He First Loved Us - 1 John 4

4:1-6 - We know that God “dwelleth” in us “by the Spirit which he hath given us,” but John warns us to be wary of just any “spirit.” Now I’m not exactly sure what John means by “spirit” here, if he is referring to the aura or feeling that we get from other people, the vibe they put off, or if he’s talking about influences, I don’t know, but either way John encourages us to “try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” The article on this chapter quotes Dallin H. Oaks as teaching, “(the) power of discernment is essential if we are to distinguish between genuine spirits gifts and the counterfeits Satan seeks to use to deceive men and women and thwart the work of God.” I read somewhere and I can’t find it now but basically it said that it would be impossible to tell the difference between God given revelation and that given by Satan if we don’t have a sort of “checklist” to go by. John gives us the start of that checklist, “hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.” This was a big sticking point anciently because many of the predominant religions at the time avowed anti-body sentiments meaning that they thought the human body was evil and there was no way that the gods had physical bodies. Today there are a lot of denominations who believe that Jesus is a spirit without a body which doesn’t really make sense if they take the Bible to be their guide, but I digress. John refers to people with these beliefs as “antichrist,” which I don’t think is a referral to “THE antichrist” but just anti meaning against and Christ meaning Jesus. With some of the guiding questions, we can discern what is truth and what is error, “because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” This is a pretty empowering statement. One of the greatest lies that Satan tells is that he is stronger than us, that we have no power over him. But here John is telling us that not only is Christ stronger than Satan, even the small amount of the Holy Spirit that we have within us is stronger than him. When people speak false doctrine, “speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.” Those who don’t have this “checklist” to go by when determining sound doctrine could be swayed by these antichrist to believe things that aren’t true. But when the truth is spoken, “he that knoweth God heareth us.” 4:7-11 - Maybe John segways into a new topic or maybe he’s trying to point out that just because someone doesn’t believe what we believe we are to love them anyway because he goes into the importance of “love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” The IM comments, “Forms of the word love appear more than 20 times in 1 John 4.” One of John’s major themes is love, love of other people, love of God, love and acceptance of ourselves, God’s love for us and for His Son. This is a concept that I was thinking about this morning that had never occurred to me but just kind of stuck out to me. I had never thought about Jesus and Heavenly Father having a loving relationship. I always kind of just saw them as junior and senior business partners working on the project of humanity together. But that can’t be it at all. I know Jesus and Heavenly Father love us individually, but I had never given much thought to their love for each other specifically. It was an interesting thing to think about. The proof of God’s love for us is “that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.” I’ve always struggled with this phrase because it makes it sound like Jesus was sent against his will or without his consent, like “I love you so much I got you a puppy” kind of thing. One thing that helped me understand this a little bit more was, I thought it was in the Pearl of Great Price, but I can’t find it now, basically, it’s where Heavenly Father tells Jesus the plan of salvation and Jesus says, “send me.” Jesus isn’t a passive participant in all of this, he is a victim, He wanted to come to earth and perform the atonement, maybe as much as a woman wants to give birth, it’s painful and horrible but we do it because we love our kids. Jesus did it because he loves us. And really, if Jesus loved us so much that he lived and died and endured horror for us, then “we ought also to love one another.” 4:12-14 - The KJV says, “No man hath seen God at any time,” which goes against what John just taught that we can know God by living his commandments and that Jesus was a physical being that lived on the earth. I mean, John himself saw him, spent his whole life with Him until he died. But the JST says, “No man hath seen God at any time, except them who believe.” This brings up a good question about Paul, Jesus appeared to him but he wasn’t a believer of Christianity. Maybe because of Paul’s rock solid belief in and devotion to the God of Israel, Jesus took that as good enough. I think seeing Jesus must be a pretty big deal, I mean it would be for me, but there’s something that’s different than seeing angels that make Jesus’ appearances less frequent. As we love others the way that Jesus loves us, “God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.” Another phrase to indicate that loving others is a process in which we have to start somewhere and God will help us move forward. I’ve never really been a loving person, I’m more dead inside than feeling. But I remember several years ago when I was studying the Book of Mormon that the concept of “loving others” was brought up and really made me think and I prayed “please help me love people,” because I honestly didn’t know how to do it. Over time, but more suddenly, I saw people differently, not everyone of course, definitely not men, but I was able to feel love toward others. That is one of those things that could only have come from God because I was incapable of learning it myself. 4:15-21 - Another item for the “checklist” is “whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God.” Not only is Jesus flesh and blood, but he is the Son of God, and not just in the way that we all are children of God. Jesus is divine because his literal biological father is God. Those who espouse the divinity of Christ are also correct in their beliefs. A third item for the list is “God is love” and we can demonstrate ourselves and recognize in others this by loving others. Here is the iconic verse 18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear,” and this is usually what we hear, but there’s another significant part, “because fear hath torment.” I think there’s probably a lot to say about this verse, but I’m going to have to think about it for a little bit. We love Jesus “because he first loved us.” I have always wondered about this verse because does this mean that if God didn’t love us first then we wouldn’t have loved him? It’s an interesting concept. Maybe him loving us before we were even capable of loving him back shows that he’s committed to us no matter what happens. Maybe it shows that his love for us isn’t dependent on anything that we do or say, but is based on the fact that we have inherent value. It’s interesting to think about.