1 JohnUzorak

At first read of these verses, it may seem like you are getting a 30,000-foot, broad-level, highlighted summary view of a sermon series—Love God. Love people. Obey His commandments—but there is so much more depth to be pulled from these five verses.

Verse 1 begins by stating that anyone who believes that Jesus is Christ has become a child of God, and verses 4 and 5 end by declaring that only the children of God can have victory over the world—and that we do that through our faith.

The author is writing to assure the reader of the legitimacy of personal salvation and is emphasizing that belief in the truth—that Jesus is the son of God, that He was sent here to die for our sins, and that he defeated death—is the catalyst for realizing victory over the worldly grip of sin.

Believing that Jesus is the savior of your life unmistakably demonstrates God’s big, unending love for you. When you know and experience that type of love, you cannot help but love others in the same way and want to keep God’s commandments. Loving others in this way defies everything that the world teaches us about love, comparison, hatred, greed, selfishness, disunity, pride, etc. Our faith in who Jesus is grants us victory over this secular world.

But what we’re talking about here isn’t just a surface-level faith in who Jesus was and what he did, but a belief into Jesus. That type of belief produces a deeper knowing and trust of Jesus, where He becomes the thing that grounds your entire life. It is a personal, everyday, abiding relationship with Him where He can change you from the inside out. When Jesus is the center of our lives, we have all we need to overcome the sin of this world.

Prayer Points

• Thank God for the gift of Jesus and the opportunity to experience personal salvation.
• Ponder with God what it would look like for you to believe into Jesus and ask Him to help you lean into an everyday, abiding relationship with Him.
• Ask God to deepen your faith and trust in Him.