Tough Love 11: Confidence to Confess; Confidence to Obey

1 John 4:13-5:4

In a nutshell: The love of God makes us bold. Love-filled, Spirit-soaked people are confident in their God and quick to obey him. God’s love creates adventurous disciples, ready to take his message to a fearful world.

Whether or not we have confidence makes a huge difference to how we approach life and the levels of success we enjoy. Confidence, like truth and love (which we looked at last week) is intangible but important. You can’t buy it in bottles, but we all know it exists. The prime example of this at the moment is in the economy. A couple of years back confidence was sky high; now it has plummeted.

In this passage John says that confidence is available to us all – but this is a confidence not in ourselves, but from the Spirit; God’s empowering presence.

1. The experience of God’s empowering presence is an experience
John says that “We know” that God abides in us because of the Spirit at work in us. This is something we experience.

In Acts 19:2-6 Paul asks the Ephesians, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answer, “No.” Paul prays for them and they begin to speak in tongues and prophesy.

Jesus promised the Samaritan woman, “The water I give… is a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14). A spring bubbles up – it always finds a way out. It makes the ground wet.

The Holy Spirit is meant to be experienced!

2. The experience of God’s empowering presence is rooted in historical facts
John’s repeated assertion is that “We have seen and testify…” The story of Jesus isn’t just imagination – it really happened.

Jesus came in order that the Spirit might be poured out. This was the fulfilment of what had been promised to Abraham and the Prophets (E.g., Galatians 3:14). It has now happened because of Jesus!

3. The experience of God’s empowering presence flows from confessed faith
John says that our confidence in God is directly linked to our confession of Christ (1 John 4:15). The Holy Spirit comes in response to faith. Jesus promised the Spirit to those who believe (John 7:37-39a). Peter said that the Holy Spirit is given in response to believers being baptised (Acts 2:38) and to those who believe Jesus (Acts 5:32).

But the only way that we can confess this faith is in response to faith the Holy Spirit works in us. It is the Spirit who enables us to believe. As John Stott puts it: “Believing is the consequence, not the cause, of the new birth.”

So the Holy Spirit works faith in us and our faith brings the Holy Spirit. This is a divine circle of faith-filled experience. As Paul puts it (Eph 1:13-14), the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our salvation, and we need to confess this!

4. The experience of God’s empowering presence brings great confidence
The Spirit fills us with a sense of God’s love, a love that removes fear.
It is the fear of punishment that makes us unloving. When we fear being disliked, or rejected, or criticized we are fearing punishment and we tend to put up defensive barriers which actually make it harder to love others.

Love throws out fear. Loved people are confident. We can be confident because of the love of God – he will not dislike, reject or criticize us. This means that churches should be confident places, where we are able to give and receive love.

5. The experience of God’s empowering presence makes us adventurous
Times of pressure always test faith and love. When we are in difficulty we always have to answer the question, “Do I keep faith in God or try to fix this myself?” The temptation is always to try and fix things ourselves, but this is the wrong approach!

When we are under pressure do we continue to display love or do we become angry?

Faith and love lead to spiritual adventure because our faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Trusting God, loving him and his people, and feeling the confidence this brings, we are able to pursue adventures of faith.

6. The experience of God’s empowering presence makes us pure
The Holy Spirit enables us to keep the commands of God. A lived experience of the Spirit keeps us clean. When we are aware of the presence of God with us we are less likely to act in ways that offend his presence.

7. The experience of God’s empowering presence makes us compassionate
‘Love for our brothers’ has to be worked out on action – it cannot be mere words. This is a repeated emphasis of the epistle – love must be made tangible. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to act with love and compassion towards others.


Application Questions
• What is your experience of God’s empowering presence?
• Are you confident?