Men Bible Study - 1 John 4:14

1 John 4:14, “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.”

Interesting points:
1. In this verse John transitions to the Father and the Son, having addressed the Holy Spirit in Verse 13. By "we", John is likely referring to all the apostles who saw and testified about Jesus during His life on earth. The reference to seeing Him connects with 1 John 1:1, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands".

2. The phrase "Savior of the world" is used only one other time in the New Testament. In John 4:42 people from a Samaritan village who saw Jesus after listening to the testimony of the woman at the well with whom Jesus had interacted said to her, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world." Jesus was not only the Savior of the Jews, but also Savior of the Samaritans, as well as the Gentiles John was writing to. Jesus came to offer salvation to all people, Jews and Gentiles alike (Romans 1:16).

3. This represents the key message of John's letter. The presence and power of Christ in the life of a believer is the most important sign of our relationship with Him. Those who can see and feel the influence of God’s love in their lives can be confident that they are part of the family of God. This allows us to serve Him with confidence, knowing that His gospel is for all people.

Application:
Brothers, although none of us has seen Jesus Christ with our own eyes we can rely on the eye-witness testimony of those who had. Faced with persecution, they held on to the Truth and would even face torture and execution than renounce what they had witnessed and knew to be true about Jesus Christ, especially our Heavenly Father’s purpose in sending His Son to be the Savior for the world.

Implied with this Good News, or Gospel, is that we share it just as it was shared with us. Our motivation in doing so is exactly what we have been studying since Verse 7: God’s love.

His love for all mankind is the driving factor that propels us forward in loving others so much that we would share the Truth so that none may die for ignorance of the Gospel. As such, may we encourage one another to testify of God’s love by demonstrating it fully in how we approach others to testify of the Good News.