A Study of 1 John: Introduction
If you have ever wondered or had doubts about your faith, I want to assure you that you are not the first Christian to have these struggles. If you have ever been the victim of false teaching, I want to encourage you that the Lord still loves each and everyone one of you. In fact, the Lord has written an entire book of the Bible just for you. 1st John is dedicated to those who are doubting their faith or who are victims of false teaching. In our present day, we are seeing more believers than ever doubt their faith and fall prey to the wilds of the devil and false teaching. While unfortunate, we are not without help and guidance. Through the Apostle John, God writes a letter directly answering these challenges and helps point us in the right direction with a solid foundation of assurance of salvation and the tools needed to measure and assess the teachings brought to us. Over the next few weeks, I want to do a verse-by-verse study of the book of 1st John and see the amazing confidence we can have not only in our salvation in Jesus Christ, but also in His continued work to help guide and advise us on the teachings that is brought before us.
Based on the writing and style of vocabulary, most scholars attribute the author of 1st John to the man it is named after, the Apostle John. The book is both a proactive and counter move by the apostle to answer issues that started to arise in the churches. Merrill C. Tenney, the Dean of Graduate school at Wheaton College, states rather eloquently, “The stated purpose of the First epistle, ‘These things have I written unto you, that you may know that you have eternal life…’ (5:13), carries the reader one step beyond the Gospel, which says, ‘These are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.’ John 20:31. The Gospel was written to arouse faith; the First Epistle was written to establish certainty.’”[1] While we do not know when the exact time or place of the writing of 1 John took place, there is strong evidence that it was around 90 A.D.
The Church was transitioning into a new era, the large numbers of Jewish believers were being crowded out by Gentile believers. The Synagogue had separated itself from the Church, rejecting the Messiah. What Jewish believers that were still there, were now outnumbered. With the influx of Gentile believers outside ideas and predisposition to gravitate toward pagan teaching was creeping in. Gentile philosophical thought was now starting to influence doctrinal teaching. Naturally, the focus was centered on the person of Jesus Christ. “Who was He?” “If He was God, how could He die?” or “If He died, how could He be God?”[2] Unfortunately, instead of going back to scripture, people proposed new ideas and false teachings became rampant; an issue that is still present today. These errors in Biblical understanding and practical logic took root and spread, still influencing us now.
One such type of thinking is called Gnosticism, a heretical idea of religious philosophy based on a premise that spirit is good, matter is evil, and that the two are not enduring relation to each other.[3] Doubts of Christ’s person were becoming rampant, with many speculating His very existence. These Gnostics would later produce two views of thinking. First, was Christ being only a ghost and a vision of God and was not actually man. This view was more apparent during the first century while the second idea was that He was only a man. The first being called Docetism, and the second Cerinthianism. Why do I go in such detail? I want to help you understand that while we tackle 1 John, the writer is intentionally attempting to answer both these challenges about Jesus Christ. John asserts that Jesus Christ was not only audible, visible, and tangible; but 1 John 1:1 identifies those who would deny Jesus Christ’s reality was an antichrist. I do not want to go into too much detail just yet, but John directly answers such thoughts of man attempting to deny the Lord Jesus.
While the Apostle John does a marvelous job refuting these two ideas, I do want to add additional thoughts on why we can tell Docetism and Cerinthianism are false teachings. Traditional stories and other religions evolve the exact opposite way. The man or prophet is a normal person and after they die; they are thought of only as a man, only years and at times centuries later are they deified. With Jesus the exact opposite is done. There are those who attempt to immediately say He is a ghost or some spiritual being of God and not a man. This identifies that the stories are valid since no one could dare say the miracles He did were false. In fact, they would not start to argue that Jesus was only a man until generations later. This proves that during the time of His ministry on earth, no one would refute the events of His death and resurrection. Therefore, John is writing from personal experience. Having been one of the 12 disciples, he was in fact able to refute the silliness of the Gnostics and help the believers be fully settled on Jesus Christ as salvation.
I would encourage you to read ahead in 1 John for yourself as we take on this amazing adventure. Two words of guidance for you as we take part in this study, first that 1 John is not written like our legal and philosophical friend the Apostle Paul does, but rather in a symphonic musical construct. A theme is seen throughout the letter with the reader needing to focus on the single line of thought. The second word of guidance would be for the reader to understand that John tackles issues that will cause conviction within the reader, this should not be shied away from but rather embraced. God, through His Apostle John, declares the rich mercies to the believer while bringing to light that sin has no place in the believer.
I am so excited to take this journey with you, as we study and learn more about Jesus Christ and our own walk with Him.
Hold until relieved, our Blessed Hope is coming,
JL
[1] Tenney, M. C. (1953). New Testament Survey. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
[2] Tenney, M. C. (1953). New Testament Survey. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
[3] Tenney, M. C. (1953). New Testament Survey. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.