I JOHN: TRUE SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP

XIII. Exhibiting The True Holy Spirit In The Believer

(1 John 4:13-16)

I. Introduction

A. When John wrote 1 John, he implied in 1 John 1:3 that a number of his readers did not enjoy spiritual fellowship with the Apostles, with God the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ!

B. This lack of true fellowship occurs with many believers today as Christ predicted in Revelation 3:14-22 for our era. We thus view 1 John 4:13-16 on exhibiting the true Holy Spirit in the believer (as follows):

II. Exhibiting The True Holy Spirit In The Believer, 1 John 4:13-16.

A. At the beginning of his epistle, the Apostle John wrote that he along with Christ's other apostles experientially heard, saw with their eyes and handled the "Word of life," the God Incarnate Lord Jesus Christ, 1 John 1:1-3.

B. Though no man has seen God at any time, Christ, the Son of God, made Him known in His ministry, Jn. 1:18.

C. We believers who are now long removed from the earthly life of Christ might presume that we have less evidence than the initial apostles had of the reality of Christ's deity and Incarnation, but John in 1 John 4:13-16 clarified that this is not necessarily so, that there is a way for us to behold the reality of Christ's deity and Incarnation through means of the exhibition of the true Holy Spirit of God in believers (as follows):

1. We believers in Christ experientially know (ginoskomen, present tense of ginosko, U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 822) that we remain (menomen, present tense of meno, Ibid.), or spiritually fellowship with God and He with us because this awareness comes "out of" (preposition ek, Ibid.; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 899) His Spirit Whom He has permanently given (dedoken, perfect tense of didomi, Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T.; Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 191-193) to us, 1 John 4:13. The Holy Spirit produces this awareness as the believer relies upon Him in his walk, Galatians 5:16. [The perfect tense of dedoken counters the Charismatic view that Christians can lose the Holy Spirit like Old Testament saints like David could lose Him via sin (Psalm 51:11b), for the Holy Spirit abides with Christians forever (John 14:16-17), another implication of our unconditional salvation security in Christ, cf. Romans 8:9b.]

2. Also, we believers in Christ have come to gaze upon for our benefit (tetheametha, perfect middle of theaomai, "look at, behold;" The Analyt. Grk. Lex. (Zon.), 1972, p. 399; J. Gresham Machen, N. T. Grk. for Beginners, 1966, p. 186; Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 353-354) and are witnessing that the Father permanently sent (apestalken, perfect tense of apostello, "send;" Ibid., The Analyt. Grk. Lex., p. 39; Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 98) the Son [to be] the Savior of the world, 1 John 4:14. John thus claimed that through the believer's reliance on the Holy Spirit, the evidence of the unseen God working in him as well as in the Body of believers who rely on the Spirit gives the same transformational evidence of the unseen God that John saw in Jesus in His earthly life! Christ relied on the Holy Spirit's power to perform His ministry (Isaiah 11:1-2; Matthew 12:28, 31-32), so as Christians today rely on the same Spirit, we will see powerful testimony of the reality of Christ's and God's claims about Christ! (Ibid., B. K. C., N. T.)

3. John added that he who confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, what means claiming Jesus is equal with the Father and thereby calling Jesus Himself God (cf. John 5:17-18), God remains in (meno again, Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T.) or fellowships with him and he with God, 1 John 4:15.

4. Thus, we have also come to know experientially (egnokamen, perfect tense of ginosko, Ibid.) and we have come to believe (pepisteukamen, perfect tense of pisteuo, "believe, rely upon;" Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 665-667) the love which God has in us, for God is love, and he who remains (meno again, Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T.) or fellowships in the love [of God] fellowships with God and God with him, 1 John 4:16. In other words, the loving God that John witnessed in the Person and works of Jesus Christ in His earthly ministry is evident in the body of the Church now when believers rely on the Spirit to exhibit God's love.

Lesson: Though only eyewitnesses like Christ's original apostles have visibly seen and heard Jesus function in the Holy Spirit's power and thereby testify to the validity of His claims of deity and the Incarnation, since we believers in Christ today are indwelt by the same Holy Spirit, when we rely on that Spirit to fellowship with God, we actually witness today the same unseen God in the life of the Body as truly as the apostles saw Him exhibited in Christ!

Application: (1) May we believers rely on the Holy Spirit Who has permanently been given unto us to become as valid a living testimony of Christ's claims to deity and the Incarnation as Christ was of those claims in His earthly life! (2) May we treat the obviously godly lives of believers today as evidence of the validity of the Christian faith!