First John develops the theme of fellowship with God in belief and in practice, and argues that belief in Jesus as the Christ becomes evident when it is expressed in actions of love and service to others. John sought to encourage his readers to obey God’s command to “believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us” (3:23) so that they would enjoy the assurance of Christ’s life in them.
First John is not easy to outline because of the way it subtly interweaves and develops various themes such as light, love, life, truth, and righteousness. John makes use of several antithetical ideas in this epistle: light and darkness, love and hatred, truth and error, love of the world and love of God’s will, righteousness and sin, the children of God and the children of the devil, the Spirit of God and the spirit of the antichrist, life and death. While this is a profound and multilayered epistle, John achieved this with a disarmingly simple vocabulary and style.
The book contains a perfect blend of truth and love, firmness and graciousness, exhortation and consolation, warning against false teaching and witness to what is genuine. This powerful little letter both encourages us and challenges us in our faith.
From Handbook to Scripture
Chapter 1
From Handbook to Scripture
In his prologue, John remembers the apostolic fellowship with Christ and desires to share the joy of that fellowship with his readers (1:1–4). This fellowship is conditioned by walking in the light and is made possible by the blood of Jesus (1:5–10).
Chapter 2
Christ is the believer’s Advocate with the Father, and those who know Him must do what He commands—love one another (2:1–11). John wants his readers to grow into maturity in the Word and to overcome the evil one (2:12–14). He cautions them against the lures of the world system (2:15–17) and against the false teachings of the antichrists who deny that Jesus is the Christ (2:18–27).
From Handbook to Scripture
Chapter 3
Not only must we abide in God’s light; we must also abide in God’s love (2:28–4:21). To do so is to enjoy God’s assurance and to practice righteousness, since the practice of sin is incompatible with the believer’s new nature (2:28–3:10). When believers sin, they do not reflect the regenerate new person, but the works of the devil. Regeneration produces righteousness, and righteousness is expressed in sacrificial love for others (3:11–24).
From Handbook to Scripture
Chapter 4
Those who have the Spirit of God not only acknowledge the incarnate Christ and the doctrine of the apostles (4:1–6), but also manifest the love of God in their relationships with other believers (4:7–21).
Because of its refutation of Gnosticism, 1 John stresses the incarnation of Jesus Christ: “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God” (4:2–3). The one who denies that Jesus is the Christ denies both the Father and the Son (2:22). Jesus is the Christ who “came by water and blood” (5:6)—He was the same indivisible Person from His baptism to His crucifixion.
From Handbook to Scripture
Chapter 5
To trust in Jesus as the Christ is to abide in God’s life and to enjoy the assurance of eternal life in Christ (5:1–13). “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (5:13). This assurance leads to confident access to God in prayer (5:14–17) and the power to overcome the evil one (5:18–21).
From Handbook to Scripture
John emphasizes the need for belief in Jesus Christ (the Greek word translated “believe” involves personal trust and not merely intellectual assent), and says that this is the condition for the reception of eternal life (3:23; 5:10–13). Jesus Christ, the righteous One, is our Advocate before the Father, and “He Himself is the propitiation [satisfaction] for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (2:1–2).