The American Wisdom Series

Presents
Pamphlet 1568 1 John kc 9-1

Our Father in His love for us gave us the Living Word
and the Written Word
and the two are inseparable.

The apostle John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, had a very special gift of teaching, which was the ability to bring forth with clarity the simplicity which is in Christ.

In fact, John wrote the most quoted verse in all of Christianity which explains the very foundation of salvation itself:

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
At that greatest of all moments in a person's life when he (or she), one of those "whosoevers" in John 3:16, reaches out and accepts Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, that person immediately receives the Holy Spirit, which means God now dwells in him.

Many Christians like to use the phrase, "Jesus comes into your heart."

Here is John explaining it in his gifted way:

1 John 4:15
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
Some churches teach that a person does not receive the Holy Spirit at this point.

They claim that a person receives it sometime later on when he or she has learned to "speak in tongues" or "prophesy" or show some other sign as evidence that he or she has received the Holy Spirit.

Do you remember what John told us at the beginning of this 4th chapter?

"Believe not every spirit, but try the sprits."

Well, the choice is yours!

You can either believe that spirit or "try it" right here in 1 John 4:15.

The fact is that the instant a person "confesses that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" he receives the Holy Spirit and "God now dwelleth in him."

However, as a babe in Christ, he must now be led by that Holy Spirit and continue to dwell in Him, as have God's elect.

[16] And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
The "we" who have known and believed the love that God has to us, are the "little children", i.e. God's elect.

Though we are still sinners and though we will continue to fall short at times, we continue to dwell in His love.

You see, God is love!

And to dwell in His love is to dwell in Him, to abide in Christ, who is the Word of God.

In other words, we are led by His Spirit which dwells in us that we may show forth the love of God in "deed" and in "truth".

Remember John told us that is the way the "little children" love one another: 1 John 3:18 "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth."

1 John 4:17
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world.
You see, dwelling in God, abiding in His love, is how our love grows and matures whereby we are filled with the love of God and can speak boldly and "have confidence at His coming".

John told us all this back in chapter 2?

You have received the anointing (of the Holy Spirit) which abides in you and which leads you in truth, increasing your love, and giving you that straight forward boldness and confidence.

1 John 2:27
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

[28] And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

Abiding in His Word is also how we try the spirits and discern between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Our Father in His love for us gave us the Living Word and the Written Word and the two are inseparable.

Again, to abide in God, to dwell in His love, is to abide in His Word which enables us to love one another in DEED and in TRUTH.

As John said, we have known God's love and we believe His Word and we DO IT!

That this is how we become mature Christians and filled with the love of God?

To study the Bible is the noblest of all pursuits; to understand it, the highest of all goals.
We pray that with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, you accomplish both.


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