Wednesday in the Word

“God is love” is one of the most familiar phrases in the Bible—but what does it actually mean, and how does it change the way we live? 

In this episode on 1 John 4:7–19, we explore how God’s self-giving love in Christ not only rescues us from judgment but also reshapes our hearts, freeing us from fear and teaching us to love others with the same costly, other-focused love. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How this section of 1 John builds on the letter’s earlier themes: loving the light, confessing Christ, pursuing holiness, and learning to love fellow believers across all the differences that normally divide us 
• Why only those who are “born of God and know God” can begin to love with the self-sacrificing love that flows from His own character—and why “God is love” is far deeper than a sentimental slogan 
• How the cross makes God’s love visible and understandable: the Father sending His unique Son to be both the sacrifice that removes our guilt and the propitiation that turns away His righteous anger 
• What it means that God’s love has an intended result—not just our forgiveness, but our transformation into people who increasingly love as He loves 
• Why growing, imperfect, other-focused love in our lives is evidence that God abides in us by His Spirit, even though none of us yet see or reflect His love in full 
• How confessing that Jesus is the Son of God—crucified, risen, and sent as the Savior of the world—anchors our confidence that we truly belong to God 
• How abiding in God’s love drives out fear of judgment, shifting our focus from our unworthiness to the settled question of God’s mercy in Christ 
• Practical reflections on why we so often fail to love: not to generate guilt-fueled resolutions, but to ask whether we fundamentally reject this kind of love—or are simply unfinished people whom God is still teaching and changing 

After listening, you’ll come away with a richer, more concrete sense of what it means that God is love—and how His initiating, undeserved love in Christ frees you from living in dread of judgment. You’ll be invited to rest your confidence not in your performance but in the cross, to see even small, costly acts of other-focused love as signs of the Spirit’s work in you, and to keep asking God to make you more like your Father, who loved you first. 

Series: 1 John: Discerning the True Gospel

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In a culture overflowing with spiritual voices, opinions, and platforms, 1 John 4:1–6 calls us to something surprisingly countercultural: do not believe everything you hear—even when it comes “in the name of Jesus.” Instead, John urges believers to test the spirits by what they say about Christ, how they handle the apostolic gospel, and the kind of life that flows from their teaching. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• What John means by “spirit” in this passage, and how it relates to the inner “eyes” or perspective that shape what teachers see as true and worth believing
• The biblical pattern for discerning true and false prophets—from Deuteronomy to 1 John—and why accuracy alone is not enough if a message leads us away from the true God
• John’s “drop-dead giveaway” test: what a teacher does with Jesus Christ—His identity as Messiah, His real humanity, and His historical life, death, and resurrection
• How modern distortions of Jesus (mythologizing Him, downplaying His resurrection, or redefining “Messiah”) echo the ancient errors John confronted
• Why popular, polished, and widely admired teachers can still be wrong—and how John explains that “the world listens to them” precisely because they speak its language
• Five practical red flags in a teacher’s life and ministry: ignoring inconvenient facts, refusing to be corrected, reacting with anger to biblical challenge, dismissing hard truths about God, and showing little interest in genuine dialogue
• The comfort of John’s encouragement: that his readers have “overcome” the false teachers not by superior intellect, but because the One who is in them is greater than the one who is in the world

After listening, you’ll come away better equipped to sort through the many spiritual voices around you—not by cynicism, but by clear, biblical tests centered on who Jesus is and what He has done. You’ll be invited to value substance over style, to recognize that rejecting certain errors is as important as embracing the truth, and to rest in the promise that the God who opened your eyes to the gospel will also keep you from finally being swept away by lies.

Series: 1 John: Discerning the True Gospel

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Love is central to the Christian life but what kind of love actually marks someone as a child of God? 

In this episode on 1 John 3:13–24, we wrestle with John’s strong language about hate, murder, and eternal life, and see how he distinguishes ordinary human affection from the self-giving, Christ-shaped love that grows out of saving faith. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• Why the world’s hatred of believers—like Cain’s hatred of Abel—flows from rebellion against God, and how that differs from the painful but temporary hatred Christians may still fall into 
• How John can say that “everyone who hates his brother is a murderer,” and why he is not teaching that any believer who has ever hated is automatically excluded from eternal life 
• The difference between self-centered love that comes naturally to all people and the God-given love that can move toward enemies, the unlovely, and those who give nothing in return 
• What it means to love “in deed and in truth”: noticing specific needs right in front of us and, when we have the resources, choosing costly, practical care rather than vague goodwill 
• Why John’s call to lay down our lives for our brothers is not a guilt-driven demand to “save the world,” but an invitation to surrender our rights in concrete, ordinary acts of service 
• How God reassures believers whose hearts condemn them by pointing not to their feelings, but to the objective marks of new life: trusting Jesus as Messiah, loving His people, and pursuing holiness 
• Why our emotions are not the final word on our spiritual status, and how John teaches us to measure ourselves by God’s promises instead 

After listening, you’ll come away with a more nuanced and hopeful understanding of how love and hate reveal the heart. You’ll be invited to see your growing concern for fellow believers, your discomfort with self-centered living, and your desire to meet real needs as evidence of God’s Spirit at work—and to rest in the truth that God’s verdict over your life is wiser and kinder than the shifting voice of your own heart. 

Series: 1 John: Discerning the True Gospel

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Verses like “No one who abides in Him sins” can leave tender consciences in turmoil: If I still struggle, does that mean I’m not really a Christian? 

In this episode on 1 John 2:29–3:12, we walk through this challenging passage and see how John is not demanding sinless perfection, but describing the family resemblance of God’s children: people who take sin seriously, love righteousness, and are learning to hate what once felt natural. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• A personal story of being told “you must not be a true Christian” and how a misreading of 1 John 3 can wound sincere believers
• The “5 C’s” of Bible study—Credible, Comprehensive, Coherent, Consistent, and Conforms—as a practical grid for weighing competing interpretations of the same passage
• Why John’s language of “practicing” sin and righteousness points to a settled pattern of life, not isolated successes or failures
• How 1 John itself rules out the idea that genuine Christians no longer sin, and how this passage instead exposes false teachers who minimize sin and dismiss biblical morality
• What it means to be “born of God,” to have His “seed” in us, and to be a kind of “righteous sinner” who longs to be holy even while still battling sin
• How our future hope—being made like Christ when He is revealed—actually fuels present-day effort and desire to grow in purity, not laziness or indifference
• John’s simple but searching test: the children of God and the children of the devil are revealed by their attitude toward sin, righteousness, and the people who love righteousness
• The story of Cain and Abel as a picture of how the world responds to genuine godliness, and why love for fellow believers is intertwined with love for holiness

After listening, you’ll come away with a more confident understanding of what John does and does not mean when he says God’s children “cannot” go on sinning. You’ll be invited to see your grief over sin, your growing love for righteousness, and your affection for God’s people as real evidences of new birth—and to rest in the assurance that the God who has begun this work in you will one day finish it in glory.

Series: 1 John: Discerning the True Gospel

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in a world that prizes open-mindedness and reinvents Christianity every generation, 1 John 2:18–28 calls us back to something older, simpler, and far more solid. 

In this episode, we look at John’s warning about “many antichrists,” his insistence that some ideas really are lies, and his invitation to cling to the original apostolic message about who Jesus is and what He has done. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• What John means by “the last hour,” “antichrist,” and “many antichrists,” and why his main concern is deception already at work inside the visible church
• How “they went out from us, but were not of us” helps us understand false teachers who start within Christian circles and then depart from the apostolic gospel
• Why truth is not just an abstract idea but a spiritual and moral issue—rejecting the true gospel is ultimately rejecting God Himself
• What John means by believers having an “anointing from the Holy One,” and how this relates to God opening our eyes to the truth rather than secret, elite knowledge
• How denying that Jesus is the Christ—God’s unique Messiah and atoning sacrifice—places someone outside true fellowship with the Father, no matter how sincere they seem
• Practical ways to recognize counterfeit gospels and unhealthy groups: distorted views of Christ, salvation by works, rival authorities to Scripture, and oppressive patterns of leadership
• The difference between biblical teaching and manipulative indoctrination, and why Christian confidence in the gospel is not the same as arrogance

After listening, you’ll come away with a clearer sense of which truths sit at the very center of the Christian faith and cannot be compromised: who Jesus is and what He accomplished on the cross. You’ll be encouraged to trust the plain, apostolic gospel you first received, to resist the pressure to “update” it into something more fashionable, and to abide in Christ with a steady confidence that will not crumble in the face of new ideas, strong personalities, or cultural accusations of intolerance.

Series: 1 John: Discerning the True Gospel

Most people fail at Bible study because no one ever taught them how. Bible Study Boot Camp fixes that: one short email a day for a week, plus a worksheet you can use on any passage for the rest of your life.

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