Surrey Chapel Fellowship Group Notes 12th/ 13th June 2013
1 John 2:28-3:24 Walking in Obedience

“And now, dear children, continue in him.” The instruction in these verses serves as an antidote to being deceived by antichrists that the preceding verses deal with. Looking forward they serve as the basic instruction for living the Christian life as a child of God. The first half of this chapter looks at our relationship with God and the importance of avoiding sin and striving for righteousness. The second half looks at our relationship with others and is summed up as “Love one another”. This chapter therefore parallels Jesus summation of the law in Matthew 22:37-40. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind... Love your neighbour as yourself.”

What does it mean to “continue in Him”?

Living as a child of God v.1-10
What does it mean to be a child of God? Theologically and to you personally? See Romans 8:14-17 & Galatians 3:26-29.

v.2 “We shall be like him,” - see also 1 Corinthians 15:50-54.

v.6 How should we interpret this verse as we obviously can’t live a sinless life? 
What does it say about habitual sin? One thing we can be certain of from this passage is that sin is to be taken seriously.

v.10 “This is how we know who the children of God are”. - By their fruit you will recognise them. Matt 7:16.

Love one another v.11-19
v.11 “We should love one another”. What do we do to keep this command? What should we be doing? The Greek word here - agapao - means “to love, value, esteem, feel or manifest generous concern for, be faithful towards, to delight in, to set store upon.”

v.14 Loving each other is evidence of salvation not what saves us. See Ephesians 2:10.

v.15 See Jesus teaching on this point in Matthew 5:21-26.

Verses16-18 make it clear that love must be worked out it actions. This is one of the key themes of the book of James.

These verses provide much basic instruction on living the Christian life. From these could you compile a spiritual health checklist?

Prayer Pointers										ADB
Reflect in prayer on some of the topics covered in this study.
New Iron Men group and Activate Book club.
Possible new elders
Ongoing church activities such as CAP, AIM, hot potato that members of your group are involved in.