Welcome to the Epistles of John

The next several articles are from the books of 1, 2, and 3 John, starting with 1 John 1:5-2:11.  This isn’t the Gospel of John, but rather the first of three little letters from John near the end of the Bible, shortly before Revelation.  The study guide [cited below] places the writing of these letters around A.D. 80-95, which would be about 50 years after Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.

The NIV introduction to 1 John indicates that there were certain people that were splitting off from the church because they were sure – because of other philosophies – that a good God couldn’t have come in a human body, since they believed all physical matter [per Womack, p.20] to be inherently evil.  A commentator [Womack] identifies this more precisely as the heresy of Gnosticism, including the related concept of Docetism, which falsely suggested that Jesus merely appeared to have a human body.  (No, I can’t say for sure that I know how to correctly pronounce those names, either!)

In this sense, we find some similarities to the problems that the book of Galatians addressed.  For the first-century church in Galatia, when the true gospel about Jesus (including the fact that His sacrifice was everything that we needed to pay for our sins) was corrupted with teachings of the Judaizers (like their additional requirement of circumcision for Christians), the result became a dangerous false gospel.

The recipients of 1 John seem to have needed a similar reminder about the truth concerning Jesus.  In their case, others had mixed in secular philosophy with the gospel, and the result of corrupting [tainting, poisoning] the true gospel with human ideas produced yet another dangerous, false gospel.

To refute that false gospel, watch in these letters for the author’s personal testimony that, despite what false teachers claimed, Jesus – God the Son – did live as a human being, and the author had witnessed this directly.

(By the way, although this letter doesn’t appear to be signed by John the Apostle, his authorship seems pretty clear.  We can compare the style to the Gospel of John, for instance, as well as match up the content with what John experienced while walking with Jesus as His disciple.  So, I’ll write as if he’s the author: not to be contrary to those who might believe otherwise, nor to be dogmatic about it, but because I find the evidence heavily weighted towards that conclusion.)

While not part of the study guide’s text (i.e., the Bible passage that was suggested for the Sunday School lesson that served as a foundation for this and the next few articles), let’s go ahead and read 1 John 1:1-4.  While you do so, I’d like for you to watch for three things:

• John’s testimony, and how it was personal to Him, versus something he had merely heard from others.
• Who Jesus was, including descriptive names that John used to refer to Jesus.
• Why John wrote this letter, for the benefit of his readers.

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. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.
1 John 1:1‭-‬4 NIV

https://bible.com/bible/111/1jn.1.1-4.NIV

Jesus, who John refers to as “the Word of life” (see also John 1:1-5), was confirmed to be real and tangible: not just a spirit.  I think of Thomas being invited to feel Jesus’ hands and side after the resurrection (see John 20:24-29), but I also imagine the other apostles giving Jesus a hand into or out of a boat, or taking food from Him at a table, or just bumping into Jesus while they went about their ministry.  Jesus wasn’t a ghost or an illusion, He was an actual human being, even though He was also God the Son.

How about you?  While you and I arrived too late in history to shake Jesus’ hand or feel His arm around our shoulder during His first-century ministry, have you experienced Jesus in your life with such impact and clarity that you can testify to who He is?  Have you learned about the real love and truth and grace to be found in Jesus, and have you experienced His presence?  If you haven’t, His offer to change our lives and to walk with us remains open today, just as it did in the first century.

Wherever you and Jesus are at in your relationship, let’s see what else one of Jesus’ closest friends and followers said about Him over a study from these three little letters.  It is my hope and prayer that this will help you and me both get to know Jesus more in our own lives.  After all, just as He lived and walked as a human being in the first century, and gave His life in exchange for the eternal penalty that our own sins deserved, He was raised to life again and still lives today, allowing us to continue talking with Him and getting to know Him better.

From Sunday School lesson prepared for February 16, 2025

References:

• 1717 Bible Studies, 1, 2, and 3 John,  © 2025 Christian Standard Media.
• Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
• Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
• The College Press NIV Commentary – 1, 2 & 3 John, by Morris M. Womack.  © 1998 College Press Publishing Co.