Faith Is The Victory
By
Professor E M Blaiklock MA.,Litt.D.
THE TEXT : (1 John 4: 1-5: 21)
CHAPTER FOUR:
Beloved, believe not every spirit but test the spirits whether they be of God, because many false prophets have come into the world.
Recognize the Spirit of God by this; every spirit which confesses that Jesus is Christ come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit which does not confess that Jesus is Christ come in the flesh is not from God. This latter is the spirit of antichrist of whose coming you know and which is already in the world. You my little children, belong to God, and you have prevailed over such people, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They belong to the world, they talk its language and the world listens to them. You belong to God; he who knows God listens to us; he who does not belong to God does not listen to us. Thus we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of wandering.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love belongs to God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love has not come to know God, for God is love. In this was the love of God revealed to us that God has sent His only-begotten son into the world that we might live through Him. Love lies in this, not that we loved God but that God Himself loved us, and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us we too should love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another God abides in us and His love is made perfect in us.
This is how we know we abide in Him and He abides in us, because He has given us a portion of His own Spirit; and we have seen and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him and he abides in God, and we have known and have believed the love of God for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
In this lies the perfection of our love, in fearlessness on the day of judgment, because in this world we are living as He lives. Love has no fear in it, but perfect love banishes fear, for fear is connected with punishment; the one who continues to fear has not reached the perfection of love. We love Him because He first loved us. If anyone says: "I love God", and hates his brother, he is a liar, for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? This commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God is to love his brother also.
CHAPTER FIVE:
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, has been born of God; and every one who loves the Father loves that which has been born of Him. This is how we know that we love those born of God, by loving God and keeping His commandments, for the love we bear God means keeping His commandments, commandments which are not burdensome, for everything that has been born of God conquers the world. Our faith is the victory which has conquered the world. Who is the one who has conquered the world if not the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus, the Anointed; not by water only but by water and blood, and the Spirit is witness to this fact, for the Spirit is truth. Because three are they who bear witness (in Heaven, the Father, the word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one; and three are they who bear witness on earth), the Spirit, the water and the blood; and these three are one. If we accept as valid the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; because this is the witness of God, that which He bore to His Son. who believes in the Son of God has this witness in his heart
He who does not believe God has made Him a liar by refusing to believe the witness which God has borne to His Son. And this is the witness, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; and he who has not the Son has not life.
These things I wrote to you that you may know that you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God. And this is the boldness we have towards Him, that if we earnestly ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
And if we know that He hears whatever we thus ask, we know that we have whatever we have asked of Him. If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and God will give him life, to those, that is, who sin not unto death. There is sin unto death. Not concerning that do 1 say you should make request. All unrighteousness is sin; and there is sin which is not unto death,
We know that everyone who is born of God does not continue in sin, but He who was born of God preserves him, and the Evil One does not lay hold of him. We know that we belong to God and that the whole world lies in the power of the Evil One. We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding to know the real God. And we are in Him Who is real, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the real God and life eternal. Little children, keep clear of idols.