Youth and Recreation Activity Resource Center
Activity and Resource Center
About the Author and His Approach to First John
This study is written in a very simple fashion and while giving you a full explanation of the background and message of the scriptures, it leaves to your own interpretation of how it applies to you. We do not get into personal applications of the message. We leave that to the Holy Spirit as he works in your life.
You should begin the study each time with prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal the message in each study and to show you how it should apply to you.
As in any Bible study that someone prepares or presents, you should remember that:
This study is written and taught by one, who is born again; called by God to teach and preach His word and who believes:
So as you use this study, remember it is prepared by one who feels that God inspired Him and led Him in putting it together. But, it is your God given responsibility to test and prove each teaching to be sure it is of God. May God Bless you as you walk in His truths.
Now let us begin our study of First John.
The book of First John is one of five books written by John, the apostle
Although John’s name is never mentioned in the Three Epistles of John , tradition affirms that John, the apostle, is the author. A careful study and comparison of the Gospel of John and the Epistles of John provides too many similarities in the writings to deny that John, the Apostle, wrote these books.
First John was probably written around 80 to 100 A.D., while John was living in Ephesus. Some Bible scholars consider the epistles of John to be the last books that John wrote and were probably the last books in the Bible to be written. Dr. J. Vernon McGee, in his Thru the Bible Commentary tells us that: “the three epistles are called letters; yet the first epistle is not in the form or style of a letter. It has no salutation at its beginning nor greeting at its conclusion. Its style is more that of a sermon. It bears all the marks of a message from a devoted pastor who had a love and concern for a definite group of believers. John served as pastor of the church in Ephesus, which was founded by Paul. It has been the belief of the church down through the years that John wrote his Gospel first, his epistles second, and finally the Revelation just before his death. However, in recent years some of us have come to the position that John wrote his epistles last. Therefore, he wrote his first epistle after his imprisonment on the Island of Patmos. This places the date about B.C. 100. John died in Ephesus and was buried there. The Basilica of St. John was built over the grave of John by Justinian in the fifth century.”
To understand the First Epistle of John we should look at the city of Ephesus at the beginning of the second century. It was very much like any city in America today. There were four important factors which prevailed in Ephesus and throughout the Roman world:
First, the Christians to whom John wrote had lost their first love and had become complacent and Christianity was taken for granted. Many of the believers were children and grandchildren of the first Christians.. The new and bright sheen of the Christian faith had become tarnished. The newness had worn off. The thrill and glory of the first days had faded. The excitement of the early Christians who had been present when Paul had come to town and challenged Diana of the Ephesians with His teachings of Jesus, the Messiah had been forgotten! The whole town of Ephesus had been in an uproar over these new teachings of the man named Paul. In Acts 19 we read of the effect Paul’s teaching had upon the synagogue at Ephesus and also the impact of his daily sessions in the school of Tyrannus for two years. How fervent their love and zeal for Christ had been in those days. But many years later, the Lord Jesus sent a letter to the Ephesian believers through John while he was in exile on the Island of Patmos. That letter was in the Book of Revelation.
He said in Revelation 2:1-5; 1. "Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands: 2. I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. 3. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. 4. But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! 5. Look how far you have fallen from your first love! Turn back to me again and work as you did at first. If you don’t, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.
It was as Jesus had long before warned in Matthew 24:12; “Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.” . The Ephesians’ devotion and dedication to Christ was at it’s lowest point since they had heard the message of Jesus and had become believers.
Second, the high standards of Christianity made the Christians different, and the children and grandchildren of the first Christians did not want to be different. The believers were called saints. The primary intent of the word saint, in Greek, is “set aside for the sole use of God or that which belongs to God”. But the Ephesians had become Christians of compromise. They had become Christians in word only. They were cast in a different mold from the disciples to whom Jesus had said in John 15:19; “The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don’t. I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you”. And also in His high priestly prayer to His Father are these words in .John 17:14; “I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not”. There was a breakdown of the Judeo-Christian ethic and a disregard of Bible standards. Their lives were no different from the non-Christians. They were living lives apart from God’s standards and were not excited about their faith in Jesus Christ.
Third, persecution was not the enemy of Christianity. The danger to the Ephesian church was not persecution from the outside but seduction from the inside. The Lord Jesus Himself had warned of this in Matthew 24:24; “For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great miraculous signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones”. And the apostle Paul had said to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:29-30; “ I know full well that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some of you will distort the truth in order to draw a following”. Christianity was not in danger of being destroyed; it was in danger of being changed. The attempt was being made to improve it, give it intellectual respectability, and let it speak in the terms of the popular philosophy. Satan had led the people away from the central truth that was taught by Jesus.
Fourth, Gnosticism [G-N-O-S-T-I-C-I-S-M] was the real enemy of Christianity, and it still is. Gnosticism was the basic philosophy of the Roman Empire. Gnosticism took many forms. The primary teaching that ran through this philosophy was that material matter was essentially evil and only the spirit was good. All the material world was considered evil. Therefore Gnosticism despised the body. They held that in the body was a spirit, like a seed in the dirty soil. This same principle is in modern liberalism which maintains that there is a spark of good in everyone and that each person is to develop that spark of good. The Gnostics sought to make the spirit of good within them grow and tried to get rid of the evil in the body.
There were two extreme methods of accomplishing this goal as practiced by the Stoics [S-T-O-I-C-S] and the Epicureans [E-P-I-C-U-R-E-A-N-S].
The Stoics were disciples of Zeno, and their name came from the Painted Portico at Athens where Zeno lectured. They were pantheists who held that the wise men should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submissive to natural law. They observed rigid rules and self-discipline.
The Epicureans took their name from Epicurus who taught in Athens. They accepted the Greek gods on Mount Olympus. They considered pleasure rather than truth the pursuit of life. Originally they sought to satisfy intellectual, not sensual, gratification; but later they taught their followers to satisfy the body’s desires so it wouldn’t bother them any more.
The apostle Paul’s encounter with these two sects is recorded in Acts 17:16-34 “16. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city. 17 He went to the synagogue to debate with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and he spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there. 18 He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. When he told them about Jesus and his resurrection, they said, This babbler has picked up some strange ideas, Others said, He’s pushing some foreign religion. 19 Then they took him to the Council of Philosophers. Come and tell us more about this new religion, they said. 20 You are saying some rather startling things, and we want to know what it is all about. 21 (It should be explained that all the Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.) 22 So Paul, standing before the Council, addressed them as follows: Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious, 23 for as I was walking along I saw your many altars. And one of them had this inscription on it “To an Unknown God”. You have been worshiping him without knowing who he is, and now I wish to tell you about him. 24 He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can’t serve his needs for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need there is. 26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand which should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. 27 His purpose in all of this was that the nations should seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As one of your own poets says, We are his offspring. 29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone. 30 God overlooked people’s former ignorance about these things, but now he commands everyone everywhere to turn away from idols and turn to him. 31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead. 32 When they heard Paul speak of the resurrection of a person who had been dead, some laughed, but others said, We want to hear more about this later. 33 That ended Paul’s discussion with them, 34 but some joined him and became believers”.
There were many groups that had differences between the two extremes of Stoicism and Epicureanism, but all of them denied the messiahship of Jesus. John must have had them in mind when he wrote in 1 John 2:22 “ And who is the great liar? The one who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Such people are antichrists, for they have denied the Father and the Son.”
People of Ephesus Denied the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
They denied the Incarnation, reasoning that God could not have taken a human body because all flesh is evil. Therefore John distinctly declared in John 1:14, “ So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father.”
It is very important that the believer know without a doubt that Jesus was God in a human body. That God actually became flesh in the Person of Jesus Christ. John will deal with this subject many times in his First Epistle.
In First John 4:1-3 he writes: 1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.”
Docetic Gnosticism [D-O-C-E-T-I-C G-N-O-S-T-I-C-I-S-M-], considered the Incarnation impossible since God could not unite Himself with anything evil such as a body, and taught that Jesus only seemed to have a body, but actually He did not. For example, when He walked He left no footprints. Some were more subtle in their teaching and declared that there was both a human Jesus and a divine Christ. They claimed that divinity came upon Him at His baptism and left Him at the Cross.
The early church fathers fought this heresy and maintained that He became what we are to make us what He is. It is amazing to what ridiculous lengths people will go to try and explain away God’s Miraculous and Devine power to do what He wants to do.
Many believe that John wrote his first epistle to answer the errors of Gnosticism. There are five major teachings given to us in 1 John:
John wrote The Gospel of John to tell people about the life and teachings of Jesus and how they can receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. In the Gospel of John chapter 20 verses 30-31, he writes, “ Jesus’ disciples saw him do many other miraculous signs besides the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life.”
He wrote his first letter(First John) to tell people how to be sure that they have been born of God. He illustrates this in 1 John 5:9-13 when he writes, “Since we believe human testimony, surely we can believe the testimony that comes from God. And God has testified about his Son. All who believe in the Son of God know that this 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. And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. So whoever has God’s Son has life; whoever does not have his Son does not have life. I write this to you who believe in the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.”
John’s Gospel takes us into the Father’s house; His Epistle makes us at home there and teaches us how to live there. The Reverend C..I. Scofield tells us in his introduction to First John in the Scofield Reference Bible that “First John is a family letter from the Father to His “little children” who are in the world. With the exception of the song of Solomon, it is the most intimate of the inspired writings. The sin of a believer is treated as a child’s offence against his father, and is dealt with as a family matter. The child’s sin as an offence against the law has been met in the cross and “Jesus Christ the righteous” is now his “advocate with the Father.”
John begins his letter by identifying Jesus Christ as The Word of Life. He tells us that He was from the beginning with God. 1 John 1:1, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life”.
In the Gospel of John, chapter one and verses one thru four, he elaborates further on “the Word in the beginning”. He states: “1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”
John makes it very clear that the Word of Life was in the beginning. That He was a part of the creation process. He is God in the person of Jesus Christ. In John, chapter 17, verse 5, Jesus is talking with God in the presence of the disciples and states: “And now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began”
Jesus in teaching the disciples referred to He and the Father being One. He taught that He was in the Father and the Father was in Him. Jesus states in the Gospel of John chapter 16, verse 28, “Yes, I came from the Father into the world, and I will leave the world and return to the Father.”
In Chapter 17, verse 21, He prays, “My prayer for all of them [talking about the disciples] is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father, that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me.”
Jesus in answering questions of the Jewish leaders makes this statement when they asked if He were the Messiah: John 10:25-30, “Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is what I do in the name of my Father. But you don’t believe me because you are not part of my flock. My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. So no one can take them from me. The Father and I are one.”
John here introduces the Triune God- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This Triune God is also know as the Trinity. Jerry Falwell in His comments written in the King James Study Bible, explains the Trinity in this way. “Trinity designates one eternal God in unity, yet existing in three eternal persons. The members of the Trinity are equal in nature, distinct in person, and subordinate in duties. Illustration: As the Son is eternally begotten by the Father, so Jesus is submissive to do the work of the Father, yet equal in nature to Him. The Father is the source of authority, the Son is the channel, and the Holy Spirit the agent whereby authority is exercised. Application: Because each member of the Trinity is God, and a distinct person, each should be so recognized in worship by the Christian.”
John does not imply that there are three gods. He describes the Trinity as one God existing in three persons - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Neither does He imply that one God merely reveals Himself in three different ways, like a man can be a husband, a father, and a son.
The Bible teaches that God is one but that He exists in three distinct Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Although the word “trinity” does not appear in the Bible, their existence is mentioned by Jesus in the Great Commission recorded in (Matt. 28:19), “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”.
The apostle Paul uses the three Persons of the Holy Trinity when he closes his Second Epistle to the Corinthians. He writes in (2 Cor. 13:14), “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”
God revealed Himself as one to the Israelites in (Deut. 6:4) “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!”. This was a significant religious truth because the surrounding nations worshiped many gods and had fallen into idolatry, worshiping the creation rather than the true Creator. This practice of denying the existence of God and worshiping the creation rather than the creator has been displayed since man fell into sin in the Garden of Eden. Man is without excuse. He knows better but would rather live in a lie than live in the light of the truth.
Paul makes a statement concerning the fact that God has been revealed to all mankind even if no one has ever physically presented the Word of God to them. In Romans chapter one verses 18 thru 25, he writes; “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised.”
God Forgives and Cleanses us of our sins. Chapter One