“Introduction To First John”

Saturday, October 07, 2017

The three letters in the Bible ascribed to John do not bear the Apostle’s name, but there is little reason to doubt the son of Zebedee’s authorship. The man who wrote these epistles was an eyewitness and close associate of Jesus (1 John 1:1-4), and a very prominent pillar in the first century church of Christ (2 John 1:1; 3 John 1:1). The similarities in writing style, vocabulary and phraseology between the Gospel account of John and the epistles bearing his name are striking to say the least. John, interestingly, did not directly autograph his Gospel account either, but left no question that he was the author when he signed off as the “disciple whom Jesus loved” (1 John 21:20, 24). There is ample external evidence as well for Johannine authorship, including the testimony of such prominent “church fathers” as Polycarp (69-156 AD), Papias (60-130 AD) and Irenaeus (130-202 AD).

The Apostle John wrote this letter to combat and refute a burgeoning form of false doctrine known as Gnosticism that was likely proliferating toward the end of the first century through the province of Asia Minor and troubling the churches there (Revelation 1:11). The proponents of this heresy taught, among other untruths, that physical matter was evil and that higher, illuminating knowledge (gnosis) was required for salvation. They taught (and John refuted) that, since matter was inherently evil, God could not truly have come in the fleshly body of the man Jesus (1 John 4:2-3), and therefore He could not have died either (1 John 5:5-6). They also insisted (and John refuted) that, since a fleshly body is intrinsically evil, no amount of gross immorality could make a person’s spiritual situation any worse (1 John 3:10). They taught this new doctrine of spiritual elevation through special enlightenment, but John assured his brethren in Christ that they already knew the truth (1 John 2:21); that God’s commandments are immutable (1 John 2:3-7); and that they could know they had eternal life by no other means than through faith in Christ Jesus (1 John 5:13).

Over and over again in this remarkable epistle, John assured his brethren that they were the ones who were truly in the “know,” and that the heretics among them were “liars” (1 John 2:4, 22; 4:20) and “false prophets” (1 John 4:1) whose error required testing against the Apostles’ truth to prove they were not from God. The bizarre Gnostic coupling of superior knowledge with the practice of base licentiousness was shot down by John in numerous ways. He shows us that if one is truly in possession of a superior, spiritual knowledge that places Him in close communion with God, it will be clearly manifested through the godly way in which that person lives his life (1 John 1:5-6, 2:3, 10; 3:7-10, 14, 24, etc.).

Really looking forward to studying these epistles with you!

Please read 1 John 1:1-4 for tomorrow.

Have a super day!

-Louie Taylor

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