Bible Passage:
“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)
1. Introductory note:
The word “You” is used by John to address those who confessed Jesus in contrast to the false teachers. John affectionately called the community as “dear children”. They have overcome the false prophets and false teachers because they resisted their teaching. As over comers and not overcome by false teachings, they are from God or in other words “born of God”. Now they have fellowship with the all powerful God and walk in holiness. The one who is in the world is the spirit of Antichrist, the devil, “the prince of this world.”
2. Triumph over evil:
The one who is in them is greater than the one who is in the world. Therefore they were triumphant over the evil strategies of Satan.
The false teachers do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them because “living” involves “fellowship,” which is possible between God and his children only by the Holy Spirit. The false teachers are without this fellowship. Therefore they do not love because they do not know love. The antichrist can be in the world and evil spirits can be in the false teachers, but “living in God” is possible only for the children of God. In contrast to the dear children who are from God, the false teachers are from the world. The false teachers are successful “in the world” because their thinking is accommodated to the world’s beliefs.
3. Spirit of truth and spirit of falsehood:
The faithful has knowledge of God through fellowship with him by loving him and abiding in him and his Word. When people confess that Jesus came in the flesh, then the “Spirit of truth” has been present and active. When people deny the Gospel and will not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, it indicates that the spirit of falsehood has been at work. Their willingness to hear and follow the false teachers showed their true colors. Believers who continue to live faithfully in Jesus can know that they are the children of God.
4. Are you an over comer?
If you are a world over comer, you have something inside of you that makes you stronger. You are equipped with the capacity and power to defeat any evil that comes your way. If you’ve made Christ your Lord, then he lives inside you. Before you accepted him as Savior, you were just an ordinary.
Greater simply means more. The One who is more than enough is in you. If you are in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the One who is more is inside of you. Because of this you can overcome.
5. We are victorious:
We should declare that the greater One makes us victorious. When we declare this, we are giving God a place to work in our lives. We are acting on what we know to be true and declaring it to be so.
We all face life’s trials, we can take great comfort in the fact the Holy Spirit of God has taken up residence within us. He’s always present to help. It is all too easy to take our eyes off of the one who has set us free and to dwell on the negative circumstances that come at us in life. Look to the inside where the greater one dwells, not to the circumstances.
6. The spirit that gives life:
We can know that regardless of the circumstances we have victory on the inside of us, if we will just give him the opportunity to work on our behalf. We can then say with confidence, greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. God’s Word tells us that the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us.
“But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:11
This is not some different spirit but the very same Spirit who dwells in us and will give life to our mortal bodies.
7. Are you in Christ Jesus?
To be more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus, we must begin to walk in the light of the revealed Word of God, to acknowledge his truth above all other circumstances, to be lead by the Holy Spirit and walk in line with his Word. If you are in Christ Jesus than the Holy Spirit is within you, however if you have never accepted Christ then you need to take the first step and ask him to be the Lord of your life. He is waiting for you. And he promised that he will never leave you nor forsake you.
