Epistles of John

A study of John's three letters

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Epistles of John

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Sunday, May 16, 2010

2nd John

(1) This letter is from John, the *elder. I am writing to **the chosen
lady and to her children, whom I love in the ***TRUTH—as
does everyone else who knows the TRUTH—

  • *elder: Greek - presburteros. Uniform tradition
    holds that John was the presiding elder, or bishop, of the church at
    Ephesus.
  • **the chosen lady: Greek - kuria (feminine
    of kurios). Chuck Missler teaches this is Mary, the mother
    of Jesus, as does the Roman Catholic Church. I don't really buy that.
    Some believe it was written to a specific woman, but that seems unlikely
    simply because of the place of women in the early church. It more likely
    is a metaphor for a local church or a family in that church. The Greek
    word for "church" is feminine (ekklesia) and elsewhere
    feminine imagery is used of the church. It was not Ephesus, since that
    was his base of operations. It was also probably not Colossae, since
    the heretics John deals with are quite similar to those dealt with by
    Paul in Colossians (some five or six years earlier)—yet John writes
    to an audience which seems to be a bit naive about them. This would
    hardly be true if they had Paul’s letter to the Colossians in
    front of them. Indeed, some distance from Colossae is presupposed, since
    that letter was intended to be circulated (Colossians 4:16). Further,
    verse 12 seems to suggest that it is difficult for John to get away
    and make a visit to the church, implying that this is not nearby.
  • ***TRUTH: A key word in 2 John, but what
    is TRUTH? Didn't Pontius Pilate ask "What is truth?"

(2) because the TRUTH lives in us and will be with us forever.

(3) Grace, mercy, and peace, which come from God the Father and
from Jesus Christ—the *Son of the Father—will
continue to be with us who live in TRUTH and love.

  • *Son of the Father: Emphasizing that He is both Messiah and the Son of God.

(4) How happy I was to meet some of your children and find them living according to the TRUTH, just as the Father commanded.

(5) I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning.

(6) Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.

(7) I say this because many deceivers have gone
out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ *came in a real
body. Such a person is a deceiver and an
antichrist.

  • *came: May be translated "is coming in a real body".
  • 1 John 4:1-3: Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the TRUTH about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.
  • There is one sign of the true redeemer and savior -- he is the one who came from God into the world and became man. The incarnation is an essential doctrine of Christian faith. If you can trace a man's origin from his birth, and you know that he entered this human stream though the normal reproductive faculties, and he claims to be a savior, you can write it off, because he is not God's savior. And if he claims not to believe nor to accept this incarnation of the Lord Jesus, then the man is in error. No matter what else he may say, he is not speaking as the spokesman of God.

(8) Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full *reward.

  • *reward: Does not refer to salvation, but
    to the rewards of loyal service. Remember to whom this short letter
    is written - believers.
  • What do you lose, as a Christian, if you get involved with cults and
    heresies and liberal approaches that are so widespread? Will you lose
    your salvation? Not if you are really born again, of course. That rests
    upon the work of Christ for you. You are not going to lose your place
    in heaven, nor your redemption, nor your part in the body of Christ.
    But you do lose a great deal, as John makes clear. You lose the value
    of your life spent here; you waste your time. You throw away precious
    moments and years involved in that which is utterly worthless, and which
    will be displayed at last as wood, hay and stubble, to be consumed in
    the fire of God's searching gaze. You will lose your reward.
  • Revelation. 3:11: I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown.
  • 1 Corinthians 3:11-15: For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.
    • What do you lose, as a Christian, if you get involved with cults
      and heresies and liberal approaches that are so widespread? Will
      you lose your salvation? Not if you are really born again, of course.
      That rests upon the work of Christ for you. You are not going to
      lose your place in heaven, nor your redemption, nor your part in
      the body of Christ. But you do lose a great deal, as John makes
      clear. You lose the value of your life spent here; you waste
      your time and your life      . You throw away precious moments
      and years involved in that which is utterly worthless

(9) Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son.

(10) If anyone comes to *your meeting and does not teach the
TRUTH about Christ, don’t invite that person into your
home or give any kind of encouragement.

  • *your meeting: A home church?
  • Perhaps, some in the church felt that John's exhortation to love the
    brethren extended even to false teachers, and were, thus, inviting false
    teachers into their meetings and into their homes. As we witness to
    those who deny the deity of Christ, we must be careful that we aren't
    deceived by their doctrine.

(11) Anyone who encourages such people becomes a partner in their evil work.

(12) I have much more to say to you, but I don’t want to do it with paper and ink. For I hope to visit you soon and talk with you face to face. Then our joy will be complete.

(13) Greetings from the children of *your sister, chosen by God.

  • *your sister: If written from Ephesus, probably refers to the church in Ephesus.

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3rd John

  • Second shortest book in the New Testament. 2nd John is shortest in terms of verses; 3rd John is the shortest book in terms of size – one line shorter.
  • In his second epistle, John says that truth is worth standing for; in the third epistle, that truth is worth working for.
  • Three men pass before us in this epistle. Two were genuine, one was a phony.

(1) This letter is from John, the elder. I am writing to *Gaius, my dear friend, whom I love **in the truth.

  • *Gaius: John calls him “the beloved” ("dear friend" in the NLT) four times (verses 1, 2, 5, 11). His Greek name—as well as the Greek names of Diotrephes and Demetrius mentioned in the letter—suggest that this letter was addressed to a Gentile Christian. He would have been a member in one of the churches of Asia Minor which John had adopted as his own after the death of Paul. Gaius was a very common name in the Roman Empire.

(2) Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit.

(3) Some of the traveling teachers recently returned and made me very happy by telling me about your faithfulness and that you are living according to the truth.

  • The missionaries of the early church were itinerants. They went from place to place. Since the local inn was a wretched and dirty place and there were no Hampton Inn's, these traveling teachers were entertained in the homes of believers. Gaius opened his home, for which John congratulates him.
  • One of the requirements for the elders in the church was that they were given to hospitality.
  • Matthew 10:40-41: “Anyone who receives you receives me, and anyone who receives me receives the Father who sent me. If you receive a prophet as one who speaks for God, you will be given the same reward as a prophet. And if you receive righteous people because of their righteousness, you will be given a reward like theirs.
  • 2nd John is a condemnation for giving hospitality to false teachers whereas 3rd John is a commendation for giving hospitality to teachers of the truth.

(4) I could have no greater joy than to hear that *my children are following the truth.

  • *my children: perhaps Gaius was a convert of John’s.

(5) Dear friend, you are being faithful to God when you care for the traveling teachers who pass through, even though they are strangers to you.

  • In 2nd John, the apostle warns against receiving false teachers. In 3rd John, he encourages the believers to receive the true brethren.

(6) They have told *the church here of your loving friendship. Please continue providing for such teachers in a manner that pleases God.

  • *The church in view was John's church, probably in Ephesus.

(7) For they are traveling for the Lord, and they accept nothing from people who are not believers.

(8) So we ourselves should support them so that we can be their partners as they teach the truth.

(9) I wrote to *the church about this, but **Diotrephes, who loves to be the leader, refuses to have anything to do with us.

  • *the church: Nothing is said as to the locality of "the church" in question. It was elsewhere probably than where Gaius lived. Diotrephes was a prominent man in it, and very possibly Demetrius, mentioned in verse 12, was in it too.
  • **Diotrephes opposed the practice of welcoming the itinerant preachers, and John censors him for it. Diotrephes loved to have recognition, attention, and be the center of attraction. The issue is not of heresy, but of pride. There is no real evidence that Diotrephes was a heretic. Diotrephes is a rare name and means "nourished by Zeus." He was guilty on five charges:
    1. He must occupy the leading place; the most serious problem Diotrephes had was that he put himself first.
    2. He actually refused to receive John.
    3. He made malicious statements against the apostles.
    4. He refused to entertain the missionaries (apparently he wanted to do the teaching).
    5. He excommunicated those who did entertain the missionaries.

(10) When I come, I will report some of the things he is doing and the evil accusations he is making against us. Not only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, he also tells others not to help them. And when they do help, he puts them out of the church.

(11) Dear friend, don’t let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God’s children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God.

(12) Everyone *speaks highly of **Demetrius, as does the truth itself. We ourselves can say the same for him, and you know we speak the truth.

  • *speaks highly: We all want to be well thought of, but our walk will speak for itself.
  • **Demetrius: His name means belonging to Demeter (the goddess of agriculture), which identifies him as a convert from paganism.
  • Evidently, Demetrius was the bearer of this letter to Gaius, and was probably one of those missionaries who traveled from place to place. Phoebe probably served this function in delivering Romans (Romans 16:1–2) and Tychicus likely hand-carried Ephesians (Ephesians 6:21–22) and Colossians (Colossians 4:7–8).

(13) I have much more to say to you, but I don’t want to write it with pen and ink.

(14) For I hope to see you soon, and then we will talk face to face.

(15) Peace be with you. Your friends here send you their greetings. Please give my personal greetings to each of our friends there.

  • We each may well ask ourselves in closing this question — If the Apostle John were amongst us today, would he acknowledge you and me as FRIENDS?

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Sunday, April 11, 2010

1 John 5

(1) Everyone who *believes that Jesus is **the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too.

  • *believes: Of 1 John's 10 references to believing, seven are in chapter 5.
  • **the Christ: the Messiah. James 2:19: You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. So, this does not refer to simple head knowledge - it is believing the Jesus is not the Messiah but that He is MY Messiah!

(2) We *KNOW we love God’s children if we love God and obey his **commandments.

  • *KNOW: ginosko - to know with effort or by experience.
  • **commandments: but, which commandments?

    Romans 13:9: For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

     Galatians 5:14: For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

(3) Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

(4) For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.

(5) And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

  • In other words, the gnostics will lose in the battle against this evil world because their concept of Jesus is all wrong. As a result, the gnostics will (and did) slip into deep sin.

(6) And Jesus Christ was revealed as God’s Son by his baptism in water and by shedding his blood on the cross—not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit, who is truth, confirms it with his testimony.

  • Greek: This is he who came by water and blood.
  • Matthew 3:16-17: After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”
  • John 19:34: One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.
  • John 15:26: “But I will send you the Advocate—the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me.
  • Gnostics taught (and still teach) that Jesus received the “Christ Spirit” at His baptism, and the “Christ Spirit” left Jesus before He died on the cross (for them, it is unthinkable that God could hang on a cross). He was just as much the Son of God on the cross as He was the baptism of Jesus.

(7) So we have these three witnesses—

  • The Old Testament taught that every charge must be confirmed by “two or three witnesses” (Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15), a principle continued in the New Testament (Matthew 18:16; 2 Corinthians 13:1).

(8) the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and all three agree.

  • KJV: And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

    Not in the original!

(9) Since we believe human testimony, surely we can believe the greater testimony that comes from God. And God has testified about his Son.

  • Matthew 17:5: But even as he spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him.”
  • While they should believe John's eyewitness testimony, they should even more believe God's testimony! To claim that Jesus what the gnostics taught (and teach today) is to deny God's own testimony and (in verse 10) to call God a liar!

(10) All who believe in the Son of God KNOW in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has testified about his Son.

(11) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

(12) Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.

  • Only 2 categories - the saved and the lost. And the only difference is the Son. Outside of Christ, there is no eternal life. But, what is this "life"? Obviously, John isn't referring to life on this earth - everyone has that kind of life who is alive. This is referring to eternal life. Then, what does it mean "does not have life?" If a person is in hell suffering throughout eternity, does he not have life?
  • John 3:36: And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”
  • This life is not available to the false teachers. They deny Jesus' Sonship. They reject God’s full testimony concerning His Son. They make Him a liar. For them there is no life. For they are liars and preach lies. They believe ‘the Lie’ (2 Thessalonians 2:11). God’s testimony to His Son lies in the fact that He demonstrated His lifegiving power by raising Him from the dead as the Son by the Holy Spirit, and enabling Him thereby to give life to those who believed in Him.

(13) I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may *KNOW you have eternal life.

  • So many believe you cannot KNOW for sure whether you're saved, but John says emphatically that you can. I have capitalized the word "KNOW" in this chapter because the gnostics claimed special knowledge (gnosis).
  • John 20:31: But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.
  • *KNOW: Greek = oida = to know intuitively (without effort).
  • 1 Thessalonians 1:5: For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you.
  • Colossians 2:2: I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself.
  • God wants you to know you have eternal life. Many religions teach a path of works; you can never really know until after you die if you made it or not. Not so with the true God — he wants you to have the assurance of salvation. Of course, that assurance can only come if I have nothing to do with it, because if I have something to do with it you can be sure I’ll mess it up. What do you have to do to be saved? Accept Jesus as savior for your sins — that’s it. And it’s the only way you can have assurance of salvation — to believe God is in charge of it for you. If you do, then you can know you have eternal life.
  • “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. (John 5:24). This faith in Him and all He has done for them, has produced eternal life now within them.

(14) And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.

  • True prayer will conform to His will. It is when we want His will uppermost that we can begin to pray effectively - Luke 22:42: “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

(15) And since we KNOW he hears us when we make our requests, we also KNOW that he will give us what we ask for.

(16) If you see a Christian brother or sister sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it.

  • The "unforgivable sin" is refusal to accept Jesus Christ as Savior (John 3:36). The "sin unto death" refers to such flagrant sin that God's punishment is physical death:

    1 Corinthians 11:27-30: So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.

     1 Corinthians 5:5: Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.
  • See Acts 5:1-11 where Ananias and Sapphira die because they lied to the Holy Spirit.
  • Mark 3:28-30: “I tell you the truth, all sin and blasphemy can be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. This is a sin with eternal consequences.” He told them this because they were saying, “He’s possessed by an evil spirit.”

(17) All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death.

(18) We KNOW that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot *touch them.

  • Living in habitual sin is incompatible with being a Christian. If sin doesn’t bother you, that should bother you. If you can walk through the cesspool we call earth and not have it distress you every day it might mean you need to re-evaluate your relationship with Jesus.
  • *touch: It means to "lay hold of" or to "grasp" rather than a mere superficial touch. The only other place in his writings where John uses this particular verb for touch is in John 20:17, where He tells Mary Don’t cling to me.

(19) We KNOW that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.

  • Luke 4:5-6: Then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please.

(20) And we KNOW that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can KNOW the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.

  • John 17:3: And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.

(21) Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

  • Greek: keep yourselves from idols.
  • An idol is anything between you and God.
  • Is worship of Mary idol worship?

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Sunday, April 4, 2010

1 John 4

1 John 4 - Discerning False Prophets

(1) Dear *friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must **test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.

  • *friends: "beloved" in the KJV, which is closer to the meaning since the Greek is agapetoi from agape (God's love).

    John uses the word "love" or its equivalent 27 times in this chapter.
  • **test them: Believers are exhorted to test the spirits (of prophets) with two tests: external (doctrine) and internal (witness of the Spirit). The doctrinal test is a simple question: Has Jesus Christ come in the flesh (4:1-3)? The spiritual test ends up being just as simple: Do the prophets heed John (4:4-6)? This question can be asked because John is God’s spokesman (4:6).
  • Matthew 7:15-18: “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.
  • Matthew 24:11: And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people.
  • Mark 13:22: For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.
  • Acts 17:11-12: And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. As a result, many Jews believed, as did many of the prominent Greek women and men.
  • Galatians 1:8: Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you.
  • 2 Corinthians 11:13: These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ.
  • 1 Timothy 4:1: Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons.
  • 2 Timothy 4:3-4: For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.
  • 2 Peter 2:1: But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves.

(2) This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that *Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God.

  • *Jesus Christ came in a real body: Here is the central issue. Who is Jesus Christ?
    Who is claiming him to be something that John, an eyewitness, says he was not?
    • Is he a spirit without a body?
    • Is he just a great man like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., etc.?
    • Was he just a human on whom the holy spirit fell at his baptism which then left at his crucifixion?
    • Many false teachers of the time (the Gnostics) and even today were saying that Jesus only “appeared” to be human. This was probably based on the teaching that the material creation was inherently evil and therefore physical bodies were evil.
  • To the Gnostic, all matter or material was essentially evil, and since Christ was an emanation and not evil, He could not have taken on human flesh. Gnostics firmly denied the Incarnation of Christ, stating that He was only an apparition. The Gnostic Cerinthus was more subtle in his teaching. He declared that there was both a human Jesus and a divine Christ, that divinity came upon Him at His baptism and left Him at the cross. In fact, the Gospel of Peter translates the words of Jesus on the cross like this: “My power, my power, why hast thou forsaken me?”
  • John 1:14: So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
  • 2 John 1:7: I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist.

(3) But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the *truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.

  • *truth about Jesus: And what is the truth about Jesus? The truth about Jesus is that he is both God and man. He existed in the beginning and was God (John 1), yet He was also human in a real body - he suffered pain and we touched him (1 John 1). All who teach anything less has the spirit of Antichrist (Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Muslims, liberals).

(4) But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.

  • King James version: Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
  • In the battle between Jesus and satan, satan’s destiny is clear.

(5) Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them.

(6) But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.

  • John here speaks of the absolute authority of the ministry of the apostles. They were chosen and commissioned by God - including Paul. There can be no middle ground, no compromising position of any kind. If the apostles’ word is minimized or modified by man’s teaching, this is actual refusal of God’s voice.
  • John, who knew Jesus, who lived with Jesus, who laid his head on Jesus’ chest, who talked to Jesus, who touched Jesus, said that. Anybody who rejects the apostles’ teaching doesn’t know the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(7) Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.

  • This does not rule out the need for faithful confession of Christ (2:23; 4:2) and ethical integrity (3:16). But, love completes the picture of a life in fellowship with God. Love is presented here as a consequence of, not a precondition for, being born of God. Unbelievers can love others to some degree, but not in the way that God's indwelling presence enables Christians to love.
  • This love is agapao — we must remember love is not an emotion, it’s a commitment. You can’t stop loving someone in the agapao sense because it’s not an emotion to begin with; rather it’s a commitment between you and that other person. If only marriage partners would do the same! For those who are dating or even engage, they need to recognize what REAL love is!

(8) But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

  • The person who lacks love shows himself to be unchanged at the core of his being by the gospel message. John is not saying that God is only love (he has numerous other attributes), nor that love is God (a statement for which there is no scriptural support). “God is love” means that God continually gives of himself to others and seeks their benefit. There was eternal love between the persons of the Trinity even before the world was created (John 17:24), and God's love is the ultimate source of any love that Christians are able to display (1 John 4:11, 12, 19).

(9) God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.

  • John 3:16: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
  • Romans 5:8: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

(10) This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a *sacrifice to take away our sins.

  • *sacrifice: The KJV uses the word "propitiation" and sacrifice is the meaning of that word.

(11) Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.

(12) No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

  • John 1:18: No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.
  • John 14:9: Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?
  • Colossians 1:15: Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
  • We can’t see God directly for several reasons; one is that we don’t have the correct number of dimensions in our physical being. We know we live in a world of at least 10 dimensions, yet we experience only four. God lives in more dimensions and you can’t expect to see more dimensions than you live in. If you want to see God, just look to Jesus — He is the perfect image of God represented in four dimensions.

(13) And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.

  • Acts 2:38: Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
  • Romans 8:11: The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
  • 1 Corinthians 6:19: Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,
  • 2 Corinthians 5:5: God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
  • Ephesians 1:13-14: And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.
  • Ephesians 4:30 (KJV): And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

(14) Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the *Savior of the world.

  • Unlike these false teachers, John was an EYEWITNESS! Who should know best who Jesus was?
  • Notice in these two verses (13 & 14), the vital manifestation of God as a Trinity, the gift of the Spirit, the sending of the Son, by the Father.

(15) All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.

  • In 1 John 4:2, it was required that true teachers affirm Christ's full humanity; here it is required that they affirm his full deity.
  • John 17:21: I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
  • Romans 10:9: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

(16) We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.

(17) And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.

(18) Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love

  • 2 Timothy 1:7: For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

(19) We love each other because he loved us first.

  • A sad commentary on human love — we love in reciprocation. Our love is not an original outpouring, but a response to something. We love because we get something in return.

(20) If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?

(21) And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.

  • John 13:35: Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

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Sunday, March 7, 2010

The Epistles of John - 1 John 3

(1) See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his *children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.



  • *children: Greek: tekna

  • The love God has "lavished" on us! This is agape love. The creator of the Universe calls us His children!

  • To John, there is no higher place, no nearer relationship, than being children of God. No greater expression of the Father's love! He has brought us into a relationship of nearness and dearness. He has not merely rescued us from our sins, but He has made us (and called us) His children!

  • John 1:11-12: He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.


(2) Dear friends, we are *ALREADY God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ **appears. But we do know that ***we will be like him, for we will ****see him as he really is.



  • *ALREADY God’s children: Present tense - we are presently His children and joint heirs with Christ!
    How? - by adoption.

    • Romans 8:14-17: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.


    • Ephesians 1:4-5: Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.



  • **appears: "is revealed".

  • ***we will be like him:

    • Romans 8:19, 29: For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. ... For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

    • What we will be means having glorified bodies that will never be sick or grow old or die, and being completely without sin. No one like that has yet appeared on earth (except Christ himself after his resurrection). In eternity, Christians will be morally without sin, intellectually without falsehood or error, physically without weakness or imperfections, and filled continually with the Holy Spirit. But “like” does not mean “identical to,” and believers will never be omniscient or omnipotent as Christ is, since he is both man and God.

    • Jesus’ resurrected body had unique characteristics; He could get inside locked rooms without passing through the walls. Remember how the disciples were huddled in the upper room behind locked doors (for fear they'd be next), when Jesus suddenly appears to them. How did He do that? He makes a point He has a real body, but not the kind we are used to. In order to get inside a room without going through the walls, you must have additional dimensions of existence. It’s not an easy concept to understand, but you can imagine the idea by thinking of people who only live in two dimensions — imagine their entire world is on a sheet of paper. Suppose also those people are inside their house locked behind the doors. You could (as a three-dimensional being) go inside their locked house (represented as a flat square) and appear to them without going through any of the walls. Why? You have additional dimensions. For them, you just appeared. We know more dimensions exist than we are able to experience — but how would the disciples have known that?

    • On the Mount of Transfiguration, we see Jesus clothed with light. With what was Adam (and Eve) clothed in the garden before the fall? - light. How did they know they were naked - no light! Do a study on "light" and "glory". We shall be brought back to what we were in the garden.



  • ****see him:

    • Psalm 17:15: Because I am righteous, I will see you. When I awake, I will see you face to face and be satisfied.

    • Job 19:25-27: “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!




(3) And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.



  • 2 Corinthians 7:1: Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.

  • The question is, does this make a difference in your life? If you truly believe in Jesus, does it show? Can your friends tell? Evidence should exist of a changed life if you have truly been born again. Anyone who can continue to live in a sinful lifestyle needs to examine their commitment and devotion to Jesus.


(4) Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.



  • Amplified Version is better at this, showing the definition of what sin is: Everyone who commits (practices) sin is guilty of lawlessness; for [that is what] sin is, lawlessness (the breaking, violating of God's law by transgression or neglect--being unrestrained and unregulated by His commands and His will).

  • Sin characterizes every human being born into this world. “An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.” (Proverbs 21:4 KJV). Sin is living life without reference to God.

  • Sin (hamartia) connotes disobedience to and rejection of the ways of God.

  • For John, it is not violation of the Mosaic law that results in lawlessness, since he is writing to Christians. The ‘law’ for the author is the law of love, as given by Jesus in the new commandment of John 13:34-35. This is the command to love one’s brother, a major theme of 1 John and the one specific sin in the entire letter which the opponents are charged with (3:17). Since the author has already labeled the opponents “antichrists” in 2:18, it may well be that he sees in their withdrawing from the community and refusing to love the brethren a foreshadowing of the apocalyptic iniquity of the end times (compare 2 Thessalonians 2:3-8). In Matthew 24:11-12 Jesus foretold that false prophets would arise in the end times (compare 1 John 4:1), that lawlessness ("anomia") would increase, and that “the love of many will grow cold” (which would certainly fit the author’s portrait of the opponents here).


(5) And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him.



  • John 1:29: The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

  • 2 Corinthians 5:21: For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

  • Hebrews 9:26: If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.

  • In spite of our lack of ability to understand what He went through, it was His love for us that held Him on the cross — simple nails wouldn’t do. There is an excellent book by Max Lucado entitled "He Chose the Nails."

  • If we continue in sin, we act as though Jesus had not died for us, as though he had not torn down the walls that trapped us in sin. For although the words "take away" includes the sense of bearing sin on our behalf, it may mean something closer to "abolish" or "do away with" sin. Jesus' life and death stand in radical opposition to sin and strike at the very heart of the power of sin. Furthermore, to condone or tolerate sin is to negate the life of Jesus as a model of active righteousness for the Christian (2:6).


(6) Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.



  • John’s message is a Christian cannot continue living in habitual sin. It doesn’t mean you won’t occasionally fall, or you won’t struggle with it, but for the true Christian it is impossible to continue in sin. Even if you try, you will be miserable. If you can continue to live an unrighteous life and it doesn’t bother you, perhaps you should examine your commitment to Christ.

    • 2 Corinthians 13:5: Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith.



  • 1 John 1:8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. In 1 John 1:8, the grammar indicates John is speaking about occasional acts of sin. The grammar of 1 John 3:6 indicates that John is speaking of a settled, continued lifestyle of sin. John is not teaching here the possibility of sinless perfection.

  • In some ways, the question is not “do you sin or not?” We each sin. The question is, “How do you react when you sin? Do you give into the pattern of sin and let it dominate your lifestyle? Or do you humbly confess your sin, and do battle against it with the power Jesus can give?”


(7) Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous.



  • Romans 6:14: Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.

  • The Gnostics were influencing the church at this point; John reminds us to beware of deception. Many times deceit sounds correct and even logical, but upon closer examination is found unbiblical and false. Even today, people teach false doctrine and (either knowingly or unknowingly) lead people astray. Many times these people will claim a “new revelation” from God that has been hidden until now. If someone teaches something contradicting the Bible, it’s the teacher in error, not the Bible.

  • John is not saying that we are made righteous before God by our own righteous acts - the Bible clearly teaches that we are made righteous through faith in Jesus Christ. Yet, that righteousness in Jesus will be evident in our lives. Apparently, there were those who taught that you could be righteous before God with no evidence of righteousness in your life - John is rebuking this idea. Charles Spurgeon said it well: “The grace that does not change my life will not save my soul.”


(8) But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.



  • John 8:34: Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.

  • John 8:44: For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.

  • Knowing Christ means becoming involved in an all-out war against the works of the devil, that is, the practice of sinning.

    • Ephesians 6:12: For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.



  • Satan lost at Calvary. A myth exists that Jesus didn’t know what was happening, but even a casual reading of John 18:1-9 shows Jesus controlled the entire unfolding of events. It was His purpose and mission, and His mission has been accomplished — the works of the devil are defeated.

  • You either belong to the devil or to the Son of God - no middle ground!


(9) Those who have been *born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.



  • *born: John 3:3: Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” - or "born from above"

  • A believer who commits a sin repents, confesses and finds forgiveness. A person who continues to sin is not sorry for what he is doing - so, this person never confesses and doesn't receive forgiveness.

  • Those who habitually sin have neither seen him nor known him. They are not genuine Christians.

  • Christianity is not just signing the doctrine or creed. It is not just writing your name under a statement of belief. It means that your behavior changes. The emphasis of John, as with all the writers of the New Testament, is this: "Look," he says, "if you really have Jesus Christ living in you, you can't be the same person. You cannot go on living in sin, doing wrong things, lying and stealing, living in sexual immorality. You cannot do it." You see, these Gnostics were saying, "Look, if spirit is good and matter is evil and our bodies are matter, then the only thing that counts is the spirit. What you do with your body doesn't make any difference. So if you want to indulge the lusts of it, go ahead. It won't affect your spiritual standing with God." As a result they were turning (as Jude puts it) the grace of God into licentiousness. People were being taught that they could practice all the immorality of their day, and God would still treat them exactly the same.

  • You cannot have the Holy Spirit living in you and live an unholy life. If you live the unholy life and profess to be a Christian, you are a liar, says John. He is very blunt about it.

  • Who is it that cannot sin? The believer? No – or chapter 1:1-10 would be contradicted. It is the nature received from God that cannot sin.

  • It is the same message Paul preached, saying that as believers we are to throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. (Ephesians 4:22, 24)


(10) So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.



  • John 8:44: For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.


(11) This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.



  • John 13:34; 15:12: So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. ... This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.


(12) We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous.



  • John begins this section by defining what love is not, using the example of Cain (3:11-15), followed by a definition of what love is, using the example of Christ (3:16-17).

  • Cain killed his brother Abel. Why? Because he was jealous. Cain’s sacrifice to God didn’t follow God’s rules, and was thus rejected. Cain’s wrath then turned to his brother Abel. Instead of examining his own position and getting right with God, Cain chose to kill his brother, as if eliminating him would make him appear better. But God doesn’t grade on a curve. Rules are meant to be followed. Cain didn’t have love for his brother.

  • Genesis 4:3-8: When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift—the best of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected. “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Let’s go out into the fields.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him.

  • Cain is a good example of the failure to love:

    • We can presume that Cain had a godly upbringing that should have equipped him to love, but he chose not to.

    • Cain’s disobedience came from a lack of faith (Hebrews 11:4) which resulted in first disobedience, then hatred.

    • Cain’s disobedience and hatred was based in pride (Genesis 4:5).

    • Cain’s disobedience and hatred made him miserable (Genesis 4:5).

    • Cain refused the warning God gave him, and gave into the sin of hatred (Genesis 4:6-7)

    • Cain’s sin of hatred led to action against the one he hated (Genesis 4:8).

    • Cain was evasive about his sin of hatred, and tried to hide it. But God found him out (Genesis 4:9).




(13) So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the *world hates you.



  • *world: Cain is a "type" of the world.

  • John 15:18: “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.


(14) If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead.



  • John 5:24: “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.

  • Being a Christian is more than saying, “I am a Christian” or, as Bill O'Reilly once said, "I was born a Christian." There are in fact some who claim to be Christians who are not. How can we know if we are one of these? John’s reply has been constant and simple. There are three tests to measure the proof of a genuine Christian: the truth test, the love test, and the moral test. If we believe in what the Bible teaches as true, if we show the love of Jesus to others, and if our conduct has been changed and is becoming more like Jesus, then our claim to be a Christian can be proven true.


(15) Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.



  • Matthew 5:21-22: “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! ...


(16) We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.



  • God demonstrated to us what "agape" love is by His Son giving up His life for us.

  • The exact same idea was expressed by Paul in Romans 5:8: But God showed (proved) his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

  • To understand the Biblical idea of love, we should begin by understanding the vocabulary of love among the ancient Greeks, who gave us the original language of the New Testament:

    • Eros described erotic love - sexual love.

    • Storge referred to family love, the kind of love there is between a parent and child, or between family members in general.

    • Philia spoke of a brotherly friendship and affection. It is the love of deep friendship and partnership. It might be described as the highest love that is capable of without God’s help.

    • Agape is the fourth word for love. It described a love that loves without changing. It is love so great that it can be given to the unlovable or unappealing. It is love that loves even when it is rejected. Agape love gives and loves because it wants to; it does not demand or expect repayment from the love given - it gives because it loves, it does not love in order to receive.



  • John is telling us to do the same thing we read in Philippians 2:3-4: Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.


(17) If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?


(18) Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.



  • John will not allow us to merely talk about love; real love is demonstrated in actions (though it is also often evident in our feelings).


(19) Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.


(20) Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.



  • "Sometimes our heart condemns us, but, in doing so, it gives a wrong verdict, and then we have the satisfaction of being able to take the case into a higher court, for 'God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.'" (Spurgeon)


(21) Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence.



  • “The word rendered confidence stood in ancient Greece for the most valued right of a citizen of a free state, the right to ‘speak his mind’ . . . unhampered by fear or shame.” (Barker citing Dodd)


(22) And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.



  • John 15:7: But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!


(23) And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.


(24) Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because *the Spirit he gave us lives in us.



  • *the Spirit he gave us lives in us: This is the new nature that Paul talks about so much.

  • Romans 8:16: For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.



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Bible studies are held in Oakbay subdivision in Noblesville, Indiana. In-person Sunday studies have been eliminated because of COVID-19 concerns. Wednesday studies at 7:00 pm led by Don Terry via Zoom - presently studying the Book of Acts from a dispensationalist viewpoint. Bi-monthly Wednesday’s women’s studies at 7:00 pm led by Carolyn Terry via Zoom - presently studying Paul’s second letter to Timothy - and his last writing. You can see several of our present and past studies but we covered many other subjects before starting this blog. The goal of these studies is to bring each of us to know Christ better (epignosis) and then to “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” as mentioned by Paul in Philippians 3:14 and to hear Jesus’ “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”. Dedicated to the memory of Don & Carolyn Terry’s daughter, DJ (Dorothy Jean) Terry, who went to be with the Lord Jesus Christ in 1999 at 20 years old.