The Holy Spirit Gives Confidence By Giving Understanding And Teaching Love (1 John 4:13-21)
I was in youth ministry for over 10 years. Really, close to 15 at this point. And one thing that bothered me the entire time was the way that invitations were oftentimes given at a youth camp or retreat. The preacher would give his sermon and then have a time of invitation where he would talk enough about doubts that everyone in the room doubted their faith just a little bit and then he would invite students to come forward and “nail it down”. “Make sure that you are really sure” they might say. And then they would say something to the affect of “Do you know that you know that you know you have faith in Jesus Christ?” And people would flood the isles and go down to the altar. Many of the decisions made were genuine, I have no doubt. I also have no doubt that a lot of good was done at those camps and that God worked during those invitations, but I want you to see that John does the exact opposite of what happened at those invitations.
Rather than calling the people to have doubts John called the people to see the work that God the Holy Spirit had done in their lives. He called the faithful to see that they were believers. And He wanted people who were not believers to fear. And God the Holy Spirit gives us assurance of our salvation. And in 1 John 4:13-21 we see that the Holy Spirit gives confidence by giving understanding and teaching us to love.
We have confidence because we have the Holy Spirit who gives understanding and teaches us to love.
We Have Confidence Because God Gave Us His Spirit (1 John 4:13)
He begins this by saying, “by this we know that we abide in Him and He in us” (1 John 4:13a ESV). John wants us to be fully assured of our fellowship with God. John here uses the word “abide” to signify the fellowship with the Triune God that he has discussed throughout the Book of 1 John. To abide in something simply means to dwell there. That is why you will sometimes hear your home called your “abode”. And so, John is concerned here with the idea of fellowship is used in the very beginning of the book.
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life– the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us– that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” (1 John 1:1-4 ESV)
How is it that we know we have this fellowship with God? “Because He has given us of His Spirit.” (1 John 4:13 ESV) We have this confidence because God gave us His Spirit. God the Holy Spirit dwells in you and so, you can have confidence.
Why should these believers have confidence and the heretics who claimed to have faith in Christ not have confidence before God? The reason is simple. Because God gave to them His Holy Spirit.
The unbeliever has no reason to have confidence before God. They have tremendous reason to be concerned and fear. Those who have the Holy Spirit have confidence before God while those who do not have the Spirit do not have fellowship with God. Simply put, those who have not trusted in Christ as He was declared to us in the Scriptures do not have reason to have confidence before God on judgment day. They do not have the salvation accomplished by Christ nor do they have the Spirit working in their lives. He will face God’s judgment on His own unless He turn from ruling His own life and trust in Jesus as was delivered to us by the Apostles.
God the Son took on human flesh and dwelt among us. He lived a perfect life and accomplished everything necessary for a life of complete righteousness. Then He died on the cross and paid the punishment for sin. There He bore God’s wrath in the place of sinners. The punishment for the sins of all who would believe were punished in Him on the cross. Three days later He rose from the grave having conquered sin, death, and Satan. Our sins are paid for on the cross. We can face God on judgment day knowing that Jesus paid our debt. He also gave to us His righteousness, the righteousness that He earned is credited to our account. But only those who trust in Christ have their sins paid for and are credited with righteousness.
So the Christian has confidence before God, but it is not because of anything inherent in Himself. He has confidence before God because God the Son accomplished His salvation for Him and has been given the Holy Spirit. This text speaks only of the latter part of these two but the context of the entire book helps us to understand that both of these are in view. And so, God the Son had told His disciples that the Holy Spirit would come.
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (John 14:16-20 ESV)
And here, in 1 John, he says that it is because of the Holy Spirit’s dwelling in us that we can have assurance of salvation and have confidence before God.
You can have confidence before God, but this confidence comes from outside of us. God works in us and causes us to believe right doctrine, to love each other, and to live lives in accordance with God’s Word. We don’t have confidence because we’ve gone to church longer or somehow earned the right to have this confidence through some deed, we did to earn it. It is given to us by the power of God through the work of the Holy Spirit.
As a church we need to understand that there are times when genuine believers lack assurance of salvation. And that may be happening with some of you even as you read this. It is my desire that our church be a place where we can work through our doubts and fears. And through that I pray that we can come to a place of assurance and confidence before God.
We Have Confidence Because God’s Spirit Taught Us Right Doctrine (1 John 4:14-15)
The Apostles testified to Christ’s coming into the world. They testified to the fact that God the Father sent His Son into the world to save the world. They were eyewitnesses to the gospel that we hold so dear. They were there when Jesus taught them what He was going to do for mankind. They heard the words from His mouth that explained that He was God the Son who had come to Earth and fulfilled all righteousness so that His righteousness could be credited to sinful people. They heard Him explain that He died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for sin. They heard Him explain the reason for the resurrection and how it finished the work of justification for the believer. They were there. They heard all of it. And they also heard Him teach that those who turned from ruling their own lives and trusted in Christ would be made His people and would be saved from the justice of God. John and the other apostles were witnesses to all of this.
So, what John says next makes perfect sense. Whoever confesses what the Apostles revealed about Jesus remains in God and God also abides in them. The people who believed the message of the Apostles, those people have fellowship with God.
It is not the person who confesses they are a believe and makes up their own version of Christianity or Jesus to believe that is actually a believer. It is the person who believes the message delivered to us by the Apostles who is the believer. And they believe because the Holy Spirit teaches those who are in the faith to believe in the real Jesus.
Christ came in history. He was a real person who walked on Earth, showed us how to love and live righteously, and did miracles. And He defeated sin and death in history through His perfect life, death, and resurrection. He is God the Son. And the Holy Spirit has taught us to believe what the Apostles delivered to us long ago. I do not believe that people understand and trust in a right understanding of God and of the person and work of Jesus Christ without being empowered to do so. And I say this on very strong scriptural grounds.
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV)
And so, it is only by the power of God that you understand and have trusted in God the Son. This right understanding is a gift from God given to us by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Understanding that it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that we have a right understanding of who Jesus is should do two things for us. First, it should give us confidence. We grow in confidence in our fellowship with God as we understand that God worked in us to cause us to believe. Second, it should give us humility. This is not something that I was able to do all on my own. God had to work on my stubborn heart in order for me to believe.
We Have Confidence Because We Know God Loves Us (1 John 4:16-18)
Those that have understood what God the Son did on behalf of believers understand the deep, deep love of God for His people. And this love has an affect on us.
There has long been a debate as to whether this phrase about love has to do with God’s love for us or our love for God. The ESV and most other translations have rightly understood this to be about God’s love for us. The context makes it clear that this is the case.
Interestingly, the phrase “we have come to know” in 4:16 lets us know that this is something that comes to us rather than something we do. It is in the Perfect Active Indicative tense in the Greek, which simply means that it is a completed action that pertains to the subject and is a fact. Simply put, this knowledge is something that comes from outside of us. Some of your translations say, “we know” and I would argue that this muddies the waters a bit. “We have come to know” seems to get to the idea much better. This knowledge has come from outside of us and is something that is a completed fact. And John’s reason for writing it this way becomes abundantly clear in a moment. The Holy Spirit is at work bringing to us a knowledge about the Savior and the completed work that He did on the cross.
“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 ESV)
Christ died for us in history. And this act was a revelation of God’s love for us. We also saw this in the text last week.
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10 ESV)
God has revealed His love to us through the death of His Son on the cross. We have witnessed the love of God through this act in history via the testimony of the Apostles. And this has been made known to us by the power of the Holy Spirit. And we trust in the love that God has for us.
John then says that “God is love” (V. 16). And that those who abide in love abide in God. They have fellowship with God. Again, John is emphasizing the love that believers have for one another. The Christian abides in God’s love for them and we love others. Then, “by this is love perfected with us” (V. 16). This perfected love is not our love eventually being perfect but that as we grow in our knowledge and trust in God’s love and practice of love toward others, it is all perfected. This is a total package thing. And John insists that this growth gives us something.
The Christian abides in God’s love for Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. He also shows that love to others. We abide in God’s love for us and then we proceed to love others. All of this gives us confidence on the Day of Judgment. Now, where does this confidence come from?
The reason is that “because as He is, so also are we in this world.” (V. 17b ESV) As confusing as that sounds, it means something that raises our assurance and our joy. Even while here on Earth God sees us as He sees Jesus. We abide in God and God in us. We abide in Christ and Christ in us. We abide in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit in us. And by virtue of what Christ accomplished for us in His perfect life, death, and resurrection God sees me as He sees Jesus. On the cross my sins are forgiven. They are not forgiven arbitrarily, but my sins were placed upon Christ and He was punished in my place. Therefore, my sins have been washed away. I am also credited with Christ’s righteousness.
Pastors oftentimes use shorthand to explain things. Most of the time that is helpful. It’s usually memorable, but in this case it has added confusion. I have oftentimes heard pastors say that “when God looks at you He sees His Son.” Well, that is true but it doesn’t tell us a whole lot. The more full explanation of that is that my sins were credited to Christ and He paid for them in my place. And His righteousness was credited to me and I am now righteous because Christ fulfilled all righteousness. In the past this was called “The Great Exchange”. And it is unbelievable grace and mercy that has been poured out upon God’s people. How incredible it is that we can say, “as He is, also are we in this world.”
When we understand God’s love for us and what Christ has done for us then we have less fear of our future. The fear of judgment goes away and it is replaced with confidence. That is, when we truly understand God’s love for us then our fear is replaced with confidence.
As John explains, fear involves punishment. We don’t love and honor God for fear of punishment. That has been taken away. In fact, fearing punishment may mean that you have not fully apprehended God’s love in Christ. When John says,
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4:18 ESV)
It is as if John is saying, “If you only understood the love of God in Christ to its fullest then you would not fear God’s judgment.”
There seems to have been much fear surrounding the leaving of prominent members of these churches. This makes sense because it would cause a lot of confusion to have a mass exodus of the faithful amid any congregation. And here John informs those who remain that they have the Holy Spirit and can be sure of the love that God has for them. And here is the point, the unbeliever cannot rest in this love. They do not have the special love and grace of God that comes only through the finished work of Christ.
God’s love is evident for His people. And believers can rest in that love. They can even rest confidently in the face of the coming judgment of God. God the Son was the fullest revelation of the love of God for His people that we have. And we can see in this act, the great love that God has for His people.
So, what is oftentimes lacking in a genuine Christian who lacks assurance?
This is not always the case, but it is oftentimes the case that there is missing a good understanding of the love of God that was revealed in Christ. They know it. They can oftentimes verbalize it. But they don’t really know it for some reason. They have real difficulty applying those words to their own lives.
As a church this means we should publicize the love of God for His people. We constantly deliver the message of what Christ has done. We present before the eyes of those who congregate here the message of God’s love and mercy. Because those who have these sorts of doubts in our midst need to constantly hear the message of God’s love, grace, and mercy that was so beautifully displayed to us on the cross over 2,000 years ago.
We Have Confidence Because We Love (1 John 4:19-21)
We love God and love others not because of some inherent goodness within ourselves but because God loved us first (1 John 4:19). I did not achieve a certain level of goodness before God loved me. He loved me first. And the love that God has for me results in love for God and love my brothers and sisters in Christ.
Here John states that it is not possible for someone to love God and hate His brothers. John goes so far as to call that person a liar (1 John 4:20).
“If anyone says, “I love God”, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20 ESV)
It is simply not possible for you to hate other believers and love God. And John’s logic is interesting. It is easier to love someone who is close to you than someone who is far away. It is easier for you to love your brothers and sisters in Christ than it is for you to love God.
Now, at first glance this may seem to be wrong. For it is seemingly much easier for us to love someone from a distance than to love someone who is right next to us. But in reality that’s not what is going on. It’s easier to lie about loving someone from a distance than it is to lie about loving someone next to you. It is actually easier to love those around us than those who are far away.
Think about the way living in a family works. Biology does play a part in this as well, but a big part of the reason that we love those in our family so much is that they are the people who have come together and stay under one roof. In a very wooden and unromantic way of saying this, my wife and I covenanted to be together forever. And we have come together under that covenant we have created other little people who are part of our family. Those people closest to me are the people I love most in this world. It is easier to show actual love toward them than it is for me to show love for those who are far away. It takes a good deal more effort to love those outside of my family. And that is the point we are getting at here.
It is easier to love someone that you see than you don’t see. It is easier to lie to yourself and the world about your love for God, who you don’t see, but it is easier to love the brothers and sisters in Christ that you go to church with. John stated in no uncertain terms that if you do not have the ability to love your brothers and sisters in Christ then you do not have the ability to love God.
It is those who love their brothers and sisters in Christ that have been loved by God and love God. Those who claim to love God and do not love their brothers and sisters are only pretending. They are liars.
The finished work of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives causes believers to love one another. And when believers see this love for each other in their lives it should give them confidence that the Holy Spirit dwells within them. The non-Christian loves. But they do not, as a general rule, have a deep and abiding love for God’s people. Therefore, they cannot have the confidence that is discussed here. And this should give those who love their brothers and sisters in Christ tremendous confidence.
God’s love for us and the work of the Holy Spirit has changed the believer. They now have love for God and love for other children of God. We saw in the previous message the kind of love we should have for one another. And we see here that we can have this love for one another because of the love that God has bestowed upon us and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is easy to say that we love someone from afar. It is easy to say that we love God. It is not easy to love one who we are not nearby. It is easier to love those who are closest to us. And so, the person who hates their brothers and sisters who are right here next to them cannot have that love for God.
If you do not love God’s children who sit right next to you in this room week after week then you do not actually love God who rests in Heaven who you claim to love. I do not care how long you have been going to church, how often you pray, or how often you read your Bible. If you do not have love for God’s children, then you do not have love for God. If we have been given the ability to love one another then we can rest confidently that we are truly God’s people. If we come into church and despise our brothers and sisters in Christ and claim to love the Father of those whom we hate, then we should not have confidence stored up for the Day of Judgment. We should have a tremendous amount of fear. We have great reason to fear that we are not of the same parentage.
At the conclusion of this chapter there is a command given. It is a restatement of something we have been told a few times in the Book of 1 John already. It is the command given by Jesus to love one another. But John ends the phrase a little differently, “whomever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4:21b ESV)
Conclusion
I began this message discussing my time in youth ministry. I have no doubt that you have heard a few people say the same sort of things. But what you need to know is that this is not what God intends for you. God desires for you to have assurance of salvation and this is worth thinking through and praying through. It’s a beautiful thing.
And God has given to us the Holy Spirit who gives understanding and teaches us to love, which gives us confidence before Him.
R. Dwain Minor