Mesage outline -1 John 2:3-14

“Self Assessment Time”Where Am I in Christ?
1 John 2

A.The Cost of Discipleship -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer penned the words, "Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate"

B.First Test – How much do I obey?
"3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did (1 John 2:3-6NIV)

2nd Test - Do I love completely
"7Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. 9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. (1 John 2:7-11)

3rd Test – Multiple Choice Question
"12 I write to you, dear children (teknia), because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, dear children (paidia), because you have known the Father.
14 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men, because you are strong,
and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Which of these 4 groups are you?

Children(Young in faith) – due to recent birth and recent conversion

Fathers – must know (Ginosko & not oida) Him (Christ) – who is from the beginning, beginning of time – see Cols 1:18, Hebrew 1:1-4. Know the supremacy & sufficiency of Christ. Hang on & defend the truth.

Young men – which we must all be – the 3 criteria are fighting & overcoming still, have the word of God in you, staying strong. Only those who fought progress to fathers. Only in battle we experience God’s power.
The immature infants – perpetual immaturity? Only stay at knowing the father? Such as those who don’t know where to turn in the bible even after many years being a Christian.


Take Home Message
1. How much do I obey? we are saved to be a disciple, to grow and to obey like Jesus obeyed the Father.
2. How much do I love? Love is a command, not just a natural feeling. Love completely
3. Let us stay forever young at heart and forever young in the spirit! Let us ask God for the fighting spirit – let us be enlisted in the army who will always overcome.
4. Let us not be content to stay as perpetual infant – “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.” (Eph 4:14)