We want you to meet with God and be transformed by the Word this Sunday.

In this passage, John aims to reassure his hearers that they truly belong to God. He tells them that they can know with certainty that they are truly His because they have received the Holy Spirit from him.

The Spirit testifies to the person and work of Jesus Christ and produces faith and repentance in the hearts of all who believe. Therefore, anyone who trusts in Jesus truly belongs to God because such faith is only possible by the miraculous work of the Spirit.

The Spirit’s presence within believers, John says, produces two profound effects:

First, it produces confidence for the Day of Judgement. Believers need not fear judgement, because they are beloved by God and righteous in Jesus as they are united to him by faith. 

Second, it produces love for one another. Because God is love, and because he first loved us, we therefore must love one another.

~ Luke Burrow