It all comes down to Christ

Reading today in 1 John 4.

It all comes down to Jesus. Who do people think Jesus is?
If they do not think that he comes from God. If they do not think that he came in the flesh. If they do not confess Jesus.

Then those folks are NOT from God.

If they are not from God, then they are very simply the Anti-Christ.

1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

If you are not from God, then you are from the world and only know then the things of the world. You can't know truth from error. God's children can know this. Because we know more than just the world's way of doing things.

4Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

John reminds us to love each other. Love is from God. If we see love in the life of another, we know that it has been born of God. For "whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." God showed us what true love is when he sent his son to die for us. His son died that we might live. So again...it all comes down to Christ. Christ shows us the result of true love.

7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9In 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. 10In 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. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

God perfects his love in us. He does this by giving us his spirit. Those who testify that Jesus is the Son of God is in God, and God is in him. Our belief in God shows that we see God's love for us ..... that we know it and believe it. Therefore we love as God has loved us. God loved us so that we can love others. If we say we believe in God and yet don't show love to each other... then what does that really say about us? No Love = no true belief in God.

13By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18There 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. 19We love because he first loved us. 20If 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. 21And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

I have to admit. It took me a while to understand "There is no fear in Love, but perfect love casts out fear." I used to be scared of people I met, particularly strangers if I was walking after 9 at night. And God showed me this verse one day and it just hit me. That first I had no business being scared of these folks, God made them just as he made me so they too are made in the image of God. And two, God knows what he is doing so trust him! Love these folks regardless of who they are, what they are doing, what they look like or whatever. If I truly trust God, the rest of it really doesn't matter. So that means that I can indeed truly love them.

This is a very good reminder for me to have this week when I have felt so very let down by different people in my life. I have to stop seeing that, and just realize once again, that God does indeed love me, he does indeed know what's best for me. he sent his son to die for me for goodness sake! All he asks is that I show love to the people he has placed in my life. I can do this, especially if I SEE him, and see him truly.

All the praise be to God.