First John

The Letters of John

Lesson 1

Before we read Peter’s letters, we spent ten lessons on Peter’s life in the Gospels. John has his own gospel, so we won’t do that here, but let’s do some Bible trivia.

• Who wrote the letters of John?                                                 John

 

• Was John a disciple or an apostle?                                           Both

 

• Who was John’s brother?                                                            James

 

• Did John have a nickname?                                                       Son of Thunder

 

• How did Jesus feel about John?                                                 The one Jesus loved

 

• Did John have anything to do with Jesus’s family?               First cousin

 

• How did John live?                                                                        Fisherman, Fish of Men, The elder of the church

 

• How did he die?                                                                            I don’t know and will figure it out another time.

 

• What could be a basis for holding John in high esteem?    He saw, He told

 

My first task to prepare was to pull out one of my mom’s old Bibles to see what kind of study Bible it was. Naturally, or rather supernaturally, the paper that fell out was on 1-2 John 1. I’ve never heard of 1-2 John 1, but it was surely a sign.

My first inclination was to go back to the Revised Standard Study Bible I used for Peter, but I figured I could branch out a little, maybe. This source calls the first letter not a letter, but a treatise or sermon. John did not even attach his name to his letters, so their authorship is based on evidence and similarity to the gospel. The letter has two purposes: to correct false teaching (where have we heard that? Peter, maybe.) and to deepen the spiritual life of its readers. That is our purpose in this study, and I think we should do well in this study.

Next, I went to my college era NIV study Bible. This is the Bible I read as I matured from a kid to an almost man. Apparently, I read the introduction to 1 John along the way as it has all the things I used above (except death) before I even looked.

In a what I can only attribute to the miracle of God, the next study Bible I looked at had four tabs demarking pages in 1 John, and John 21. So we will read John 21 soon, too. I will read from this Bible as I prepare, but since it is the NLT, I will not use it to read from.

Any finally I looked at The Wesley Study Bible, another one of my mom’s Bibles. John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist church my mother and I grew up in, so it figures she would have a Bible based on how Wesley used it. I have a book that includes several of Wesley’s “famous” sermons. I tried to read it, but they are sermons and were meant to be heard. I think I will use this version to read. Its only logical, right?

1 John 1:1-4 New Revised Standard Version

1 We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— ² this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— ³ we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ We are writing these things so that our^[a] joy may be complete.

 

• First Impression?

John declared what he saw, and it is up to us to follow his example in this.

Verse 1

• We declare. John was an expert. He was not debating, he was stating as fact. How important is it for us to know what we say is truth?

The question at hand is the most important in anyone’s life, do they accept Christ as their Lord and savior? There is not room for lies, half-truths, or anything short of God’s Word and our experiences of it in our lives. Truth, therefore, is of utmost importance.

• From the beginning. The truth of God never changes. How important is it for us to know that everything the Bible fits together, even if we do not understand?

See above. The key is not that we can understand, but that we can have faith. The Bible is not laying out possibilities, it is layout things the way they are. After Christ told the disciples about Isaiah’s prophecy about him, it all made sense. Before that no one knew what crucifixion was or what it did to a body. It was true even though no one understood.

• Heard, seen, looked at, touched. How important is it for us to talk about the things we have heard, seen, looked at, and touched?

As noted above, we cannot understand it all, but we can sure tell our story the way it happened to us and the way we felt as it happened. A boy in class this week had a near miss accident. After learning how God works miracles, he was convinced it was a miracle. He now has a story to tell based on his experiences and feelings that glorifies God. That is why God works in our lives.

• Word of Life. What is your mental response to the phrase Word of Life and how would you share that with others and why would you share it with others?

The Word is always God’s Word and it is always His Son, and Word of Life is therefore about how our lives are made a new of Life through the power of Christ acting in and through our willingness to do His bidding. Our lives apart from Christ have no eternal meaning and therefore, the Word of Life is that which gives us the possibility of meaning.

Verse 2  

• What is the distinction between God revealing things and “everyone” knowing them?

Admittedly, I was trying to thread a very thin needle here. We all know the sky is blue. We all know we have to breath to live. Why do we not all know Jesus is our savior? In spite of different reasons, many people want peace on earth and everyone to get along. God created man such that sin drives the lost to unpeaceful behavior and prevents people from getting along. The pre-experienced idea of heat means nothing until the child grabs the hot item off the stove. The kid has been told and knows the thing is hot, but he has no basis for what hot is. God reveals many things only when we have the ability to use it.

• Eternal life. How is this eternal life different from what we will experience in heaven and does it matter, and if so, why?

The eternal life of Jesus had no beginning and is the source for the eternal life of ours that begins with our salvation. Water is great, but the source is immensely more.

• With the Father. Is John putting in the importance of the relationship between Jesus and God the Father or am I just reading something in where there is nothing?

Of course, John is bringing the idea in. The fact of Jesus and His relationship with God the Father is at the heart of many false teachings that attack the integrity of the church message. John is the elder of the church and has a better idea of how to bring people along slowly than anyone of the age. Think of the wisest person you know and assume John is looked up to greatly by that person and you probably have an inkling of how much he knew.

• Revealed to us. God revealed these things to John and the disciples and apostles, but they were also further revealed by them to others and others to us. What comes next?

Simple one, we reveal to others.

Verse 3

• Fellowship with us. Why is it necessary to share Christianity to share fellowship? If not fellowship, what do we share with others when we do these same things?

Fellowship is sharing life. If our lives are built on Christ, then we can only share life by sharing in Christ. Fellowship with an unbeliever is either trying to help them to understand who Christ is or just spending time with someone away from Christ. Christ did not go to a party only to enjoy Himself. He went to share Himself. If we are anywhere with unbelievers, then we should want to be sharing the gospel. If we are anywhere with believers, then we should be sharing the Love of God. If neither of these are the idea, then why do you do what you do?

Verse 4

• Our joy may be complete. Or Your joy may be complete. What is the difference?

I had always read “your” and assumed this was John wishing the immature believer or unbeliever could have what he had. When I read “our”, I was torn if this was meaning John and the other believes but not the reader or if this was John and the others and the reader. After internal and around the table debate, we landed on the context says that the completeness of joy is among the writer, his companions, the maturing believers, and the non-believers with no exclusion. Our world is all about losers and this is not a zero-sum game where only some can win.

• What does joy being complete mean to you?

For me this is knowing you are saved, knowing that you live using the power of God for His glory, and that you love giving Him glory for all things.

 

Bigger Topics

So rather than dig into the next verses, I wanted to look back at these first four.

• As a whole, how does this set up the discussion of what is true or not true about Christianity that is coming?

It sets God as the source of what is true and it sets John as the expert to tell about the message God has given us about His Son.

• How often do we plan out our letters? How often do we plan out our sermons? Has anyone ever written a treatise?

Sometimes, Always, Never. We are all different and are called to different individual action. Some are called to follow, some are called to lead, and some are called to spend a whole lot of time planning so the leaders and followers can focus on doing.

• My Bible study using the NLT says John wrote this letter into a world where Christians were over Jesus coming back quickly and were conforming to the world. Is not this an ever-present condition of the church?

Absolutely. It is the single greatest thing not understood by anyone. From the moment a church is a twinkling in someone’s eye, Satan is busy attacking it. Lying to people in a church about the need to be like the world around them is his most successful tactic.

• It says they were not standing up for Christ and what Christ commanded. Again, is that not happening today?

Ditto.

• Have any of you ever believed something to be true, argued about it with all you had, only to find out you were wrong? How can we know that what we argue about is right and always right?

I have. Others may not have. Again, it goes back to basing discussion on the Bible and not our interpretation of it and to basing conversation on our experience and not fine points of debate. God gave us His word and our lives to use for His glory.