse 13
A believer’s abiding in God and God’s abiding in him or her become evident by the demonstration of love that comes "of" (lit. "out of") God’s Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the source of the abiding believer’s love just as He is the source of our obedience (cf. 1 John 3:23-24).
Verse 14
God’s presence is observable in the midst of Christians who love each other. God produces that love. Most of John’s readers had not, and all of us have not, seen Jesus Christ in the flesh as the apostles did. However, we can see God too and can bear witness with the apostles that God sent Jesus Christ into the world. We can share the apostles’ experience that John said was his goal in writing this epistle (1 John 1:3-4). We can see God both in the manifestation of His love and in God’s life behind that love as we observe Christians loving one another. This verse then is a high point in John’s argument.
This is the only place in John’s epistles where he used the term "savior." It also appears only once in his Gospel (John 4:42).
The Church has no more effective way to testify to the world about the Saviorhood of Jesus than by the re-display of the Savior’s love in the fellowship of His disciples." [Note: Hodges, The Epistles . . ., p. 192.]
Verse 15
Confessing that Jesus is God’s Son is not the only condition for abiding in God. It is one evidence that one is abiding. One not abiding may or may not make this confession. Confession is the last step, the step of bearing witness (cf. 1 John 1:9; 1 John 2:23; 1 John 4:3; Romans 10:9-10).
"The notion of God ’abiding’ in someone has rich associations with John’s Gospel, where meno occurs more than three dozen times. The word can mean simply to dwell somewhere; one’s domicile is where one ’abides’ (John 1:38-39 a; John 2:12; John 4:40 [2x]; John 7:9; John 8:35 [2x]; John 10:40; John 11:6; John 11:54). But there is a fuller sense. God’s Spirit descended and ’remained’ on Jesus, according to John the Baptist (John 1:32-33). The Spirit was Jesus’s constant companion. To ’remain’ or ’abide’ in Jesus’s teaching is to be his true disciple (John 8:31). A disciple will be informed and steered by all that Jesus commanded and taught. God the Father ’remained’ or ’abode’ with Jesus during his earthly days (John 14:10). The Father was the source of the very words he spoke, and Jesus ’remained’ continually in the Father’s love (John 15:10 b. ’Abiding’ describes a reality involving father, Son, and Spirit." [Note: Yarbrough, p. 252.]
Verse 16
This verse summarizes this section (1 John 3:24 to 1 John 4:16; cf. John 6:69). John was speaking of intimate knowledge ("come to know") and intimate fellowship ("abides"). "We" includes the readers with the apostles. "For us" should be "among us," as in 1 John 4:9.
"No body of believers will really be any stronger than the extent to which they manifest God’s love by loving one another." [Note: Hodges, The Epistles . . ., p. 197.]
"The stages in John’s thought at this point have now emerged clearly. Faith (acknowledging Jesus as God’s Son, 1 John 4:15; and trusting in the love which God has for us, 1 John 4:16 a) leads to mutual indwelling between God and the believer. Such a personal relationship is consequently expressed in and perpetuated by ’living in love’ (1 John 4:16 b). The believer’s love, for God and for other people (or for God in other people, cf. 1 John 4:12), is to be active and sustained." [Note: Smalley, p. 256.]
John’s point was that his readers had seen God in a sense similar to the sense in which the apostles had seen Him. The apostles had seen God in that they had seen Him in His Son, Jesus Christ. God had revealed His love to the apostles through Jesus Christ. The readers had seen God in that they had seen Him in His Spirit-indwelt abiding believers who loved one another. Consequently John’s readers could bear witness to the truth as the apostles did, and they could enjoy the same intimate fellowship with God that the apostles did.
"Too much ’witnessing’ today is a mere mouthing of words. People need an expression of love." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 520.]
Verse 17
Our love becomes complete in the sense that we can now have confidence as we anticipate our day of judgment (i.e., the evaluation of our works at Christ’s judgment seat; 1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:10-12). The characteristic of God and Christians in view here is our love. We do not need to fear the judgment seat of Christ if we have demonstrated love to others. By loving we become like Jesus Christ our Judge. Therefore to give love is to gain boldness (confidence).
Here John said God’s love reaches perfection "with us" (Gr. meth hamon) whereas in 1 John 4:12 he wrote that His love reaches perfection "in us" (Gr. en hamin). When it reaches perfection in us, a proper relationship to other people exists, namely, no hate. When it reaches perfection with us, a proper relationship to God exists, namely, no fear.
As Jesus abode in His Father and consequently had confidence in the face of trials and death, so we can abide in Christ and have confidence in spite of the world’s hostility. Abiding in God gave Jesus confidence, and it gives us confidence too.
John drew a conclusion from what he had written about the importance of believers abiding in God. It is the conclusion that he introduced in the theme verse of the body of the epistle: "And now, little children, abide in Him, so that whenever He should appear, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming" (1 John 2:28).
"How can a believer know that his love for the Father is being perfected? This paragraph of 1 John [1 John 4:17 to 1 John 5:5] suggests four evidences [namely, confidence (1 John 4:17-19), honesty (1 John 4:20-21), joyful obedience (1 John 5:1-3), and victory (1 John 5:4-5)]." [Note: Ibid., p. 521.]
(Adapted from URL:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dcc/1-john-4.html)
Symbols are intended to be meaningful, but people must acknowledge that meaning for the symbols to have their desired effect. I may know a red light means “stop,” but I will stop at the red light only if I honor its intended meaning. So it is with the cross. This central symbol of Christianity reminds us of Christ’s death, the saving work he accomplished on it, his resurrection, and the love that motivated every part of his ministry. Our failure to love others will indicate that we don’t honor the symbol of the cross, we betray the cross instead. What can you do to honor the intent of that symbol today?