Promises from 1 John

This comes from a Bible study we had at community group in August 2008. We had just finished going through 1 John, and took some time to go back and review all the promises of God to Christians in 1 John. It turns out there are many, many amazing promises given to God's people in 1 John which I found very surprising. I have always thought of 1 John as a book condemning people who do not practice what they preach or think they are Christians but are not living it. To be sure, John has many scathing remarks and warnings to people who do not love Jesus or people who are hypocrites, claiming to love Jesus but not actually doing anything that shows it. And maybe that is for another post. But to the Christians, to people who are loving Jesus, obeying His commands, loving people around them, confessing their sin to Jesus, 1 John is a letter just filled with an amazing density of all sorts of promises. And these promises made such a lasting impact on us, I have been meaning for sometime to post them.

So the list below is these promises to Christians from God. Each one of these promises, in the text, has a precondition or "if... then" statement, but assuming you do love Jesus then the promise applies and the precondition should be met.

Promise	Verse in 1 John
God forgives our sins. God cleanses us from the filth of all sin.	"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1:9
The love of God is perfected in us.	"but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected" 2:5a
We can live without stumbling into sin.	"Whoever loves his brother abides in light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling." 2:10
We will live forever.	"And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." 2:17
We know the truth.	"I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth" 2:21
We have confidence and no shame standing before the judgment of God.	"And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming." 2:28
We are children of God.	"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are." 3:1a
God is greater than the condemnation we feel, and we have confidence He will still accept us.	"Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him." 3:18-22
Jesus lives in us and is more powerful than Satan or the world.	"Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." 4:4
God's love is perfected in us. God lives in us.	"No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us."
God first loved us before we did anything.	"We love because he first loved us." 4:19
Obeying God is loving God. God's commands are not too hard to obey.	"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome." 5:3
Our faith has overcome the world.	"For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" 5:3-4
God hears and answers our prayers that accord with His will.	"And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of him." 5:14-15
If we pray for brothers in sin, God will lead them out of it.	"If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life…" 5:16a
Jesus protects us from Satan. Jesus helps us sin less.	"We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who has been born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him." 5:18