This week’s Bible study looked at 1 John 4:12-14. Earlier in the chapter, John has talked about knowing God and the evidence for this being our love. Now, he moves on to talk about our visible love being a pointer to God. No one can ever see God in all His glory and splendour (1 John 4:12, see also Exodus 33:19-23), but there are many occasions when God reveals Himself to us. In the Old Testament, theophanies (pre-incarnate appearances of Christ (eg Gen 32, Joshua 5:13-15)) occurred when God revealed Himself to people and clearly we could never know God at all if it were not for the revelations of Himself which He gives, though we wait for His glorious appearing before we can have a perfect knowledge of Him (see 1 Cor 13:8-12, 1 John 3:1-2). Nonetheless, John reminds us that one evidence of God is His living within us and His love being made evident in our lives.
The key topic of abiding (or remaining) is returned to here (see also 1 John 2:6, 24, 27, John 15:1-8), for God chooses to dwell in us and we dwell in Him. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us (John 1:14-18); His love is therefore made available to us. We have the inner witness of God’s Spirit living in us (see also Eph 1:13-14), but we also have the objective truth that Jesus lived on earth, was crucified and was raised to life again. This dual combination of subjective and objective knowledge allows us to testify that Jesus came to be the Saviour of the World. His very name signifies His purpose (see Matt 1:21). A saviour is one who rescues, delivers, cares for and protects us from harm. Jesus is all those things to us!