Chunks: The Letters of John

We may be used to sharing prayer requests with each other—but only rarely are those prayer requests about our struggle with sin. John seems to think that we should indeed pray for one another when we see such struggles. But he also suggests that we don’t need to pray about sin “that leads to death” (1 John 5:16-17). What did he mean?

The final verses of 1 John read a bit like an executive summary of what came before. But it’s not just for the purpose of conveying information more efficiently. The pastoral purpose of the letter is to provide spiritual comfort to people who were rocked by the conflict that split the community. Thus, even as John pushes his readers to take sin seriously, he also wants to reassure them that they a...

John is approaching the end of the letter we know as 1 John. Though the letter contains theology, it is not a theological treatise; it was written to give pastoral reassurance to his readers. He’s just said that the secessionists stand condemned for their false teaching and beliefs; in the wake of the conflict, are his readers anxious about their own salvation? “Don’t worry,” John seems to say in...

Churches can divide over issues that may seem trivial to an outsider—but to an insider, they’re anything but. Before we begin our exploration of the final verses of 1 John, therefore, I want to suggest five lessons we can draw from what we’ve already seen, general principles that I hope would help us do a better job of faithfully approaching and navigating church conflict.

When we were kids, we wanted what we wanted. And sometimes, even as adults, we want things from God. There’s nothing wrong with that in itself—unless we presume that God has promised to give us anything we ask. Indeed, John seems to suggest that in 1 John 5:14-15, a text which echoes something Jesus said in the Upper Room. But is that what John means? Is that what Jesus meant?

As we explored in the previous episode, John uses courtroom language to talk about the testimony of the water, the blood, the Spirit, and God himself to the truth about Jesus. But the imagery is fluid, shifting in a way that suggests it’s the secessionists themselves who are on trial for their false teaching. And in that trial, God, the Judge and Lawgiver, takes the stand before the final verdict...

If you enjoy watching legal dramas—or have ever served on a jury!—you know how important it is to a case to have not only a competent attorney, but witnesses who give credible testimony. In 1 John 5, the apostle draws upon legal metaphors to insist that the truth about Jesus has been established on the testimony of the best of witnesses: not only the water and the blood, but the Holy Spirit and Go...

Chances are, when we read the Bible, we have our go-to translation, even though we know that other versions exist. Most of the time, the differences between translations are minor. But not always, and 1 John 5 is a case in point. In this episode, we explore the strange tale of the so-called “Johannine comma”—words that appear in the King James Version of the letter but not in other translations.

John has emphasized the importance of right belief about the identity of Jesus. But in chapter 5, he says something oddly confusing about Jesus, insisting repeatedly that he came by “water and blood” (vss. 6-8)—probably as a rejoinder to something taught by the secessionists. As you might guess, the statement has generated a great deal of scholarly speculation, and in this episode, we’ll explore w...

We love heroic stories, stories of ordinary people overcoming extraordinary odds. But in the wake of a church split, people may feel particularly un-heroic, wondering how things could go so badly when they’re trying to be faithful. John seems to know that his community needs encouragement. They are loving one another even if they don’t do it perfectly, and faith itself is already a sign of overcom...

Throughout his letters, John seems to think back continually to what Jesus told his disciples in Upper Room on the night he was arrested. He remembers the repeated commandment to love one another, and emphasizes that over and over as he writes. But let’s face it: some people are easier to love than others, even within our own families, even within the church. John thinks of the believers in his co...

Hang around Christian congregations long enough, and sooner or later you’ll probably hear people refer to the church as a “family.” That’s a biblical way to think, of course; believers are brothers and sisters under one heavenly Father. But we need to take care, because the word “family” itself carries with it a lot of cultural and emotional baggage. John takes us back to basics: to believe that J...

As we’ve seen, the issue that divided John’s community was the identity of Jesus—and the question was already a live one during Jesus’ earthly ministry. Think, for example, of Peter, who famously acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, then turned right around and showed he still didn’t understand the full meaning of that confession. What does it mean to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ? T...

John has already said that to love one another is to live like Jesus and to make God’s character visible. The uncomfortable implication of this—and one that seems to apply to the secessionists who riled up the community—is that a person might claim to love God, but if they don’t love their brothers and sisters, it’s a lie.

As the apostle Paul famously wrote, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). John knows this too. He might counsel his readers to love one another, but is under no illusions that this is just a matter of drawing on the better angels of their nature. Rather, any ability we have to love one another truly has its origin in God, who took the initiative: “We love because he first l...

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught his followers that they were to become perfect like God, especially in the matter of love. But who is perfect in love? John doesn’t mean that our love must be flawless. Rather, while none of us loves with perfect and flawless consistency, the point is that we are growing up to be more and more like our heavenly Father and his Son in love. And hopefully, we...

If someone says, “I believe in Jesus,” does that make them a Christian? Not necessarily. One of John’s litmus tests is that a true believer must “acknowledge” that Jesus came in the flesh (1 John 4:2) and is the Son of God (4:15). But as the story from John 9 shows, that acknowledgment has to be more than just lip service. Is a person willing to stand up for the truth about Jesus, even if doing so...

John has already told his readers that when they love one another, God’s love is being “made complete” in them (1 John 4:12), an idea that he repeats a few verses later. Jesus himself taught that the whole moral teaching of the Old Testament, boiled down to its essence, was to love God and neighbor wholeheartedly. To say that love is being made complete is to say that we’re growing up, maturing. A...

Reading between the lines of John’s letter, we can sense how the controversy that split the community had shaken the confidence of those who remained. Indeed, the very purpose of the letter is to help them regain that confidence. He’s already told them that they must love one another as Jesus commanded. And now he reassures them: when they see that love in action, they know they’re living like Jes...

In the Upper Room, Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another. Already in chapter 4, John has reminded his readers of that command twice. But he doesn’t just say this because it would be a nice thing to do. As he’ll suggest in 1 John 4:12, it’s because the love between believers is what makes the character of the invisible God visible.

Ask someone what the Bible says about love, and they’re likely to point to 1 Corinthians 13. But if you read what Paul says carefully, he doesn’t define what love is , but what love does and doesn’t do. We need to understand John similarly. Yes, love involves emotion, but it is more than that—and we know what love is by what God has done through Jesus.

As Christians we are familiar with the idea, expressed in John 3:16, that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was a demonstration of God’s love. Sometimes I wonder, though, if we have become too familiar with the idea, to the point that it ceases to amaze us. John would have been raised to know of the love and mercy of God—but could he have imagined such a concrete expression of love as the cross?

Some of the best-known verses in John’s letter, here in chapter 4, have to do with love. But what is love? John doesn’t try to define the word and then apply it to God. Rather, we need to read the meaning of what he says the other way around: whatever love truly is, it’s defined by the character of God. Everything else is imitation.

As mentioned in a previous episode, Jesus told his disciples that he had “overcome” the world, and John told his readers that they had “overcome” the trouble stirred up by the secessionists. The verb John uses, when expressed as a noun, is nike —the goddess of victory and the name of what may be the most recognized brand of sportswear in the world. In our world, the NIKE brand is associated with “...

Everyone in John’s community had heard the gospel; they all knew what John had taught. But some, unfortunately, only heard what they wanted to hear. This is another of John’s litmus tests: do people heed the gospel as taught by the apostles or not?