Life Groups // Fall 2025 // Week 10
Posted November 7, 2025 — Lincoln Berean
Overcoming the World // 1 John 5:1-5
Introduction
Our passage this week brings the three main topics of John’s letter together in summary fashion. Those three areas are truth, light, and love. As we near the end of this letter, it is good to review what we’ve learned on each of these topics as they relate to cultivating authentic Christian community. Perhaps the reason John uses a spiral to organize his material, rather than a more logical progression of thought, is because he’s trying to communicate that these three topics cannot really be separated but melt into one.
Study Questions (to complete on your own)
1) Go back and review these texts. See if you can summarize the main point of each text in a simple sentence.
1:1-4
1:5-2:6
2:7-11
2:12-17
2:18-29
3:1-10
3:11-24
4:1-6
4:7-21
2) Read 1 John 5:1-5 in a couple different translations of Scripture. List out everything this passage tells us about love, obedience and faith.
Discussion Questions (with your group)
1) In verse 1, it is very important to understand the grammar. Pastor Bryan explained that the phrase “born of God” is in the perfect tense, meaning it is something that happened in the past but has an ongoing effect. Based on this explanation, if a person is born again, what does that mean they believe about Jesus?
Is it possible to be “born of God” and believe something about Jesus that is contradictory to what the Bible says? Why or why not?
2) In verses 1-2 the logic seems circular. We love the Father by loving his children and we love the children of God by loving the Father and observing his commandments. Why do you suppose John reasons this way? Is it possible to love God and not love his children?
What is an example in your life where you may have struggled to love God’s children (fellow Christians)?
3) Verse 3 states that his commandments are not burdensome. Do you consider God’s commandments a burden or a blessing? Why?
What do you learn about your view of God if you view His commandments as a burden?
4) What do you think it means to overcome the “world” (5:4)? How do we overcome the world?
Based on the text and Pastor Bryan’s sermon, how would you define the word “faith”?
How have you experienced this truth (overcoming the world) in your own life?
5) Did you pursue connection with God through one of the Personal Spiritual Exercises below this session? If so, how did doing so enrich your relationship with God?
Which of the Personal Spiritual Exercises below might you want to utilize to enhance your relationship with God over this upcoming break from the Life Group session?
Personal Spiritual Exercises
Just like physical exercises help strengthen and stretch our bodies for healthy living, these spiritual exercises are meant to move us spiritually in ways that may be new so that we might experience inner growth. Since God longs for us to experience Him with our whole selves—mind, body, spirit— we invite you to strengthen your souls with exercises that challenge and stretch you in new ways. Choose one and commit to repeating it until you gain strength in that area.
1) Scripture Reading: to listen and soak in the Word as an experience of the words washing over you. Read or listen to the entire letter of 1 John at least twice/week. As you take it in, resist the impulse to study and parse the details. The point is not to gain “head knowledge” but a stirring in the heart as the Holy Spirit brings the Word to life in you.
2) Memorization:to internalize God’s Word. A key passage for this series is 1 John 4:7-14. Commit to memorize it yourself and encourage others in your group to do it with you.
3) Walk & Pray: to actively engage with the scripture passage. Write out the passage of the sermon each week on a note card and take it with you on a daily walk.
4) Journal Reflection: to practice remembering what God has done. Make time in your schedule to put down in writing the feelings and thoughts that are stirring as you interact with the Word of God.
5) Self-control Exercise: to help you come to stillness from a busy or hurried pace of life. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Sit upright but comfortably in a chair with your palms open and upward on your lap. Focus on a word or short phrase about the character of God the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. When your thoughts wander to the things on your to-do list or other people’s needs, redirect them back to the character of God. When the 10 minutes is up, close in a short prayer of gratitude.
Prayer
Praying together in a group is different than praying alone with God. It’s a conversation that can help you grow closer to each other as you are in God’s presence. One way to pray follows this often-used pattern in scripture – acknowledge who God is, recognize the need we have for Him, and ask to partner with Him on behalf of others. When possible, use the passage of scripture from this week’s sermon as your starting point, then form a prayer that follows this pattern:
God, our Father, this week we learned that you are ________________ and ________________ .
As I looked into your Word, I understood how I need you to __________________________. Help me to be faithful to ________________________ in the week ahead.
Other people are on my heart, and I trust that you have put them there for a reason. I ask for your will to be accomplished in their life as they ______________________________. Help me to know how to respond well to the needs of __________________________, even as my first step is in praying for them right now.
Each group engages in prayer differently. Some groups go around and allow anyone to pray that desires to do so. Other groups have several people pray or maybe 1 person closes the group in prayer. Still other groups split into smaller groups of 2-3 people and those people pray for each other. How you choose to engage in prayer is dependent on your group and your choice to ENGAGE! We learn to pray by praying and by listening and praying with others!