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Home Group Notes - 1 John

When have you had an experience that you could not wait to tell someone else about?

From this passage, what are some of the reasons that John wrote the epistle?

What does it mean to walk in darkness (v6)?

How can we walk in the light (v7)?

What can we do when we sin?

What pitfalls are there in denying our sins?

What is the relationship between God’s love and our obedience?

How can the command to love God and others be old and new at the same time?

In what ways have we ‘seen’, ‘heard’ and ‘touched’ Jesus?

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much joy did you experience this past week?

To think about

Looking over the last week, what grade would you give yourself for obeying God? What grade would you give yourself for loving God?

This is the first of a short series of three studies on 1 John, which will take us up the Lent.

The church John writes to seems to have suffered a split. A group had begun to persuade people to accept so called’ advanced’ views, that Jesus was not the Messiah, had not come to earth as a human being and that visions and spiritual revelations were more important than morality and love.

John’s style is rather different to the logical structure of Paul’s letters. He seems to write one paragraph and then be reminded of a related idea, which becomes the topic of the next paragraph. The structure is more spiral than linear.

Read 1 John 3:1-21

What does it mean to be a child of God? What hope do the children of God have?

What attitudes and actions mark out a person ‘born of God’?

What does John mean when he says that a Christian does not sin (v6, v10)?

In the past week have you felt more like a child of God or a distant relative?

How can we explain Christian morality to a society which has mostly rejected it?

How does the world define love?

What is John’s definition of love (v16-18)?

What is the best example of love in action that you know?

In what ways do our hearts condemn us (v20)?

How is answered prayer connected to obedience (v21-22)? How have you seen this to be true in your life?

To think about :

How would you consciously practice the love of Jesus this week, with your family, with a friend, at church, with a difficult person, with a person in need?

How can a Christian distinguish a true prophet from a false one?

What do you believe about Jesus’ nature?

What difference does it make whether he was truly divine? Truly human?

How has God demonstrated that he is love?

What do we learn from these verses about the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

What is the connection between God’s love for us and the love we are to have for others?

Is the love discussed here an action or a feeling?

Is there a time in your life when God’s love has driven out fear?

To think about:

If we want to make a better job of loving others, how should we go about it?