Application Questions:

1. When you hear the command to love one another, what is your immediate reaction? Do you feel challenged? Eager? Apathetic? Why do you think John reiterates this command in this passage?

2. What do you learn from this passage about the kind of love John is calling for us to perform?

3. Why is it necessary for us to love one another as a church? Why is it a privilege for us to do so?

Application Questions:

1. There are lots of voices competing for your attention. Some are explicitly against Jesus, but others claim to represent Him in some way. How often do you consider the influence behind those voices? How much discretion do you normally exercise when giving attention to a professing Christian voice?

2. What is the test that John gives to his audience to use for examining the voices in their lives? What do you think it looks like for you to make use of this test today? What do you feel that you are lacking in order to properly “test the spirits”?

3. What reason does John give to his audience for their confidence when confronting the false prophets and “spirit of the antichrist”? Is this reality a comfort to you? Why or why not?

Application Questions:

1. What does Easter Sunday mean to you? Why do you celebrate it?

2. Paul argues that losing the resurrection of Jesus completely unravels the gospel message. Do you agree? Which parts of the Christian message do you think are salvageable apart from Jesus’ resurrection?

3. If something as crazy and impossible as Jesus rising from the dead is true, what else might be possible in your life? In the world? If Jesus is fully alive today, what does He mean for your life?

Application Questions:

1. What are some ways, past or present, that your own heart questions your place in God’s family? What sins, situations, or seasons tend to prompt that response from your heart?

2. How might the fact that God is greater than your heart and knows everything cause you to feel more uncertain about your place with Him? How can you make use of this reality to produce confidence with God, as John intends?

3. John grounds our assurance with God on belief in Jesus and love for one another. Are these the foundations you are standing on? Where else do you find yourself prone to place your assurance with God? Do those grounds produce self-confidence or self-doubt? Why is John’s foundation more secure than your own?

Application Questions:

1. Cain is the only Old Testament figure that John references directly in this letter, and he does so to give a negative example that his Christian audience needs to avoid. Have you ever thought of Cain as a character you are in danger of emulating? Why does John warn his readers in this way?

2. We tend to be quick to let ourselves off easy or to reduce the expectations that Scripture puts on us for our conduct in this life. What is John’s response to this tendency? How does Jesus’ love in action for you challenge your love for Him and others?

3. Think of your brothers and sisters at Cornerstone South Bay. What are some of the needs that they currently face? Do you have the means to meet any of those needs? If you can’t think of any present needs, what can you do to find out what they are?

Application Questions:

1. What is the difference between doing a sin, and being a doer of sin? What does a habit of sin reveal about our attitude toward God?

2. When you hear of Jesus dying for your sin, do you tend to understand His purpose in a general way? Do you think He had each of your individual sins in mind? What does it mean for your life that He came to take away your actual sins, not just your sin’s guilt and consequence?

3. Reflect on your relationship to your sins since you became a Christian. What changes do you see? What seems to be unchanged? Do you have the same attitude regarding your sin as you did before meeting Jesus?

Application Questions:

1. How amazing do you think it is to be called a child of God? Does that description seem obvious, assumed, or unremarkable? Why does John see it as a reason to be filled with awe and wonder?

2. How does the knowledge of Jesus’ coming act as a motivator to how you live your life today? How is it an encouragement to you to press on in your Christian life?

3. How does Jesus’ own character motivate and encourage you to become more like Him?

Application Questions:

1. When you hear John talk about an anointing with the Holy Spirit, what comes to mind? Does it sound like something reserved for a privileged few, or something that you have experienced in Christ? Why does John want his Christian audience to know of their anointing, and how does this purpose help you today?

2. When John talks about “knowledge” in this passage, is he referring to something secret or complicated? What is John talking about? Why does he remind his audience that they have this “knowledge”?

3. John wanted his audience to “abide in Him [Jesus].” What does it mean to “abide”? How are you tempted or enticed to move away from Jesus in your daily life?