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1 John (1 John (Character of the letter (Lacks salutations and closings,…

- - - - Second, God's revelation through the spoken and written word gives light
      - First, light attends and characterizes God's self-manifestation
      - God is light is the thesis of the epistle.
      - Third, light symbolizes God's salvation
      - God is light is not a theoretical assertion about the nature of God, but a statement that drives us to the heart of what God is like
      - In biblical thought walking (1:6-7) is a synonym for living
      - C. S. Lewis "We believe that the sun is in the sky at midday in summer not because we can clearly see the sun (in fact, we cannot) but because we can see everything else"
      - To walk in the light does not mean to be perfect, as God is perfect, for the author's statements about human sinfulness (1:8, 10) do not allow such an interpretation.
      - We are to walk in the light; we are never told to be light
    - - Bonhoeffer: "Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate"
        
        Obedience and the Example of Jesus (2:6)
        
        Again, the point is not that we must manifest perfect obedience in all that we do. Rather we are to reflect on our lives, asking whether our thoughts, words and deeds show that our primary allegiance is to the God who is light.
        
        The key here is reflection.
        
        If we focus on God and what God has done for us, we are oriented within the circle and guided by its fixed center point. If we focus on ourselves or our own feelings, even with good intentions, we drift without direction or anchor.
        
        Obedience and Love for God (2:5)
        
        Love of God, like knowledge of God, is expressed through "keeping God's word,"
        
        He does not say that the more we obey, the more we show that we love God.
        
        Obedience and Knowledge of God (2:4)
        
        C.S. Lewis: We might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules; whereas He really wants people of a particular sort" (1952:77). And the sort of people that God wants are those who hope to conform themselves to the very character of God.
        
        Rules are given to guide behavior, but they are meant to be appropriated as internal guiding norms, not as external sanctions and prohibitions.
        
        Obedience is the manifestation or evidence of knowledge of God, obeying God's commands does not require perfect obedience
        
        Obedience: The Basis for Assurance (2:3)
        
        The Elder offers the "test" of obedience as the basis of having assurance of knowing God
    - - In fact Jesus' sacrificial death both provides the example of love as well as creates the community in which we are to love one another.
        
        The New Command (2:7-8)
        
        Can be called new for two reasons: 1.it points to a new example of love, that of Jesus' own life 2.Jesus' death creates the new fellowship in which obedience to his command is possible
        
        Jesus: love each other as I have loved you. Years later this command it was no longer new, but familiar and hence old, committed to them since the beginning
        
        The Incompatibility of Love and Hate (2:9-11)
        
        Rather the hatred in this context refers to the actions of those who have left the church
        
        "who genuinely loves others is in fact walking in God's light." But the view misses two important items:
        
        1.it takes into account only one of the epistle's "tests of life." Confession of Christ provides another important boundary of the realm of light 2.it fails to consider adequately the historical situation of the epistles
    - - His readers are to remember who they are and what they have been given.
        
        Steadfast Knowledge of Christ (2:13a)
        
        While the epithet dear children refers here, as throughout the epistle, to all the church, the author next divides the congregation into fathers and young men.
        
        What is true of one group is no less true of the other.
        
        Assurance of Knowledge of God (2:13c-14)
        
        The only way to knowledge of the Father is through "the name" of Jesus Christ.
        
        The author's point is twofold: 1.we can have confidence with God because God is not changing the grounds on which he is to be known 2.this same, faithful God is not alien and distant, but knowable—knowable to us, knowable to me—in the love of Christ
        
        What God revealed in Christ was not a new side of the divine character, but the confirmation of the love and forgiveness that have always characterized God's actions.
        
        Forgiveness in Christ (2:12)
        
        In Semitic thought the "name" stands for the whole person. To "believe in the name of the Son of God means to believe in Jesus himself.
        
        Victory in Christ (2:13b)
        
        Like Paul, the author of 1 John views the struggle in which human beings are engaged as a struggle against "principalities and powers."
        
        The Elder does not write that they will overcome or that they can overcome but that they have overcome.
    - - "In the world, but not of it"
        
        Do Not Love the World (2:15)
        
        Johannine thought world (kosmos) is used in a variety of ways
        
        But how does this square with the statement of John 3:16 that God loved the world? In that well-known verse God's love is demonstrated by the sending of the Son, an act intended to "save the world."
        
        Quite simply, loving the world does not mean accepting it as it is, but remaking it into what it was created by God to be: people living in the realm of life and light
        
        Yet a ministry of exposing the unrighteousness of the world's ways does not stand in contradiction to a ministry of love
        
        The Essence of Worldliness (2:16-17)
        
        This passage, then, is a manifestation of the Johannine dualism. One loves either God or the world. This theme echoes throughout Scripture
    - - The warnings against antichrists in 2:18-27 are warnings against counterfeit teachers and the beliefs they are passing out among the unsuspecting.
        
        The Appearance of Antichrists (2:18-19)
        
        John refers to these secessionists as antichrists. This term is found in the New Testament only in the Johannine epistles
        
        Second, in Johannine eschatology, the judgment and blessings expected in the last days are already taking place through Jesus.
        
        “The last hour”First, in Johannine vocabulary, "hour" can refer to a decisive event or occurrence rather than to a unit of chronological time.
        
        The antichrist opposes Christ, but not so much by open aggression and hostility as with deceit and falsehood. The antichrist usurps the rightful role of the Messiah, the Christ, and deceives his followers. The antichrist is, in short, a counterfeit Christ
        
        ! Although the sixteenth-century Reformers may be invoked as exemplars of the crusade for truth and the purity of the church, seldom is it remembered that they strove also to preserve the unity of the church by working toward agreements with each other and with the Roman Catholic church.
        
        The Anointing of "the Holy One" (2:20-21)
        
        In light of the parallels to statements about the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, in the Gospel of John, it may be that the anointing spoken of here is the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of truth guides believers into the knowledge of the truth and teaches them "all things"
        
        The words antichrist, anointing and Christ all have the same root (christos, chrisma)
        
        The guiding work of the Spirit cannot be separated from the content and shape of the message itself
        
        The Great Lie (2:22-23)
        
        But what exactly are they denying? Here we must take into account other statements from the epistle. The affirmation that "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh" , and that he is the one who came by water and blood suggest that the mere identification of Jesus as the "Messiah," while important, is not the ultimate issue
        
        "Acknowledging Jesus" means recognizing both that he mediates salvation and how he mediates salvation. And it is especially at the point of the way in which Jesus mediates salvation, how salvation comes to us, that John and the schismatics disagree, as the Elder's earlier words about the necessity of accepting the atoning work of Jesus (1:7— 2:2) have already made clear.
        
        The very real danger facing John's church and the church today is to water down and ignore the realities of human sinfulness and God's demand. And it happens when alternative ways to knowing God—whether in other religions or movements, such as the New Age movement—are condoned as acceptable ways of salvation
        
        Exhortations to Faithfulness (2:24-27)
        
        It is unlikely that the dissidents would say or even agree that they had changed the proclamation.
        
        The Elder appeals to his readers' ability to discern, with the aid of the community and by the guidance of the Spirit, whether or not the message they are now hearing conforms to the "Word of life" that they heard initially
        
        The importance of an informed Christian community and the thoughtful understanding of the word of the gospel are foundational to the epistle's appeals and crucial for the health of the church today.
    - - Six if-clauses: first, he refutes the secessionists' claim to be without sin, to be light as God is light; second, he affirms the importance of the atoning work of Christ for the sinner.
        
        The Necessity of Confession (1:8-9)
        
        The Intercession of Jesus Christ (1:10—2:2)
        
        The denial of sin makes God a liar because it rejects God's provision for sin, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
        
        intercessor paraclete
        
        The imagery of this passage—walking, confessing, purifying—leaves us with a picture of true allegiance to God that is not static but dynamic.
        
        confession is both personal and corporate
        
        What God wants of us, then, is sincere commitment to walking in the light and honest confession of our sin.
        
        The Incompatibility of Light and Darkness (1:6-7)
        
        Darkness and light are not realities that are within each of us. Rather, they are realities greater than and external to us.
        
        Twofold-result of committing oneself to God and to walk in the light. 1.fellowship with one another 2.assured that the blood of Jesus purifies us from every sin
- - - - To interpret the rift in his church family, the Elder uses the story of the first family and its two sons, Cain and Abel. This story does not have a fairy-tale ending with everyone living happily ever after.
        These descriptions do not mean that Abel never did anything wrong or that Cain never did anything right
        
        Hearing the Message (3:14-15)
        
        Love is an expression of the transforming power of God at work in us and in the church.
        
        Jesus' Example: Love That Brings Life (3:16)
        
        By now the reader is well aware that love is a central theme and concern of 1 John.
        
        As an example, Jesus shows us that true love is concrete and active, not merely felt or thought, but lived out
        
        Disobeying the message (3:11-13)
        
        Does the Elder's choice of Cain and Abel, a pair of brothers, to illustrate the hostility of the secessionists indicate that he still regards them as "brothers" to the Johannine Christians? Unlikely
        
        But the Elder does not say that the more righteous we are and the more we live as the children of God, the more the world will hate us, as if the quantity of our obedience determined the world's response to us.
        
        Not everything that the church undertakes necessarily comes from God, nor does all opposition to the church necessarily come from evil
        
        Jesus' Action: Life That Brings Love (3:17)
        
        Sacrificial love that models itself after Jesus' example does not enable the destructive behavior of others, but encourages them in actions that lead to love and life, and to healing and wholeness
        
        While it is commendable when this is done out of a free and generous spirit, it is more important to do the right thing than to wait for the right motivation. Often willingness and motivation to do right can be nourished by the actual action of doing what is right.
        
        (I'd say v17 should be with v18)
    - - John wishes to instill in them a vibrant conviction of their salvation
        
        Confidence with God (2:28-29)
        
        Second, righteous behavior provides confirmation of our relationship with God
        
        First, the statement serves to remind readers that righteousness is not simply an intention or feeling, but is manifested in deed and truth, in the moral quality of one's life
        
        The favorite Johannine term menein, "abide."
        Encouragement and exhortation are joined together
        
        "To do righteousness" means to "practice it as a pattern of life which comes from one's very nature"
        
        The Children of God (3:1-3)
        
        First, it is by God's initiative and power that we are born as the children of God.
        
        Second, that God calls us children of God inaugurates a reality that will be brought to its fruition at a future time.
        
        Third, that we are God's children is evidence of God's active and creative love for us.
        
        Responsibility and promise will merge, both fulfilled—not by our own efforts so much as by the work of the One who created us and re-created us in his own image.
    - - Reassuring Confidence in Prayer (3:21-22)
        
        But sin is no barrier to our having confidence if we come to God in confession, and even at those times, when our assurance is perhaps lowest, we can come confidently, since our advocate is Jesus Christ himself
        
        And by now it is apparent in 1 John that "obeying his commands" is not a prerequisite to fellowship with God, but rather the manifestation of that fellowship.
        
        For petition does not bring about intimacy, confidence and trust; rather, intimacy and trust elicit petition
      - Confidence from Obeying God's Command (3:23-24)
        
        One cannot justly claim a relationship to God without that obedience, for a child of God will naturally seek to do what pleases God. But becoming a child of God does not come about by our efforts;
        
        The very image of being born of God suggests otherwise. The relationship is established first, by God; our part is manifested in obedience to God's commands
      - An Unsettling Lack of Confidence (3:18-20)
        
        The twin affirmations that God is greater than our hearts and knows everything imply that the human heart is not the final standard of judgment or mercy: rather, God is, and God's power keeps believers from the onslaughts of the world. God's greater power insures the faithfulness of the Johannine Christians
        
        The ultimate basis of our relationship to God and confidence with God is not the steadfastness of Christians but the greatness of God
    - - no one who lives in him keeps on sinning (3:6), more strongly, [they] cannot go on sinning (3:9)
        John reminds his readers that they are the children of God now (3:1), he also directs their hope to the revelation of what they shall be (3:2).
        
        Warning Against Deception (3:7)
        
        They would be led astray if they were to think that righteousness need not find its expression in righteous conduct such as they saw in the life of Jesus himself (2:6; 3:5).
        
        The Work of the Son of God, the Work of the Devil (3:8-10)
        
        The character of sin (3:8a)
        
        Both the epistles and Gospel of John frequently speak of being "of" something, a phrase that points to allegiance or orientation
        
        Note that the epistle does not say that those who sin are born of the devil, which would give a neat parallel to the corresponding phrase born of God. But the opposite of born of God in Johannine thought is "born of the flesh"
        
        The work of the son of God (3:8b)
        
        If believers sin—and it is clear that they do (1:8, 10)—their sin does not indicate that they have temporarily moved into the sphere of darkness.
        
        The implications of Jesus' work for the believer (3:9-10)
        
        Bold statement in verse 9, No one who is born of God will continue to sin . . . he cannot sin (or go on sinning)
        
        Exactly what this seed is does not receive further explanation, and it has puzzled commentators.
        
        That God's seed remains points to the permanence of that work
        
        Summary: Transforming Power
        
        Author's emphasis on Jesus' own righteousness
        
        As the one who is righteous, Jesus effects atonement and forgiveness (2:1). He destroys the unrighteous works of sin and the devil. He provides a model of conduct for the believer
        
        In his first coming he took away sin (3:5, 8); in his return (2:28; 3:3) he purifies us
        
        Attention should be focused not on our efforts to become pure or to attain a state of sinlessness, but on what has been done for us to purify us, to transfer us to the realm where righteousness, and not sin, holds sway
        
        Jesus' Sinlessness, Human Sinfulness (3:4-6)
        
        Jesus' work and nature (3:5)
        
        John says that Jesus' work is to take away our sins
        
        For when Christ takes away our sins he takes away sin's consequences—the guilt the sinner has before God—but he also takes away its hold over us, transferring us from darkness to light (3:14) and breaking the power of evil over us (5:18)
        
        The implications of Jesus' work and nature for the believer (3:6).
        
        Both of these must be held together: it is Christ's death alone that purifies (1:7, 9), forgives (1:9) and atones (2:1) for our sin.
        
        Thus the statement no one who lives in him keeps on sinning depends more on an understanding of what Christ has done for us than it does on what we are able or commanded to do.
        
        The character of sin (3:4)
        
        In describing sin (hamartia) as lawlessness or iniquity (anomia), he stresses its severity.
        
        More specifically, however, lawlessness may refer to the lawlessness expected in the last days, the ultimate rejection of God's truth to be manifested in false teaching and immorality.
        
        in Johannine thought the antichrists' work is deception (3:7; 4:1)
- - - - Love does not describe the fullness of God, but God defines the fullness of love
        
        God Is the Standard of Love (4:13-16)
        
        The "seeing" referred to here is the sight of faith
        
        Third, Jesus is the Savior of the world. This affirmation summarizes the universal scope of Jesus' work: no one, even the one hostile to God, stands outside the scope of God's love. Salvation is appropriated by the person who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God.（make it clear）
        
        God Encourages Us in Love (4:17-18)
        
        the shape of perfect love is triangular: love comes as a gift from God that enables us to love each other and so return to God the gift that is given to us.
        
        God Is the Source of Love (4:19-20)
        
        For love is enabling power, and those who have known themselves loved by God are empowered to love.
        
        God Commands Us to Love (4:21—5:5)
        
        But pleasing God and keeping God's commands cannot be measured statistically. Pleasing God is the response to God's love in our lives. Thus the commands of God are not burdensome.
        
        Two parallel statements in 5:1 both begin, everyone who... One points to the importance of faith in Jesus, the other to the importance of loving each other. These are not two separate commands that one must keep in order to become a child of God; rather, they are two expressions of what the child of God does.
    - - A "field guide" to identifying or discerning "spirits." with two distinct "field marks" of various spirits: first, what they say or teach; second, who hears or accepts their teaching.
        
        Spirit-inspired Allegiance (4:3)
        
        Such a restatement makes it clear that what John ultimately seeks is faith in a person, the Incarnate Christ, and not faith in a doctrine, even the doctrine of the Incarnation
        
        "Acknowledgment" (NIV) or "confession" (RSV) of Jesus means allegiance to him. It is personal, for it is a person's commitment to Jesus Christ
        
        Spirit-inspired Victory (4:4)
        
        Our faith is itself our victory
        
        Spirit-inspired Confessions (4:2)
        
        "Jesus Christ Incarnate", Several ideas would be bound up in that confession. First, in Jesus, people came to know not just a rabbi from Nazareth but the Word of God. Second, Jesus was a human being of flesh and blood. Third, this human being, the Word made flesh, revealed God to us. Finally, the one who "comes down from heaven and gives life to the world" (Jn 6:33) did so by giving his "flesh" in death
        
        Spirit-inspired Response (4:5-6)
        
        It is also crucial to remember what we are called on to test
        "Discerning the spirits" is not simply an end in itself.
        
        We are called on to discern what is central to Christian faith and doctrine.
        Christology (the doctrine of Christ) and soteriology (how we receive salvation)
        
        We are called on as a corporate community to test the spirits.
        
        In sum, we ought not to rush to judgment on others, the church cannot avoid its task to teach and nurture people in the Christian faith
        
        Spirit-inspired Prophets (4:1)
        
        Clearly the claim to be inspired by the Spirit can and must be tested
        
        While "prophet" in the Pauline literature refers to a specific function within the church, the Johannine epistles refer more broadly to all of those who left the church as false prophets
        
        we must exercise care and humility in discerning the truth
    - - To what source of authority ought today's Christians turn in trying to settle disputed matters of the faith?
        Here the desired confession is that Jesus Christ is the one who came by water and blood. But exactly what it means to say that Jesus came by water and blood remains as much a matter of debate today as it probably was in John's own time!
        
        The Spirit's Witness to the Son (5:6-9)
        
        while John speaks of three witnesses—the Spirit, the water and the blood—in reality he envisions one threefold witness to the fact and significance of Jesus' death. Together, Spirit, water and blood offer one testimony, and the Spirit does not testify without or apart from the blood. The statement that the Spirit, the water and the blood agree shows that the Spirit's saving work is not independent of or effective apart from that which was accomplished in Jesus' death
        
        The "Blood and Water" Witness to Jesus Christ (5:6)
        
        While water is mentioned in the epistles only here, several significant references to it are found in the Gospel
        
        (1:26, 31, 33; 3:22; 4:1-2; 2:1-12; 3:5, 8) Together these references stress the idea of purifying, and particularly the purifying effected by the Spirit of God
        
        Except for the passage under consideration, blood appears in the epistles only in 1 John 1:7, where it is said that "the blood of Jesus purifies us from every sin.
        
        If 1 John 5:6 is referring to the incident at Jesus' crucifixion, when water and blood came out from his side, then the confession that Jesus came by water and blood points to his death as the culmination of his saving mission
        
        What was at stake in understanding Jesus Christ as the one who came by water and blood was an acceptance of his life and death as mediating God's salvation for the world
        
        It is helpful to read this part of the epistle with the Gospel in mind. According to the Gospel, one person saw the crucifixion and testified to the water and blood (19:35).
        
        God's Witness to the Son (5:10-12)
        
        The Spirit's testimony is in fact the testimony of God (5:9, 11), for the Spirit is sent by and from God
        
        The summary of God's testimony with the statement that there is life in the Son confirms that what is at stake in the epistle and its various confessions about Jesus is more a soteriological than a specifically christological question
    - - the whole point of the passage is to trace the relationship between God's love and human love, and to show how human love flows from God's own love.
        
        The Model of Love (4:9-10)
        
        The visible manifestation of love (v. 9); its active and redeeming character (vv. 9-10); and its ultimate definition in terms of God's action rather than our own (v. 10)
        
        The Command to Love (4:11-12)
        
        Because God's children have experienced such love, the command that comes to them to love each other is not the "ought" of external compulsion but the "ought" of internal constraint
        
        When he writes no one has ever seen God, he calls to mind the same statement in the Gospel of John (1:18). In both cases, he is not trying to tell us what God is like but how God is known
        
        And God is known not only in the revelation that comes to us in Jesus (Jn 1:18) but also by the manifestation of our love for each other
        
        The Source of Love (4:7-8)
        
        Love comes from God (v. 7), and God is love (v. 8)
- - - - His primary purpose in writing has been to offer pastoral encouragement, to instill confidence and hope by reminding his readers of the fellowship with God and with each other that they now enjoy
      - "Eternal" means more than "everlasting." But eternal life is a blessing and a joy because it is the life of God
      - As noted above, this was the qualification of the prayer of Jesus, whose will was always one with that of the Father (Jn 4:34; 5:30), who himself did the will of God in completing the work that brings eternal life (6:38-40) and whose unity with God was manifested in God's "listening" to him
    - - But the passage does not explicitly say that it is a fellow believer committing the sin that does lead to death. Indeed, by definition this seems impossible in the Johannine epistles and particularly in the present context.
      - Sin unto death is sin that carries a person into death's clutches, into the grip of the evil one (v. 19). And a child of God does not sin in that way, because one who is truly born of God will rather manifest that in confession of sin and dependence for forgiveness upon the atoning work of Christ. But "sin unto death" is already evidence that one lives in the realm of death, in the world, under the control of the evil one, and not in the sphere of life and righteousness granted by God to those who trust in Christ's work on their behalf.
      - As is typical of the Johannine literature, "seeing" probably means "perceiving" or "understanding." If one has perceived—and John does not explain how one "perceives" this—that a fellow Christian is sinning, the proper response is to pray for that person.
      - What one may not ask for with respect to those whose "sin is unto death" is that they be given life apart from their repentance, confession and returning to following Christ. One can pray that unbelievers may repent and come to fellowship with God
      - That the Johannine community understood itself to function in just this way is suggested by the words with which the risen Jesus commissioned his disciples: "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you... If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven" (Jn 20:21, 23). In any case, the primary will of God is to bring people to life (Jn 3:16), and this is the will of God that Jesus lives out. So too, our wills and purposes are to be one with God in this commission, to be agents of bringing God's forgiveness and eternal life to others. Needless to say, this commission can only be carried out with great humility, with the full recognition that the God who extends forgiveness through the church is a God who is "faithful and just and will forgive us our sins" (1 Jn 1:9)
  - - - Confidence in God's Keeping Power (5:18-19)
        
        The statement the one born of God does not continue to sin does not mean that the believer has attained some superior moral status or achieved perfection. Rather, because they are born of God, believers are characterized not by sin and death but by truth and life
        
        For born of God points to a divine action on our behalf that transfers us to the sphere where the future realities of eternal life are already lived out, even if only in part
      - The Coming of the Son of God (5:20-21)
        
        Jesus has given to us understanding, which includes the ability to discern the spirits (4:1-6) and to understand what the Spirit teaches us
        
        We see here once again the claim that only through the Son of God can one come to know the God who is true, as opposed to any and every false conception of God that people construct in their own minds
        
        In fact the Elder speaks of Jesus not only as truth but as the true God
        
        The idols here are not pagan deities or images of stone or wood. An idol is a false picture of God that causes one to stumble and fall away from a relationship with the true God