Jesus Christ Laid Down His Life for Us

1 John 3:11-4:6

Key Verse 3:16

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 and sisters.

Do Not be Like Cain

1. Read 3:11-15. What message does John remind us about? (11) How did John warn the church regarding hating a brother or sister? (12, 15) Why does the world hate God’s people (12-13) How can we know that we have crossed over from death to life? (14) How are believers to distinguish themselves from the people of this world? (15)

3:11 For 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 and sisters,[b] if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

Knowing God’s Love

2. Read 16-18. How do we know what love is? (16) What does it mean to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters? (17-18)

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 and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

Confidence When we Practice God’s Love

3. Read 18-24. How can we know that we belong to the truth? (18-19) How can we deal with feelings of condemnation? (20) What confidence do we have in our prayer life when we do what pleases God? (21-22) Why did John pair God’s command to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ with the command to love one another? (23) How can we know that God lives in us? (24)

18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that 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 keep 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 The one who keeps God’s commands lives 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.

Testing The Spirits

4. Read 4:1-3. What does John encourage us to do? (1) How can we recognize the Spirit of God? (2) What is the Spirit of the antichrist? (3)

4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

5. Read 4:4-6. How can we overcome the spirit of the antichrist? (4) How can we differentiate between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood, or spirit of the antichrist? (5-6)

4 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[a] of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

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