John tells believers to test what people say against the word of God, the Bible. If someone speaks against the gospel of Jesus Christ they are preaching false doctrine.
These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.
I. Main Questions:
1. What does this section teach you about the various religions in the world?
2. How can a Christian “test the spirits”?
3. How is love the most vital test of genuine Christian faith?
4. How does the Holy Spirit work truth and love in us?
II. Verse by Verse Questions:
verses 1-6: Test the Spirits
1. What does John mean by “test the spirits”?
2. Paul says that the sacrifices of pagans are made to demons. (1 Cor. 10:20) What does this teach you about demonic activity in false religions? How does this give insight on “testing the spirits?”
3. How do the false spirits (demons) affect false prophets/teachers?
4. What test does John give by which we can know true from false teachers?
5. What does it mean that Jesus Christ has “come in the flesh?” How is the doctrine of the incarnation (Jesus is fully God and fully human) a vital test of true Christianity?
6. It seems every religion and philosophy in the world has a basic respect for Jesus as a good moral teacher or a prophet. How is the doctrine of the incarnation different than that?
7. Comment on C.S. Lewis’s quote from Mere Christianity:
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
8. How is denying that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh “the spirit of the antichrist”?
9. What does John mean, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world”?
10. How do Christians “overcome the world” by believing in Christ?
11. How do false teachers speak from the perspective of “the world” and why does “the world” listen to them?
12. What does John mean by “we are from God”? Why do those “from God” listen to teachers “from God?” How does this relate to John’s earlier statement:
1 John 2:20-21 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.
13. How is all of this the way we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood?
14. How does this paragraph cause all Christians to be constantly vigilant over the teaching they listen to?
verses 7-21: God Is Love, So We Must Love
15. John again circles back to this command, “Love one another”? He already said it in 1 John 3:11, 14-18, 23. He will say it again in 4:11 and 4:21. Why do you think he repeats this so often in this brief epistle? (7)
16. What does he mean “Love comes from God?” How does abiding in Christ by the Spirit result in Christians loving one another? (7)
17. John also states the negative clearly: If anyone does not love, he does not know God. Why do you think this also needs to be said? (8)
18. What does it mean “God is love?” It is one of the three “God is” statements in John’s writings, the others being “God is light” (1 Jn. 1:5) and “God is spirit” (Jn. 4:24) How do these three statements give you insights about God’s basic nature? (8)
19. How did God show his love to the human race? Why is the gift of Jesus such a lavish gift?
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things?
20. Why does John say, “Not that we loved God, but that he loved us?” What does that teach us about basic human nature? (10)
21. 1 John 4:10 says God sent Jesus to be a propitiation for our sins. We already covered this in 1 Jn. 2:2. The word “propitiation” means the removing of God’s wrath by the payment of a sacrifice. Why is it vital to understand the wrath of God against sin in order to understand how much love God and Christ both showed us at the cross?
22. How should this lavish love by God at the cross result in us loving each other? (11)
23. God is invisible. But John implies that God is in some beautiful and powerful way made visible (manifest) among us if we sacrificially love each other. How do you understand this?
24. How does the Spirit assure us that God lives in us? (13)
25. What does John assert about his own witness in the world? (14)
26. Why is believing and asserting the deity of Christ vital to our salvation? How does that result in intimate and close fellowship with God? (15)
27. What does verse 16 add to John’s argument? Why do you think John keeps repeating the same things in similar words?
28. How does the perfection of Christian love in our lives result in greater assurance of our salvation on Judgment Day?
29. What does John mean by, “There is no fear in love?” How does he explain that? How does perfect love drive out all fear? How does this verse show that there will be no fear at all in heaven—for all eternity? (18)
30. What is the significance of the statement, “We love because he first loved us?” Is it also true that we choose Christ because he first chose us? How is God’s initiative vital in every aspect of our salvation? See also Philippians 2:12-13.
31. John has already said verse 20 earlier (see 2:9, 3:12, 15). Why the repetition?
32. John ends up by saying that God has commanded us to love each other. How does the fact of this command from Almighty God end up a test of whether we are in a right relationship with him?
III. Summary:
John zeroes in powerfully on the role of the Spirit in enabling us to know truth from falsehood and in working love for the brothers in us. This is clear evidence to us that we are children of God.