Proclaimer Blog
1 John (talk 1, part 1)
1 John – lecture one
This was prepared primarily for pastors and teachers who want to do a series in their churches and so my aim was to help the preacher, rather than to comment on commentaries. In other words, what I am really trying to help you do is to wield the sword of the Spirit. It seems to me the commentator describes the sword, tells you what it’s like, looks at it from every angle, but it is not the commentator’s business to use the sword and plunge it in. There is a great difference, and so you often find with commentaries that at the end you are left with a lot of questions. You could not preach them just like that; you have to make up your mind what indeed is the Spirit saying through the word of God to people today.
In the first lecture we are going to look at the occasion for the writing of 1 John. That is, the circumstances that led the aged apostle of love to put pen to paper or whatever you did, to the churches in Roman Asia. There’s usually a crisis that causes these letters to be written. It’s very seldom that an apostle sits down and writes just because he’s got nothing better to do. And there was certainly a crisis here. So first of all, we are going to look at the original occasion that caused John to write to these little apostolic churches.
In the second lecture we are going to look at the ultimate message of 1 John. That is, the decisive or final word that makes this little letter so important, both for them in the first century and important for us in the 21st century. Westcott says in his classic commentary of about 1881: “This comprehensive warning [the last verse of 1 John] is probably the latest voice of Scripture.” Well, final words are often intended to be important and if this is the final apostolic word to the churches, then it’s obviously very important.
Why was 1 John written?
So we start, then, with reasons for writing this remarkable little letter. As I go along, I will mention one or two commentaries that have been a help to me. I started my study on this last year on January 1st and I’ve been working on it more or less ever since but I haven’t gone into all the commentaries, but one or two have been especially helpful. Not least helpful is the Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges. It is by Dr Plumber and dated 1884, which goes to show that the orthodox Victorian commentaries are still worth reading. The standard explanation for the writing of 1 John is Chapter 5:13 and you hear this quoted over and over again: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” And this is what Dr Plumber says. Normally I entirely agree with him but on this occasion I don’t. The object of John’s Gospel, St John tells us himself: “…these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (20:31). The object of the epistle he tells us also: “I write these things to you… so that you may know that you have eternal life.” The comment is that John’s Gospel is written to show the way to eternal life through belief in the incarnate Son; the epistle is written to confirm and enforce the Gospel and to assure those who believe in the incarnate Son that they have eternal life.
I think this is the standard attitude about the gospel and the epistle, but it was not long into January and February last year that I discovered that this is not so much wholly wrong but wholly inadequate. In fact, John gives several different clues in the course of his little letter as to why he wrote. And it is unwise to take these verses as though it applies to the whole letter. Usually these little sentences when he says “I write” refer just there to the paragraph before it. Chapter 2:1 “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin…” Well, that is obviously not the main purpose but it is one purpose: he does not want to encourage sin. 2:12 (a strange little parenthesis we will address later) “I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven…I write to you, fathers…” and so on. And perhaps most important of all, 2:26 “I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray”. So you see there are a number of times when he says, “I write”, more than the ones I have quoted, and we shouldn’t pick out 5:13 as being more important than the others. I would put 5:13 as being alongside 2:26, for example.
Reassurance for believers
We will get a much more accurate picture if we say that John wrote to these little gospel churches and communities not to assure them about their standing but to reassure them. These three letters of John were not written at the time of the founding of Christian house churches but by then many of these churches had been established a good many years. John is writing at the end of the first century. Isn’t he the only surviving apostle? I think I’m right in saying he’s the only one who died in his own bed. We are here right at the end of the first century and these churches have been going strong for a long time. So the message of simple assurance of faith and confidence in God through Christ is one that they have known for many years. And he says that, actually, in that little parenthesis I mentioned: 2:13 “I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.” He means there by ‘the beginning’, the beginning of the preaching of the gospel, the beginning of the whole Christian explosion in Acts, and so on. So John is writing to reassure believers whose confidence has been very badly shaken.
Their confidence has been badly shaken by the emergence of men whom John calls the anti- Christs. 2:26 is, therefore, an important statement, although of course it refers to the paragraphs before. Seduction is in the air. And you’re not surprised to know that this kind of seduction had been prophesied not least by Paul in his farewell address to the Ephesians. So we read in Acts 20:29 these familiar words: “I know that after I leave savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.” That suggests people from outside coming into the flock. Acts 20:30-31 is rather different: “Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!” Now these are the verses that refer much more accurately to 1 John because these anti-Christs come from your own number. That’s one of the main things we’re going to see about them.