Epistles of John

A study of John's three letters

Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Epistles of John - 1 John 1

Before beginning the study, read aloud the entire 1st Epistle of
John to get a "feel" of its message.


WHO:


The only letters in the New Testament which do not mention who wrote
them are the three epistles of John and the epistle to the Hebrews. The
title over the letter in our Bibles ("The First Letter of John") was
added by the church. The earliest Christian writers after the
apostolic period quote this epistle as from the Apostle John -
the elder statesman in the "church" writing to his "dear children". John
is one of the "inner circle" of James, John and Peter. John does not
give his name or titles, but clearly identifies himself as a follower of
Jesus during His earthly ministry (1:1-5). He claims intimate
involvement in the life of Jesus which is characteristic only of an
Apostle (1:1-4). Furthermore, he claims distinctive authority held by
the Apostolic office alone (4:6).


The oldest testimony is that of Polycarp, who was personally acquainted with the Apostle John. He makes, in one of his writings, a direct reference to 1 John 4:3, in fact, he quotes this verse almost verbatim.


John was the last living apostle, the only one who wasn't martyred for Christ. John became known
as the “apostle of love” (John 21:20), using the word “love” 33 times in
this epistle. But John was not always the apostle of love. His life is
an example of how Jesus can transform anyone’s life. Earlier in John’s
life we see him being:



  • Prejudiced and exclusive:

    • Mark 9:38: John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he wasn’t in our group.”



  • Judgmental:

    • Luke 9:54: When James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, “Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up?”



  • Prideful and ambitious:

    • Mark 10:35-37: Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came over and spoke to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do us a favor.” “What is your request?” he asked. They replied, “When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.”




At the time John writes, a group called the Gnostics
infiltrated the church; John writes in part to set the record straight.
The Gnostics believed they possessed hidden knowledge and you needed to
be part of their group to truly understand the scriptures — similar to
cults of today. The Gnostics did not question Jesus’ deity, they
questioned His humanity. Since they taught all matter is evil, Jesus
really didn’t have a body. The Gnostics' teaching material was evil
leads to two errors:



  1. A form of asceticism — denying yourself is the
    path to heaven. The extreme puritanical view.

  2. Your body (since it is evil) doesn’t matter. If
    you do drugs or party it really doesn’t matter since your body is evil
    anyway.


False Teachers (Gnostics - antichrists):



  • The heresy of gnosticism was gaining a foothold in the Church when John wrote this letter. The Gnostics didn't believe that God created the "evil" material world, but that a distant emanation of Him did. They believed that Jesus was a phantom when He lived on the Earth and didn't have a body of flesh. Gnosticism was further developed by Arias, who started the Arian heresy. Arias denied the deity of Christ and claimed that He was only a created being. The Arian heresy is the basis of the Jehovah's Witnesses belief system and gnosticism is close to Christian Science. John sought to correct the heresy by emphasizing the deity of Jesus Christ in his writings.

  • The Gnostics posited a series of “aeons” or emanations from God,
    each more removed from Him than its predecessors, until one emerged
    sufficiently remote to create the material world. Fundamental to Gnostic
    thought was that the body was a base prison in which the rational or
    spiritual part of man was incarcerated, and from which it needed to be
    released by Gnosis (knowledge).

  • Valentinus, the primary gnostic teacher, taught that there were three kinds of people, the spiritual, psychical, and material; and that only those of a spiritual nature (his own followers) received the gnosis (knowledge) that allowed them to return to the divine Pleroma, while those of a psychic nature (ordinary Christians) would attain a lesser form of salvation, and that those of a material nature (pagans and Jews) were doomed to perish.

  • One of the movements that may lie behind
    this epistle was that of Cerinthus (a Gnostic):

    • Cerinthus taught Jesus was not born of a virgin, i.e., the son
      of Joseph and Mary.

    • Christ descended upon Jesus after his baptism.

    • Ultimately Christ departed from Jesus.

    • This is the severance of the man Jesus from the divine Christ
      or spirit      .



  • Docetism was also a problem (Christ did not have true human flesh
    but He was a phantom playing the role of a human).

    • Jesus only APPEARED to take human form. The incarnation was,
      therefore, not a reality. This was an attempt to preserve the deity of
      Christ at the expense of His humanity.



  • The false teachers are unsaved individuals explicitly denying that
    Jesus was/is the Christ (2:22-23). Rather, they claim to have
    fellowship with the Father apart from Christ (1:6). In so doing, they
    contend that access to the Father and to eternal life may be achieved by
    works.

  • The false teachers are attempting to deceive the readers into
    believing they can access God on their own, apart from Christ (2:26;
    3:7). They are trying to convince the readers to follow their theology
    of works rather than adhering to the exclusivity of Christ (2:27).

  • The false teachers trust in human wisdom rather than Divine
    Revelation. These teachers are lovers of the world and its wisdom
    (2:15-24), and their theology represents a fallen mind and its desires
    rather than the will or plan of God.

  • The false teachers teach that one has access to the Father through
    good works rather than through Jesus Christ (2:12-28). They claim to
    have fellowship with God (1:6) and to love Him (4:20), yet they
    explicitly deny that Jesus is the Christ (2:22-23). There is no
    propitiatory sacrifice (1:7; 2:1; 4:10), but such is unnecessary for
    eternal life (1:1-3; 5:11-13).

  • They walked in darkness (1:5-6).

  • They refused to acknowledge their sinful nature (1:8, 10).

  • They refused to observe the commandments of Christ (2:3-4, 6).

  • They displayed a hatred toward other Believers (2:9, 11, 3:14, 15,
    17, 4:8, 20-21, 5:1).

  • John refers to them as "antichrists" because they deny that Jesus
    is the Christ (2:18, 22, 4:3)

  • They broke fellowship with Believers (2:19).

  • Their teaching was seductive (2:26).

  • They practiced sinful conduct and are categorized as being "of the
    devil" (3:4, 8, 10)

  • John refers to them as "false prophets" (4:1-2).

  • They are "of the world" (4:5).

  • They refused John's teaching (4:6)


To whom written: 1 John 2:12-14:



  • The readers are undoubtedly saved individuals. They are regularly
    referred to as children (2:1-13, 18, 28; 3:1-18), they are cleansed from
    their sins (1:7; 4:10) and they have eternal life (5:11-13).

  • I am writing to you who are God’s children

    because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus.


  • I am writing to you who are mature in the faith     (you
    fathers    )

    because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning.


  • I am writing to you who are young in the faith

    because you have won your battle with the evil one.

  • I have written to you who are God’s children

    because you know the Father.

  • I have written to you who are mature in the faith

    because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning.

  • I have written to you who are young in the faith

    because you are strong.

    God’s word lives in your hearts,

    and you have won your battle with the evil one.


WHAT:



  • You will notice that all through this letter he emphasizes the
    fact that Jesus appeared in history. That is the first theme he talks
    about under the heading of truth. The truth about Jesus is that he is
    God and man.     He is both -- the eternal God, linked with all the great
    revelations of the Old Testament that mark out the being and character
    of God -- and he is man; having come in the flesh, he lived among us,
    was a man, suffered as a man, died as a man. All this, so that we might
    share his life -- his divine nature. Now this was opposed to "gnosticism." The nearest thing to it today is Christian Science, which
    is almost pure gnosticism. Gnosticism taught that matter is evil and
    spirit is good    . Therefore, the spirit of man is imprisoned in an evil
    body. The purpose of this life is to teach us how to somehow rise above
    the evil of our body and release the spirit from the evil, material
    body, thus achieving nirvana, or heaven, or whatever you want to call
    it.

  • The Apostle was teaching that one has access to the Father through
    Christ alone     (2:22-23; 5:11-13). Good works cannot provide access to
    the Father, nor procure eternal life, since sin still exists (3:1-24).
    When one trusts in Christ, however, he has an Advocate with the Father
    who has cleansed him from his sins (1:7; 2:10). Additionally, eternal
    life is secured only through the Son     (5:11-13), and one who trusts in
    Him can have confidence at His coming (4:17).

  • Its basic message is clear. Its aim is to present Christ to the
    believing heart so that believers might open themselves to the light of
    God; enjoy ‘eternal life’, the life from God which they at present
    enjoyed and experienced continually; be a shining testimony in the
    world; and have great love for one another. It secondarily also refutes
    those who suggest that Jesus did not really become man, but only took on
    the appearance of a man, or alternately that the man Jesus was not
    really God, and that sin was not important, if it was real at all.

  • John's method of Detecting Error:

    1. Obedient to God's commands (Heart test) -

      1 John 1:6: So we are lying if we say we
      have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are
      not practicing the truth      .


    2. Embrace the truth (Doctrinal test) -

      1 John 2:23: Anyone who denies the Son
      doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has
      the Father also.


    3. Love for Others (Relational test) -

      1 John 4:8: But anyone who does not love
      does not know God, for God is love.




WHEN:



  • There is no way to fix the date of the writing of this letter.
    Opinions by scholars vary from as early as 55 A.D. to as late as 90 A.D.


WHERE:



  • Possibly written from Ephesus (in modern Turkey) by tradition.


WHY:



  • 1 John 5:13: 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    .

    • It is possible
      to know you have eternal life. John lists
      three ways: keep His commandments (2:3-5), love for your brother (3:14)
      and His spirit (3:24, 4:13)



  • 1 John 2:21-23: So I am writing to
    you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the
    difference between truth and lies.     And who is a liar? Anyone
    who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and
    the Son is an antichrist. Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the
    Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

  • 1 John 1:4: We are writing these things so
    that you may fully share our joy    .

    • Joy is not the
      same as happiness. Happiness is temporary and subject to our conditions.



  • 1 John 2:1: My dear children, I am writing
    this to you so that you will not sin.

  • 1 John 2:26: I am writing these
    things to warn you about those who want to lead you
    astray.

    • Even this
      early in church history we see corrupt teaching of the word of God. Just
      because someone steps into a pulpit on Sunday does not give them the
      ability to correctly teach the Word of God.




KEY VERSE:



  • 1 John 5:13: 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    .


KEY WORDS:



  • Antichrist

  • Believe

  • Children

  • Eyewitness

  • Faith

  • Father - 13 times

  • Fellowship – 4 times

  • Jesus Christ

  • Know – 38 times

  • Lie

  • Life – 15 times

  • Light – 6 times

  • Little children - 11 times

  • Love – 33 times

  • Reveal(ed)/Appear(ed) - 10 times (phaneroo & phaneros)

  • Sin

  • Truth

  • Us

  • Walk

  • We

  • World – 23 times

  • You


1 John 1


1 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the
beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw
him with our own eyes and touched him with our
own hands. He is the Word
(logos) of life.



  • existed from the beginning: John
    1:1-2:     In the beginning the Word (logos)
    already existed. The Word (logos) was
    with God, and the Word     (logos) was
    God. He existed in the beginning with God.

  • Jesus/God exists outside of time-

    • Isaiah 57:15: The
      high and lofty one who lives in eternity...       (NLT)
      - For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth
      eternity      .       (KJV)

    • Micah 5:2: But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past.



  • our own: emphasizing that he is
    an eyewitness     - not second hand like some of the false
    prophets!

  • from the beginning could refer to the time of Jesus' birth or the
    beginning of his ministry. But it more likely refers to the predawn of
    time (see John 1:1). In other words, John is pointing to Christ's
    preexistence.

  • Right up front is a refutation of the Gnostics — how many of them
    spent several years with Jesus?

  • Four times in 1 John, he refers to what he has seen or looked at;
    twice to what he has heard; twice to what he proclaims.

  • touched him with our
    own hands    : You can't "touch" a phantom or ghost!


2 This one who is life itself was revealed
to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and
proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life.
He was with the Father, and then he was revealed
to us.



  • 2 Peter 1:16: For we were not making up
    clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord
    Jesus Christ. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes


3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually
seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us.
And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.



  • WE are eyewitnesses. John is
    including others as eyewitnesses or he's simply effacing himself.

  • First purpose: that you may have fellowship
    with us.

  • "Fellowship" in Greek is koinonia, variously translated "oneness, in common, communion." Jesus came to bring us into koinonia with God.

  • Why would the almighty God want to fellowship with us? Contrast
    this with the Old Testament; only the High Priest could enter the
    presence of God, and only once a year. He is seeking the fellowship he once enjoyed with Adam in the garden before the fall.

  • The word koinonia (fellowship) indicates a closeness of
    relationship. It can mean to be so close
    together that all is shared, that
    they have all things that are important in common. It represents a
    mutual sharing, in this case of spiritual life.


4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share
our joy



  • Second purpose: that you may fully
    share our joy     (Or so that our joy may be complete;
    some manuscripts read your joy.)


Living in the Light



5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now
declare to you: God is light (Greek -
"phos"), and there is no darkness in him at all.



  • In many ways the statement that God is light is the thesis of the
    epistle    . It includes a definition of God's character as well as
    implications for the life of Christian discipleship.

  • The Gnostics proclaimed they had "secret understanding", but John is saying that God is not hiding in the darkness but in light.

  • The Psalms picture God clothed in garments of light an appropriate symbol for the One who is pure,
    righteous and holy:

    • Psalm 27:1; 36:9: The Lord is my
      light       and my salvation—so why should I be afraid? The Lord is
      my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?...For
      you are the fountain of life,       the light by which we
      see      .

    • Psalm 56:13: For you have rescued me from death; you have kept my feet from slipping. So now I can walk in your presence, O God, in your life-giving light.

    • Psalm 104:2: You are dressed in a robe of light. You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens;

    • Psalm 119:105: Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.



  • 1 Timothy 6:16: He alone can never die, and he lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach him. No human eye has ever seen him, nor ever will. All honor and power to him forever! Amen.

  • John 1:4: The Word gave life to everything
    that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.

  • John 3:19-21: And the judgment is based on
    this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people
    loved the darkness more than the light    , for their actions were
    evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go
    near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do
    what is right come to the light     so others can see that they are
    doing what God wants.”

    • One’s affinity for ‘light’ and ‘darkness’ serves to reveal
      one’s inner nature



  • John 8:12: Jesus spoke to the people once
    more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you
    follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the
    light that leads to life    .”

  • Ephesians 5:8: For once you were full of
    darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as
    people of light!


6 So we are lying IF we say we have fellowship
with God but go on living in spiritual darkness;
we are not practicing the truth.



  • Verse 6 begins a series of six IF-clauses which end in 2:1.

  • Job 24:13: “Wicked people rebel against the light. They refuse to acknowledge its ways or stay in its paths.

  • Isaiah 50:10-11: Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his servant? If you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God. But watch out, you who live in your own light and warm yourselves by your own fires. His is the reward you will receive from me: You will soon fall down in great torment.

  • If we say: John may be paraphrasing what some
    were falsely claiming. If God is light, then those who walk in
    darkness are not walking with God, no matter what they say.

  • The opponents, who profess that they have “come to the light”
    (using the language of John 3) have not in reality done so, and for the
    author of 1 John their deeds prove it, because they are continuing to
    “walk in darkness.” Rather, their way of life (“walking” in the KJV) demonstrates
    that they are lying in their claim to have fellowship with God who is
    light.

  • Because God is light no darkness can survive in His presence.

  • John asserts that persistent unrepentant sin is not the
    mark of a Christian     and may indicate that the person is not
    saved.

  • 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." People were being taught
    that they could practice all the immorality of their day, and God would
    still treat them exactly the same. It would not change their
    relationship one whit.

  • Fellowship with God will always be characterized by walking in the
    light, doing the truth, living as God desires.


7 But IF we are living in the light,
as God is in the light, then we have fellowship
with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us
from all sin.



  • To walk in the light is not to live without sin: otherwise, the
    blood of Jesus would not be needed to cleanse us while we are walking in
    the light. All the verbs in this verse are present tense. The force
    seems to be that while we are walking in the light the blood of Jesus is
    cleansing us from our sins.

  • John 13:10: Jesus replied, “A person who has
    bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely
    clean    . And you disciples are clean, but not
    all of you.”

  • The symbolism of light as knowledge implies that when Christians live in the light, their lives
    will be known, and will not contain hidden sins, falsehoods or
    deception.

  • "Living in the light" means being honest with God. It
    means not trying to hide our sin - either from Him or from ourselves.


8 IF we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling
ourselves and not living in the truth.



  • Another claim of the false teachers was that people had "no sin"
    and thus were incapable of sinning.

  • Those who are His are very much aware of sin. For
    the truth is that if we are His, the light of God will shine on the
    hearts of His own, revealing to us our sinfulness.

  • John is declaring that there is
    within us all a streak of lawlessness, of rebellion. And the response to such is to come to the light and be open
    with God.

  • The devil (3:8) or the world (2:15) may contribute to human
    straying, but in the end each individual bears responsibility for his or
    her own sin. Some sin remains in every Christian's life (“have,”
    present tense), even that of the apostle John (“we”).

  • Are you aware of your sin? If not, then you don’t know God.


9 But IF we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.



  • We confess our sins first for salvation then to maintain our
    fellowship with God.

  • The word for ‘confess’ means ‘say along with’. To ‘confess your
    sins’ means to say along with God how He views your sins. To join in
    with Him in His decision about them. To agree to see them as God sees
    them, as they are, and not to seek to dismiss them as merely blunders or
    errors without a moral significance. Thus to be honest and open with
    God about them. Being open about moral failure is the first step to
    being free of it.

  • Confession of sin always involves repentance. The scriptures are
    very clear that one cannot come into a relationship with God without
    repentance; and they are equally clear that one cannot sustain
    fellowship with God without repentance. Acts 20:21: I
    have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike—the necessity of repenting
    from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in
    our Lord Jesus.

  • The one thing that is urged here is not something like "Be holy,
    for I am holy," but "confess your sins." In other words, "be honest
    about your lack of holiness, because you can't hide from me anyway."

  • Proverbs 28:13: People who conceal their sins
    will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they
    will receive mercy    .

  • What does it mean to "confess" our sin? It's not just going to a
    priest for "absolution" by revealing all your sins and then just
    continuing in them. It's acknowledging that it is sin, that God hates it,
    that you sincerely want to stop the sin and that you alone are incapable
    of avoiding sin in your life. This isn't just murder, robbery, etc. -
    it includes hatred, gossip, bad attitude, carrying grudges, etc.

  • The way to deal with sin is not by denying it or hiding from it,
    but by being open to the God Who is light.

  • The last fact is most important, ‘all
    wickedness’ ("unrighteousness" in the KJV). He does not just forgive the sins of which we are
    aware, but also those of which we are unaware. When we are open with Him
    He cleanses us from ALL unrighteousness.


10 IF we claim we have not sinned, we are
calling God a liar and showing that his word (LOGOS) has no
place in our hearts.



  • Romans 3:23: For all have sinned,
    and come short of the glory of God     (KJV)

  • The opponents had apparently developed a version of perfectionism
    by which they were able to deny that, after professing to be Christians,
    they could be convicted of sin. The author of 1 John counters this by
    pointing out that the one who claims this makes God a liar, and God’s
    word is not “in” such a person.

  • Kind of throws out the "sinless perfection" idea proclaimed by
    holiness churches, doesn't it!

  • John answers his opponents' claim to be sinless by asserting
    that they are self-deceived. They are not merely confused, but deceived
    by the greatest lie of all, the lie of the antichrist who opposes Jesus. In fact, the very claim to be sinless shows that a lie, and
    not the truth, is at work within those who make it.

  • There is a story where the famous preacher Charles Spurgeon was
    talking to a man who said he was now perfect and no longer sinned.
    Spurgeon reacted by throwing a glass of water in the person's face! The
    person then abused Surgeon using a variety of bad language. Spurgeon
    responded by saying to the man; "I knew the 'old man' (i.e. the old
    sinful nature that Christians still have) was not dead but that it could
    be easily revived by a glass of water!"

  • The heresy of Sinless Perfection: This is a teaching that
    Christians can enter and abide in a state of absolute sinlessness, being
    just as sinless as Adam before the Fall of man, or just as without sin
    as Jesus Christ Himself as He walked this earth. Many of those who hold
    to sinless perfection also believe that it is essential to attain to
    this state of sinless perfection in order to be “sanctified” and even
    saved. This is heresy according to 1 John 1:8, and those who believe
    this only deceive themselves.

  • While it is true that no real Christian will want
    to sin and will desire perfect holiness, the Bible teaches that all
    Christians still carry around a corrupt flesh that is affected by sin
    and therefore needs to be crucified, denied, and put to death all the
    time.

  • The denial of sin makes God a liar because it rejects God's
    provision for sin, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.



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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.