The No Assurance Error (3:11-24)

Early Errors
A Study of 1st John

11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

16 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? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 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.

1. Liberal Christianity teaches that religion is simply “the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.” Does 1 John 3:11 make the liberal case?

2. Read Cain’s story in Genesis 4:1-9. Why did God favor Abel’s gift and not Cain’s? Why does John use that story to illustrate his point?

3. What reason does John give as to why the world sometimes hates the church? How does this connect with Romans 12:17-21?

4. Does verse 15 mean that if we have murdered or hated in the past we can’t receive eternal life?

5. How did Jesus illustrate the concept of love? (16)

6. How convicting is verse 17? How far should we take that verse in practice?

7. First John speaks of at least 4 tests to help us to know that we are truly His children (w/o passing these, we have reason to doubt our security).
a) The test of obedience (2:4-5, 29, 3:6, 9-10, 24)
b) The test of love (2:10, 3:10, 14)
c) The test of confession (2:22-23)
d) The test of the Spirit (3:24, 4:13)

Next: Test the spirits (4:1-6)