August 11, 2019

1 John 4:1-6

1. Pastor Nate began by saying that with all various doctrines & teachings which claim to be the truth, we must be able to distinguish truth & error. What are examples where being able to distinguish truth from error proved invaluable?

2. Then we saw that John gives 2 exhortations in 1 John 4:1: stop being gullible & test the spirits. Pastor Nate expounded on these exhortations concerning false teachers to say that false teachers are to be removed from their authority, their teaching should be condemned, and they ought to be avoided & others should avoid them as well. Why is it important that the Christianity community take false teaching so seriously?

3. We next saw in 1 John 4:2-3a that Biblical Christianity is doctrinally intolerant & that the Gnostics had denied the person of Jesus. Both of these observations point to the explicit nature of the Christian faith rather than a vague spirituality that’s prevalent today. How do we grow in soundness of doctrine, as individuals, as families, as a church?

4. John then gives comfort to the followers of Christ in 1 John 4:4. Their identity & security are affirmed…they belong to God & God is superior! How do we underestimate the importance of belonging to God? How do we overestimate the victory found in Christ?

5. In 1 John 4:5, it says that, “the world listens to them.” Paul affirms this concept in 2 Timothy 4:1-4. How does this news inform the way we understand the world today?

6. We ended in 1 John 4:6 by seeing both a description of genuine teachers as being from God & an examination of what we listen to ourselves. We looked at the Bereans of Acts 17:10-11 as an example worthy to follow…what are ways we can follow this example today