Do You Have True Doctrine And True Affection? | 1 John 4

Good morning, everyone! I’m dreading tomorrow. I’m dreading tomorrow. The thought that this should come to an end. I’ve just been sending a message back to our elders in Zambia, just so that they can turn from brown to green. You know green is the colour for envy, as they see what is happening here. They are praying for us, something that I always treasure is belonging to a team of elders. 

Well, if you have your Bible with you, please turn to 1 John and this time we are looking at chapter 4.

This morning, as soon as I finish preaching, I have to disappear. I’m lecturing. You know with these days of technology; you can’t be too far away from your duty. So, I’ll be missing your first presentation, brother. I’ll be busy trying to convince a few students back home in Zambia and to be the best students possible. But hopefully we’ll see you by lunchtime and have some fellowship with all of you here.

Recap of 1 John

We’ve been making our journey through 1 John, and we began by a quick peek in chapter 5 and verse 13. And there we had the privilege of knowing, ahead of time, why John wrote this epistle and we saw that it was primarily to give assurance to those who are trusting in Christ, that they, in fact, possessed eternal life. That those who were disturbing them by false teachings were the ones who were in error. In actual fact, those who trusted in Jesus, were the ones who were in the truth. That’s where we picked from.  

And then we made our way all the way from chapter 1, and we have been seeing how John has been doing this. Emphasizing that we who are believers in Jesus are the ones who are in real fellowship with God. He’s also dealt with how we can know that we are truly in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we saw something about obeying. We saw something about living like Christ and so forth. But, in the midst of all that, we saw his warnings against worldliness, his warnings against false teachers.

In fact, that’s where we’ll start from, as we enter chapter 4 – that aspect of false teachers taking some of our friends away and destabilising us for a while, because of that reality. And it being assured, if we are truly God’s children, we are those that have his anointing, his seed in us that keeps us on the true path.

Yesterday, we entered chapter 3, oh, yes, and so, in that chapter, this whole issue of the fact that Christianity enables us, at its very nature, to love God and to love one another. And in the loving of God because it is a vertical relationship, it is proven by our obedience to him.

But notice how we saw at the very beginning of chapter 3, that we are motivated by love itself. God has loved us. We are amazed at how much he loves us and then we are basically loving him back.  

It’s very different from all other religions on the planet. In all the religions on the planet, they are trying to earn God’s love by doing all kinds of good works. For us, it’s in the reverse. We have been amazed at what he has done for us, and we say we can only love him back.

We saw how that works through obedience again. We also saw how that works through loving other believers. And we ended yesterday with this aspect of, ah those moments of doubts, when our hearts condemn us. Perhaps because we have actually sinned against God and the devil is the very first one to say, “You see? You see, you are calling yourself a Christian but look at this.” And He is the one who is tempting us in the first place, but anyway. How do we then get back into that position of buoyancy?  

And again, we saw that it is as we see the grace of God that’s already working in us – the spirit of God and the fruit he is producing in us a genuine repentance that still is ours, even in that moment, that enables us to be able to still go ahead knowing I am the child of God.

Well, that’s where we ended, in those words at the end of chapter 3:

“And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.” (1 John 3:24b) He is the one working all these things in us.

Ensure true doctrine

In chapter 4, I have entitled my message: Ensure true doctrine and true affection. Ensure true doctrine and true affection.

Notice there is an “and” in between. 

A lot of people think that if you are somebody who is concerned about, the word we normally use is orthodoxy, okay, true doctrine, then you are a person who lacks love. On the other hand, true Christianity, they say, is love, love, love. Let’s love one another and don’t worry about doctrine, lets just love one another. Well that is not John’s understanding of Christianity.  

John’s understanding of Christianity is that these two go together. And remember we said that at the very beginning, when I was introducing this, that John says, “I write these things to you…”

And what are these things? I said essentially, as you make your way through his letter, you find that it is truth and love, truth and love, truth and love. And we see this especially in this chapter. 

Let’s begin then, with the aspect of ensuring the true doctrine. The way in which it begins is one of those statements that’s fairly rare in this book, and it is with an imperative, with an imperative. He begins on a negative and then goes into the positive.  

He says there,

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God…” (1 John 4:1)

And in case you are thinking that it is some kind of litmus paper test that, sort of, you wave in the air to see what spirit is in this room, that’s not what he has in mind. He’s talking about teachings and look at the way he puts it here: “For many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1b)

We must remember that we are never completely safe, that we can let down our guards. We will always be surrounded by individuals that have been taught by the devil, and they are selling their teachings all around. How do we test the spirits? How do we confirm what we are dealing with here? 

That’s what he goes on to quickly do and notice it is a doctrinal test, a doctrinal test.

He says there,

“By this we know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the anti-christ, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. “(1 John 4:2–3)

So that’s the test.  

Beware of false doctrine

Remember what we said earlier on that there was a common heresy that was doing its rounds, not just outside the church but was infiltrating the church as well. And we gave it its historic name – gnostic heresy. You remember, with that “g” at the beginning. And there were individuals who were separating the divinity of Christ, from the man Christ Jesus. And so, this spirit who is the Word, basically sort of just came onto this man – this ordinary man, Jesus, enabling him to do all those miraculous things that he did, to teach those wonderful things that he thought and so on. But before he could die, he was abandoned, so the one who died was an ordinary man.

What we are reading here is that, in fact, God the Son came in human flesh. Everyone that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. In other words, there must be orthodoxy or true doctrine concerning the person and work of Christ.  Get that wrong, you cannot be a child of God. Individuals that teach heresy concerning the personal work of Christ, are not teachers from God. They are teachers from Satan, and you need to be able to ensure that you do not follow them.

So that’s really the teaching that we have there.

I was watching yesterday the presentation from ACFAR, and I noticed that that’s basically something that they are seeking to do all the time; to enable the Christian church to smell heresy in its ranks and therefore avoid falling under. Now that’s not being unloving, that’s being Christian! It’s being Christian because you are caring for the eternal welfare of souls.

Thankfully he says that those of us who are believers, will be able to see the truth. Why? Again, that anointing we spoke about earlier. The Spirit of God who is in us, he enables us, in the midst of the confusion, to discern the truth about Jesus and serious errors concerning Christ.

Look at the way he puts here it in verse 4 downwards,

“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:4–6)

So again, don’t be surprised at this T-junction in your Christian life where individuals that grew up in your ranks have gone, veered off to the left, and gone following after false teachers. Those who have a major following after them.

And you’re saying, “How can someone believe such a lie? How?”

Well, the reason why you’re surprised, is because the Spirit of God was in you is enabling you to see through all that. And for you, the truths that are in God’s Word are your anchor in the midst of all the false teaching that surrounds you. Don’t be surprised that for you, you turn right and even if when your friends are going to the other direction you turn right and you say, “If I’m going to be the only one, I’m going to continue this way, because that’s where the truth is.”

In the early years of the Christian church, there were a number of major doctrinal battles. One of them was around the Trinity and the other was around the person and nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. And one of the greatest champions for the truth, there was a gentleman called Athanasius. And one occasion, being in a council of a lot of heat and debate and he was told, in no uncertain terms, “Athanasius, the world, the whole world is opposed to you. And guess his immediate answer? “In that case, Athanasius is opposed to the world.”

And remember, this is what the Bible teaches. Even if everybody goes in the way of error and heresy I am going to stand by the Word. And thankfully, we have since followed in his footsteps. 

Ensure true affection

Okay so that’s the first. And friends, one of the weaknesses of Christianity today, and especially in the context of Africa, is that we don’t want to be seen to be differing with people over anything, doctrine thrown in there as well. There is a way in which we fear that we will be seen as being divisive.

And we are quiet when we need to be able to speak. When blatant heresy is being peddled right in front of our noses, we keep quiet, as though the souls of people are not at stake. And it’s because we think we will be considered as being unloving.

Now yes, if we are picking on every little thing and we are already trying to bring the entire structure of the building over people’s heads, yes, that may be a sign of lack of love for people. But where it’s blatant heresy – where people are calling themselves as being gods, being throwing themselves within the context of the godhead and we are quiet. We should be able to say, “No, believing that sends you to hell.  And I’m saying that because I love you. Because I love you.”

Well, let’s hurry on. There is the second part, and it is this aspect of true affection. So, ensure true doctrine and ensure true affection.  John has already dealt with this. He’s dealt with it in chapter 3 verse 11 downwards to the end of the chapter, but he’s back on it and you can see why he is called the apostle of love, the apostle of love.  He argues for the fact that love is an essential ingredient of Christianity.  

True love for believers as a sign of salvation

Remember what we said yesterday: the two greatest commandments. We know them by now, isn’t it?  Love God and love your neighbour. Christianity is remedial. It fixes that chronic selfishness that sin has produced in us. It brings us back to being like God – being a loving people. And this is where we are coming back to.  You can’t miss it.  He comes right back to the subject with guns blazing.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:7–8)

Period. There’s no grey area there.  

If you are still a warped, little, selfish soul who’s always just thinking about yourself, and what you will get out of this, friend – seek salvation in Christ! You are not yet saved. That’s Christianity 101. We are not talking about master’s degree or anything, 101. Listen to that, love is essential. Why? Because he tells us that God is love. If He has given you his Spirit, the Spirit of God, then obviously the Spirit of God love will be radiating love out of you. And that’s what he goes on to tell us.

God’s example of love

Okay, let’s look at God for a few minutes. Let’s see what God did. Let’s see and we can’t miss that this was very, very loving.

Look quickly at verse 9 down to verse 12, and the thing I want you to notice is that as soon as he finishes as dealing with what God’s life is, a life of love, he quickly comes to the implication on us.

Look at this, verse 9 downwards,

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, (how?) that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and (what has he done?) sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 1:9–10) 

In other words, to be the one to do something, to take away the wrath of God, to placate God’s wrath because of our sins.  And then here’s the implication in (verse) 11,

“…if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:11–12)

You can’t miss the argument. You can’t miss the argument.

You know, as human beings, our likeness to our parents is largely outward. I’ve never forgotten many years ago, when I became a pastor and married and we had our first child, we were living, not on the church premises, but within the community. That was before we put up our church premises. A friend came looking for my home, all the way from another town, he came into town. And he was passing by the road and he saw my son, our eldest son, at that point he was our only child, playing by the street, that’s where our home meets the main road. And he said, “I just took one look and I said to myself, “I’ve arrived!” So that’s how he came up and knocked on the door and I was shocked to find him there. And he said, “It was that boy there – the spitting image of his father.” 

Well, with respect to God being our father, it’s not physical. It’s not – it’s spiritual. Is’s spiritual. How do I know you are a child God? It’s not outward, it’s inward. God is love, and what am I seeing in you? A person who is truly loving. And therefore, I am saying. “Here is somebody that God has transformed. Here is somebody in whom God dwells.”

Now, I’ve been a pastor for long enough to know that often the people that don’t love, are the people who complain about lack of loving.  

And ever so often, when a person has had, perhaps it’s a funeral and a few members show up and they come complaining, “there is really no love in this church” and so on and so forth.

Hang on. Let’s look at the last few events that happened in the church and see whether you were there for other believers. So and so was sick, did you visit? No. So and so had a funeral – did you go to comfort? Well, no. So and so had these difficulties, perhaps financial. Did you help? Well, no, I was rather busy. I got to know about it later. And its excuse, after excuse, after excuse.

The truth is that, that connection is not there with the people of God. There is really no love emanating from you, will I never quite put it that way, in terms of what I’m about to say, but ultimately you are a little, warped, selfish soul that simply wants other people to be the ones ministering into your life. That ain’t going to happen. It is that we love one another, not that we are simply seeking love from others.

Why? Because look at God. It was not a convenience to him. He gave his only Son. He sent his only Son to be the redeemer of the world. And the price his Son paid was the cry we all remember: 

“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)

For sinners. For rebellious one’s going to hell. I’ve set my love upon them. I want them to come into my Heaven. That’s why I have forsaken my only Son. What a sacrifice.

And he is saying, friends, if this is how God loved us, we must not hold back our love for one another. This abiding in God must manifest itself this way.

What he goes on to do is open up this abiding in God again. Now he has already dealt with it. We saw it in chapter 2. Let’s quickly turn back there – chapter 2.  He put it this way in verse 24,

“Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.” (1 John 2:24)

He goes on to say verse 27,

“But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him…” (1 John 2:27-28a)

So, this is abiding issue is something he’s been dealing with.

Allowing God’s word to marinate your soul

We were learning about barbecuing in the week, and one of the things that I admire about people who really know what it means to produce a good roast, roasted meat from a barbeque, is that the day before, they get that meat out and they put the spices on that meat and they allow that meat to marinate. The spices enter into the meat overnight. You understand what happens the next day, hey? You’ve been there. You’ve ever been to such events? You have to implore the Spirit’s fruit of self-control to stop eating. Marinating. Marinating.

Well, the Christian life is really much like that. It’s not a eat and run situation. It is this ongoing fellowship with God. It’s literally a marinating. You are abiding in Him and therefore the graces, the virtues of God are working out on your soul. And that’s how we see it’s ongoing change – ongoing change in your life.

Well John comes back to it, and he says, “If we love one another, God abides in us.” (1 John 4:12)

The spice of God is marinating in our soul. And then he opens that up for us in verse 13 going downwards and he’s bringing up this aspect of abiding, abiding, abiding and I’ll just read it to you and then explain from verse 12, 13 rather, down to verse 16,

“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” (1 John 4:13)

So, it is his Spirit who is within us, and he is regularly radiating those divine virtues through us. And what are they about? Verse 14 downwards and you notice it is about Jesus Christ: his gospel at work within us, the truth of his gospel,

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God…” (1 John 4:15)

So, it’s not simply that the Son of God came and dwelt on him for a short period. He is the Son of God.

“…God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:15b–16)

Basically, the point that there is fairly straightforward. Again we have dealt with it already in chapter two, this ongoing marinating with the truth of God, the Gospel of God, the Spirit of God is dwelling within us in an ongoing way and changing us day by day.

And one of the reasons why this is crucial is a topic we learned earlier on about church. Why church?  You know, when you are going to a church where all you are being told about is how to prosper, how to be successful, how to be the victor, how to be a champion, before long your soul is famished. It’s starving. It’s empty. You are thinking the world is always thinking.

But, if you are in a church where God’s truth is faithfully expounded in its priorities, in its own emphasis, faithfully regularly and you can’t miss the fact that the central truth is Jesus Christ and him crucified.  When these truths are being taught to you regularly, your soul is being, again to quote that phrase, marinated with his truth, what’s going on is something like this: If this is how God has loved me, I must love others too. Your soul blossoms, blossoms. And you want to spend and be spent for God and for others.

So, belong to a church where the pulpit is taken seriously. Where you are really learning the Word of God, especially while you are still young. You are laying a solid foundation for your future as an individual, for your home and marriage, for the way in which you raise your own kids, for the way in which you will impact the world out there. For the very day when you will be on your death bed, the kind of confidence that will be in your soul, knowing that I am going home.

Do it now, rather than in your old days. Make sure you are in a good church where you are being marinated with this truth. That’s what he is talking about here. That’s what he is talking about here.

Truth producing love

And then, he comes back to this subject of love. He is telling us how it is produced by this doctrinal understanding that is continuous. You are abiding under these truths and it’s producing love in you.

Well, let’s quickly hurry on, because he’s now back again to this aspect of love. Whoever abides in love, abides in God and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:16)

I love that phrase “and God is love.” It’s the second time he’s mentioned it. Earlier on, in verse 8, he’s mentioned it as well. “Because God is love.”

I hope you are convinced that the greatest commandment is about love. And the second greatest commandment is about love. If God has said that your life is about love, loving others. Loving others.

This next part is now dealing with the aspect of growing in love. And it uses this word of love being perfected.  This love being perfected.

Verse 17, “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because (and this is the way his love is being perfected) as he is so also are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17)

Okay, in other words, it’s really the life of love.

Living a life of love

Reminds me a story of a Sunday school class. It was a visiting teacher or preacher who was asked to teach the Sunday school class. And as he was teaching the class about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, one of the kids raised up the hand. You know I love the way in which kids raise their hands in the middle of class. You want to say, “Can I overlook for a moment? I’d in mid-flight.” But no, kid’s hand is up. And he says, “Yes?” The kid says, “Teacher, I know where Jesus lives.” And of course, the teacher is expecting him to say, “Heaven.” So he says, “where is he living?” And the kid says, “He lives down my street.”

So, at the end of the class, that preacher went to ask this little kid and as the kid began to describe this person it was a life of love, and this little kid has noticed it. And so, as he kept describing Jesus’ life on earth helping people, the kid thought, “Aha! He must be describing that man down my street.”

You know kids, hey? One plus one is two. They don’t complicate matters!

But really, that’s the way in which our lives ought to be. Christ is now in us. So, one of the ways in which we grow, we grow in Christ-likeness, and it should be emanating through life of love for others. And what it does for us is it gives us a greater sense of confidence. Not only confidence with God, in terms of as we pray, but also confidence when I visualize that there is a day that is coming where I will have to stand before him, and there’s no fear. There’s no fear.  

Why? It’s not because I can outweigh my bad deeds with my good ones. But it’s because his Spirit, working in me, is simply loving others through me.

Look at this, verse 18,

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4:18)

We love because he first loved us. So, it’s not that I’m loving so that, on the judgement day, my good works can outweigh the bad works. No. It’s that his love has so overwhelmed me, that I want to love others too. We love because he first loved us.

And we are at peace, we’re at peace at the thought that we might die. We’re at peace to know that such a love that God has for us has been flowing into us and out of us to others. We know he loves us.

I hope that’s true. I hope that’s true.

Ensure true doctrine and true affection

John ends this section, still about love, but he ends by making an all-important point and it is that first and second commandment being joined together. The greatest and the second greatest commandment. Talking about love.  Yes, we love God, but, we also love our brothers. It’s a hypocrite who claims that “I love God,” but there is no evidence of loving the people next to him.

That’s the way he ends. Let’s read that, verse 20 and 21,

“If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4: 20–21)

Or as he had said in chapter 3:17 (and 18),

“But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

When was the last time God didn’t have money to pay the school fees? He always has the money for school fees because he is the one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

When was the last time God had shoes that were so finished, that when he’s walking, the shoes are spitting out dust?  You understand what I mean. The top and bottom are even separated. He doesn’t need any shoes, God is Spirit.

What I’m saying is this: true love is seen in the real world, in the needs that are there right in front of you. True love is seen when you brother is sick, your sister is unwell. When they are desperately in need, and they do not know where to go, and you are aware of those needs; that’s where true love is.

That’s why I have entitled my message, ensure true doctrine and true affection. True affection. Not simply saying, “Hey, we love one another. We love one another. Amen, Hallelujah”

Is that true?  Are you genuinely loving?  Are you sacrificing for others? Not because in doing so you will get to heaven, but because God has loved you so much, your heart cannot help it. And seeing him, drives that. If that’s you, you are a Christian. The Lord has saved you. You are the genuine article. You are the real thing.

Let us pray.

Our Father in Heaven, thank you for your Word. Thank you for this call that comes to us to ensure the root of Christianity is firmly embedded in us through the doctrine, and also that the fruit of Christianity is genuinely emanating out of our lives through affection. Oh Lord, help each one of us to examine our Christianity based on this. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.