Tuesday

Related Verses
1 John 3:1
1 Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and we are. Because of this the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

1 John 4:13-14
13 In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit.
14 And we have beheld and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.

1 John 2:1, 3-10 (3-5, 8)
1 My little children, these things I write to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous;
3 And in this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4 He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in this one;
5 But whoever keeps His word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected. In this we know that we are in Him.
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked.
7 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you but an old commandment, which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you heard.
8 Yet again a new commandment I am writing to you, which is true in Him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
9 He who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.
10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause of stumbling in him;

Related Reading
In 1 John 3: 1 John refers to the divine birth and to the begetting Father…He is the source of the divine life, the One of whom we have been born with this life. The love of God was manifested by His sending of His Son to die for us (4:9; John 3:16) in order that we might have His life and thus become His children (1:12-13). God’s sending of His Son was that He might beget us. 

We have been begotten of the Father, the source of life, to be the children of God [cf. 1 John 2:29]—God being the Owner of the children. We partake of the Father’s life to express the Triune God. (Life-study of 1 John, p. 222) 

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[In 1 John 4:13] the words in this mean in the fact that God has given to us of His Spirit, we know that we abide in Him and He in us. The Spirit, whom God has given to dwell in us (James 4:5; Rom. 8:9, 11), is the witness in our spirit (v. 16), witnessing that we dwell in God and God in us. The abiding Spirit, that is, the indwelling Spirit, is the element and sphere of the mutual abiding, the mutual indwelling, of us and God. By Him we are assured that we and God are one, that we abide in each other, indwelling each other mutually. This is evidenced by our living, a living that habitually expresses His love. 

First John 4:13 indicates that we may know that we abide in God. To abide in God is to dwell in Him, to remain in our fellowship with Him, that we may experience and enjoy His abiding in us. This is to practice our oneness with God according to the divine anointing (2:27) by living a life that practices His righteousness and His love. It is all carried out by the operation of the all-inclusive compound Spirit, who dwells in our spirit and who is the basic element of the divine anointing. 

In 4:13 John also says that God “has given to us of His Spirit.” In Greek of literally means “out of.” God has given to us out of His Spirit. This closely resembles, and almost repeats, the word in 3:24, which proves that this does not mean that God has given us something of His Spirit, such as the various gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:4, but that He has given the Spirit Himself as the all-inclusive gift (Acts 2:38). Out of His Spirit is an expression that implies that the Spirit of God, whom God has given to us, is bountiful and without measure (Phil. 1:19; John 3:34). By such a bountiful, immeasurable Spirit we know with full assurance that we and God are one and that we abide in Him and He in us. 

God abides in us, and we abide in Him. This is a matter of coinherence, of mingling, of organic union. God is not only in us; He abides in us, dwells in us. Through this mingling, this organic union, He becomes us, and we become Him. Therefore, since God is love, this love becomes our constitution. Because we become what He is, our love for others will actually be God Himself. We love others with God as love. Because God abides in us and we abide in Him, we love with God Himself as love. 

The Father’s sending of the Son to be our Savior [1 John 4:14] is an external act, so that through our confessing of the Son He can abide in us and we in Him (v. 15). The apostles have beheld and testify this. This is the outward testimony. In addition to this, God’s internal act toward us is the sending of His Spirit to dwell in us as inward evidence that we abide in Him and He in us (v. 13). 

In verses 9, 10, and 14 the apostle John says three times that God has sent His Son. God sent the Son that we might live through Him; He sent the Son as a propitiation for our sins; and He sent the Son as the Savior of the world. (Life-study of 1 John, pp. 302-304) 

Further Reading: Life-study of 1 John, msgs. 26, 34