NGMIF and DRCM Bible Study

Join us as Pastor Cornelius F. Warren continues teaching through 1 John. Tonight we come to chapter 5, verses 1-5. As the apostle John moves toward the conclusion of this letter, he brings together into one paragraph the three tests of authentic Christianity that he has repeated throughout the book. He does this to summarize and to show that these three tests are part of an interwoven fabric. They all depend on the new birth as their foundation. We may view them as three vital signs of the new birth. If a person has truly received new life from God, these vital signs will be evident. While they grow stronger over time, if there is no evidence of these signs, a person needs to examine whether or not he truly has been born again. John shows that…

The vital signs of the new birth are faith in Jesus Christ, love for others, and obedience to God’s commandments.

John’s line of thought is not easy to outline here, in that he seems to intertwine ideas. What John is at pains to show is the essential unity of his threefold thesis. The real link between the three tests is seen to be the new birth. Faith, love and obedience are the natural growth which follows a birth from above. So we will look first at the new birth and then at the three tests.

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