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Knowing and Loving God

in this, we know because abiding in God and he in us because [he has] given us from that his Spirit and we have seen and testified because the Father sent his Son, savior of the world. If anyone confesses that Jesus exists the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God (1 John 4:13-15)

In the phrase "if anyone confesses," the word for if is not the regular if it is called a future open conditional, which usually refers to a future event being conditional on another event.* The word confess is derived from "homo" meaning the same and "logos" meaning to speak or out of, and the basic meaning is to say the same thing, to agree with. So what do we agree with? "God abides in him and he in God." So confessing" is the future event that is conditional on God abiding in us. Confessing with the mouth is in agreement with the first event of believing in the heart. This event is a new birth of the Spirit, of adoption, and of  God abiding in us, and that we exist children of God. This is how we know God, a knowledge that exceeds just head knowledge because God abides in us and he exists love.

because if you confess in that your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart because God raised him from the dead, [you will be] saved. For [the] heart believes to the extent righteousness, now the mouth confesses to the extent salvation (Romans 10:9-10)

We see the same if word used in this verse. It is basically saying confessing to the extent of salvation is the same or agreeing with what happened in the heart. You were given a new heart and God placed his Spirit within you. The word mouth can be used to refer to that part of the body, the anatomy, or synecdochically which uses the name of the part of something to express the whole. The inner part of the man often was referred to as the stóma or the opening to it, the mouth. Salvation was brought to you through the inward new birth of the inner man, and righteousness imputed to you, having the testimony of Spirit and blood, you are speaking in agreement with the same, the event that occurred in your heart.  

little children you exist from God and overcome them, because the one in you is greater than the one in the world. They exist from the world through this they speak from the world and the world listens to them. We exist from God, the ones knowing God listens to us... this is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception (1 John 4:1-6)

John writes, "do not believe every spirit but prove the spirits exist from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. In knowing the Spirit of God, all spirits that confess Jesus Christ has come in the flesh from God, and all spirits not confessing Jesus exists not from God and is the spirit of the anti-Christ" (1 John 4:1-6). There are many religions in this world, including Judaism, that might seem to speak truth but John says if they do not confess Christ, they are not from God. But confessing is more than just speaking words? Some false prophets will come in the name of Jesus. Again we rest on the conditional event that occurred inwardly when we believed (Ephesians 1:13-14) that we are children of God born of the Spirit, who is also called the Spirit of Christ. This is what is key here, to proving and discerning the spirits. The Spirit is like the wind though, we might feel and hear the sound and see its effects but we can not see it. So John gives us something practical to discern those from God.

dear beloved, love one another, because love exists from God, and all the ones loving have been born of God and know God (1 John 4:7)

Earlier this is how John writes we can discern light from darkness, in that we love the children of God. Jesus said love is how the world would know we are his disciples, that we love one another. What you do to the least of these his brethren you do unto Christ. We are talking about those born of God, not those of the world because those of the world do not know God. It is a false religion that focuses outwardly and neglects to love the children born of God. "The person who doesn't love doesn't know God, because God exists love" (1 John 4:8). Now, we can define love as inclusion and other things but how is love defined and revealed to us?

in this, the love of God is revealed to us, because God sent his only begotten Son into the world so that living through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but because he loved us and sent his Son as a propitiation for our sins. Dear, beloved, if God loved us like that, we also ought to love one another (1 John 4:9-12)

We love because God, who exists love, revealed himself to us through his Son. Jesus made a Way to the Father, so that we are blameless in his presence, in love. Jesus is the only way to the Father, and no one can come to the Father but through him. This is how we can discern the Spirit of truth from that of deception. God is love and if God abides in us he has revealed himself to us in love, by redeeming us from sin and adopting us as his own through the Spirit. If love abides in us then we ought to love as God loved us as we exist child of God. 

If we love one another, God abides in us and his love exists matured in us (1 John 4:12)

Knowing God and speaking the same is to be in agreement with God abiding in you. If you do not have testimony from God, that of the Spirit and blood, then you do not belong to God no matter what you say or do. And if God exists love and abides in us then we can discern who is from God and who is from the world, by how we love one another. There is a growth process so we discern who exists mature of God by how they love God's children. We can discern a church knowing God by how God abides in them and abiding in God is abiding in his love, so by how they love. Agape love matures us to be like Christ, therefore, a mature church that loves God is discerned from the world by their love for one another.






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