Alive To God

For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here. https://stevehusting.com/alivetogod/meditations-on-1-john-11-4-with-notes/

v. 6, Jesus Christ ​— ​he is the one who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and by blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) Water = baptism. Blood = death. “5:6-8. But the object of this faith must aways be the One who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. … suggests that he was refuting a false notion of the type held by Cerinthus. … taught that the divine Christ descended on the man Jesus at His baptism and left Him before His crucifixion. Thus he denied … [Jesus] came by both water and blood.”

(Vincent’s II) “By water and blood. Water refers to Christ’s baptism at the beginning of His Messianic work … Blood refers to His bloody death upon the cross.” Here are two principles of interpretation: “(1.) Water and blood must point both to some purely historical facts in the life of our Lord on earth… (2.) They must not be interpreted symbolically, but understood of something so real and powerful.” (Recovery) “… and the Spirit, who is the truth, the reality in life (Rom. 8:2), germinates those whom God has redeemed out of the old creation, by regenerating them with the divine life. Thus they are born of God and become His children.”

For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here. https://stevehusting.com/alivetogod/meditations-on-1-john-11-4-with-notes/

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “If love for God and one’s fellow Christians is at its core obedience to God’s commands, how can these be carried out? … John pointed to faith as the secret of a victorious obedient life.”

v. 4, because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “This [God’s commands are not burdensome] is because the principle of victory resides in everyone born of God. … His faith in Christ, … constitutes a victory over the world system which is satanically blinded.”

(Vincent’s II) “That overcometh. The aorist tense, overcame. The victory over the world was, potentially, won when we believed in Jesus. … We overcome the world by being brought into union with Christ. On becoming as He is (iii. 17) we become partakers of His victory.” “Our faith. …the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.”

(Life) “5:3-4 Jesus never promised that obeying him would be easy.” (ESV) “Genuine Christians are not defeated by the world’s hostility or compelled by it to turn from Christ.”

For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here. https://stevehusting.com/alivetogod/meditations-on-1-john-11-4-with-notes/

Chapter 5 (CSB–the verses in this chapter were taken from this version. Each chapter will be from a different version to avoid copyright issues.)

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “But the experience described there [4:11-19], with its astounding concept of boldness on the day of judgment, can be reached only in a most practical way.” The concluding verses are a summary of that way.

v. 1, Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of him.

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) How do I know he’s a Christian? He believes that Jesus is the Christ. “5:1-3a. … Whether or not a believer exhibits an admirable life, he should be an object of his fellow Christian’s love.”

(ESV) “5:1-5 Faith Keeps the Commandment of God. The road to love—such a great concern of John’s—is paved with faith in Christ.” (Recovery) “The Gnostics and the Cerinthians did not believe that Jesus and the Christ were identical.”

For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here.

God’s Love and Ours (cont.), 4:16-21 NIV

v. 16, And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “We know and rely on (lit., ‘have come to believe’) … Living in the atmosphere of mutual Christian love produces a personal knowledge of God’s love and fresh experience of faith in that love. … John again affirmed the reality of the abiding experience enjoyed by all Christians who love.”

(ESV) “Assurance of salvation, while never an arrogant presumption, can become a settled state of mind and heart.” (Recovery) “God abides in us to be our life inwardly and our living outwardly. Thus He can be one with us practically.”

For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here.

God’s Love and Ours (cont.), 4:7-15 NIV

v. 11, Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “4:9-11 … Nothing less than God’s love in Christ is the model for the love Christian should have toward one another.”

v. 12, No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “4:12-13. In His divine nature and essence, God has never been seen by any living man. … Yet in the experience of mutual love among believers, this invisible God actually lives in us and His love is made complete in us.”

(Vincent’s II) “His Love. Not our love to Him, nor His love to us, but the love which is peculiarly His; which answers to His nature.”

(Life) “Jesus … has revealed God to us. When we love one another,  the invisible God reveals himself to others through us, and his love is made complete. … If God sees that we are ready to love others, he will bring them to us.”

(Moody) “When believers love one another, it shows (1) that God abides in us—i.e., it is evidence of our relationship with an invisible God; (2) that His love is perfected in us—i.e., we display divine affection toward others.” (Recovery) “His love here denotes God’s love within us that becomes our love toward one another, and it is with this love that we love one another. … This love is perfected and completed in its manifestation when we express it in our living by habitually loving one another with it.”

For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here.

God’s Love and Ours, 4:7-15 NIV

v. 7, Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “4:7-8. … the subject of love …, like faith in God’s Son (v. 13), is a product of the Spirit. As a confession of he incarnate person of Christ marks one off as being actuated by God (i.e. ‘from God’, vv. 5, 6) so does love, since love comes from. God. Hence, one who loves … has been born of God … and he knows God.”

(Vincent’s II) “Of God. Flows from God.”

(Life) “4:7ff . … God is the source of our love … Jesus is our example of what it means to love … The Holy Spirit gives us the power to love. … How well do you display your love for God in the choices you make and the actions you take?” (ESV) “Love is presented here as a consequence of, not a precondition for, being born of God.”

For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here.

Chapter 4 (NIV–the verses in this chapter were taken from this version. Each chapter will be from a different version to avoid copyright issues.)

On Denying the Incarnation, 4:1-6 NIV

v. 1, Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “4:1-3. To begin with, the Spirit of God must be distinguished from false spirits. … The touchstone … is their attitude toward the incarnate person of Jesus Christ.”

(Life) “4:1-2 … we shouldn’t believe everything we hear just because someone says it is a message inspired by God.” Other tests: 2:19, 3:23-24, 4:6.

(ESV) “Christian faith is not spiritual gullibility. … The unseen spiritual influences … can be ‘tested’ by observing their doctrine and conduct as well as by the gift of spiritual discernment.” (Recovery) “The expressions every spirit and the spirits refer to the spirits of the prophets, which are motivated by the Spirit of truth, and the spirits of the false prophets, which are actuated by the spirit of deception.”