Book of 1 John
Summary of the Book of 1 John
This summary of the
book of 1 John provides information about the title, author(s), date of
writing, chronology, theme, theology, outline, a brief overview, and the
chapters of the Book of 1 John.
The author is John son
of Zebedee (see Mk 1:19-20) -- the apostle and the author of the Gospel
of John and Revelation (see Introductions to both books: Author). He was a fisherman,
one of Jesus' inner circle (together with James and Peter), and "the
disciple whom Jesus loved" (Jn 13:23; see note there). He may have been a
first cousin of Jesus (his mother may have been Salome, possibly a sister of
Mary; cf. Mt 27:56; Mk 15:40 and note; 16:1; Jn 19:25 -- this view assumes that "his
mother's sister" in Jn 19:25 refers to Salome; some further
assume that "Mary the wife of Clopas" there stands in apposition to
"his mother's sister," which would mean that this Mary and Salome
were one and the same person).
Unlike most NT
letters, 1 John does not tell us who its author is. The earliest identification
of him comes from the church fathers: Irenaeus (c. a.d. 140-203), Clement of
Alexandria (c. 150-215), Tertullian (c. 155-222) and Origen (c. 185-253) all
designated the writer as the apostle John. As far as we know, no one else was
suggested by the early church.
This traditional
identification is confirmed by evidence in the letter itself:
1. The style of the Gospel of John is markedly
similar to that of this letter. Both are written in simple Greek and use
contrasting figures, such as light and darkness, life and death, truth and
lies, love and hate.
2. Similar phrases and expressions, such as those
found in the following passages, are striking:
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1 John
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Gospel of John
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3. The mention of eyewitness testimony (1:1-4) harmonizes with the fact that John was a
follower of Christ from the earliest days of his ministry.
4. The authoritative manner that pervades the
letter, seen in its commands (2:15,24,28; 4:1; 5:21), its firm assertions (2:6; 3:14; 4:12) and its pointed identification of error (1:6,8; 2:4,22) is what would be expected from an apostle.
5. The suggestions of advanced age (addressing
his readers as "children,"2:1,28; 3:7) agree with early church tradition concerning
John's age when he wrote the books known to be his.
6. The description of the heretics as antichrists
(2:18), liars (2:22) and children of the devil (3:10) is consistent with Jesus' characterization
of John as a son of thunder (Mk 3:17).
7. The indications of a close relationship with
the Lord (1:1; 2:5-6,24,27-28) fit the descriptions of "the disciple
whom Jesus loved" and the one who reclined "next to him" (Jn 13:23).
The letter is
difficult to date with precision, but factors such as (1) evidence from early
Christian writers (Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria), (2) the early form of
Gnosticism reflected in the denunciations of the letter and (3) indications of
the advanced age of John suggest the end of the first century. Since the author
of 1 John seems to build on concepts and themes found in the fourth Gospel (1Jn 2:7-11), it is reasonable to date the letter somewhere between a.d. 85
and 95, after the writing of the Gospel, which may have been written c. 85 (see
Introduction to John: Date).
1Jn 2:12-14,19; 3:1; 5:13 make it clear that this letter was
addressed to believers. But the letter itself does not indicate who they were
or where they lived. The fact that it mentions no one by name suggests it was a
circular letter sent to Christians in a number of places. Evidence from early
Christian writers places the apostle John in Ephesus during most of his later
years (c. a.d. 70-100). The earliest confirmed use of 1 John was in the Roman
province of Asia (in modern Turkey), where Ephesus was located. Clement of
Alexandria indicates that John ministered in the various churches scattered
throughout that province. It may be assumed, therefore, that 1 John was sent to
the churches of the province of Asia (see map No. 13 at the end of this study
Bible).
One of the most
dangerous heresies of the first two centuries of the church was Gnosticism. Its
central teaching was that spirit is entirely good and matter is entirely evil.
From this unbiblical dualism flowed five important errors:
1. The human body, which is matter, is therefore
evil. It is to be contrasted with God, who is wholly spirit and therefore good.
2. Salvation is the escape from the body,
achieved not by faith in Christ but by special knowledge (the Greek word for
"knowledge" is gnosis, hence Gnosticism).
3. Christ's true humanity was denied in two ways:
(1) Some said that Christ only seemed to have a body, a view called Docetism,
from the Greekdokeo ("to seem"), and (2) others said that
the divine Christ joined the man Jesus at baptism and left him before he died, a
view called Cerinthianism, after its most prominent spokesman, Cerinthus. This
view is the background of much of 1 John (1:1; 2:22; 4:2-3 and notes.
4. Since the body was considered evil, it was to
be treated harshly. This ascetic form of Gnosticism is the background of part
of the letter to the Colossians (Col 2:21,23 and notes.
5. Paradoxically, this dualism also led to
licentiousness. The reasoning was that, since matter -- and not the breaking of
God's law (1Jn 3:4) -- was considered evil, breaking his law was of no moral
consequence.
The Gnosticism
addressed in the NT was an early form of the heresy, not the intricately
developed system of the second and third centuries. In addition to that seen in
Colossians and in John's letters, acquaintance with early Gnosticism is
reflected in 1,2 Timothy, Titus, and 2 Peter and perhaps 1 Corinthians.
John's readers were
confronted with an early form of Gnostic teaching of the Cerinthian variety
(see Gnosticism above). This heresy was also libertine, throwing off all moral
restraints.
Consequently, John
wrote this letter with two basic purposes in mind: (1) to expose false teachers
(2:26 and note) and (2) to give believers assurance of salvation
(5:13and note). In keeping with his intention to combat Gnostic
teachers, John specifically struck at their total lack of morality (3:8-10); and by giving eyewitness testimony to the
incarnation, he sought to confirm his readers' belief in the incarnate Christ (1:3). Success in this would give the writer joy (1:4).
* Copyright © 1985,
the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago.
From the NIV Study
Bible, Introductions to the Books of the Bible, 1 John
Copyright 2002 © Zondervan. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Copyright 2002 © Zondervan. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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.
12 I am writing to you who are God’s
children because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus.
13 I am writing to you who are mature in
the faith because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning. I am writing
to you who are young in the faith because you have won your battle with the
evil one.
14 I have written to you who are God’s
children because you know the Father. I have written to you who are mature in
the faith because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning. I have
written to you who are young in the faith because you are strong. God’s word
lives in your hearts, and you have won your battle with the evil one.
15 Do not love this world nor the things
it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the
Father in you.
16 For the world offers only a craving
for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our
achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this
world.
17 And this world is fading away, along
with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will
live forever.
18 Dear children, the last hour is here.
You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists
have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come.
19 These people left our churches, but
they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us.
When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.
20 But you are not like that, for the
Holy One has given you his Spirit, and all of you know the truth.
21 So I am writing to you not because
you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and
lies.
22 And who is a liar? Anyone who says
that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an
antichrist.
23 Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t
have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father
also.
24 So you must remain faithful to what
you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in
fellowship with the Son and with the Father.
25 And in this fellowship we enjoy the
eternal life he promised us.
26 I am writing these things to warn you
about those who want to lead you astray.
27But you have received the Holy Spirit, and
he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For
the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is
true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with
Christ.
28 And now, dear children, remain in
fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and
not shrink back from him in shame.
29 Since we know that
Christ is righteous, we also know that all who do what is right are God’s
children.
1 John 3 NLT
1 See how very much our Father loves
us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who
belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they
don’t know him.
2 Dear friends, we are already God’s
children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears.
But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really
is.
3 And all who have this eager
expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins is breaking God’s
law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.
5 And you know that Jesus came to take
away our sins, and there is no sin in him.
6 Anyone who continues to live in him
will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand
who he is.
7 Dear children, don’t let anyone
deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are
righteous, even as Christ is righteous.
8But when people keep on sinning, it shows
that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But
the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.
9Those who have been born into God’s family
do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t
keep on sinning, because they are children of God.
10So now we can tell who are children of God
and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and
does not love other believers does not belong to God.
11 This is the message you have heard
from the beginning: We should love one another.
12 We must not be like Cain, who
belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him?
Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what
was righteous.
13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers
and sisters, if the world hates you.
14 If we love our brothers and sisters
who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a
person who has no love is still dead.
15 Anyone who hates another brother or
sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have
eternal life within them.
16 We know what real love is because
Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our
brothers and sisters.
17 If someone has enough money to live
well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s
love be in that person?
18Dear children, let’s not merely say that we
love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.
19 Our actions will show that we belong
to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.
20 Even if we feel guilty, God is
greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel
guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence.
22 And we will receive from him whatever
we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
23 And this is his commandment: We must
believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he
commanded us.
24 Those who obey
God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know
he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.
1 John 4 NLT
1 Dear friends, do not believe everyone
who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they
have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.
2 This is how we know if they have the
Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus
Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God.
3 But if someone claims to be a prophet
and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God.
Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into
the world and indeed is already here.
4 But you belong to God, my dear
children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit
who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
5 Those people belong to this world, so
they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them.
6 But we belong to God, and those who
know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us.
That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of
deception.
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love
one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and
knows God.
8 But anyone who does not love does not
know God, for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by
sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life
through him.
10 This is real love—not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our
sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that
much, we surely ought to love each other.
12No one has ever seen God. But if we love
each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
13 And God has given us his Spirit as
proof that we live in him and he in us.
14 Furthermore, we have seen with our
own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the
world.
15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son
of God have God living in them, and they live in God.
16 We know how much God loves us, and we
have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in
God, and God lives in them.
17 And as we live in God, our love grows
more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face
him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
18 Such love has no fear, because
perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment,
and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.
19 We love each other because he loved
us first.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” but
hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we
can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?
21 And he has given us
this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.
1 John 5 NLT
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is
the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves
his children, too.
2 We know we love God’s children if we
love God and obey his commandments.
3 Loving God means keeping his
commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.
4 For every child of God defeats this
evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.
5And who can win this battle against the
world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
6 And Jesus Christ was revealed as
God’s Son by his baptism in water and by shedding his blood on the cross —not
by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit, who is truth, confirms
it with his testimony.
7 So we have these three witnesses —
8 the Spirit, the water, and the
blood—and all three agree.
9 Since we believe human testimony,
surely we can believe the greater testimony that comes from God. And God has
testified about his Son.
10 All who believe in the Son of God
know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this
are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has
testified about his Son.
11 And this is what God has testified:
He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever
does not have God’s Son does not have life.
13 I have written this to you who
believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal
life.
14 And we are confident that he hears us
whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.
15 And since we know he hears us when we
make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.
16 If you see a fellow believer sinning
in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that
person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you
should pray for those who commit it.
17 All wicked actions are sin, but not
every sin leads to death.
18 We know that God’s children do not
make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one
cannot touch them.
19 We know that we are children of God
and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.
20 And we know that the Son of God has
come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And
now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with
his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.
21 Dear children, keep
away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.
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