Satan will spoil that which he can't hinder.

1 JOHN 1

In 1st and 2nd Samuel we had heard of God choosing a king for His people Israel, and we saw God's hand working behind the events. King David is a picture of the blessed Man Whom God had in mind... our Lord Jesus. A thousand years have passed between 2nd Samuel and 1st John, and now we are reading of the Lord Jesus, having come to this world. He has given each believer that which He is Himself... "eternal life". It is the life which was with the Father from a past eternity, and which is in the Son of God. It is in this life that believers enjoy communion with God the Father and God the Son.

So we can learn that each believer in the Lord Jesus is one of the children in the family of God. We were born into it when we believed in the Lord Jesus. We have eternal life... Jesus is eternal life. He could not sin, nor can a believer in that new life we have received from Him. Read chapter 3:9. Believe it and you will enjoy it... live it and you will be a healthy Christian, spiritually.

1 John 1:1-3 John wrote his Epistle long after the other writers. Modernists of that day were saying Christianity was very good as a foundation, but that it was growing old, and new ideas were needed. We hear the same today. So John is showing that the PERSON OF OUR LORD, the true manifestation of divine life itself, cancels out all such proud thoughts.

1 John 1:4 Few of us believers know fulness of joy. Yet it is for us all. Fulness of joy is spoken of at least four times in Scripture. (1) Fulness of joy through obedience - John 15:9-11. (2) Fulness of joy through prayer - John 16:24. (3) Fulness of joy through communion - John 17:13 and (4) our verse. The Holy Spirit is the source of the believer's thoughts in his life in Christ, and He cannot give thoughts different from those of the Father and the Son. God has given us the full ability to enjoy this life, but we need to realize that it is only if we live this life daily that we are happy in Him.

1 John 1:6-7 Every unbeliever walks in darkness, and every believer walks in the light, so far as his position is concerned. But a believer surely may turn his back on the light, if he is disobedient to the Word of God. Nevertheless the light still shines on him. God wants all believers to be in one fellowship, but our life of obedience is what produces that fellowship.

1 John 1:8 A believer is mistaken if he says this.

1 John 1:9 The pride of our will is broken when we confess a sin to God. (We could ask for forgiveness without the conscience being touched; this would bring carelessness and coldness into our life).

1 John 1:10 An unbeliever might say this, but a believer cannot.

#494

The devil never would be able to accomplish any plan in Christendom if he could not get good people to join the bad in it.

1 JOHN 2, Verses 1-14

We have an Advocate (one who pleads for another, like a lawyer does). The Lord Jesus takes care of our case before the Father. Our part is to confess the sin to our Father. He owes it to His Son to forgive us, for Jesus has died once for those sins. Unconfessed sins on us will bring unhappiness.

1 John 2:1 The previous things were written in order that we should not sin. But if we do sin, God has the remedy... Christ the Advocate.

1 John 2:2 "Propitiation" means the way that God can righteously be satisfied about sin. The words "the sins of "are in italics. They are not in the original writings. "Sin" is the nature, "sins" are the fruit of that nature.

1 John 2:3-6 The new nature of a believer is an obedient one.

1 John 2:7-8 These prove that the ten commandments are not being referred to, but the Word of God.

1 John 2:9-11 Blindness and darkness both are characteristics of the unsaved.

1 John 2:12 Does this thrill you? (In these Epistles, "little children" are the believers of any age but who may not have known the Lord long).

1 John 2:12-14 Three stages of growth in a believer - little children - young men - and fathers. God does not wish us to remain little children.

#495

When Satan succeeds in leading an individual into sin (from an assembly), it may be observed that he also attacks the assembly to divide us (it).

1 JOHN 2, Verses 15-29

1 John 2:15-17 "The world" is referring to the spirit of the world, not this physical world. In this Epistle, John is writing to us believers as being in the family of God. Every believer in Christ is in it. How we behave is what these words are about.

1 John 2:18-19 We are hearing more and more about people who claim to be "the Christ"... Keep as far away as possible from them. We know that it is the "last time".

1 John 2:20 Every believer who listens to the Word of God and bows to it hears exactly the same as every other who does likewise. This is what brings unity among the Lord's people.

1 John 2:22-23 Two comforting views of the Lord Jesus... as the Christ and as the Son of God. When people deny this, they lie. It is very important to believe this.

1 John 2:28 As you read through this Epistle, you can see that almost everything mentioned is built upon what the Lord Jesus said on His last night on earth; John's Gospel, chapter 13, 14, 15 and 16. Read this verse and then read John 14:3. This promise banishes all anxiety and disturbance in our life.

#496

Everything which Christ desires... Satan is out to destroy.

1 JOHN 3

1 John 3:1-2 We are NOW children of God. The next thing to learn is that we shall be like the Lord Jesus when He comes in glory. Every beauty, every excellence of His character will be reproduced in each of us. But read 2 Cor. 3:18 and learn that the more we look at Him even now, the more like Him we become!

1 John 3:5, 6, 9, 10 The third great thing to learn... The believer who truly is the Lord's, does not practice sin, (he does not go on doing things which he knows to be contrary to God's will). He has two natures, they hate each other. His new nature cannot sin. He can say "the new nature in me". (Then he will not feed the old nature, because he knows that God sees it as dead - Romans 6:6).

1 John 3:14, 15, 17 We have passed from death unto life! Many true believers do not know this. Another thing... we love other believers. If love has replaced hatred and selfishness in my heart, then I know I have passed out of death unto life. Read John 13:34-35. The test of love is this... if I have the means to help others, I do.

1 John 3:19-21 The believer has confidence in God. He who does not have a bad conscience in God's presence, can look up and speak to God in prayer with happiness, as to a Friend with whom he is on good terms. But if there are sins on our conscience, then we cannot ask in confidence. We must confess them to be forgiven.

1 John 3:22 The believer has power to obtain from God by prayer whatever he asks. But we need to read the whole verse! If God is to listen to us, we must first listen to Him! Notice the two different things. There are many things that it would please God for us to do that He has not exactly told us in His book. A father is pleased when his children do the things which they know please him.

1 John 3:24 We have the Holy Spirit within us. Ephesians 1:13; how rich we are!

#497

God never allows Satan to act otherwise than on the flesh; God allows Satan to trouble the mind, and make the flesh suffer outwardly, in order that the inner man may be kept from evil. 2 Pet. 4:1. This is always true if the Lord's hand is upon a person until he recognizes the evil before God; and then there is forgiveness of the iniquity.

1 JOHN 4, Verses 1-10

1 John 4:1-6 We are hearing much these days about the "spirit world". People are rushing to hear speakers who claim supernatural powers. A spirit-controlled person may be Satan-controlled. Never forget there are lying spirits as well as lying people. These verses tell us to test the spirits. False prophets are controlled by false spirits. They are real, and from Satan himself. How are we to test them? In this way... do they confess that Jesus is Divine? God has told us that demons can control people. The believer is preserved from this power to control us, but we can be deceived if we do not use this test. This is why we are so often warned in this Book.

1 John 4:7-10 This serious warning is followed by assurance of God's love. We will see seven great facts about love.

1 John 4:7 The first... love is of God. Every particle of real love that there is in the world came from God. Real love is to delight in helping others. People talk much of love these days, but most

of it is selfishness. Everyone who loves is born of God. Do not confuse natural affection with God's love.

1 John 4:8 Love is what God is. See also 1:5. Light and love are combined in God. The whole Bible rests upon these two great pillars.

1 John 4:9-10 Jesus Christ is the supreme manifestation of the love of God. But that is only one side- the other is that He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. "Propitiation" means this: God has been outraged and insulted by man's sin. But the Lord Jesus has come to earth and has done such a work in the sacrifice of Himself for our sins, that God is completely satisfied and can now show mercy to us who had sinned so dreadfully.

#498

Immediately after the believers shall be taken to glory, men and women will be strongly religious, but utterly godless.

1 JOHN 4, Verses 11-21

1 John 4:11 This sounds simple, but is it true of us?

1 John 4:12-26 What a wonderful thought that we dwell in God and He dwells in us.

1 John 4:17 When we stand before the Lord at the judgment seat, we shall be perfectly at ease, for we shall be like Him! We are like Him now! Do we live this out in our life?

1 John 4:18 To learn more of His love is to be delivered from all fear.

1 John 4:19 Love does not begin with our loving God, but with His loving us.

#499

Whatever enfeebles attraction to Christ destroys power. Satan cannot find entrance into a heart which is full of Christ.

1 JOHN 5

1 John 5:1 Every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is a child of God, Who is all-wise eternal, holy, almighty. Having a Father like this, what responsibility is ours!

1 John 5:4-5 Every true believer has gained the victory over the world! The world is an enemy of God. It does everything it can to drag us down to defeat. Daily faith in Christ is what enables us to have this victory over the world.

1 John 5:6-10 Every true believer has the Holy Spirit in him. The Spirit is truth, and He is a witness to us of truth. Strong words!

1 John 5:11-13 Every true believer has eternal life (13th verse).

1 John 5:14-15 Every true believer has confidence in God, so that whatever we ask of God, if it is according to His will, He hears

us. We know if it is according to His will by paying attention to, and obeying His Word.

1 John 5:16-17 Every true believer has power in prayer, for himself, and for others. The latter part of the verse could refer to a believer who continues on in a life of disobedience... it may end in the Lord taking that person away. Of course they are saved -1 Cor. 11:30.

1 John 5:18 Every true believer has this perfect security.

1 John 5:20 Every true believer has "God-given" knowledge. He knows God! Great scientists may be able to put a man on the moon, but he cannot put the knowledge of God in a man!