One of my favorite books in the New Testament is 1 John, one of those little letters tucked near the back of the Bible along with James, 1 & 2 Peter, the two other letters by John, and Jude. They’re all placed between the heavy books of Hebrews and Revelation, like little snacks between two…
Read MoreSeries: The First Letter of John
Study of 1 John
God is Light
When our children were younger, we occasionally played hide-and-seek in our house — in the dark. When you play the game in total darkness, you don’t have to find a hiding place because you can hide anywhere. It can be a little scary groping around the house, not knowing when you might bump into someone…
Read MoreWe Have an Advocate
In the previous post, we saw that John summarized his message with the words, “God is light.” He also encouraged his readers to “walk in the light” or live with a desire for God instead of for darkness and sin. Walking in the light doesn’t mean moral perfection, and there will be times when Christians…
Read MoreHow’s Your Love Life?
If you could pick one trait that should characterize a Christian, what would it be? If I asked you to write down one word that would define what a Christian is like, what would you write? As we study John’s first letter, remember that he’s dealing with a crisis of faith in his church. A…
Read MoreLove God, Not the World
When my son played rec league baseball, his league named its teams after professional clubs. He played for the Rays, Mets, Yankees, Red Sox, and a few more. Each year, I bought the baseball cap of his team and wore it to his games. Of course, I’d wear those caps even when I wasn’t at…
Read MoreLet the Holy Spirit Teach You
Throughout this letter, John repeats three tests designed to help his readers evaluate teachings and teachers, especially helping them evaluate some people who had left the church and were trying to draw the readers to follow them. He’s already mentioned the Moral (2:3-6) and Love (2:7-17) tests, and now he turns his attention to the…
Read MoreWhen Doing Confirms Being
I learned early on that I don’t like rules, at least most rules. I like rules that other people need to keep so they don’t hurt me or my loved ones. Those rules are great. It’s just that I don’t like rules for me. I don’t like the speed limit on most roads. I don’t…
Read MorePut Your Love into Action
If someone evaluated your salvation based on the love you show to fellow believers, how would they rate you? Could you point to your love as proof of your relationship with God? In 1 John, the Apostle is giving his readers guidelines for evaluating true teachers from false teachers, and he’s already told them that…
Read MoreBelieving Rightly and Loving Greatly
“It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.” Those words from Morpheus to Neo in The Matrix are as relevant today as they were in John’s day. No one in the early church was choosing between red and blue pills, but they were choosing between the…
Read MoreLoving Others and Assurance of Salvation
Throughout this letter, John provides three tests by which his people can evaluate the teachers who had left the church. Their doctrine differed greatly from John’s, so the readers wondered who was right. Which teaching was the truth? In 4:13-21, John combines the Doctrinal test (see also 2:18-27 and 4:1-6) and the Love test (…
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