1 John 4:13-15 - Jesus Christ is the Son of God

4:13

Now we get another test. It is important not to treat these various “tests” (obeying God, loving each other, etc) as a checklist, they are signs of the reality of God being in us, of us belonging to God. This test is that we have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit lives within us. In the final days Jesus made great play of the fact that it was good that He was going away so that He could send the Spirit. It is God’s purpose and desire that He lives within us. There is meant to be a living relationship between us and the Holy Spirit, He is not a mere theological truth.

4:14

Then the focus immediately turns to who Jesus is. The primary work of the Spirit is to testify to who Jesus Christ is and what He has done. So how does this “doctrinal” test fit with the “living relationship” I talked about in the previous verse? Our testimony to Jesus is not a mere intellectual assent, rather it is something much deeper than that. We really know who Christ is. We actually know that the Father has sent the Son to be the saviour of the world. Notice the universal relevance of the Son.

4:15

John likes to drive home the points he is making. The centrality of Jesus, and who Jesus is, is absolutely central to the gospel. Anyone or anything that removes Jesus from this place has drifted away from the truth. This can happen in various ways. Perhaps the most obvious is when people deny the deity of Jesus, making out that He was just a good teacher, or a good man, or even just a prophet. But it can also happen in more subtle ways. If something else becomes central, then we have missed it. So if social action, or the gifts of the Spirit, become central then we are in error. Social action and spiritual gifts are good and are important, but they must be built upon the foundation that is Jesus Christ.

Notice also the implication that it is only God who can reveal to us that Jesus is the Son of God. For I cannot make God live in me, He chooses to live in me. Now this does not mean that we should seek to believe, or seek to understand, but we need to realise that these are means that God uses.