The Bible in Small Steps

1 John 4 - What “God Is Love” Actually Means

How do you actually know if something is from God? Not whether it sounds spiritual, not whether the person delivering it is polished or persuasive — but really from God. That’s the question 1 John 4 answers head-on, and it leads straight into one of the most quoted lines in the entire New Testament: God is love. Testing the Spirits. John doesn’t ask us to evaluate sincerity or stage presence — he gives a concrete test rooted in what someone actually believes about Jesus’ bodily incarnation. I talk about watching talented, polished communicators say things with zero scriptural grounding, and why presentation was never the test. You’ve Already Overcome. For anyone worried about being deceived, John offers real assurance: the Spirit of God within the believer is greater than whatever spirit animates false teaching. This isn’t about being flashier or holier-acting — it’s about whose power is actually present. God Is Love — Not Just Loving. This is the heart of the chapter. Love didn’t start with us and get projected onto God; it started with Him and flows outward. I unpack why that distinction matters and use an electricity-through-a-circuit picture to describe how God’s love moves through us into other people. Loved While Unworthy. God didn’t wait for us to become lovable. Christ died for us while we were still sinners — this is the opposite of love as a reward for good behavior, and it’s what makes the love genuine rather than transactional. Perfect Love Drives Out Fear. As trust in God’s finished work deepens, fear of punishment fades — not because mature believers never feel fear, but because that fear no longer has the same grip when you actually believe the price has already been paid. The Visible Test. John ties it all together: you can’t claim to love an invisible God while failing to love the visible people right in front of you. It’s one love, two objects — and the visible one is usually the harder test in practice, even though it sounds like it should be easier. If you take one thing from this chapter, let it be this: God’s love isn’t something you have to earn or perform your way into — it already started with Him, while you were unworthy of it, and it’s meant to flow straight through you into the people right in front of you. Download blank templates, schedules here: https://schmern2.notion.site/Downloads-Template-Word-and-Excel-Schedule-67439d14449d4c20bfe00efe069f78b8 [https://schmern2.notion.site/schmern2/The-Bible-in-Small-Steps-b99ab90118b3433bab73c488ef44d4d1] Logos RAMPS Workflow - RAMPS Bible Study - The Bible in Small Steps in Logos Workflows Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ [https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/] https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod [https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod] https://twitter.com/schmern [https://twitter.com/schmern] Email the podcast at [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] jill@startwithsmallsteps.com [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] “Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.” Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. “The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com [http://netbible.com/] copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”. Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ [https://www.bible.ca/maps/] or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/ [https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/] Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact permissions@faithlife.com [permissions@faithlife.com]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”. By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal study, faith perspective, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, seminary-trained theologian, or biblical scholar. Any scriptural interpretation, commentary, or reflections offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, church body, or faith community. Theological understanding is a lifelong journey — I encourage you to study alongside your own tradition and trusted spiritual leaders. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

1 John 3 - God Is Greater Than Your Guilt

I’ve said before that 1 John doesn’t let you stay comfortable for long, and chapter 3 is a perfect example — it opens with some of the most tender language in the whole letter and within a few verses turns into one of the most demanding. This week I’m walking through what it means that we are actually called children of God — not honorary members, not metaphorically adopted, but genuinely identified as His own — and what that identity produces when it’s real. An Identity, Not a Title. John’s opening line is practically an exclamation point in the Greek — he wants the reader to stop and actually absorb what’s being said. Being called God’s children isn’t aspirational; it’s a present, settled fact with real consequences, including not fitting comfortably into a world running on a different value system. Hope That Purifies. We don’t yet know what we’ll fully become, but John ties that future hope directly to present behavior — not as a way of earning anything, but as the natural response of someone who actually believes the hope is real and is already living in light of it. The “Cannot Sin” Puzzle. This chapter has language that can sound like it contradicts chapter 1’s honest admission that we all sin. I unpack what John actually means by “sin” here — a settled, characteristic pattern of life, not an isolated failure — and why that distinction matters for how you read your own struggles. Love That Shows Up With a Checkbook. John gets uncomfortably practical: love that doesn’t act when it sees real need isn’t love, it’s sentiment. I talk through why this lands close to home for me personally, including my own wrestling with generosity versus financial anxiety about retirement. When Your Own Heart Condemns You. For anyone who reads this chapter and walks away feeling like they don’t measure up — John has an answer for that too: God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things. That’s meant to be comforting, not terrifying. If there’s one thing to sit with from this chapter, it’s this: our identity as God’s children isn’t something we have to prove or maintain through perfect performance — it’s something that’s already true, and it shows up naturally as love in action when we actually believe it. Download blank templates, schedules here: https://schmern2.notion.site/Downloads-Template-Word-and-Excel-Schedule-67439d14449d4c20bfe00efe069f78b8 [https://schmern2.notion.site/schmern2/The-Bible-in-Small-Steps-b99ab90118b3433bab73c488ef44d4d1] Logos RAMPS Workflow - RAMPS Bible Study - The Bible in Small Steps in Logos Workflows Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ [https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/] https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod [https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod] https://twitter.com/schmern [https://twitter.com/schmern] Email the podcast at [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] jill@startwithsmallsteps.com [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] “Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.” Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. “The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com [http://netbible.com/] copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”. Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ [https://www.bible.ca/maps/] or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/ [https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/] Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact permissions@faithlife.com [permissions@faithlife.com]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”. By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal study, faith perspective, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, seminary-trained theologian, or biblical scholar. Any scriptural interpretation, commentary, or reflections offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, church body, or faith community. Theological understanding is a lifelong journey — I encourage you to study alongside your own tradition and trusted spiritual leaders. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

1 John 2 - Three Tests of Real Faith

How do you actually know that you know God — not just know about Him, but really know Him? That’s the question sitting underneath all of 1 John, and chapter 2 is where John starts giving real, concrete answers. This week I walk through three tests John gives us for genuine knowledge of God, plus one of the most comforting ideas in the whole letter: we have an advocate. We Have an Advocate. When we sin — and we will — we’re not left without representation before God. John uses legal language: Jesus stands as our defender before the Father, and He’s able to do that because of propitiation, the idea (drawn from the Day of Atonement) that God’s righteous wrath against sin has already been satisfied through Christ’s sacrifice. Obedience as Love’s Maturity. John doesn’t soften this one: if you claim to know God without obedience, that’s not just inconsistency, it’s lying. But obedience isn’t opposed to love — it’s love brought to completion, matured, fully realized in actually walking like Jesus walked. Old Command, New Light. The command to love one another is both ancient (rooted all the way back in Leviticus 19:18) and brand new — embodied and demonstrated in a fresh way through Christ. I talk through why hatred toward other believers isn’t just a moral failing but something that actually blinds your perception, using a little history (looking at you, Henry VIII) to show how this plays out. Three Stages of Spiritual Maturity. John addresses children, fathers, and young men — not age groups, but stages of where someone is in their walk with God: just grasping grace, actively fighting spiritual battles, or settled into decades of tested knowledge. No group is condemned; each is just described honestly. Don’t Love the World’s Value System. This isn’t about hating creation — God loves the world enough to send His Son for it. It’s about three specific pulls: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — appetite, coveting, and the desire to be seen as significant. None of it lasts, and John ties our loyalty to what’s actually permanent. The Anointing That Protects Us. Against false teachers denying the full incarnation of Christ, John reminds his readers they already have everything they need through the Holy Spirit’s anointing — no secret knowledge required, just trusting what’s already been given. If there’s one thing I want to leave you with from this chapter, it’s the advocate. We’re not going to be sinless, but we have someone pleading our case who has already paid what was due — on our okay days and our worst days alike. Download blank templates, schedules here: https://schmern2.notion.site/Downloads-Template-Word-and-Excel-Schedule-67439d14449d4c20bfe00efe069f78b8 [https://schmern2.notion.site/schmern2/The-Bible-in-Small-Steps-b99ab90118b3433bab73c488ef44d4d1] Logos RAMPS Workflow - RAMPS Bible Study - The Bible in Small Steps in Logos Workflows Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ [https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/] https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod [https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod] https://twitter.com/schmern [https://twitter.com/schmern] Email the podcast at [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] jill@startwithsmallsteps.com [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] “Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.” Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. “The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com [http://netbible.com/] copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”. Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ [https://www.bible.ca/maps/] or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/ [https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/] Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact permissions@faithlife.com [permissions@faithlife.com]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”. By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal study, faith perspective, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, seminary-trained theologian, or biblical scholar. Any scriptural interpretation, commentary, or reflections offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, church body, or faith community. Theological understanding is a lifelong journey — I encourage you to study alongside your own tradition and trusted spiritual leaders. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

1 John 1 - The Promise of Forgiveness

What does it actually mean to walk in the light — not as a metaphor, but as an actual way of living? And how does that square with John telling us, in the very same breath, that anyone who claims to have no sin is lying? Those two ideas — light and sin, honesty and fellowship — sit at the very center of 1 John 1. An eyewitness, not a theologian. John opens this letter the same way he opened his Gospel — echoing Genesis 1:1 and the eternal Word — but the emphasis shifts. The Gospel moves from eternity into history. This letter moves from history into testimony: “what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we have touched with our hands.” That repetition is deliberate. John is insisting this wasn’t mythology or metaphor — it was someone you could sit across the table from. Why the eyewitness language mattered so much. John was writing against an early form of what would become Gnosticism — the idea that the physical world is inherently bad and only the spiritual matters. Against that, John plants a flag: Jesus was real, touchable, physical. The incarnation wasn’t an appearance. It happened. Fellowship is the whole point. The Greek word koinonia means a deep, shared participation — not just a social arrangement, but a real connection to the inner life of God Himself. John says he’s writing so that his readers’ joy (and his own) would be complete. This isn’t an intellectual argument he’s trying to win. It’s joy he’s after. God is light, with zero exceptions. Not mostly light with a little darkness mixed in — entirely, wholly light, with darkness completely absent. Walking in darkness isn’t ignorance or simple wrongdoing; it’s living in a way that can’t bear examination in the light of who God actually is. Three claims John exposes as lies. Claiming fellowship with God while walking in darkness is lying — there’s no version of that combination that’s true. Claiming to have no sin at all means the truth isn’t in you. And claiming you’ve never sinned makes God Himself out to be a liar, since the entire gospel depends on the reality of human sin. The promise underneath all of it. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Confession means agreeing with what God already knows — not minimizing, not reframing, just calling it what it is. And God’s forgiveness isn’t Him looking the other way; it’s Him acting in line with a justice that’s already been satisfied through the blood of Jesus. Walking in the light isn’t about being good enough. It’s a posture of honesty before God, trusting that His forgiveness is continuous, not a one-time transaction. The person who confesses their sin is the one who discovers — over and over — that God is faithful to forgive them. If you know someone carrying guilt they think is too big or too repeated to be forgiven, this chapter is for them. The size of the sin was never the basis for the forgiveness — God’s own faithfulness and justice always were. You can find this and all my podcasts and Bible studies at jillfromthenorthwoods.com. See you in 1 John 2. Download blank templates, schedules here: https://schmern2.notion.site/Downloads-Template-Word-and-Excel-Schedule-67439d14449d4c20bfe00efe069f78b8 [https://schmern2.notion.site/schmern2/The-Bible-in-Small-Steps-b99ab90118b3433bab73c488ef44d4d1] Logos RAMPS Workflow - RAMPS Bible Study - The Bible in Small Steps in Logos Workflows Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ [https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/] https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod [https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod] https://twitter.com/schmern [https://twitter.com/schmern] Email the podcast at [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] jill@startwithsmallsteps.com [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] “Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.” Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. “The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com [http://netbible.com/] copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”. Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ [https://www.bible.ca/maps/] or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/ [https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/] Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact permissions@faithlife.com [permissions@faithlife.com]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”. By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal study, faith perspective, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, seminary-trained theologian, or biblical scholar. Any scriptural interpretation, commentary, or reflections offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, church body, or faith community. Theological understanding is a lifelong journey — I encourage you to study alongside your own tradition and trusted spiritual leaders. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

2 Peter 3 - Why Hasn’t Jesus Come Back Yet?

What do you do with a promise that hasn’t arrived yet? That’s the question sitting underneath all of 2 Peter 3. Peter knows he’s near the end of his life, and the false teachers he addressed so bluntly in chapter 2 have found a new angle: if Jesus was really coming back, why hasn’t He? It’s been decades. Maybe the whole thing was just a story. Scoffers aren’t new. Peter calls out mockers who treat God’s promises with ridicule, arguing that nothing has ever changed and nothing ever will — a position scholars call uniformitarianism. It sounds reasonable. It’s also incomplete, and Peter is about to show exactly where it breaks down. The flood is the proof that uniformity is a myth. The world that existed before the flood wasn’t destroyed by ordinary natural processes — it was destroyed by the Word of God interrupting what looked like a fixed, permanent order. The same Word that created the heavens and earth is the same Word holding the present order in reserve for a coming day of judgment. A day is not a day, to God. Drawing on Psalm 90, Peter reframes the entire delay question: with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day. This isn’t God being indifferent to human time — it’s a category difference. What feels like an agonizing 2,000-year wait to us isn’t delay from where God stands. The delay is mercy, not absence. The Lord is patient, not wanting anyone to perish but all to come to repentance. Every extra day isn’t empty time — it’s an open door, an ongoing invitation for people who haven’t yet responded. Destruction, or unveiling? When the day of the Lord comes “like a thief in the night,” the language Peter uses is less about annihilation and more about disclosure — everything hidden will be exposed, everything done will be seen for what it actually was. It’s an unveiling, not just an ending. This changes how you live now, not just what you believe later. The point of all this isn’t passive waiting. Peter asks directly: what sort of people ought you to be? The answer is the same holiness and godliness threaded through the entire letter — intensified, not diminished, by the certainty that this is all heading somewhere. A new heaven and a new earth — our actual home. Righteousness doesn’t visit the new creation; it dwells there, takes up permanent residence. If this world has ever felt like it doesn’t quite fit, Peter’s answer is that it isn’t supposed to. This one’s the tent. The next one is home. Peter’s last words: keep growing. He closes not with a final argument, but with a command — grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. The same roots that protect against false teaching are the roots that carry you through a long, uncertain wait. If you know someone who’s struggling with the silence of God, or wondering why nothing seems to change — tell them the wait isn’t empty. It’s full of grace, and the door is still open. Find all my podcasts and Bible studies at jillfromthenorthwoods.com. Next, we move into the letters of John. Download blank templates, schedules here: https://schmern2.notion.site/Downloads-Template-Word-and-Excel-Schedule-67439d14449d4c20bfe00efe069f78b8 [https://schmern2.notion.site/schmern2/The-Bible-in-Small-Steps-b99ab90118b3433bab73c488ef44d4d1] Logos RAMPS Workflow - RAMPS Bible Study - The Bible in Small Steps in Logos Workflows Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ [https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/] https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod [https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod] https://twitter.com/schmern [https://twitter.com/schmern] Email the podcast at [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] jill@startwithsmallsteps.com [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] “Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.” Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. “The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com [http://netbible.com/] copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”. Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ [https://www.bible.ca/maps/] or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/ [https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/] Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact permissions@faithlife.com [permissions@faithlife.com]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”. By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal study, faith perspective, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, seminary-trained theologian, or biblical scholar. Any scriptural interpretation, commentary, or reflections offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, church body, or faith community. Theological understanding is a lifelong journey — I encourage you to study alongside your own tradition and trusted spiritual leaders. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.