1 John 1- 2:11 NLT

Outline*

• Introduction: The Reality of the Incarnation (1:1-4)
• The Christian Life as Fellowship with the Father and the Son (1:5;2:28)
  • Ethical Tests of Fellowship (1:5;2:11)
    1. Moral likeness (1:5-7)
    2. Confession of sin (1:8;2:2)
    3. Obedience (2:3-6)
    4. Love for fellow believers (2:7-11)
  • Two Digressions (2:12-17)
  • Christological Test of Fellowship (2:18-28)
    1. Contrast: apostates versus believers (2:18-21)
    2. Person of Christ: the crux of the test (2:22-23)
    3. Persistent belief: key to continuing fellowship (2:24-28)
• The Christian Life as Divine Sonship (2:29;4:6)
  • Ethical Tests of Sonship (2:29;3:24)
    1. Righteousness (2:29;3:10a)
    2. Love (3:10b-24)
  • Christological Tests of Sonship (4:1-6)
• The Christian Life as an Integration of the Ethical and the Christological (4:7;5:12)
  • The Ethical Test: Love (4:7;5:5)
    1. The source of love (4:7-16)
    2. The fruit of love (4:17-19)
    3. The relationship of love for God and love for one's fellow Christian (4:20;5:1)
    4. Obedience: the evidence of love for God's children (5:2-5)
  • The Christological Test (5:6-12)
• Conclusion: Great Christian Certainties (5:13-21)

1 John 1 NLT

1 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 

2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. 

3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 

4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy. 

5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 

6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 

7But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 

8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 

9But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

1 John 2 NLT

1 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. 

2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world. 

3 And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. 

4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 

5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. 

6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did. 

7 Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before. 

8 Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining. 

9 If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness.

10 Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble. 

11 But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.