Proclaimer Blog
Introduction to 1 John
Some will have noted that Dick Lucas turned 89 yesterday. Beginning today, we re-publish as a mini-series of blog posts a paper by Dick from 2007 on 1 John.
1 John – an introduction
‘Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.’ 1 John 5:21
Westcott’s comment on the above was, “This comprehensive warning is probably the latest voice of Scripture.” If so, John’s final warning to the churches, now as then, is a solemn one.
Idolatry, in its numerous configurations is the normal religious condition of fallen mankind, whether in sophisticated first-century Athens or among the tribes of the Amazon forests today. In a world hostile to the claims of the true God for his Son Jesus Christ, it is the only form of religion that is acceptable (4:5). Satan’s masterpiece would be to lead Christian churches back into idolatry while they still retained all the outward form and structures of Christianity.
Not that this is an original plan (Satan was never a creative thinker) since Bible history is a record of declension from true theology and a pure worship until prophets and apostles expose religious seductions for what they are, and call God’s people back to Himself.
The enemies in 1 John are the Antichrists (2:18,19). Remember, they opposed Apostolic standards by providing a rich and attractive counterfeit Christianity. In truth, their claims to superior experience (1:6-10), and a higher knowledge of God (2:4-9) were such that faithful believers were badly shaken as to the genuineness of their own spiritual state – hence the strong strand of Reassurance (not first time assurance for new converts, as the tradition has it) in every part of John’s letter.
Fundamentally, the antichrists rejected what John describes as the historic Apostolic testimony to Christ (1:1-4). Again, remember that to lose fellowship with the Apostles and their doctrine (teaching) is to lose fellowship with the Father and the Son. Any form of Christianity that does this is by definition idolatrous.
The hallmarks of the antichrists were three –
1. They hated the brethren among whom they had once belonged (2:9-11; 3:11-15).
2. They espoused lawlessness, by which John means that they refused to live by the authority of God’s word – hence the repeated emphasis in 1 John on the necessity of obedience (2:3f; 3:21f; 5:2f).
3. They denied the Son, the Word made flesh, as the one indispensable mediator between God and men (1 Tim 2:7). Hence, the many references to the propitiating sacrifice of Christ (1:7; 2:2; 3:5; 4:10; 5:6f).
The most straightforward application of 1 John to the modern scene is to that hollowed out Christianity resulting from three or more generations of so called ‘liberal’ theology, in which the ‘modern mind’ believes only what it can accept on its own terms (this equals the essence of idolatry, where man is the measure of all things). Nevertheless it passionately believes in the ‘spirit’ of the age, as painfully demonstrated this month (Feb 2007) by the Episcopal Church of America. Riddled with political correctness it is riddled with idolatry, yet is confident of its ‘spiritual’ leadership.
What, however, comes closer to home, is when this contemporary version of the historic faith begins to make inroads into British evangelicalism. It has happened before, in the ‘liberal evangelical’ movements that had all but expired by the Second World War, but now shows every sign of re-inventing themselves (Dr O.R. Barclay’s ‘Evangelicalism in Britain 1935-95’ has valuable information and comment on this aspect of recent church history).
Summary
John’s warning is that any departure from the Apostles’ doctrine opens the door to new idolatry. The obvious signs of this will be a rejection of the authority of Scripture, a calling in question of the full deity of Christ (his virgin Birth and bodily Resurrection), a dismissal of substitutionary atonement, and a growing permissiveness in the moral sphere. Warnings of such declension have long been given; the situation is now upon us. What John does is to attach to these modern trends the right label.