ESSENTIALS
1 John 4
“This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
In these few lines, John makes clear what are essentials to becoming a Christian: Faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour, continually receiving and giving love, indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
We cannot ignore what he said earlier on that God is light and only those who walk in the light have fellowship with him. However, John makes clear that we are able to do so only because the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin and continues to do so whenever we fail as long as we confess our sins. So we must understand “faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour” in this light.
These are essentials and the absence of any one of them must arouse our suspicion and deserve our caution. Anyone can claim anything, as John helps us to see, but if these claims are not substantiated in life and behaviour, or if these claims at the same time deny the essential nature of the others (for example, the idea that as long as we are under the protective blood of Christ we can sin with impunity), then they are false. God is light and no Christian who willingly harbours darkness have fellowship with him. God is love and a Christian who hates his brother or sister have fellowship with him. God sent his Son as a sacrifice for our sin and a Christian who denies the Son as Saviour and Lord has no fellowship with him.
“This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.”