According to 1 John 3:23-24, the Holy Spirit was given to us to provide obvious evidence in our lives that Jesus lives in us and we live in him. Part of that obvious evidence is Jesus “purifying us from all unrighteousness” (1:9) “by the Spirit putting to death the misdeeds of our body” (Romans 8:13). And so effectively is that being done by the Spirit that we’ll “know” it’s happening (1 John 4:13). 

In other words, we’ll sense there’s a switch going on, which in John’s words is a switch from darkness to light (1 John 1:5-7), and – in Jesus’ instructions to Paul – a switch from “the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18). Not only, then, is the Spirit “putting to death” whatever had us held in Satan’s grip, he’s also replacing it with what God’s all about. Comparing us to a house, the Spirit’s not only scrubbing and scraping and cleaning out all the engrained muck we accumulated from not knowing God, he’s also filling up every cleaned out room with brand new furnishings. And because of the Spirit we can sense both these things happening, both the scrubbing out and the refurbishing. 

It’s this massive and obvious switch that helps us really know Jesus is living in us. Paul gives us several practical illustrations too, writing about “our old self that was being wrecked by deceitful desires,” Ephesians 4:22, and in its place “being made new in the attitude of our minds, and putting on a new self that’s like God in his nature and character” (23-24). 

And the same again in Colossians 3:9-10, “for you’ve finished with that old self and its rotten habits and put on a new self, which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of himself.”  

And the switch is so obvious – from being angry, resentful, nasty and dishonest (8-9), to being kind, humble, sensitive, patient and quick to forgive (12-13). And the same in Ephesians 4 – from bearing grudges to being forgiving, and from hateful feelings to being tender-hearted (31-32). Such total and obvious opposites. The Spirit’s taking us on a wild journey – a bold escape from the clutches of the devil into a totally new home filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). 

And the Spirit makes sure we know it too, because what the Spirit wants for us is “Knowing that Jesus lives in us”….(next blog)

In 1 John 3:24, “we know that Jesus lives in us by the Spirit he gave us.” It’s the Spirit’s job, then, to help us know for real that Jesus is living in us – so how does the Spirit go about doing that?

According to Paul in Romans 8:13, it’s “by the Spirit that we put to death the misdeeds of the body” – because, Titus 2:13-14, this is what “Jesus gave his life for, to free us from our messed up lives, to clean us up and become his kind of people, totally committed to doing good.” 

The Spirit, therefore, is like a house keeper, cleaning house, getting rid of the dirt, and doing whatever needs to be done to mature us into Christ’s likeness (Ephesians 4:13). Which fits Jesus’ own analogy in John 14:23, when he told his disciples, if “you obey my teaching” then “My Father will love you, and we’ll come to you and make our home with you.” The author of Hebrews says “we are his house” too (Hebrews 3:6), so the Spirit being the house keeper gives us a practical picture of what he’s been given to do, that in the doing makes Jesus living in us real. 

Imagine ourselves, therefore, being a house where the Father and Jesus wish to reside. To begin with it’s a mess, left that way by the previous owner who filled the house with “gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts” (Ephesians 2:2-3). In every room there’s garbage that needs to be taken out and worthless trash destroyed. All those unhealthy appetites and desires on every shelf to be thrown in the bin. And in all the hidden corners, under the stairs, inside the closets, and all the places where cobwebs have grown on bad habits left unswept, the Spirit misses nothing. He works his way into every nook and cranny, wherever we’ve been “foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures, sucked in by malice and envy, hating and being hated,” Titus 3:3.

God, therefore, has given us a Spirit who is so practical in making Jesus real to us, because we know it when another room gets cleared out. He makes us aware of another layer of grime in us that needs a good scrubbing, or as Titus put it, there’s some obvious “washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” going on (3:5), so that we know for real we’re “being transformed into Jesus’ likeness with ever-increasing glory,” 2 Corinthians 3:18. 

Thanks to the Spirit, then, we’ll know “There’s a switch going on”….(next blog)

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)