Slides: Born of God (1 John 2:29-3:24)

Phrases for real Christians in 1 John

• Walk in light
• Know Father/Christ
• Indwelt/anointed by Spirit
• Children/born of God
• Have eternal life

Born of God

• Spiritual DNA tests
• Family privileges

Spiritual DNA tests

1. Belief: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. (5:1)
2. Attitude: Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (4:7)
3. Action: Everyone who does what is right has been born of him. (2:29)
4. Victory: Everyone born of God overcomes the world. (5:4)

Positive belief test
Jesus is the Christ (5:1), the Son of God (4:15). He is without sin (3:5) and came in the flesh (4:2) to suffer the penalty for our sins (2:2, 4:10), to take away our sins (3:5), and to destroy the devil’s work (3:8). He is the true God and eternal life (5:20).

Negative belief test
Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son… he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (5:10-12)

Positive attitude test
This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another… We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. (3:11-14) If we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (4:12)

Negative attitude test
Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. (3:14-15)
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (4:7-8)

Positive action test
Everyone who does what is right has been born of him. (2:29) No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. (3:9) We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin. (5:18)

Negative action test
He who does what is sinful is of the devil…. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (3:8-10)

Positive victory test
The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him… Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. (3:1, 13)
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (4:4)

Negative victory test
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (2:15) They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. (4:5) The whole world is under the control of the evil one. (5:19)

Are tests consistent?

1. Belief: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. (5:1)
2. Attitude: Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (4:7)
3. Action: Everyone who does what is right has been born of him. (2:29)
4. Victory: Everyone born of God overcomes the world. (5:4)

Combined tests

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. ¹⁷ If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? (3:16-17)

Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (3:10)

Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (3:18)

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. (3:23-24)

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (1 John 5:1-5)

Are tests consistent?

1. Belief: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. (5:1)
2. Attitude: Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (4:7)
3. Action: Everyone who does what is right has been born of him. (2:29)
4. Victory: Everyone born of God overcomes the world. (5:4)

Born of God

• Spiritual DNA tests
• Family privileges

Family privileges

• Life/DNA of God’s seed
• Lavishly loved by Father
• See Jesus and be like him
• Reassurance in struggles
• Confidence in prayer
• Indwelling by the Spirit