Materials Included
• 4 Sessions of Learner’s Materials
• 4 Sessions of Teaching Materials
• 2 Handouts

Scriptures
1. 1 John 1:1-10
2. 1 John 2:1-17
3. 1 John 3:11-24
4. 1 John 4:7-5:5

Brief Description
Christianity has been as much enslaved by its culture as it has been a vital spiritual force within that culture. The time has come for a new understanding of what it means to "be" Christian. First John offers a starting point. It is a spiritual lesson that calls for a radical understanding of the Christian life grounded in the embrace of Jesus Christ and in the selfless living and loving that emerges out of that embrace.

Session One: The church is changing, and an increasing variety of worship experiences is available for our expressions of faith. In today's Scripture text, an ancient church faced a similar challenge, and the writer's concern was to articulate Christian spirituality in a context characterized by many alternatives. First John 1:1-10 provides a starting point for spiritual renewal with integrity in an age when experiential spirituality seems to be the latest fad. It calls us to embrace the story of God in Jesus Christ in such a way that we live every moment in the fullness of this light.

Session Two: We must return to the core of the Christian faith that provides the reasons for all our actions. First John is written to help us immerse ourselves in the story of God in Jesus Christ and to encourage us to be followers of Christ. First John 2:1-17 offers a gentle corrective to the activities that often dominate our lives. It calls us toward a wholly new attitude of the heart that can serve as a foundation from which to live in Christ.

Session Three: First John 3:11-24 calls us to relationships of love with God and with each other. Our inward embrace of the story of Jesus Christ leads us to an outward journey of loving and caring for each other. In this way, the full expression of Christian spirituality occurs.

Session Four: Clearly, spiritual birth is the decision to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and to live in the light of God's love. True conversion requires not merely an acceptance that God is revealed to us in Jesus Christ, but a radical reordering of priorities so that we love God and others with the kind of love Jesus made known in his life and death. God's love for us empowers us only as we make God the very center of our lives.

by Rob Nash

User License
The purchaser of this file has permission to print twenty copies of this Learners Study Guide. Neither the file nor the printed contents may be sold copied or transferred to another person or church. The purchaser may make a backup copy of the file.

The purchaser of this file has permission to print one copy of this Teaching Guide. Neither the file nor the printed contents may be sold, copied or transferred to another person or church. The purchaser may make a backup copy of the file.

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