When John writes that “There is no fear in love” in 1 John 4:18, he means the kind of love that gives us total “confidence on the day of judgment” (17). When Jesus comes to judge the world, therefore, we’ll have nothing to be afraid of. John gives us the reason why in verse 17 too: it’s “because in this world we are like him.” 

But how do we become so much like Jesus in our lifetimes now that his judgment later holds no fear for us? John’s simple answer to that in verse 13 is: “because he has given us of his Spirit.” 

It’s by the marvellous work of the Spirit, therefore, that even while we’re living in this world we can – as Paul phrases it – “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ,” Ephesians 4:13. And just as “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,” Colossians 2:9, we too “have been given fullness in Christ” living in our bodily form. In other words, we really can become like Christ in who we are now.  

But how does the Spirit do that for us? According to Jesus in John 16:15, “the Spirit takes from what is mine and makes it known to you.” That’s the Spirit’s job, to feed everything there is to know about Jesus to each of us individually. And the Spirit won’t stray from that (13), because his entire focus is on “bringing glory to Jesus” (14). 

But how does the Spirit bring glory to Jesus? By fulfilling Jesus’ wish for his disciples in John 14:18, when he told them, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” It’s by the Spirit, then, that Jesus makes sure his disciples never feel lost, unloved, or unattached to him. And how would the Spirit do that? By being an umbilical cord constantly feeding two things about Jesus into them, verse 21: first of all that Jesus loved them, and secondly by revealing more and more about Jesus to them so in time they’d become more and more like him too.  

The result of which would be verse 27, when Jesus told his disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” So through that umbilical cord of the Holy Spirit feeding all that Christ is into us – both his love and his likeness – it dawns on us that “There is no fear in love.” What do we have to be anxious about, both now and “on the day of judgment,” when through the Holy Spirit we know Jesus loves us and know we’re becoming like him too (1 John 4:17-18)? He makes Jesus real to us, all right, but “How does the Spirit make Jesus real?”….(next blog)  

In 1 John 4:13, John writes that “We know we live in God and God in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” The Spirit, therefore, is the tie that binds us to God, a phrase first coined in an old hymn, “Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love; the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.”  

That last phrase captures what ‘the tie that binds’ is: it’s us experiencing the same fellowship that the Father and Jesus “above” experience together. Which is exactly what Jesus prayed for in John 17:26, that “the love you (Father) have for me may be in them.” 

And how would that come about? By the Father giving us the Holy Spirit, John 14:16-17, because “On that day (when it happens to us personally) you’ll realize I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you” (20). It’s that kind of fellowship the Spirit would provide, “the fellowship of kindred minds like that above” – just like the fellowship the Father and Jesus have always enjoyed together.

And God has provided all kinds of experiences in our physical lives to illustrate that: in our own families, for instance, because something unseen and marvellous all over the world binds males and females to each other for life – and it happens without us even thinking about it. And it’s staggering how different two people can be, but still be happily attached to each other for life. 

It’s a taste now of what life will be like forever; an unending happy attachment to God and each other – just like the ending in a child’s book: ”And they all lived happily ever after.” But that’s exactly what Jesus wants for us, and thanks to what he did on our behalf, the Father provided the means to make it possible, through the Holy Spirit “living with and in us” (14:17). 

This is God’s great gift to us, because, as Paul points out in Romans 8:16, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” This is how we come to know our Father’s love, the very thing Jesus prayed for. And if ever we’re in doubt about the Father’s love, “the Spirit within us,” verse 26, “is actually praying for us in those agonizing longings which never find words” – making sure the tie that binds us to our Father is never broken. So that no matter what happens to us we reach that wonderful point John spoke of in 1 John 4:18, that “There is no fear in love”….(next blog)

In 1 John 5:11, “God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son.” So Jesus is feeding eternal life into us, which ties in with John 6:54, when Jesus says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” 

But how does Jesus feed his eternal life into us? What, though, does Jesus mean by “eternal life”? John describes it as “fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ,” I John 1:2-3, which Jesus demonstrated in his own fellowship with the Father while he was human – and in two ways: by the Father communicating his own thoughts and words to Jesus (John 8:28, 14:10, 24), and Jesus knowing his Father always heard what was on his mind too (John 11:41-42). 

Fellowship works that way on our level as well – in marriage, with our kids, in our jobs, and with each other: it comes from communicating our words and thoughts to each other, and knowing from each other that we’re being heard. Miss out either of those two points and fellowship suffers. Like the two frustrations in any relationship: “You don’t tell me what you’re thinking,” and “You’re not hearing what I’m saying.” 

And according to John, those same two points apply in our fellowship with the Father and Jesus too, because we also need to know what they’re thinking – and know for sure that they’re hearing what’s on our minds too. It was top priority to Jesus, therefore, to make that possible for us by asking the Father to give us the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17), because the Spirit would fulfill both parts of that fellowship in us.

“The Holy Spirit,” for instance, “will remind you of everything I (Jesus) have said to you” (John 14:26), fulfilling the first part of fellowship, communicating Jesus’ words and thoughts to us. John then wrote that “if we ask anything according to his will he hears us” (1 John 5:14), fulfilling the second part of fellowship, knowing that we’re heard by God too. 

So this is how Jesus is feeding his eternal life into us: it’s by living the same two means of fellowship he experiences with his Father in us through the Holy Spirit. Jesus wants this to be real for us too, so that “we know he lives in us,” 1 John 3:24. And how do we know? As John continues in that verse: “We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” 

It’s the Spirit, therefore, that makes fellowship happen, or to borrow the words of an old hymn: “The Spirit, the tie that binds”….(next blog)

In looking for an analogy as to how we “live in God and God lives in us” (1 John 4:16), John tells us that “now we are children of God,” but “what we will be has not yet been made known,” 1 John 3:2. 

That’s a typical description of pregnancy, that on conception a child is now being formed, but what that child will be won’t be made known until he or she is born. And John seems happy with that analogy too, because he speaks of us being “born of God” and having “God’s seed” in us (3:9). He’s saying that God conceived us with his seed as a child of his, but also that we’d be born of him too. It’s both conception and birth, with that essential time in between in which we grow into what we’ll be like “when Jesus appears” (2). 

Does this help explain, then, why God created pregnancy in a human mother? It not only illustrates the process of conception to birth we go through as children of God, but also why it’s so important during that process that we “live in God and God lives in us.”

It was only because we were living in our mother’s body, for instance, that we grew into a baby ready to be born. It was also our mother living in us that we became a baby at all, because everything we needed came from her body, the nutrition, protection, the flow of blood, the growth of our cells, and the mixture of DNA from both our parents that would decide the kind of person we would become. Her blood was our blood, her flesh formed our flesh, her life was our life. Or put the other way round, our blood was her blood, our flesh was formed by her flesh, our life came from her life. Either way, it was her living in us and us living in her that grew us from conception to birth. 

Likewise, it’s God living in us and us living in him that grows us from conception to birth as his children. Which Jesus handily illustrated for us when he said in John 6:53, that “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” 

Human pregnancy pictures that perfectly, because if it wasn’t for us feeding on our mother’s flesh and drinking her blood, we’d have had no life in us either. So, just as God provided everything we needed in our mother to grow us into a child with physical life, he’s provided everything we need in Jesus to grow us into his children with eternal life. But “How does Jesus feed his life into us?”….(next blog)

The Father sent his Son to reveal a very special kind of love, that will perfectly preserve our fellowship with God and each other for eternity, 1 John 1:2-3. It’s not surprising, then, that God made it possible for us to experience this very special and totally unique love in our lives now.

How? By first of all giving us a clue as to “what this love is” in the life of his Son, 1 John 3:16 – which John could write about having watched Jesus in action, and seen the impact he’d had on people (1:1-3). And in all of it one point had become clear, that in both life and death “Jesus Christ laid down his life for us” (3:16).  

It was remarkable. In everything Jesus said and did that was his motive. Which in turn had given them a clear picture of God too, that “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1:5). Because in watching Jesus they could see there wasn’t an ounce of darkness in him – no hidden motives, no underlying desire for control, no selfish purpose other than wanting to take away the sins of the world (2:2) so we humans can live happily together in God’s family forever.

To which John adds in 1 John 1:7, that “if we walk in the light as God is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,” meaning we can experience the same motives as Jesus in our relationships with each other too – no hidden agendas, no underlying selfish motives, just love and nothing else like him – so we’re already living now what will keep us living happily as God’s family forever.

But again, how does God make this possible? John’s answer is simple: like Jesus “we lay down our lives for our brothers” too (3:16) – which John describes in verses 17 and 18 as doing whatever is within our means to do good for those in need. That was Jesus’ entire motive during his lifetime too (Acts 10:38).

But how can we ever live such a life ourselves? Again, John’s answer is simple: this kind of love – the very special kind of love that will preserve our fellowship with God and each other forever – is “in his Son” (5:11). Not only in his Son’s example and teaching, but also in Jesus “living in us” and us “living in him” (3:24).

But how it it possible for someone to actually “LIVE IN” someone else? Is there a way of explaining it in “Why God created pregnancy”?….(next blog) 

According to 1 John 1:6, we either “walk in the darkness” or “live by the truth.” We walk in darkness, according to John, when we hate a brother (2:9,11), so the opposite to that hate – and the antidote to it too, therefore – is living by the truth.

The “truth” of what, though? The truth of 1 John 1:8, first of all, that “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” To live by the truth, then, is admitting we’re not exactly perfect ourselves, which is a great antidote to hate, because how can we justify hating people for their imperfections when we’ve got imperfections too?

A second truth John mentions to live by, is Jesus being “the atoning sacrifice for our sins – and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (2:2). So how can we hate someone for their sins, when Jesus atoned just as much for their sins as he did for ours?

A third truth from John is that Jesus is taking us all through the same process of “purification from all unrighteousness”(1:9). We can take comfort in the fact, then, that Jesus is on the job dealing with the imperfections of others, sparing us the need to hate them, therefore. Better still, John says we can help the process of purification in others by praying for them, and God promises to answer (5:16).

A fourth antidote to hate is knowing why hate gets started in the first place. What led Cain to hate was “his own actions being evil and his brother’s righteous” (3:12), and his resentment spiralling into hate. A growing feeling of resentment, then, is a great antidote to hate, because it acts like a bright red flashing light warning us to stop it in its tracks before it spirals into hate in us as well.

A fifth truth from John to live by is the example of Jesus himself, who “laid down his life” for people (3:16), even for those who despised him, spread lies about him, plotted to murder him, and refused to believe he’d been sent by God. The fact that he was able to do that is a great antidote to hate for us too, because he promises to live what he was able to do in us, so we can take nonsense from people and not hate them too. 

And in 1 John 2:5, “If anyone obeys Jesus’ word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.” Love, the ultimate antidote to hate. But it requires “A very special kind of love” too….(next blog)

In 1 John 2:8, John is “writing a new command, the truth of which is seen in Jesus and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.”

So what is this “new command”? Is it the “new commandment” Jesus spoke of in John 13:34, that we “love each other as he loved us”? But when John wrote 1 John 2:8 – as much as fifty years later – this command was no longer new. John refers back to it in 1 John 2:7, yes, but now he’s talking about “the truth of it being SEEN” (8) – and the need for it to be seen too, because that’s what conclusively and powerfully shows that “the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.” 

But what did John mean by “darkness” and “light”? He explains in verse 10, that “Whoever loves his brother lives in the light,” and in verse 11, “Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness.” John is using light and darkness to contrast love and hate. 

So when John is talking of a new command, he’s still including Jesus’ original command to love each other as he loved us, but what makes it so visible is its clear and obvious contrast to hate. This new command, then, is not just about loving each other, it’s getting at the total eradication of hate too. 

That’s because “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1:5), and because he now calls us his children (3:1-2), we walk in the same light he’s in (1:7) – the obvious goal of which is no darkness in us either, because if that is our goal, “the blood of Jesus purifies us from every sin” (1:7), including the sin of hate. Which is hugely important in showing our poor struggling world so peppered with hate that the darkness of hate is passing and the light of real love is shining, and brightly enough for people to see it and realize it’s truly happening.

It’s by Jesus purifying us from all unrighteousness, and especially from hate, therefore, that he’s given each of us the chance in our own lives, no matter how limited we are, to offer a glimpse of what a human life without hate is like. Not only, then, can we show people through our love for each other what the eternal life God is offering us looks like, we have this “new command” of John to make it even more visible by the eradication of all hate among each other too. With that in mind, then, what’s “The antidote to hate”?….(next blog)

In 1 John 1:1 John opens with “That which was from the beginning,” the time in history when the “Word of life appeared” (1-2), referring to the arrival of Jesus and his message about “eternal life” (2).

From the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry this was his underlying message in everything he taught and did. All of it was meant to shed light on his Father’s plan to open up eternal life to us humans, because that’s what the Father had sent him to us for (1 John 5:11). 

Which is why John reminds his readers to stick like glue to the “old command you’ve had since the beginning.” (2:7). Go back to what Jesus taught and “See that what you heard from the beginning remains in you” (2:24) – which John spells out in chapter 3:11, when he writes, “This is the message you heard from the beginning: that we should love one another.”

Jesus had made that message super clear in John 13:34, when he said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” And in John 15:12, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you,” the goal being that “we may be one as he and the Father are one” (17:22).

But why is loving one another – like the Father and Son love each other – so important to making Jesus’ message of eternal life come alive? To answer that, John takes us back again to “the message we heard from Jesus,” 1 John 1:5, but this time the message is: “God is light.” And why was that important? Because with Jesus’ arrival on this planet that’s when “Light came into the world” (John 3:19).

So with Jesus’ arrival a bright light would begin to shine on what God is all about. But it’s in HOW that light would shine that would make God visible. First of all, it would be in the life of Jesus himself, but John then makes this statement in 1 John 2:10, that “Whoever loves his brother lives in the light.” 

The “light,” therefore, that God is and lives in, and wants to share with us for eternity, has been made visible in the love that billions of Jesus’ followers have had for each other. Because that’s what God and eternal life are all about: love. No wonder, then, that John takes us back to the message of loving each other that Jesus began. But then he speaks of “A new command” too (2:8), so what’s that all about?….(next blog)

In John 8:29, Jesus said, “I always do what pleases my Father” – and because of it he could say with total confidence in John 11:42, “Father, I know you always hear me.” And it’s the same for us, as John wrote in 1 John 3:21-22, because we too can “have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.” 

So, what obedience pleases God most? John answers that in verse 23: “And this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as Jesus commanded.” 

First of all, then, it pleases God immensely when we believe in his Son, and specifically in his Son’s “name” – Jesus Christ. Because in that name we see what God so dearly loves about him. He is Jesus, “given that name” in Matthew 1:21, “because he will save his people from their sins” – the name Jesus meaning “God saves.”  

John then confirms that in 1 John 4:14, that “the Father sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world by his “atoning sacrifice” (2:2) “purifying us from every sin” (1:7). No wonder God loves his Son and wants us to believe in him as well, because Jesus totally lived up to his name.

He’s also named “the Christ” (2:22) – Christ meaning “the anointed one,” or “Messiah” in Hebrew. According to the woman at the well in John 4:25, “I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. And when he comes he’ll explain everything to us.” John confirms that in 1 John 5:20, that the purpose of the Christ’s coming was to “give us understanding, so that we may know him who is true.” The truth of everything we need to know about “God and eternal life” (20), therefore, is what the Messiah was sent by God to reveal, which Jesus also fully did (John 17:3-7).

What pleases God immensely, then, is that we believe what he sent his Son to us for, to be both Jesus and the Christ. Which helps explain why John wrote in the last verse of 1 John 5, “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” In other words, don’t look to, or depend on, any other source   other than Jesus Christ to “explain everything.” As Peter said to Jesus in John 6:68, “to whom else shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” 

But which of those “words of eternal life” that Jesus taught is God pleased by most when obeyed? It’s contained in “The message you heard from the beginning”….(next blog)

According to 1 John 1:3-4, we’re on the path to “complete joy” when we’re in “fellowship with the Father and his Son.”

So how does fellowship with the Father and his Son come about? John could answer that, because early on in John’s life Jesus told him how, and again for the same purpose – “so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete,” John 15:11. 

The explanation Jesus gave is in the previous two verses. In verse 9 he says, “I’ve loved you like the Father’s loved me. Hang on to that. Live every day knowing I love you as deeply and always as the Father has loved me.” That’s Jesus’ first key to how fellowship comes about: it’s simply knowing he loves us that much.  

But how is that realization kept front and centre in our minds when life gets rough? Jesus’ answer in verse 10 is just as simple: “If you keep my commandments you will live in my love just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and live in his love.” Jesus’ second key to how fellowship comes about, then, is making it our life’s purpose to obey what Jesus taught, because no matter what happens we’ll always know we’re loved.

Which is where the Holy Spirit comes in, because not only does he keep us sensitive to what Jesus taught (John 14:26), he also keeps us knowing we’re loved (1 John 3:24). The Holy Spirit of God, then, is keeping us on the path of fellowship leading to joy, always confirming Jesus’ promise to us in Luke 11:28, “Blessed (and full of joy) are those who hear the word of God and obey it (put it into practice, 8:21).” 

Which John also confirms in 1 John 3:21-22, that “we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.” And that, as John adds in verse 24, is what leads to fellowship with God, because “Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them.” 

Or as Jesus put it in John 14:23, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” Working backwards through that verse, then, we have the path to joy: joy comes from fellowship with the Father and Son, which comes from knowing God loves us, and obeying him. 

Since obedience is so important to joy, then, “What obedience pleases God most?”….(next blog)