DISCOVER
1 John

John very much wants to say, “My experience of the real Jesus has to lead you to strong objective convictions about the real Jesus for you to have real fellowship with God and real fellowship with each other and therefore real joy.” 

—Jay Thomas 

Source: Jay Thomas, quoted from his message, “Fellowship of the Joy,” from the series A Study in First John: Light & Love on 1 John 1:1-4, preached at Chapel Hill Bible Church on June 5, 2022.

John is now testifying and proclaiming that Jesus brings forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Eternal life is not just life in terms of length of life, but is also a Greek term that means quality of life. It is not just that you will live eternally when you die, but right now you have eternal life if you’re a Christian. God’s life dwells in you. Here in Jesus Christ is the solution to the problem of how sinful people can ever know God and be rightly related to him. The yawning chasm between God’s holiness and my sinfulness is bridged by the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ! John no doubt preached numerous sermons, but he is really only preaching one sermon: Salvation and eternal life are available through Christ! This is John’s proclamation. Certain key words characterize the writings of the New Testament authors. For Paul, it is “faith”; for James, it is “works”; for Peter, it is “hope”; and for John it is “life.”   

—David L. Allen  

Content taken from 1-3 John: Fellowship in God’s Family © 2013 by David L. Allen. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

The epistles of John are perfumed with love. The word is continually occurring, while the Spirit enters into every sentence. Each letter is thoroughly soaked and impregnated with this heavenly honey. If he speaks of God, his name must be love; are the brethren mentioned, he loves them; and even of the world itself, he writes, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16 KJV). From the opening to the conclusion, love is the manner, love the matter, love the motive, and love the aim.

—Charles Spurgeon

Source: Spurgeon, Charles Haddon. “The Victory of Faith.” The Spurgeon Center (March 18, 1855).

Love is the supreme test of our Christian faith. “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death” (1 John 3:14). The word “love” occurs more than 45 times in this first epistle of John. We find out how love acts in 1 Corinthians 13.  

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8). Love is the first instinct of the renewed heart. Where do we get our love? From within? No, from above: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). What if we do not love? Then we don’t know God.  

We should show our love to Him by loving one another (see 1 John 4:7). Those who have love in their hearts have fellowship with God (see 1 John 4:16). But where there is no love, there is no fellowship (see 1 John 4:19-21).  

—Henrietta Mears  

Source: This content is from What the Bible Is All About, written by Henrietta Mears. Copyright © 1953, 2011 by Gospel Light. Copyright assigned to Tyndale House Publishers, 2015. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

It seems peculiar for John to tell us that he and the apostles heard, saw, touched, looked at, and handled Jesus. Why would John make such odd statements, employing so many verbs of perception? One answer to this question may have to do with a new philosophy beginning to gain ground at the end of the first century called Gnosticism. The word Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnōsis, which means “knowledge.” It was a combination of pagan mysticism and Greek philosophy, predicated on two primary principles. First, Gnosticism taught that the way of salvation was through secret, superior knowledge granted to the initiated. Second, Gnostics considered all matter to be evil, but spirit to be good. Therefore the Gnostics taught that your physical body is evil, but your soul is good. Some of the false teachers John is combatting in this letter had begun to infiltrate the church with incipient forms of this Gnostic teaching.

The first error was a practical error, teaching Christians wrong ways to live. Imbibing this error, Christians went to one of two extremes. The first extreme we call asceticism, where you begin to punish your body. Why would anyone do this? To free the spirit. Remember, matter is evil, but spirit is good. The other extreme is licentiousness, a word that means to live any way you want. After all, if your body is evil and spirit is good, then it does not matter what you do with the body. Rules don’t matter. You can get on drugs all you want, have all the sex outside of marriage you want. Why? Because the body is evil. It does not matter much what you do with your body. Do we have any Gnostics in our society today? Of course! Most of them just don’t know what’s what they are. Why is John harping on that? He is fighting the effects of incipient Gnosticism that had already begun to creep into the churches. First John was a general letter that was sent to all of the churches in Asia Minor to warn them of the practical dangers of Gnosticism.   

—David L. Allen 

Content taken from 1-3 John: Fellowship in God’s Family © 2013 by David L. Allen. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

The love of God for us is manifested in our loving obedience to confess who Jesus is and to follow Jesus in his commands.

—Jay Thomas

Source: Jay Thomas, quoted from his message, “Love’s Embodiments” from the series A Study in First John: Light & Love on 1 John 5:1-5, preached at Chapel Hill Bible Church on July 31, 2022.

Christian joy is far removed from what is commonly construed as happiness, which is dependent upon outward circumstances. It can certainly include such, but Christian joy is much deeper and richer in meaning. Joy is the presence of Jesus in our lives by means of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Joy describes a reality in life of genuine satisfaction intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. Joy is a spirit of exultation regardless of circumstances. Joy is a sense of supernatural strength that can only come from the Lord: “The joy of the LORD is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10 ESV). I have seen the joyless eyes of miserable people in many cities around the world. I have observed the joyless faces of people in Third World countries, clawing and scratching to eke out an existence for themselves and their families.

[Even those fortunate enough to be in decent economic shape along with those who have anything and everything money can buy might sometimes experience happiness, but without God through Christ they can never experience genuine joy. The wisest and richest man who ever lived found that out when he sailed the high seas of life in an effort to find fulfillment. The man on whom the world exhausted itself and for whom the world was not enough discovered the bitter truth that at the end of every paycheck, the bottom of every bottle, and the morning after every one-night stand there was no joy in Midville. So he tells us in his personal memoirs known as Ecclesiastes. Mighty Solomon had struck out. Only God can grant joy to the human soul. “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11 ESV). The crown of joy can only be worn by those who have been adopted into God’s royal family through his Son, King Jesus. The banner of joy will only fly over the castle of your life when the King is in residence there. Joy is the response of the soul that is rightly related to God through the knowledge of Christ as our Savior and Lord.] 

—David L. Allen  

Content taken from 1-3 John: Fellowship in God’s Family © 2013 by David L. Allen. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

In 1 John, however, there are four keys that are scattered throughout the five chapters and 105 verses that help us unlock this much-beloved letter. In 1 John 1:4, John says he wrote to promote full joy in the family of God. In 2:1 he says he wrote to prevent sin in the family of God. In 2:26 he says he wrote to protect from false teachers in the family of God. And in 5:13 he says his purpose was to provide assurance of salvation in the family of God. In this book—written from Ephesus sometime between AD 80 and 95, most likely to churches in Asia Minor (modern Turkey)—three important themes are linked to the four purposes that open the doors to the wonderful truths we discover in this letter: (1) right belief in Jesus; (2) right obedience to God’s commands; and (3) right love for one another. These themes provide “avenues of assurance,” whereby I can know that I am a Christian. Similar to how the Gospel of John was written that we might have eternal life (John 20:31), 1 John was written that we might know we have eternal life. By repeatedly applying these avenues of assurance, John will expose those who profess Christ but do not know him, and he will assure those who know Christ but may have doubts about their salvation. In other words, it is possible to know Christ and have doubts. It is also possible to profess Christ and be a liar.  

—Daniel L. Akin

Source: Akin, Daniel L. Exalting Jesus in 1, 2, 3 John. Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2014.

What is life? Well here in 1 John, in the Gospel of John, and I would argue in the rest of Scripture, it’s to be in Christ. It’s not just merely immortality. Every human soul will go on forever and ever and ever. That is what the Bible teaches. But the life that John is talking about is life in Christ.  

—Jay Thomas 

Source: Jay Thomas, quoted from his message, “Fellowship of the Joy,” from the series A Study in First John: Light & Love on 1 John 1:1-4, preached at Chapel Hill Bible Church on June 5, 2022.

Unlike every other religion in the world, Christianity brings us into intimate relationship with a God who is Savior and Father. And he is a perfect Savior and a perfect heavenly Father. In addition, you get a whole bunch of brothers and sisters thrown in as well “from every nation, tribe, people, and language (Revelation 7:9). We Christians must never forget that we have more in common with a Chinese Christian, an African sister, and a brother in South America than a next-door neighbor who does not know Christ. And never forget that this eternal life that has transformed us is the eternal life we must proclaim to our neighbor here and among the nations in order that they might become family. We continually want to add more! 

—Daniel L. Akin

Source: Akin, Daniel L. Exalting Jesus in 1, 2, 3 John. Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2014.

Biblical fellowship is the deep and abiding connection Christians have with God and with each other because of Jesus and because of our shared mission to serve his purposes. That is affinity defined by the Bible: Jesus. Biblical joy is the sense of heart and mind that we are in fellowship with God. So you see how these two things are connected; when you know that your life rests in who God is, that is joy, and it’s something you get to share with other people.  

—Jay Thomas 

Source: Jay Thomas, quoted from his message, “Fellowship of the Joy,” from the series A Study in First John: Light & Love on 1 John 1:1-4, preached at Chapel Hill Bible Church on June 5, 2022.

Keep in mind that part of living a righteous life is refusing to claim that you live without sin and coming to Christ for cleansing when you do sin. One of the signs that you are walking in the light is that you are honest about having walked in the darkness. It doesn’t mean you don’t sin anymore. It doesn’t mean you never walk in the darkness. It means that you bring it to light and you’re honest about it and you repent and you come to Christ. Brothers and sisters, we are meant to have a clean conscience… it doesn’t mean you don’t sin. It means when you sin, you bring it to God and you understand and you’re forgiven. The pattern of your life is growing in Christ-likeness. That’s the point. Born again Christians are changed Christians. The change may be stumbling, imperfect, full of temptation, there’s much struggle, but the change is nevertheless real, heartfelt, sincere, and discernible.  

Are you in Christ? That’s what this is about. Are you in Christ? If you’re in Christ, you cling to Christ, run to Christ, you’re conformed to the image of Christ, and as you’re conformed to the image of Christ, you say like Christ would, “I love righteousness, I hate sin, I want to please my Father, I trust his Word, I trust his goodness, and I believe that greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.” 

—Kevin DeYoung 

Source: Kevin DeYoung, quoted from his message, “Victory in Jesus,” on 1 John 5:1-5, preached at University Reformed Church on May 17, 2015.

John’s last line properly leaves us with that most basic question which God continually poses to each human heart. Has something or someone besides Jesus the Christ taken title to your heart’s trust, preoccupation, loyalty, service, fear, and delight?

—David Powlison

Source: David Powlison, quoted from his article “Why 1 John Ends with a Command.”  This article originally appeared here at The Gospel Coalition.