1 John Team Teaching Collection, pt. 2—For Real Tho’?

John’s writing style:

1 John 2:3-11 NIV
We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. 7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. 9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

1 John 2:15-17 NIV
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. 

Almost has a version of Jesus.

We tend to Jesus into our image rather than to be into His.

Two mistakes we can’t afford to make:
Incorrect/Incomplete of Jesus.
Incorrect/incomplete to relationship with Him.

Question we are Exploring—
What does it mean to know Jesus and to have entered into a genuine saving relationship with Him?

In other words: How do I know that I truly know Jesus? 

We Truly Know Jesus When…

1. We Actually Him

If I personally know Jesus: I have wrestled with the life and teachings of Jesus, the meaning of his death on the cross, and the implications of the resurrection, and have said, yes, “I believe that, I will receive Jesus as my Savior and my Lord, and I will make this faith my own faith by choosing to follow Jesus into the waters of baptism.

> Spend with Jesus

> Engage our Self

Challenge: Intimacy without

“We​ ​depend​ ​on​ ​cognitive​ ​assent​ ​and​ ​affective​ ​assurances​ ​to substantiate​ ​the​ ​reality​ ​of​ ​our​ ​relationship​ ​with​ ​God.​ ​If​ ​we​ ​can’t know​ ​or​ ​feel​ ​God,​ ​we​ ​customarily​ ​doubt​ ​our​  relationship​ ​with God.​ ​But​ ​such​ ​‘knowing’​ ​and​ ​‘feeling’​ ​restrict​ ​God​ ​to​ ​the narrow​ ​limits​ ​of​ ​our​ ​minds​ ​and​ ​sense​ ​and​ ​reduce​ ​our relationship​ ​with​ ​God​ ​to​ ​the​ ​maintenance​ ​of​ ​such​ ​feedback.​ ​The dark​ ​night​ ​of​ ​the​ ​senses​ ​begins​ ​to​ ​move​ ​us​ ​beyond​ ​such dependency​ ​to​ ​an​ ​unconditioned​ ​relationship​ ​with​ ​God.” —M.​​ Robert​​ Mulholland, ​​​Invitation​​ to ​​a​​ Journey

2. We Jesus

1 John 2:3-5 NIV
We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them.

If our relationship with Jesus is not producing in us an ever-increasing to Jesus in every area of our lives, then we don’t know Jesus.

Matthew 28:18-20 NIV
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

A commitment to pursuing ongoing growth toward absolute obedience to Jesus is not an option for Christians. It is . It’s what it means to know Jesus. 

John 15:9-10 NIV
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

The only way to receive and experience the eternal life Jesus offers us is through the of our lives to cooperate with God’s work to produce in us an ever-increasing obedience to Jesus in .

We don’t obey to earn God’s love. We obey in to God’s love. Obedience is how we express our love and trust in Jesus just as obedience was how Jesus expressed His love and trust in the Father. And a loving, faith-based obedience is the means by which we remain in Jesus’ love, … by which we are able to the life He offers us.

3. We Like Jesus

1 John 2:9-11 NIV
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness.

If we want to know whether our relationship with Jesus is the real thing or not, the acid test is whether we are devoted to living in absolute to Jesus. 

If we want to know whether we are living in absolute obedience to Jesus or not, the acid test is whether we are devoted to . 

John. 13:34 NIV
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Definition of Love
– Love is not primarily a . 
– Love is a choice to , the choice to give of ourselves for the good of another. 

Two things that distinguish human love from God’s love
a. How we determine what is good for the other person. 
b. Human love is conditional. God’s love is unconditional.

Philippians 2:3-8 NIV
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Question: Is God telling us we have to be doormats?

Answer: No. In loving someone with God’s love, we are not sacrificially giving of ourselves to satisfy whatever desires they might have. We are sacrificially giving of ourselves to them for their good. 

Question: What about me?

Answer: We trust God to meet our needs, guarantee our rights, and satisfy our deepest desires.

Philippians 2:9-11 NIV
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

1 Peter 2:21-23 NIV
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

Question For Reflection—
How well am I loving others with God’s love instead of human love? 

Ongoing growth into Christ-likeness doesn’t just happen.

Are we doing all we can to allow the Holy Spirit to change us from people who love with natural human love to people who love with God’s love? That’s what it means to be living in obedience to Jesus, which is what it means to know Jesus.

4. We Leave the Behind

1 John 2:15 NIV
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.

So the command ‘not to love the world’ refers not to the physical stuff of this world, but to ‘the world’ as it is in rebellion against God: ‘the world’ as the combination of things that draw us away from God. —N.T. Wright 

Question for Reflection—
In what ways is my life tethered to the world’s systems and ideals that is inconsistent with the life and teachings of Jesus?

Answer Key: everybody; conform, transformed; version, approach; know; personally; intimately; time; whole; feelings; obey; obedience; essential; devotion, everything; response, receive; love; obedience; loving others; world