DEC 24

1 John 1,4
Memorise 1 John 4:2
“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God...”

The main theme of the epistle is introduced in 1 John 1:3. It states that the Apostle John wrote the epistle “that ye may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” First, in order to have true spiritual fellowship, believers must have a proper knowledge of Christ’s person. His full deity and humanity must be stressed. False teachers were denying the humanity of Christ. Thus John had to combat their error and deception. He reaffirmed this in 1 John4:1-3 where believers are exhorted to find out whether these teachers confess to the 100% deity and 100% humanity of Christ. To attain genuine spiritual fellowship with God, it is necessary for believers to be discerning in spiritual matters. The reason is that Satan and his forces are at work in the world (4:1). How do we discern? A false teacher may be gentle and loving. He may speak prophecies that come true. He may even perform miracles or cast out demons. Specifically, John lays down the rule (4:2-3), “every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.” Here John is referring not only to Christ’s true deity but also His true humanity. The Docetists taught that matter is evil. Thus Jesus was only a spirit being. The Gnostics, taught that Jesus was a mere man, but that “the Christ,” a divine emanation, came upon Him at His baptism and left Him before His crucifixion. John’s test refutes both of these heresies. To deny that Jesus is both fully God and fully Man is to deny the historic Christian faith. Implicit in John’s warning here is that the content of our theology matters greatly. True spiritual fellowship also means walking in the light of His Word and having no fellowship with darkness and falsehood. It is overcoming the world with its sins and pleasures. Also if we know Him, we must love Him and love what He loves. We express our love by keeping His commandments and by loving one another.

Have you thought of what would happen if Jesus were not fully God? Can He save us? Why? If Jesus is not fully man, will we have a Saviour to save us? Why not? Think on these things. If Jesus were not God, He would have been a sinner and His death on the cross could not have atoned for anyone. If He were not man, He could not have taken our sins and bore it on the cross to represent us.

Thought: Any teaching that denies that Jesus is true 100% God and true 100% man is a doctrine of demons.
Prayer: O mighty God, our everlasting Father, teach me Thy truth and Thy light and may I constantly and continually guard Thy precious truth.