1 John 5: 12-21
In John's parting words he sums up his whole letter by encouraging hearers to guard themselves from idols. What are idols, and how do we recognise them?
Podcast
In John's parting words he sums up his whole letter by encouraging hearers to guard themselves from idols. What are idols, and how do we recognise them?
1 John 5:1-12 reminds us that our love, obedience, and adoption are meant to be held tightly together and are possible because God first loved us.
John tells us that we, the church, are to love one another like God loves us, because God loved us first. He helps the early church to work out which messengers are from God, and which or not. And he reminds us that we can't love God and hate a brother or sister at the same time.
Not every message, messenger, or idea we encounter is from God. Caitlin takes us through 3 tests that this passage offers to help us in the discernment process so we can be equipped to identify the wolves in sheep’s clothing - to identify what tells us the truth about God and what is the enemy trying to lead us astray.
We continue in our 1 John series by looking at what John thinks true love is, why loving the Church is vital and how it's so important for us to listen to Jesus and do what he says. It's all fundamental to us being the people of God, the Church.
John is seriously concerned that God's people may be led away from Jesus, especially by false teachers, that he writes this stark passage to warn about the dangers of sin, and the importance of focusing on Jesus, and being made holy by Him.
What does it mean that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ? How does this impact our lives, our hope, our worship?
Let's remind ourselves and each other how we overcome in Jesus.
John encourages his fellow believers to hold fast to what they know to be the truth of the gospel and to reflect who Jesus is in their behaviour towards one another: hatred is incompatible with walking in the Light.
Jim continues our series in John’s first letter with a look at the integrity God wants for us, the restoration God offers us, and the sin that needs to be dealt with.