I. "IN THIS THE CHILDREN OF GOD ARE MANIFEST."
A. How is the truth about you manifested?
1. If you are living in sin, you are not a child of God.
2. If you are a child of God you will be living in righteousness.
B. What you are will ultimately be manifested.
1. If you are a child of God it will be manifested. Jesus said, "A city that is set upon a hill cannot be hid."
2. It will ultimately be manifested by what you do and what you say.
a. Some people are able to hide the truth for a while, but it will finally out.
b. It is under the times of testing that we many times find the truth about others, but also the truth about ourselves.
c. The Bible tells us not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought, but this is a common fault.
d. Have you ever been disappointed in yourself? That is proof that you thought you were better than you really are.
C. How are the children of God distinguished from the children of the devil?
1. You are one or the other, either a child of God or a child of the devil.
a. Jesus said,
MAT 13:38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked [one];
JOH 8:47 He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear [them] not, because ye are not of God.
b. Paul said to El'i mas the sorcerer in Pa'fas on the island of Cypress.
Act 13:10 O full of all subtilty and all mischief, [thou] child of the devil, [thou] enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
c. To the Romans Paul wrote,
ROM 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
d. In John's third letter he said,
3JO 1:11 Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.
2. If you do not righteousness you are not of God.
a. If you are living an evil life, evil being defined as disobedience to the law of God.
b. Drinking, fornicating, lying, steeling, cheating you are not a child of God. These are the works of the devil.
c. John actually goes a little further, "If you are not doing righteousness, you are not of God."
d. There are many people who do not do immoral things, still they are not doing righteousness.
3. Neither he that loveth not his brother.
a. The final proof lies in love.
b. When asked what the greatest commandment was Jesus answered, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. These two encompass all of the law and the prophets."
c. This is the heart or the essence of the message of Jesus.
II. THIS IS THE MESSAGE THAT WE HAVE HEARD FROM THE BEGINNING, THAT WE SHOULD LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
A. Jesus said to His disciples,
JOH 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
B. Then He said,
JOH 13:35 By this shall all [men] know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
JOH 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
D. The quality of love is expressed in the word agape.
1CO 13:4 Love suffereth long, [and] is kind; (after suffering long is still kind,)love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up {or stuck up},
1CO 13:5 Does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not provoked, thinketh no evil;
1CO 13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
1CO 13:7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
2. This kind of love is divine, and when it is manifested through your life, you know that you are a child of God.
3. Paul wrote,
EPH 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
1TH 4:9 But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
4. Peter wrote,
1Pe 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, [see that ye] love one another with a pure heart fervently:
5. John wrote,
1JO 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
1JO 4:21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
6. In second letter he wrote,
2JO 1:5 And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
III. "NOT AS CAIN."
A. As we have just quoted from Peter where he speaks of unfeigned love.
1. There are those who fake love, the gushy gooey stuff is not a true love.
2. Cain's life became mastered by hatred.
a. Love envieth not, yet he envied his brother Abel.
b. He was angry with God for rejecting his offering.
3. John tells us that Cain was of that wicked one.
a. He was not doing righteousness.
b. God told him that sin lieth at thy door.
4. He killed his brother, why?
a. His works were evil and his brothers were good.
b. That is quite a motive for killing someone else.
c. How many have been martyred for Christ today because their lives are a silent rebuke to the evil in the world.
IV. MARVEL NOT IF THE WORLD HATE YOU. DON'T BE SURPRISED IF THE WORLD HATES YOU.
A. Jesus warned His disciples,
MAT 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all [men] for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
MAT 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
LUK 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you [from their company], and shall reproach [you], and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.
JOH 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you.
JOH 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,therefore the world hateth you.
JOH 16:2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
JOH 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
Abbreviate Books
Use SBL Abbrev.
