Reviving Assurance [2024.08.18 Sabbath School in WCF 18.4.q—Hopewell 101]

We continue to study the Scriptures behind the sound and sweet doctrine of our church's Confession of Faith. This week, we learned, from WCF 18.4.q, about how the shaken or lost assurance of a true believer cannot take away their faith but can be revived by the Holy Spirit.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

Jesus, the True God [Family Worship lesson in 1John 5:20–21]

What do we know? 1John 5:20–21 looks forward to the second serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God is triune, and Jesus is God. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2024.08.08 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1 John 5:20–21

Read 1 John 5:20–21

Questions from the Scripture text: Who knows something (1 John 5:20)? About Whom do we know something? What two things do we know that He has done? What (Whom!) has the understanding that He has given us enabled us to know? What does this verse twice call Him? What is our relation to “Him Who is true”? How (in Whom!) can we be in Him? What two things does verse 20 proceed to call His Son Jesus Christ and union with Him? What does the apostle call them in 1 John 5:21? From what does he warn them to keep themselves? How does the letter conclude?

What do we know? 1 John 5:20–21 looks forward to the second serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God is triune, and Jesus is God.  

Certainty about Christ is of the essence of saving faith, while certainty about being in Christ is assurance of faith. But even in an epistle that is about assurance of faith (cf. 1 John 5:13), it is certainty about Christ Himself that gets the last Word:

“We know that the Son of God has come.” Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come in the flesh (cf. 1 John 4:2–3).

He “has given us an understanding, that we may know Him Who is true.” How many false gods and false teachings about God and Christ there are! One of the main purposes of Christ’s coming was so that we would not know a false god or know God falsely. He came that we would know “Him Who is true.”

“And we are in Him Who is true.” The knowledge of God that Jesus gives is not just intellectual knowledge but relational knowledge. And it is of such a relationship that we come to be “in Him.” How is that possible? Because faith in Christ is faith into Christ. We come to be united with Him. And yet Christ is not two persons with two natures, but one divine person with an unchangeable divine nature (to which nothing can be added) and a human nature (that He add to His person). 

“This is the true God.” It is because Jesus Christ is the true God that to know Him and to be in Him is to know the true God and to be in the true God. He is not only the “Son of God.” He is “God the Son”!

This is “eternal life.” This is what Jesus was praying about in John 17:3, when He said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent.” And then, later in that prayer, He prayed that we would be one in the Father and the Son (cf. John 17:21) and “that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me” (cf. John 17:22–23). The true eternal life is to be brought into the fellowship (obviously not the being/nature) of the triune God, through being united to Christ, Who is the true God.

Why we need this confession of faith: we are little children. The apostle has addressed them this way many times with fatherly affection, but in this context, there is also an important application: in learning about the glories of the triune God, the incarnation, and union with Christ, we are but little children. We have barely begun to understand and prattle about these glorious truths. But they are indeed true!

So, we need clear, concise statements like 1 John 5:20, because we are still little children. We are still in danger of being carried away by our own fantasies or by others’ false teachings. In the context, “keep yourselves from idols” means especially keeping away from anything other than belief in the triune God. “Keep yourselves from idols” means keeping away from anything other than belief in Jesus Christ, the God-Man, one divine person with two distinct and complete natures that are joined in His person, without becoming confused or conflated in His person. 

Little children, keep yourselves from idols!

What sorts of lies are told against the doctrine of the trinity? What sorts of lies are told against the doctrine of the divinity of Christ? What are some ways that people think about “eternal life” that are different than union with Jesus Christ, God the Son, the God-Man? What are some specific things that you are doing to keep yourself away from any and all of these lies?

Sample prayer:  Lord, forgive us for letting our minds run free about Your identity and about Christ’s identity, rather than sticking closely to what You have told us in Your Word. Forgive us for leaving ourselves open to speculations that contradict Your revelation of Yourself as triune, or that contradict Your revelation of Christ as God the Son, fully God and fully man in one divine Person. Forgive us for not having been more diligent to keep ourselves from idols, we ask in the Name of God the Son, Jesus Christ, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP110B “The LORD Has Spoken to My Lord” or TPH268 “Of the Father’s Love Begotten”

Identifying True Christians [2024.08.04 Evening Sermon in 1John 3:24–4:6]

The Spirit identifies true Christians by their Christ-like character, by their beliefs about Christ, and by their recognition of Christ's Word

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

Great Christian Confidence [2024.07.28 Evening Sermon in 1John 5:14–15]

When we know that we have eternal life, and indeed the Son of God Himself, prayer becomes a sweet fellowship with Christ, Who hears us.

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

The Key to Confidence in Prayer [Family Worship lesson in 1John 5:14–15]

How can we pray confidently? 1John 5:14–15 prepares us for the second serial reading in public worship on the Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that assurance of faith makes us sure that God hears us and answers us.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2024.07.26 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1 John 5:14–15

Read 1 John 5:14–15

Questions from the Scripture text: What do we have (1 John 5:14)? In Whom? What does this confidence enable us to do? To ask according to what? What does He do? Who can know this (1 John 5:15)? About what requests? What can we know (in addition to that He hears us)? 

How can we pray confidently? 1 John 5:14–15 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that assurance of faith makes us sure that God hears us and answers us.

Confidence in Him. Those who know that they have eternal life (1 John 5:13) have confidence not in themselves, but in Him (1 John 5:14). Their confidence is that God has done this. Assurance is not a confidence in ourselves, the doctrine upon which we have concluded, the obedience we have achieved, or the love we have cultivated. Assurance is confidence in God Himself and His grace by which He has worked in our lives.

Confidence that He hears. And if God has brought us into faith in His Son by His Spirit, then surely He hears us when we pray! This is one of the great practical applications of assurance: it gives us confidence in prayer. Not just that God hears prayer, but that He hears me, specifically, as I am praying. That His Spirit is the One Who is carrying me to pray. That I am received in His Son as I pray. That He is listening to me in Fatherly affection and care. This is something even greater than getting what we ask for: being heard by the living God, having fellowship with the living God.

Confidence to ask great things. The qualification “according to His will” governs 1 John 5:15 as well as 1 John 5:14. But there is a repeated idea that gets the emphasis: “ask anything” (verse 14) and its counterpart “whatever we ask” (1 John 5:15). God has willed great and glorious things. Asking according to His will, and knowing that God Himself has regard for one’s person and one’s prayers, means asking for great and glorious things.

Confidence that He answers. Finally, assurance gives us confidence not only that we are heard, but that God is answering. He was always going to do His will, of course. But assurance of faith brings us into the glorious confidence that when He does those things that we have asked, it is in actual response to our petitions. He has given us His Son so that we might have the privilege of actually obtaining things from Him through prayer!

How confident do you feel while praying? How much of that confidence is on God’s interaction with you, listening to you, as you pray? What sort of great/glorious things do you pray for? What have you obtained from God in prayer?

Sample prayer:  Lord, please grant unto us assurance of faith, and please grant that we would make good application of it in prayer. For, we confess that we have often disbelieved that You were listening, or were even unaffected by the idea that You listen. Forgive us for not asking according to Your will, and for restricting ourselves to small requests, when You have given us such a large invitation. Forgive us for the unbelieving suspicions that prayer does not actually obtain anything. For these sins, forgive us, and from these sins cleanse us, so that we might pray with assurance-sustained confidence by Your Spirit, through Your Son, in Whose Name we ask it, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP5 “Listen to My Words, O LORD” or TPH518 “Come, My Soul, with Every Care”

Solidarity with What Is of God [Family Worship lesson in 1John 5:18–19]

What is the great battle? 1John 5:18–19 prepares us for the second serial reading in public worship on the Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that, whether in our heart or the whole world, the great battle is between what is from God and what is under the sway of the devil.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2024.07.18 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1 John 5:18–19

Read 1 John 5:18–19

Questions from the Scripture text: What does the one who is born of God not do (1 John 5:18)? What does he do? Who does not touch him? What do believers know about themselves (1 John 5:19a)? What do they know about literally everyone else (verse 19b)?

What is the great battle? 1 John 5:18–19 prepares us for the second serial reading in public worship on the Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that, whether in our heart or the whole world, the great battle is between what is from God and what is under the sway of the devil.

The believer has a new nature that is from God (1 John 5:18, cf. 1 John 3:9). He is kept by Christ—the only begotten of God, in Whom we are begotten. Men’s sinning was instigated by the wicked one, as Satan is called here. But the wicked one is unable to touch the new nature. 

As we put the old man to death, killing what remains of our former nature, Satan more and more loses any ability to touch us. This is one way to think about our sanctification: vivifying the new man who does not sin and keeps himself in Christ, and mortifying the old man whom the wicked one touches.

The Christian must see all of humanity as two kingdoms, two nations, two races: those who are of God, and those who lie under the sway of the wicked one (1 John 5:19). Blurring these lines for ourselves sets us back in right relation to God, to other Christians, and even to ourselves in our new nature. 

If you have come to believe in Christ, from Whom was your new nature born? What can’t such a nature do? But what can still proceed from your remaining fleshliness/former nature? If everything that you desire/do comes either from the new nature or the flesh, what question should you constantly be asking? What should you do with that which comes from the new nature? And that which is from the flesh?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for giving us a new birth by Your Spirit. Give us to live more and more from this new nature. Give us to put to death what is from the former nature. Keep us separate from, and compassionate to, the world that lies under the sway of the devil. This we ask through Christ, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP51A “God, Be Merciful to Me” or TPH503 “From Depths of Woe, I Raise to Thee”

Our Crucial Prayer Assignment [Family Worship lesson in 1John 5:16–17]

What should we do, when we see a brother sinning? 1John 5:16–17 prepares us for the second serial reading in public worship on the Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that when we see a brother sin, we should pray to God to give Him life.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2024.07.11 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1 John 5:16–17

Read 1 John 5:16–17

Questions from the Scripture text: What might someone see a brother doing (1 John 5:16)? What sort of sin? What can he do for this brother? What will God do? For the person committing which specific sort of sin? What other sort of sin is there? What can’t be done for them? What is every unrighteousness (1 John 5:17)? But what doesn’t necessarily result from every sin?  

What should we do, when we see a brother sinning? 1 John 5:16–17 prepares us for the second serial reading in public worship on the Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that when we see a brother sin, we should pray to God to give Him life.

There are those who go by the name of brother, but are not actually saved or elect (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:11). Such a man’s sin is unto death. Praying for him will not get him life (1 John 5:16). But notice that this scripture does not forbid for praying about it, only that this is not what the apostle is saying that we should pray for. 

The verb form here does not have the full force of an imperative (command), but it is implied that the apostle is giving us a special topic for our prayers: the sins of our brethren.

Coming out of how our assurance of faith (1 John 5:13) gives us confidence that God hears us as we are praying according to His will (1 John 5:14) and answers those prayers (1 John 5:15), God emphasizes something that it is His will for us to pray about. We are to pray for the brother that we see sinning. 

This is not an invitation to make a prayer list of others’ sins. It is an instruction to interact with God in real-time as an intercessor for sanctification. This is the will of God for believers (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:3). 

So, a noble, thrilling part of having assurance is joining with God in His work in real-time. Not that we do part of the work, but when His providence gives us to see a brother sinning, it is a call to be praying, while God is sanctifying. We will be praying, and God will be giving the brother life (1 John 5:16) to put that sin to death.

There is a strong warning here against monkeying around with sin. There is sin that is unto death, and all unrighteousness is sin (1 John 5:17a). The text intentionally does not tell us what sin leads to death, or at what point we might know that our sinning is unto death. Certainly those who are grieved over their sin and concerned about their sin have not reached an irretrievable point of hardening. So a right response here is not a vain curiosity about what/when this might be, but rather a resolve against any sin whatsoever in one’s own life. 

And for the one who has this concern, who has this resolve, who is grieved and troubled at the presence of remaining sin, there is this wonderful comfort: remaining sin is not evidence that God has abandoned him. Because of the death and resurrection of Christ, there is sin that is not unto death (1 John 5:17b). There is sin for which God has forgiven us in Christ. There is sin from which God is cleansing us. There is sin against which God is giving us life. There is sin about which God tells us to pray, for ourselves and for our brother.

The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to pray for one another’s forgiveness: “forgive us our debts.” This passage teaches us to pray for one another’s sanctification, when we see a brother sinning. Yes, if we see a brother wandering from the truth, we are to talk to him about it (cf. James 5:19–20). And, when we see the brother sinning, the first thing that we are to do is to talk to God about it, asking Him to give our brother life!

What are some occasions on which you might see a brother sinning? To Whom should you immediately talk about it? What should you be asking Him to do? What is one reason, from this passage, that it is so dangerous to trifle with sin? What encouragement do you have, when you are troubled by your remaining sin?

Sample prayer:  Lord, we thank You that it is Your will to sanctify us. Help us to remember this, whenever we see a brother sinning, and whenever we sin. Forgive us for how often we are more concerned with our own vindication than with our brother’s need for life. Forgive us for how often we talk to people about others’ sins, before we even talk to You about them. Help us to remember that there is sin that is unto death. Forgive us for when we have trifled with sin, when it is so offensive to You and so deadly to us. Forgive us, and cleanse us, and give us life, we pray through Christ, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP51A “God, Be Merciful to Me” or TPH503 “From Depths of Woe, I Raise to Thee”

The Key to Confidence in Prayer [Family Worship lesson in 1John 5:14–15]

How can we pray confidently? 1John 5:14–15 prepares us for the second serial reading in public worship on the Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that assurance of faith makes us sure that God hears us and answers us.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2024.07.04 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1 John 5:14–15

Read 1 John 5:14–15

Questions from the Scripture text: What do we have (1 John 5:14)? In Whom? What does this confidence enable us to do? To ask according to what? What does He do? Who can know this (1 John 5:15)? About what requests? What can we know (in addition to that He hears us)? 

How can we pray confidently? 1 John 5:14–15 prepares us for the second serial reading in public worship on the Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that assurance of faith makes us sure that God hears us and answers us.

Confidence in Him. Those who know that they have eternal life (1 John 5:13) have confidence not in themselves, but in Him (1 John 5:14). Their confidence is that God has done this. Assurance is not a confidence in ourselves, the doctrine upon which we have concluded, the obedience we have achieved, or the love we have cultivated. Assurance is confidence in God Himself and His grace by which He has worked in our lives.

Confidence that He hears. And if God has brought us into faith in His Son by His Spirit, then surely He hears us when we pray! This is one of the great practical applications of assurance: it gives us confidence in prayer. Not just that God hears prayer, but that He hears me, specifically, as I am praying. That His Spirit is the One Who is carrying me to pray. That I am received in His Son as I pray. That He is listening to me in Fatherly affection and care. This is something even greater than getting what we ask for: being heard by the living God, having fellowship with the living God.

Confidence to ask great things. The qualification “according to His will” governs 1 John 5:15 as well as 1 John 5:14. But there is a repeated idea that gets the emphasis: “ask anything” (verse 14) and its counterpart “whatever we ask” (1 John 5:15). God has willed great and glorious things. Asking according to His will, and knowing that God Himself has regard for one’s person and one’s prayers, means asking for great and glorious things.

Confidence that He answers. Finally, assurance gives us confidence not only that we are heard, but that God is answering. He was always going to do His will, of course. But assurance of faith brings us into the glorious confidence that when He does those things that we have asked, it is in actual response to our petitions. He has given us His Son so that we might have the privilege of actually obtaining things from Him through prayer!

How confident do you feel while praying? How much of that confidence is on God’s interaction with you, listening to you, as you pray? What sort of great/glorious things do you pray for? What have you obtained from God in prayer?

Sample prayer:  Lord, please grant unto us assurance of faith, and please grant that we would make good application of it in prayer. For, we confess that we have often disbelieved that You were listening, or were even unaffected by the idea that You listen. Forgive us for not asking according to Your will, and for restricting ourselves to small requests, when You have given us such a large invitation. Forgive us for the unbelieving suspicions that prayer does not actually obtain anything. For these sins, forgive us, and from these sins cleanse us, so that we might pray with assurance-sustained confidence by Your Spirit, through Your Son, in Whose Name we ask it, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP5 “Listen to My Words, O LORD” or TPH518 “Come, My Soul, with Every Care”

Duty and Benefit of Assurance [Family Worship lesson in 1John 5:12–13]

What does faith get for us? 1John 5:12–13 prepares us for the second serial reading in public worship on the Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that faith in Christ gets us life in Christ Himself, God Himself.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2024.06.27 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1 John 5:12–13

Read 1 John 5:12–13

Questions from the Scripture text: Whom does the first one in 1 John 5:12 have? What else does he have? But Whom does the second one not have? And what else does he not have? To whom has the apostle written (1 John 5:13)? For what purpose has he selected these specific things to write—that they might know what? And what is this knowledge intended keep them continuing to do?

What does faith get for us? 1 John 5:12–13 prepares us for the second serial reading in public worship on the Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that faith in Christ gets us life in Christ Himself, God Himself.

If we have the Son of God, we have life so fully that nothing can take it away from us. If we do not have the Son of God, then we have death so fully that nothing at all can give us life. Continuing to believe in His Name, continuing to have our identity in Him, our life in Him, is the way of the Christian life in this world and through to the next. One of the great helps to this abiding in Him is assurance of faith. He uses our knowing that we have Him, He uses our knowing that we have eternal life, to encourage us and keep us believing in Him. By His grace, dear reader, pursue the evidences of being in a state of grace, that you may be assured that the Son Himself has given you life. And by that assurance, keep clinging to the Son Himself.

What are some of the evidences of having the Son that you have learned about in this letter? What, of those evidences, can you see in your own life? What should you do if you do not see the evidence you hoped for—Who can produce it in you? Since God wants you to have assurance, what should you do about that? 

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for giving us life in Yourself. Stir up our faith in You, and make us to know that we believe, so that we may continue to believe in Christ, we ask through Christ, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP110B “The LORD Has Spoken to My Lord” or TPH459 “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less”

The Spirit's Witness to the Son [Family Worship lesson in 1John 5:6–11]

What has God testified? 1John 5:6–11 prepares us for the second serial reading in public worship on the Lord’s Day. In these six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God has testified that God has given us eternal life in His Son, Jesus.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2024.06.20 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1 John 5:6–11

Read 1 John 5:6–11

Questions from the Scripture text: In what two ways did Jesus Come (1 John 5:6)? Who bore witness to this? Why? How many bear witness (1 John 5:7)? Which are these three (1 John 5:8)? Whose witness do we tend to receive (1 John 5:9)? Whose witness is greater? Of Whom has He testified? What does the believer in the Son have in himself (1 John 5:10)? What does the unbeliever make God out to be? How/why? To what two things has God witnessed (1 John 5:11)?

What has God testified? 1 John 5:6–11 prepares us for the second serial reading in public worship on the Lord’s Day. In these six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God has testified that God has given us eternal life in His Son, Jesus.

There were two great events at which God has announced to the world that Jesus is God the Son, by Whom God has given believers eternal life: His baptism and His crucifixion. In the first, water was applied, and God Himself announced from heaven that this is His beloved Son in Whom He is well-pleased (cf. Matthew 3:17). There, Jesus said that “we” were fulfilling all righteousness by His identifying with us and our need for repentance (cf. Matthew 3:15). The second was preceded by the transfiguration, where Jesus talked about His “Exodus” (Luke  9:31) and at which God testimony (cf. Luke 9:35). Romans 3:25 tells us that, on the cross, Jesus was exhibited as a propitiation by His blood. Both in descending upon Him as a dove (cf. Matthew 3:16), and in sustaining Him at the cross and raising Him from the dead, the Spirit bore particular witness to Christ at both events. By water, blood, and Spirit, God attests that Jesus is the Son, Who gives life. And if you believe, it is by the witness of the Spirit, even within you. If you don’t, you’re calling God a liar, and you will receive as you deserve. Jesus is God the Son, Who gives life!

What do you believe about Jesus? Upon Whose testimony? How does this assure you that this is the truth about Him?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for testifying about Your Son, by Your Spirit, that He is our life and sacrifice. Amen!

 Suggested songs: ARP110B “The LORD Has Spoken to My Lord” or TPH265 “In Christ Alone”  

2024.06.13 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1 John 5:4–5

Read 1 John 5:4–5

Questions from the Scripture text: Of Whom are the people in 1 John 5:4 born? What/whom do they overcome? What overcomes the world? What is this victory? What rhetorical question does 1 John 5:5 ask? What is its implied answer?

What does it mean to overcome the world? 1 John 5:4–5 prepares us for the second serial reading in public worship on the Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that to overcome the world is to come to the point, by faith in Christ, that you are a keeper of God’s commandments.

Overcoming by regeneration. The keeping of God’s commandments (1 John 5:3) is now described as overcoming the world. This does not mean to overcome the created order, but rather to overcome the condition into which the whole world of humanity was plunged by the fall. As long as someone belongs to this world, how can he overcome it? 

So he has to be born of God. In making us His children, God not only adopts us but actually gives us a new birth. These are they who overcome the world. If you do not have the new birth, then you cannot overcome the world; you cannot genuinely keep His commandments. 

Overcoming by faith. Even after we are born again, we do not have ability in us to overcome the world. But, praise God, the born again person is no longer in himself. By bringing them to faith in Christ, God brings born again believers out of themselves and into the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Faith is not just the beginning point of Christianity; it is the beginning, the middle, and even the end. Faith gets the victory because it hopes upon Jesus as the Son of God. It finds divine power in a divine Person. Now, is it still so surprising to you that you find it difficult to keep God’s commandments? Indeed, it must be impossible to you, except by faith in Jesus, the Son of God! The Christian life is impossible. Which is why it must be the Christ-ian life.

Where can you get the status or ability that enables you, genuinely, to keep God’s law?

Sample prayer:  Lord, forgive us for not making it our aim to overcome the world. Forgive us for thinking that we could somehow live as worldlings on the one hand, but be true commandment-keepers on the other. And forgive us for thinking or acting as if there was some other way of keeping your commandments than by the life, power, and goodness of Christ alone. Through Him, make us to overcome the world, we ask in His Name, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH466 “My Faith Looks Up to Thee”

Freed by Love to Love the Law [Family Worship lesson in 1John 4:21–5:3]

How good are God’s commandments? 1John 4:21–5:3 prepares us for the second serial reading in public worship on the Lord’s Day. In these four verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God’s commandments are such blessings as are designed to foster assurance that we are His.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2024.06.06 Hopewell @Home ▫ 1 John 4:21–5:3

 Read 1 John 4:21–5:3

Questions from the Scripture text: What do we have from God (1 John 4:21)? What must one who loves God also do? What is true of the one who is in a condition of believing in Jesus as the Christ (1 John 5:1)? Whom does the born-of-God one love? What/whom are also loved by those who love Him Who begot? How can we know that we truly love the children of God—what/Whom else will we love, and what will we do (1 John 5:2)? What is the love of God (1 John 5:3)? What does someone who loves Him in this way think of His commandments?

How good are God’s commandments? 1 John 4:21–5:3 prepares us for the second serial reading in public worship on the Lord’s Day. In these four verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God’s commandments are such blessings as are designed to foster assurance that we are His.

After considering how love for one another gives us boldness before God (1 John 4:17-20), the apostle turns back to the goodness of God’s commandments. Surely, the one who finds God’s commandments burdensome (1 John 5:3) knows neither the nature of our God nor the nature of His commandments. How good they are!

In this case, the apostle is referring again to that “new commandment” from John 13, which is the commandment that the church has had from its beginning—the commandment that arises from that glorious event in which our Lord Jesus culminated His ordination to His “Great High Priest”-hood and offered Himself for us, once for all. Do we love Him? Then we must keep His commandments. And His commandment is that we must love our brother. So the one who loves God must love his brother.

And, of course, this love is more than just keeping His commandment. It is also bearing His image, being His child, being part of the family. There is no other way to come into saving faith (1 John 5:1) than by a heavenly birth. But what does being begotten by God, spiritually fathered by God, necessarily produce? It produces love for this dear Father! And how can it produce love for Him, except that this love also extend to all who are fathered by Him? This love is not just God’s command, but the characteristic family trait.

Finally, for those who have this genuine love, coming organically from being fathered by Him, we want to know if our love is genuine. It is not enough for us that others think that we love them, or that we think that we love them. We want to know that we love them in truth. So, the Spirit directs the apostle’s hands to give us a proof: how can we know that we love God’s children? The only place from which that particular love comes is the same place from which love for God comes, and therefore from which keeping His commandments comes—from which comes a view of His commandments that considers them all blessing and no burden. What grace, that we would so come to know God’s law! 

It’s all or nothing. They all hang together, dear reader: being born of God, savingly believing in Christ, loving God, loving brother, keeping God’s commandments, and counting those commandments blessing. They all hang together; it’s all or nothing. The Lord grant that they would all hang together in you!

How do you think/feel about God’s commandments? Toward what brothers do you harbor ill feelings or even ill will? How have you been making use of God’s commandments to pursue assurance that you are His child?

Sample prayer:  Lord, thank You for so loving us that You would give us commandment for the very things that enable us to be bold in the day of judgment. But forgive us for how we have treated Your commandments as if they are burdensome. And forgive us that we have at times thought or acted as if we could love You without loving those who are born of You. Grant unto us increased life and growth from our heavenly birth, that by Your Spirit, we might live like Christ and love like Christ, we ask in His Name, AMEN!

 Suggested songs: ARP197 “Christian Unity” or TPH409 “Blest Be the Tie That Binds”