“True Fellowship With Christ Seen In Obedience And Love”

Today we continue our teaching series on John the apostle’s first letter.

John wrote as a loving pastor to a church or churches around the ancient city of Ephesus in what is now Turkey.

He wrote to people he cared about deeply, concerned to reassure them of the true nature of the Christian faith, as they were at risk of being deceived by “Antichrists’, “false prophets’ who had once been part of their church, but who demonstrated by their leaving that they never truly belonged to God or his people.

The beliefs and teaching of these deceivers must have at least sounded plausible or they wouldn’t have been a threat to the faith of John’s “little children”. So, he proposes a series of tests that will enable his readers both to recognise opponents of the gospel and to be sure of their own salvation in Jesus Christ.

How can we be sure we belong among the people of God? How can we be kept from falling for false teaching, despite its attractions? We need to hear and apply John’s tests in our own time and situation.