1st John

1 John

Purpose:

To exhort believers to be secure in their faith and knowledge of the truth (1.4, 2.12-14, 5.3).

Argument Structure:

Arranged in order to assure the people he was talking to that they were indeed given eternal life, and that their knowledge about what was taught to them in the beginning was true.

We are sinners

1:8-10 - “IF we say we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves.” “If we confess our sins, he is faithful.... to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

2:1 - “and if anyone sins”

2:4-5 - By this we know we abide in him “The one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner he walked”

2:12 “Writing you little children because your sins are forgiven for his names sake.”

2:15 “Do not love the world”

2:28-29 “Abide in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame” “If you know that he is righteous you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of him”

3:1 “See how great a love the father has bestowed upon us”

4:8 – The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

5:20 “in order that we might know him who is true, and we are are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the True God and eternal life.”

Line of Argument → We are sinners but God is the propitiation for our sins. We know that we are abiding in him because we follow his commands and because we love him and others. Because we know these things to be true, we can be confident in our eternal life with him.

This seems to be an argument, possibly against false teachers, not to teach them something, but rather to encourage them in what they already knew. As such it seems to be a series of reinforcing statements.

Theological Themes

Light/Darkness

•    God is light and in him there is no darkness (1:5)

•    But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all (1:7)

•    If one does not live the light, he is dead  (3:14)

•    The light keeps us away from sin and even when we sin, Christ forgives (2:1)

•    We know him by obeying his commands (2:4-6)

•    His anointing teaches us to walk in him (2:26-27)

•    Righteousness is found in the light (3:8)

•    God is light and His light brings life to the Christian (1:7). The light dispels the darkness (1.5) in God there is no darkness only light (1.5).

Love

3:1- “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that bit did not know him.”

4:9-11- “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

5:3- “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”

4:16- “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

The theme of Love in 1 John moves down a logical path as pictured above. It begins with God stating that he loves us and showed this love through Jesus his Son. John builds on this by stating that because God has loved us we ought to love one another and keep his commandments. John then states that those who live in love live in God and have God living with them.    

Faith and belief

•    If one believes in Christ he is born of God (5:1) -- Carry on his commands

•    Only one who believes overcomes the world (5:5)

•    Unity of unifying for believers: spirit, water and blood 5:6-9

•    Those who don't believe call God a liar (5:10)

•    God's testimony brings about belief through the Son (10-12)

•    Having confidence in God: when we ask anything, (13-15) we must believe that he hears and answers us.

•    Know God as the truth and keep away from idols (Anti-Christ spirit, the world, hatred, and unbelief), which separate us from the love of God.

Abiding:

3:24 – And we Know by this that he abides in us, by the spirit whom he has given us

2:14 – I have written you young men because you are strong and the word of god abides in you. (earlier overcoming the evil one.

1:3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commands.

            The concept of abiding is by its very nature purely relational. And because of this it seems that a cliché easy answer for this is not really possible. All of these principals seem to go hand in hand, and mean probably almost the same thing. Abiding with god is more then just one thing, it is something that permeates our entire existence.

Truth:

1:8 - “we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us”

2:4 - “...and does not keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him”

4:6 - “he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error”

5:7 “and it is the spirit who bears witness because the spirit is the truth”

            The Spirit of god is heavily equated with truth and the witness of the truth in 1st John, and it is often used in reference as being “in” us much the way the spirit of God is. This is also the entire point about testing the spirits, to know if people are speaking from the truth, or if they are speaking from lies.

Life

1:1-2- “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us”

2:25- “And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.”

3:14- “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.”

5:11- “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”

5:20- “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”

            Life in 1 John begins as the person of Jesus in 1:1-2 and moves to become an eschatological reality as well as a present relationship that we have with God. The basic flow is Jesus is life and those that are in relationship with Jesus then receive the eternal life that is Jesus. The way we know that we are in Jesus is through the expression of love that we have for the brothers. This love is the expression of our life (relationship) with Christ. John ends his book by telling us that Jesus is the true God and eternal life thereby reinforcing what he has stated previously at the beginning of the book.

Universal Principles and application

1) Love is a verb (3.16)

2) Test the spirits (4.1).

3) Do not love the world (2.15).

4) Loving God brings obedience (1.7, 2.5-6).