First John/Introduction/Commentary

First John Introduction

I. Authorship: A.

External Evidences:

The century immediately following the first century is filled with an abundance of witnesses who testify that the apostle John wrote this letter. Two of John's pupils Polycarp and Papias both quote from this epistle and attribute it to John.

The same is true of Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130-200 A.D.); Clement of Alexandria, who knew of more than one epistle from John, seeing that he speaks of the “greater Epistle”. Tertullian, the Latin contemporary of Clement (died c. 200 A.D.), quoted from this letter about fifty times and ascribed it to John.

B.

Internal Evidences:

“Only the Epistle to the Hebrews and the First Epistle of John begin without any announcement of the author's name or title, and indeed without any introductory greeting” 1 The author claimed to be an eyewitness of Jesus Christ (1:1-3). “His message is supremely concerned with the historical, audible, visible, tangible manifestation of the Eternal. He could hardly have conveyed his meaning more forcefully. He is vouching for his message from his own personal experience. It is not ‘cunning devised fables’ (2 Peter 1:16), but a 1

The Epistles Of John. John R.W. Stott p. 13.

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historical revelation verified by the three highest of man's five senses: hearing, sight and touch” (Stott pp. 26-27). The we of 1 John 1:1-3 probably refers to the apostolic body of which he was the last surviving representative” (p. 28).

There is also a tremendous amount of similarity between the First Epistle and the Gospel of John. The same emphasis is placed on the words life, light, love, darkness, death, the world, fellowship and truth. Much of the teaching is identical: Christ is the Word (John 1:1; 1 John 1:1-3), a concept peculiar to both books. Only in the writings of John is Jesus called the "only begotten Son" (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9). “Of the approximately two hundred and ninetyfive different words in the vocabulary of the Epistle, only sixty-nine of them do not appear in the Gospel. In at least thirty-five passages in the two productions, the thought is parallel, and in many of these instances, the same words and phrases are used. It has been said that it would be more feasible to assign any two of Shakespeare's plays to different authors than the Gospel of John and the First Epistle of John”. 2 II. Date of Composition: Internal evidence from the letter suggests that the writer was old when the letter was written, for he often addresses these Christians as "little children" (2:1,12; 3:7; 5:21). “The tone of them is that of an old man writing to a younger generation” (P.P. Comm. p. vii). The false doctrine opposed by the writer fits into the category of Gnosticism, which was developing in the latter half of the first century. Tenney notes, “The most acceptable view is that these documents were written by John for the Asian churches in the middle of the last third of the first century. By that time the influx of Gentiles into the church with their heritage of philosophical thought was beginning to affect doctrinal teaching”. 3 In reference to external evidence: “If the testimony of such early writers as Irenaeus (a pupil of Polycarp, who was himself a student under John), who lived in the early decades of the second century, may be regarded as reliable, it seems certain that John spent a number of years near the end of his life at Ephesus in Asia Minor. On the basis of these facts, we assign it to a date just prior to the great outburst of persecution under the Roman Emperor, 2

Peter, John and Jude. Guy N. Woods pp. 202-203.

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New Testament Survey. Merrill C. Tenney p. 376.

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Domitian, A.D. 94. We think it must have been written about A.D. 90” (Woods pp. 206-207).

III. The Audience: If we assume that the above observations are reliable then the letter was probably initially intended for the Christians in the region of Ephesus and Asia Minor. Some 30 years previous Paul had warned the elders in Ephesus of a coming apostasy (Acts 20:29-31), and Timothy had been sent to Ephesus to stop the mouths of certain false teachers (1 Tim. 1:3). This letter does contain a number of references which suggest that false teachers were presently trying deceive these Christians (2:26; 3:7; 4:1). From the expression "little children" it seems that John was well acquainted with these Christians, and the fact that the readers are warned against idolatry (5:21) suggests that many of them had come from a Gentile background.

IV. False Doctrines Countered in the Letter: To really appreciate the meaning of many of the things that John wrote in this letter, one needs to spend a little time in understanding the error that John was combating.

Barclay reminds us that all false teachers are not consciously out to destroy the Christian faith, rather some people think they can "improve" upon it, that is make it intellectually respectable (in the eyes of men). “It came from men who knew the intellectual tendencies and currents of the day, and who wished to express Christianity in terms of these philosophical ideas. It came from men who felt that the time had come for Christianity to come to terms with secular philosophy and with contemporary thought”. 4 Yet seeing that Christianity is the expression of the Mind of God (1 Cor. 2:9-13), there would never be a time that it would not already be "contemporary" with the entire spiritual needs of men and women in any generation. Christianity is always far ahead of human contemporary thought (1 Cor. 1:21).

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The Letters Of John And Jude. William Barclay p. 5

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A.

The Inherent Evil Nature of Matter:

The Gnostics had bought into the old pagan idea that matter is essentially evil and spirit is totally good. Therefore they rejected the idea of the incarnation, that God (Spirit) dwelled in a human (material) body (John 1:1,14). That is why John goes to such lengths to establish that Jesus was real and John actually handled His body (1:1), and the true teacher asserts that Jesus came in the flesh (4:2) and all who deny this fact are false teachers (4:3). “There were two groups of Gnostics--the Docetic Gnostics, who denied the actual humanity of Christ, and the Cerinthian Gnostics, who attempted to distinguish between the man Jesus and the Christ who allegedly descended upon Jesus at His baptism and left Him on the cross” (Woods p. 205). This is why John insists that "Jesus" is the "Christ" (5:1).

B. Who Has The Superior Knowledge?

“The word Gnostic is derived from the Greek gnosis which means ‘knowledge’, and they were so designated because of their claims to superior knowledge” (Woods p. 205). As a result John makes the point that every Christian can "know" God (2:4,13-14), and that these Christians knew the "truth" (2:21,27).

“The usual sect or local group of Gnostics supposedly possessed some special ‘revelation’ superior to that of normal Christianity, handed down mystically from Christ or other great ones but known only to the inner circle of the initiated”. 5 The same basic attitude still prevails today in some religious bodies who feel that the Bible can only be properly interpreted by an elite class (Catholicism, Jehovah Witnesses, liberal biblical scholarship), or that additional truth is found outside the Bible in another revelation (Charismatics, Pentecostals, Mormons, and New Agers).

C.

Gnosticism and Practical Daily Life:

Starting from the misconception that all matter is evil, Gnostics either treated the human body (a material thing) with severity (asceticism) or with complete indifference. Apparently, the Gnostics that John was combating were teaching 5

Explore The Book. J. Sidlow Baxter p. 325.

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that what you do with your body is of no moral consequence, because he hammers home the principle that your conduct proves whether you are of God or the devil (1:6; 2:3-6, 9-11, 15-16; 3:4,6-12). “Inasmuch as they regarded their bodies as evil, they concluded that their spirits were independent of them, and thus undefiled by them. They contended that once regenerated, they were pure in spirit, and it mattered not what the body did, since it was inherently evil anyway. They believed that it was inevitable that their bodies should sin, and they argued that a thorough understanding of these matters left them free to indulge in any course of action which they preferred” (Woods p. 205).

The religious world that professes to be "Christian" is filled with people who basically believe the same thing. When talking to people you will hear such things as “My faith does not have anything to do with my personal life”. “You cannot judge me concerning what I am practicing, because God knows my heart”. ‘It does not matter what you do or believe as long as you are sincere”. “All the way through this epistle there is a clear-seeing demarcation between the true and the false, and a clean-cutting incisiveness in dealing with them. John's pen is a surgeon's knife, not a philosopher's quill. There is a downright spiritual simplicity which sees things as they really are. White is white, and black is black; and they cannot be compromised into a middle grey. This moral clear-sightedness is always a mark of real spiritual maturity (Heb. 5:14). No need for circuitous windings of arguments; the inward eye sees vital moral distinctions immediately--often causing much annoyance to those who profess more loudly but see more dimly. What hazy seeing and pious parleyings with questionable practices there are among Christian believers today! Look through this first epistle of John again, and mark well the significant fact that this epistle which is distinctively that of Christian love is at the same time the epistle of no compromise! This is something which needs special consideration today” (Baxter p. 324).

D.

The False Pride of Error:

A consequence of many false doctrines is that they divide up the body of Christ and they engender pride and arrogance in the hearts of those who supposedly

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really know. “The constant emphasis on mutual love was no doubt to offset the pride engendered in the initiates of Gnostic-like systems”. 6 John repeatedly makes the point that mutual love is a doctrine! It is a command to be obeyed, and if we fail to properly love our brethren, then we are completely failing as Christians (2:9-11; 3:10-12,15-18; 4:4-5:2).

V. Purpose for the Letter: The letter was obviously written to counteract the false doctrine prevalent among them (2:26 “These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you”).

VI. The False Teachers: Apparently some of the false teachers had at one time been members of the Church (2:19). “It seems probable that their secession was due to their failure to convert the rest of the congregation, who, by their loyalty to the truth, had overcome them (4:4). Yet some who remained must have been left in a wavering and insecure state, so that John needs to write to reassure and strengthen them” (Stott p. 42). “In this case the probability is that they are still harassing the believers from an outside position, possibly by appealing to the intellectual attractions of their systems” (Guthrie p. 872).

VII. Practical Observations: The following is a list of observations that this writer believes are very important for the Christian to take from studying this book.

A.

God is Light: 1:5

That is, we can always be confident that behind every command of God lies His goodness and concern for our well being, therefore the commands of God can never be viewed as a burden placed upon us (5:3). Barclay notes, “The Gnostics would have held that there is in God not only blazing light but deep 6

New Testament Introduction. Donald Guthrie p. 871.

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darkness--and that a man must penetrate into both. Gnostics held that they were completely above sin; that sin for them had ceased to exist; that they were so spiritual that they were above and beyond sin, that they had reached spiritual perfection” (p. 12).

B.

Jesus Really Lived: 1:1-3

Therefore the Bible can never be viewed as "myth" or a mere "story".

C.

We Can Know If We Are Presently Right With God: 1:6-7

“In fact, Erdman writes, 'Are you certain that you are a Christian? To answer such questions this epistle is composed”. 7 This book is full of "tests" by which we can examine ourselves. By the end of this letter every member should be able to tell where they stand in relation to God. Someone has said that the gospel of John is to bring us to Christ (John 20:30-31) and First John is written to ensure that we are still in Christ (5:13). Consider again how many times John says, “that you may know” (5:13,5,18-19). Hence this letter is the Epistle of Absolute Truth.

D.

Exposing Error Has Positive Results:

In exposing the false doctrine of the time, John is only enabling Christians to see much more clearly where they stand with God. This book that exposes so many errors is designed to give confidence to Christians (5:13).

E.

Fellowship With God Isn't Impossible: 1:6-2:2

Fellowship can be maintained because we have the will of God, which is clear and understandable, thus many sins can be avoided (2:1). Forgiveness is available for the sincerely repentant (1:9). In view of these facts, why should anyone end up lost?

F. The Truth Can Be Known By Every Christian: 2:21 7

The General Epistles. Charles R. Erdman p. 137.

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John would not have been impressed by the following excuses: Christians cannot understand the Bible alike. The more I study the less I know. Most topics lie in a gray-area. Absolute truth does not exist in the spiritual realm.

Doctrine does not matter. Demanding that we follow the Bible is being unspiritual and legalistic (2:3-7). We cannot expose false doctrine.

G.

God Has Already Drawn The Lines Of Fellowship: 1:6

We cannot tolerate false doctrine (4:1-3), or the sinful values of modern society (2:15), or a lack of love among brethren (3:15).

H.

Proper View of God's Commandments:

They are understandable and practical, and we can obey them (2:3), far from confusing a person, this letter was written with the express purpose of helping Christians distinguish truth from error (2:26). See Hebrews 5:12-14. These commands are mandatory (2:4). The person who keeps the commands of God is not being legalistic, rather they are manifesting love for God and others (2:5).

Neither do they deprive us of true happiness and life (5:3).

I.

One Is Either Lost Or Saved:

In the book of John one is either in the darkness or in the light (1:6-7; 2:10-11); a child of God or a child of the devil (3:7-10); in life or in death (3:14).

J.

All Professed Believers Are Not Saved: 2:9

John talks about the person "who says" (2:4,6,9), and yet is completely in the opposite spiritual condition as to what they are claiming for themselves. In contrast, like James, John emphasizes what a person does is the true test of love (2:5,10; 3:11, 17-18).

K.

Evil Can Be Resisted: 2:13-14

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While we reject Calvinism, there are times that members of the Church sound like Calvinists in the excuses which they make for themselves and others: “You just cannot expect young people to abstain from..”. “There is no way that person will be able to remain faithful in that situation”.

L.

The Church Is Not To Conform: 2:15

Remember the above passage next time you hear someone saying that the Church needs to become "contemporary". Let us remember that the contemporary values of society are the values of lost people.

M.

The Common Avenues of Temptation Remain The Same: 2:16

N.

There Isn't One Antichrist: 2:18; 4:3

John did not believe that the antichrist was a single individual who would appear right before the end of time, in fact, many were in existence when John wrote this letter. Neither did John believe that the antichrist worked miracles, was the devil incarnated, or was some sort of "superhuman" being.

O.

You Cannot Have The Father Without The Son: 2:23

Obviously one cannot have a relationship with God in the various non-Christian religions (2 John 9; John 14:6; Acts 4:12).

P.

A Relationship With God Is Dependant Upon Abiding In The Truth: 2:24: 3:24

As in the Gospels, we cannot separate God from His Word (John 14:15; 12:48).

Q.

The Hope Of Eternal Life Should Motivate Us Towards Purity-Not Excuses Or Complacency: 3:3

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R.

Sin Is The Violation Of God's Law: 3:4

And since all have sinned (Romans 3:23), we see that all men have always been accountable to God's moral standards (Romans 1:18-32).

S. Problems Between Brethren Are Serious: 3:14-18 You cannot claim to have a relationship with God and at the same time spurn your brethren (4:7-21). Unfortunately there have always existed people who desired to have a relationship with God and yet at the same time view others with contempt.

T.

The Commands of God Are Reasonable: 5:3

U.

Even Our Prayers Must Be In Harmony With The Will Of God: 5:14

VIII. Outline: I.

Preface: 1:1-4

II.

Walking In The Light: 1:5-2:2

III.

Keeping His Commands: 2:3-11

IV.

Believers And The World: 2:12-17

V.

Warning Concerning The Antichrists: 2:18-27

VI.

Our Future Hope: 2:28-3:3

VII.

The Christian And Habitual Sin: 3:4-10

VIII.

Brotherly Love: 3:11-18

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IX.

Assurance And Obedience: 3:19-24

X.

Testing False Teachers: 4:1-6

XI.

God's Love, Our Love: 4:7-5:4

XII.

Christian Certainties: 5:5-21

IX. Final Observation: Back in 1960, John Stott wrote, “The mid-twentieth century is an epoch of fundamental insecurity. Everything is changing; nothing is stable. Even the Christian Church now speaks its message softly, shyly and without conviction.

There is a widespread distrust of dogmatism and a preference for agnosticism or free thought. Many Christians are filled with uncertainty and confusion.

Against this background, to read the Epistles of John is to enter another world altogether, whose marks are assurance, knowledge, confidence and boldness.

John takes it for granted that this assurance is right and healthy in all Christian people. His teaching about these certainties, their nature and the grounds on which they are built, urgently needs to be heard and heeded today” (p. 50).

“Those who would concede to Christianity no higher dignity than that of relative and provisional truth, will fail to find any countenance for their doctrine in the New Testament” (P.P. Comm. p. vi).

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