1 John

 Beyond serious doubt, the author is John the apostle, also the author of the fourth gospel, Second and Third John, and Revelation.  All arguments of scholars aside, it seems obvious to me in reading them that we are engaged by the same brilliant and unique mind in them all.

     1 John seems to be a general epistle addressed to no one, and thus meant for everyone.   The same themes keep recurring, but there is progression of thought.   Think of it as the ascending but recurring view from a spiral staircase, rather than climbing the rungs of a logic ladder.  It is a rope of many strands twisted together, rather than the forging of links in a chain.  Even though it is imposing an arbitrary and artificial structure on the text, it may be helpful to watch for these seven contrasts being developed:  1. life and death; 2. light and darkness; 3. sin and obedience; 4. abiding and separating; 5. God’s sovereign love and man’s response; 6. the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of deception; 7. Christ and antichrist.

     The major purpose of the letter is to give assurance to the faithful, and to give practical tests by which a man may examine himself to know whether he is in the faith, so that we may know we have eternal life (5:13; cf. 2 Cor. 13:5).  There are three major tests:  1. Obedience – do you walk in the light?; 2. Love – do you love your brothers in the Lord?; 3. Truth – is your faith in the real Jesus Christ?  These are not separate things to John, but inseparable parts of the whole faith found in a true child of God.

     One purpose of the letter, not at all separate from the above, is the same as 2 Peter 2 and Jude.  That is, to oppose the early Gnostics.  These teachers of false knowledge believed matter was inherently evil, and thus denied that Christ had come in the flesh, or that the body was resurrected.  Also, they tended to think that the sins of the flesh didn’t matter much.  John wastes no time before attacking these false notions, as did the other NT writers.   We should be very grateful to God that in his wise providence he allowed heresies to arise so early in the church, and thus be opposed and answered by the testimony of Christ’s faithful witnesses.  The disguises of the enemy may change with the times, but the same dark lies appear over and over.