With all the competing claims to truth and moral rightness, who can we believe? John gives us a threefold test to answer the question.
A sermon on 1 John 4:1-14
Sermon Outline:
I. The Theological Test
II. The Ethical Test
III. The Trinitarian Test
Scripture text: 1 John 4:1-14
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you 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 antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 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. 7 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. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, 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 sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, 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. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
Liturgy bulletin link
Sermon transcript link
“God Is Love” preached by Rev. Dr. Timothy R. LeCroy, Sunday, March 16, 2025 at 10:00AM at New Life Presbyterian Church in Ithaca, NY. Come see the beautiful Finger Lakes region, and worship God with us. www.newlifeithaca.org.
Sermon music is from “We Will Feast in the House of Zion” provided by Sandra McCracken and with her permission. www.sandramccracken.com.
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