2. Here’s the thing then according to the Apostle John, the beloved disciple of Jesus: To live a life now that dwells in God and lives from the resources of God-abiding in Him and he abiding in you. This is how John describes the Christian life.

3. Test 1: the truth test: v. 14 The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. v. 15 To confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. v. 16 To know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love. v. 17 There is a day of judgment

4. Test 2: The character or behavioral test in chapter 5 5:2,3 We love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. Obedience Attitude Character

5. Test 3: Love itself-we love him because he first loved us. To know and to believe is more than recognition and assent. It is a unique experience from which you are never the same. v.17 God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. v. 18 This is love perfected with us.

6. Three characteristics of love perfected or completed in us, having completed its function and purpose in your soul. 1. Confidence Flows from your inner self. Your inner self is the source of your true identity.

7. Your identity has everything to do with how you perceive yourself as a person, your self-concept. Identity when healthy is the unity of your public persona and your private self. Identity links your past to your present. “There is very little cause for a child to question these appraisals, and in any case he is too helpless to challenge them… thus the self-attitudes learned in early life are carried forever by the individual, with some allowance for the influence of extraordinary environmental circumstances and modification through later experiences.”

8. 2. Fearlessness: I will not be rejected and I will not be left out or behind. 3. Withdrawal of punishment as a weapon (manipulation to get what I want) 4. Willingness to be on the receiving end of love (loss of control) If I have experienced this unconditional true love it will change the way I relate to every one else. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.