This Week’s Reading: 1 John 1
The Apostle John was a prolific writer in the New Testament; writing the Gospel of John, the three epistles and the Book of Revelation. These writings were written over a potential 30 year period. The Gospel was written first, sometime in the 70s/80s of the first century. Revelation was written last, sometime in the 90’s. 2 and 3 John are distinctly letters while 1 John scholars believe is something more akin to a written sermon. The three epistles were written possibly in the late 80’s or early 90’s. Tradition is that John died of old age in 98 A.D.
At the time of the epistles, John was acting as an elderly traveling pastor overseeing the local pastors in the region of Ephesus. Being elderly, travel was difficult so sending letters and even written sermons would have been a good method of communication when he couldn’t get to one of the churches. Unfortunately, there was a group of people who had been part of his flock that begain teaching heresy regarding Jesus. They left the church but were still trying to infiltrate the church with their false teachings (see 2 John 7-10). John’s epistles are to make sure we know the truth, so we can walk in the light.
We see in John’s sermon, 1 John, several themes that are repeated and which reflect his Gospel. We will be looking at some of those themes over the next few weeks in these devotionals. The one thing to remember as we study 1 John is that he is fighting against heretics. The heretics were preaching that a physical Jesus wasn’t real because the physical and spiritual don’t mix. Because they don’t mix, they could live how ever they wanted as long as they believed in God.
I imagine their denial that Jesus was real was a trigger point for John. He had lived with Jesus for three years. He was the “beloved disciple”. There was no what if for John, he had lived with Christ and was living as Christ. To deny the reality of Jesus was to call John a liar. I can even read 1 John hearing a fiery voice coming from John, “Those people who call me a liar are liars themselves!” but then his voice softens up, with the elderly wisdom of John, calling us to love each other and obey God, only for a emphatic voice popping out once again at the thought of those heretics, “believe in Jesus, He is real, He is the Son of God, He saves!”
There is a story about John when he was quite old. His disciples would carry him into the church in their arms because he couldn’t walk anymore. He would say only one thing, “Little children, love one another”. Frustrated that was the only thing he would say, they finally asked him why. His answer was simple, “Because it is the Lord’s command, and if only this is done, it is enough.”
We encourage you to read 1 John, just a chapter a week during this sermon series. Sit at John’s feet and learn about God’s love for us. For extra credit, read 2 and 3 John as well, both are short letters that help us understand even more what John is preaching in 1 John. The question before us is simple, “What if we live like Jesus Christ? How would the world be changed as we change into better Christians?”
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. -1 John 4:7
