John insisted that love marks the children of God - sons and daughters who have passed out of death to share in the divine life through union with the Son by the Spirit. This love is the same love that characterizes the Father, and John provided an example of what such love looks like in practice. More than kind sentiment and kind deeds, love is inward disposition and outward action that conforms to the truth as it exists in the triune God.

John wrote this epistle with the longing that his children in the faith would live out their lives in Christ authentically and faithfully. He wanted them to flourish in a world at odds with the new creation they now inhabited as sons of the Father. They formerly inhabited the natural human realm defined by hatred and satanic lordship, but now they shared in the Father's life and likeness, creating an antithesis between them and the rest of the world. They needed to understand that antithesis and rightly respond to it, which meant living a life of love - love as it is true in God.

John's foundational premise is that children share the nature and likeness of their father. This is true in the natural realm, but also in the spiritual realm. Though every human being is a child of God as a creature bearing the divine image, the fall established a new fatherhood to which all people conform as -image-sons.- In their natural state, all are children of the devil, and become true children of God through union with the unique Son. In this passage, John discussed how a person identifies which father is his own.

Sonship is the central theme of the second half of John's first epistle, and he began by emphasizing that God's children share in His nature and likeness. But a thing's nature is reflected and expressed in its practice, and this dynamic is key to the biblical concept of righteousness. Thus John's treatment of sonship advances from the children's nature to their practical righteousness.

John understood fellowship with God as abiding in Him. But this abiding involves a unique sort of intimacy. It is the intimacy of sonship - of children who share in the life and likeness of their Father. The Christian's sonship is the premise and core theme of the balance of the epistle, and John treated it first in terms of its most basic quality- Sons are like their Father - not simply in their conduct and speech, but in their persons- Christian sonship entails partaking in the divine nature.

Fellowship with God is the core theme of John's first epistle, and he treated this fellowship first in terms of abiding in the Father and Son. From there, John went on to emphasize that Christians abide in God as His children- their union with Him is one of sonship. That is, their fellowship with the triune God involves sharing the divine nature and likeness -2 Peter 1-2-4-. The final two verses of chapter two serve as the transition between these themes of fellowship as abiding and fellowship as sonship.

After stating the existence of antichrists, John explained who these individuals were and how they could be recognized. Then he turned his attention to the resource by which his readers - and all Christians - are able to withstand antichrist influences that come against the believing community.

Christmas highlights the paradox that characterized every aspect of Messiah's coming. From Jesus' conception and birth, through His death, resurrection and exaltation, everything about Him presented a strange contrast with Israel's messianic expectation. Jesus the Messiah was exactly what the prophets and scriptures promised, yet not at all as Israel expected. This message considers that paradox and its implications for Christ's Church and its life and mission.