Bible Book: I John

Because the Bible is practical, here is an overview of the book.

Author: John

Type of Book: Epistle

Outline
Introduction: The Reality of Jesus, God’s Son, as the Word of Life (1:1-4)
Companionship With God (1:5-2:28)
The Principles of Authentic Relationship With God (1:5-2:2)
Coming Out of Spiritual Darkness and Living in God’s Light (1:5-7)
Confessing Sin and Being Purified of Unrighteousness (1:8-2:2)
The Practice of Authentic Relationship With God (2:3-28)
Obedience to God (2:3-5)
Christ likeness (2:6)
Love for Others (2:7-11)
Confidence in Salvation (2:12-14)
Separation From Worldliness (2:15-17)
Loyalty to the Truth (2:18-28)
Children of God (2:29-3:24)
Characteristics of God’s Children (2:29-3:18)
Confidence of God’s Children (3:19-24)
Spirit of Truth (4:1-6)
Recognizing Deception (4:1, 3, 5)
Affirming the Truth (4:2, 4, 6)
Love of God (4:7-5:3)
The Source and Revelation of Love: God Through Christ (4:7-10)
Realizing and Relying on God’s Love (4:11-16)
The Perfection and Confidence of Love (4:17-18)
The Evidence and Response of Love (4:19-5:3)
Love for Others (4:19-5:2a)
Obedience to God (5:2b-3)
Assurances From God (5:4-20)
About Overcoming the World (5:4-5)
About the Truth of Christ (5:6-10)
About Eternal Life Through Christ (5:11-13)
About Answers to Prayer (5:14-17)
About Three Great Certainties (5:18-20)
The Reward of Persistence and Protection (5:18)
God’s Saving Hand and Satan’s Grip of Death (5:19)
Jesus Is the Truth (5:20)
Conclusion (5:21)

Theme: Knowing the Truth, Obeying God and Living in Love

Date of Writing: A.D. 85-95

Background
    Five NT books are associated with the name John: a Gospel (one of the Bible’s four narrative accounts of the life of Jesus Christ), three letters and the book of Revelation. Although John does not identify himself by name in this letter, second-century witnesses (e.g., church leaders and writers like Papias, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria) affirm that it was written by the apostle John, one of Jesus’ original twelve disciples. The letter of 1 John and the Gospel of John are very similar in style and vocabulary (e.g., simple Greek), as well as in themes and images (e.g., contrasts like light and darkness, life and death, truth and lies, love and hate). These things affirm the reliable testimony of ancient Christianity that both books were written by the apostle John (see the introduction to John’s Gospel for more details about John).
    Several passages (e.g., 2:12-14, 19; 3:1; 5:13) support the belief that the letter originally was addressed to believers (i.e., Christians), but there are no details within the letter telling specifically who they were or where they lived. Neither does the letter include greetings or mention of persons, places or events. The most likely explanation for this uncommon format is that John wrote from his home in Ephesus (where he spent his later years, c. A.D. 70-100) to a number of churches in the province of Asia. Clement of Alexandria writes that John ministered in various churches throughout that region. Certainly, those congregations recognized John’s authority as an apostle (i.e., one personally commissioned by Jesus with the authority to deliver his original message and help establish the NT church; cf. Rev 1:11). Since the churches faced similar problems and needs, John likely wrote this as a circular letter—meant to be circulated among Christians in a number of places—and sent it by a personal messenger along with his verbal greetings.
    The primary issue addressed in this letter is the rise and influence of false teaching about spiritual salvation through Christ and how that salvation works in believers’ lives. Certain people who used to be associated with the local believers had left the church congregations (2:19), but the results of their false teaching were still twisting the true message of Christ and causing much confusion. Some began to feel unsure about how to “know” that they had eternal life. Doctrinally (i.e., in their basis of belief and teaching), these false teachers denied that Jesus is the Christ (i.e., the Messiah, Savior and Son of God, 2:22; cf. 5:1) or that Christ came in the flesh (i.e., in true human form, 4:2-3). Ethically (i.e., in regard to moral standards of behavior), they taught that obeying Christ’s commands (2:3-4; 5:3), overcoming worldly desires (2:15-17) and avoiding evil (3:7-12) were not necessary for spiritual salvation (cf. 1:6; 5:4-5).
    The particular variety of false teaching was an early form of Gnosticism, one of the most dangerous heresies (i.e., erroneous beliefs and teachings contradicting the proven and established truth of God’s Word) during the first two centuries of the church. Its basic teaching was that “spirit” (i.e., the spiritual realm) is entirely good, while “matter” (i.e., the physical world) is entirely evil. This led to the belief that salvation was achieved through escape from the body, which came not by faith in Christ, but by special knowledge (the Greek word for “knowledge” is gnosis). This misguided belief caused some people to reject Jesus’ true humanity (cf. 2:22-23; 4:3) and to accept strange ideas about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Some claimed that Jesus only appeared to have a body. Others believed that a spiritual Christ was separate from the physical Jesus and that they were joined only between the time of his baptism and just before he died. John directly challenges these claims as he presents Jesus as the Son of God in physical human form, “which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched” (1:1; cf. 2:22; 4:2-3).
    This philosophy of good and evil in relation to spirit and matter also led to two extremes. In one direction, it promoted asceticism (i.e., denying and even punishing the body) since the physical body was considered evil (cf. Col 2:21-23). In another direction, it led to the practice of sexual promiscuity and other physical indulgences because some believed that it did not matter what they did with their physical bodies. As long as they had the right beliefs, they felt that their physical actions did not affect them spiritually. John contradicts this by persistently emphasizing obedience to God’s commands, the moral standards of his law and separation from worldliness (cf. 2:3-5, 15-17; 3:3-10; 5:2-3, 18). In addition, forty-two times John uses two Greek verbs usually translated “know,” one of which was directly related to the name of the Gnostics. In doing so, he is stressing that true knowledge of God does not come through secret “wisdom” revealed by these false teachers or any other person. Knowing God comes only through a personal relationship with God’s Son, Jesus Christ (see 1:3; 5:20).

Purpose
John had two primary purposes in writing this letter: (1) to expose and challenge the doctrinal (i.e., dealing with beliefs) and ethical (i.e., dealing with behaviors) errors of the false teachers; and (2) to challenge his spiritual children to pursue a life of purity and companionship with God that should be shown by their devotion to what is true and right. Such a life is characterized by the full joy (1:4) and the assurance (5:13) of eternal life that come from an obedient faith in Jesus as the Son of God (4:15; 5:3-5, 12) and by the continual presence of the Holy Spirit (2:20; 4:4, 13; see article on Assurance of Salvation). Some believe that this letter was also intended to accompany the Gospel of John.

Survey
Belief and behavior—principle and practice—are inseparably woven together in this letter. The false teachers, whom John calls “antichrists” (2:18-22), were abandoning and undermining the true teaching about Christ and God’s standard of right living. Like 2 Peter and Jude, 1 John vigorously rejects and condemns these particular kinds of false teachers (e.g., 2:18-19, 22-23, 26; 4:1, 3, 5) with their destructive message and lifestyle. See article on False Teachers.
On the positive side, 1 John describes the characteristics of true knowledge of God and companionship with him (e.g., 1:3-2:2). John reveals five specific tests by which believers may know with assurance that they have eternal life: (1) the test of confirmed truth about Christ (1:1-3; 2:21-23; 4:2-3, 15; 5:1, 5, 10, 20); (2) the test of an obedient faith that follows Christ’s commands (2:3-11; 5:3-4); (3) the test of holy living (i.e., turning from sin to companionship with God; 1:6-9; 2:3-6, 15-17, 29; 3:1-10; 5:2-3); (4) the test of love for God and other believers (2:9-11; 3:10-11, 14, 16-18; 4:7-12, 18-21); and (5) the test of the Holy Spirit’s witness (2:20, 27; 4:13; 5:7-12). John concludes that people can know with confidence that they have eternal life (5:13) when the fruit—the effective results in character—of these five areas is evident in their lives (see article on Assurance of Salvation).

Special Features
Five major features characterize this letter. (1) It defines the Christian life by using contrasting terms and by seeming to allow no middle ground between light and darkness, truth and lies, righteousness and sin, love and hate, loving God and loving the world and children of God and children of the devil. (2) Significantly, it is the only NT writing to refer to Jesus as our advocate (Gk paraklëtos, one who comes alongside to support and speak on another’s behalf) with the Father when we sin though we are sincere believers in Christ (2:1-2; cf. Jn 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-8). (3) Its message is grounded almost entirely in John’s personal first-hand knowledge of Christ rather than in prior OT revelation; references to OT Scripture are noticeably absent. (4) Since its Christology (i.e., teaching in regard to the nature, character and actions of Christ) is aimed at disproving a particular kind of false teaching, it focuses on the two particular issues related to Jesus: (a) his incarnation (i.e., his coming in human form) and blood (i.e., his sacrifice on the cross). It does this without making specific mention of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, which John can assume that sincerely devoted followers of Christ know and accept. (5) Its style is simple and repetitive as John discusses certain terms such as “light,” “truth,” “believe,” “remain,” “know,” “love,” “righteousness,” “witness,” “born of God” and “eternal life.”

Giving credit where credit is due.  These informational notes about this book come from the Full Life Study Bible, also known as the Fire Bible.  Don Stamps, editor.  Originally published by Life Publishers.