Dear Children

1 John 4:4-6 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. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
 
AS John repeats the word “love” many times and the phrase “we know” 16 times in this letter, he also refers to the church nine times as “dear children”. You can summarize 1 John to say, “John teaches we are God’s dear children when we know God’s love.”
    How would you know this? Again, true knowledge of God comes from your real experiences with God. John says your experiences in life obeying God’s commands demonstrate you have overcome them. “Them” refers to the false teachers he warns against. He is praising and affirming his dear children in their faith to stand against the liars and to stand for the Truth.
    As a pastor he praises his dear children because he knows the Spirit is alive in them. Their actions and words tell John the Living Spirit empowers them to oppose the world’s spirits of deceit.
    The church are dear children to God because they are from God.  They know God because they have seen his love transform their lives. Others who join them will be those who also know God’s love. God’s dear children are hearing, doing and discerning the truth. They live in this true expression of God’s kingdom on earth. Their Christian life is not from their own strength but from the Holy Spirit’s teaching.
    As we join with others in God’s church, let us always be mindful of the Holy Spirit within us. Many of us are eager for our churches to grow and become children of God in every sense. The way this happens is not from human plans and strategies but from the Spirit’s sufficiency. To move a church more closely to God requires God’s character in the church. A church must worship, fellowship, teach and evangelize in God’s power. Dear children, follow the loving Savior’s example. This is possible because the Spirit has come to dwell within you as you confess Jesus.  
    Be God’s dear child. Always know you have his eternal power within you.
 
Life Thought: The Spirit of God births you to be a child of God.