Gospel of John [20:19]. Christ's Resurrection, part 18 (fellowship with Christ and the Father - Agape).

Title: Gospel of John [20:19]. Christ's Resurrection, part 18 (fellowship with Christ and the Father - Agape).

 

1JO 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

 

1JO 4:8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

 

1JO 4:9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

 

1JO 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

 

1JO 4:12 No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

 

1JO 4:13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of [out of] His Spirit.

 

1JO 4:14 And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

 

1JO 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God [deity], God abides in him, and he in God.

 

Love makes the gospel shine its brightest. The effective witness is the one who offers more than lip service. He proclaims the words of the deity of Jesus and the saving work of Jesus and he manifests the power of God in his life. Like John, who through fellowship with the Father and Son became known as the Elder for his wisdom and virtue, so the mature believer will reveal the Father and the Son in this life by means of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit who glorifies them both in a behind the scenes fashion.

 

/This confession of the deity of Jesus Christ implies surrender and obedience also, not mere lip service. [Robertson]\

 

This is another indicator of the work of the Spirit in the life of the believer and His abiding in you and you in Him and that is the confession of the deity of Christ. By coming to faith in His deity and then desiring to witness of it to the world is only possible by means of the work of the Spirit in filling the believer. This also reveals that the cults do not have the Spirit of God, no matter how definitely they may profess that they do.

 

1JO 4:16 And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

 

/Abiding:

Love one another, v. 12

Manifestation out of the Spirit, v. 13

Confession of Jesus as deity, v. 15

Fellowshipping with His love, v. 16\

 

Both verbs, come to know and have believed, are in the perfect tense which speaks of a past action that continues forever. They are not on the fence. They do not walk in the sphere of God's love one day and then doubt its existence the next.

 

/It is a permanent feature in their lives - they know His love and believe His love that is for us. It does not come and go nor wax and wane. \

 

1JO 4:17 By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.

 

John now brings us to the result of abiding in God in time. It will lead to one of the most wonderful days of your existence, and I am including time and eternity. That day is the Bema seat of Christ in which all of our works and deeds will be evaluated as being wrought from the flesh or from the Spirit. Was the output of our lives the result of abiding in God the Father and Son through the Holy Spirit in the truth and in love or was the output of our lives the result of the flesh and the world? Were they permanent and lasting or were they weak and temporary. For the believer who abided in God during his born again life, he will have confidence in that day. The word literally means to speak freely. He will confidently and freely speak of all the output of his life that resulted from abiding in Christ, the Evaluator.

 

/No one who has believed in Christ need have any fear of judgment.

 

JOH 5:24

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.\

 

/Fear has to do with punishment, but perfect love casts out fear. The one who has abided in God's love will not fear the presence of Christ or shrink away from it.\

 

This would refer to time and not eternity. After death, in the presence of Christ the believer will fear nothing. If Christ appeared right now some believers would feel shame while others would love it. If Christ revealed Himself visibly to all believers at the same time, some would love to see Him and others would shrink away from Him in shame.

 

/2TI 4:7-8

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. \

 

1JO 2:27 And as for you, the anointing [God the HS within, given at salvation] which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing [the indwelling Spirit] teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.

 

The Holy Spirit is our true teacher, but we all need human teachers. We cannot just read the Bible for ourselves and get any significant depth of understanding. The context of the epistle would make the statement, "you have no need for anyone to teach you," refer to the false teachers who were claiming to have a higher and deeper truth than what was taught already. For example, they needed John, they obviously needed this epistle from John to assuage their fears that maybe they had missed something, but they did not need false teachers and God the Holy Spirit would reveal the falsehood to them. What John is teaching them in this letter has already been taught to them by himself and by the others. When the false teachers came in with the "extra" wisdom, God the Holy Spirit, in His teaching and guiding ministry, revealed to them that it was false.

 

/By means of the Holy Spirit we can put all teaching to the criteria of truth. John states that they don't need the "extra-biblical" teaching of the false ones. \

 

1JO 2:28 And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.

 

It is difficult to determine is this shame occurs at the Bema seat of Christ or if it is only on earth for the negative believers in the moment of His coming. I like the latter since I don't think there can be shame or shrinking away from Christ in heaven, in a resurrection body, which will be the conditions of the Bema seat. And I also tend to think that John here is referring to any believer at any time who would actually shrink away from an appearance of Christ.  

 

Yet, since God doesn't give us those details we are to focus on what He has given us and that is that the one who abides in His love in time will approach the Bema seat with confidence and joy.

 

1JO 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.

 

And in this way you can determine the propagators of falsehood. Not right away all the time, but with time the light always exposes the darkness.

 

1PE 4:12 Beloved [divinely loved ones], do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;

 

/The same Greek word "fiery ordeal" is used in the Septuagint:

 

PRO 27:19

The crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold,

And a man is tested by the praise accorded him.\

 

And again in:

 

/PSA 66:10

For Thou hast tried us, O God;

Thou hast refined us as silver is refined.\

 

/The fiery trials are allowed by God to purify us. They cause us to trust more, see more, and to agape love God more.\

 

1PE 4:13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation.

 

/We have no cause for rejoicing when the suffering is of our own doing. But when our sufferings are those of Christ's, undeserved, we should rejoice as opposed to being shocked.\

 

/COL 1:24

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body (which is the church) in filling up that which is lacking in Christ's afflictions.\

 

/"share" - koinwne,w[koinoneo; present active indicative] = fellowship, co-participate, or partake with Christ in His suffering - another aspect of fellowship.\

 

This is yet another aspect of fellowship. We co-participate with Him in His mind, His love, His mercy, His holiness, and His sufferings. If you desire to walk with Him you desire to walk in this aspect of His life as He did and probably even more than the other areas, since this may be the most challenging.

 

/"Rejoice" is a command. The result is that at the appearing of Christ we may rejoice with exceeding joy. This is tremendous confidence at the day of judgment.\

 

It will be one of the best days of your existence.

 

1CO 3:10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder [architect or chief engineer] I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But let each man be careful how he builds upon it.

 

After having no success in preaching in Athens Paul arrived in Corinth dejected, or as he puts it, in 1CO 2:3, "in weakness and in much fear and trembling." Yet in Corinth he had tremendous success. The Lord appeared to him in a vision stating that Paul should go on preaching and not be afraid because He had many people in this city. The Lord knows those who are His. Paul spent 18 months in Corinth - a longer time than he spent in any other city since he left Syrian Antioch with Barnabas. Paul devoted a year and a half to being the architect of this church. So then, we can imagine the hurt he felt when it was discovered that they became full of divisions and factions, immorality, jealousy, and strife.