Students of the Word

Turning to the second chapter of I John and ready to begin the third paragraph of the epistle, I suddenly realize that we are actually still in the second paragraph! The rhetorical shift at the start of the second chapter seems not to open a new idea, but to begin the conclusion of the previous series of parallel ideas. And in that conclusion, John explains the simple but profound status of our re...

In this second half of the last sentence of this big second paragraph of the epistle, we learn not only more about the nature of Jesus's work for us, but the magnitude of its cleansing power.

Having heard a couple times now about lies and self-deception through things we might say, we now learn about a positive use for speech: one that connects our unrighteousness with the righteousness of Jesus, bringing us into cleansing and koinonia.

The last verse of Chapter 1 provides the fifth and final if/then statement in this paragraph. We spend some time looking at the patterns that the whole series presents, and some of the implications they have for us.

In verse 8, John seems to address the question of sinlessness head-on. We spend a good deal of time working out the parallels between verse 6 and verse 8, looking at walking in darkness and John's apparent extension of the "walking around" metaphor with his reference to how we can "lead ourselves astray".

Light and darkness, truth and lies: John's language here is pretty stark and uncomfortably uncompromising here in verse 6. In this episode we confront this difficult verse, and, glancing ahead, we can begin to see that this opposition contains a promise, not a threat.

This week we follow up with a longer discussion of verse 7, considering the promise that it contains which completely transforms the otherwise rather terrifying message of verse 6. We discuss the syntax of John's sentence, and consider especially what the "if/then" structure of the sentence suggests. We focus on the structure of verse 7, looking at the parallel between the light and the blood, wit...

In this session we discussed not one but two verses. In verse 5, we finally get to the message, the proclamation itself that John has been setting up in the first four verses. But it sounds like we might be the ones getting set up! In verse 6, John drops the hammer.

In this session we finished discussing the first paragraph of 1 John 1, looking at the significance of joy's fulness and the awesomeness of John's pronoun usage. For those following (more or less) live: there will be no new study until April 10, 2022, as I will be traveling the next few weekends. In April, we'll get to the actual message!

Today we get to the main verb and finish the whole first sentence of 1 John! John announces his intention to proclaim ... something, but then instead of actually proclaiming it, he explains why he is going to proclaim it. And the primary reason he gives is probably not what we thought it was going to be. Surprises and twists abound this week, as we discuss 1 John 1:3!

Having just mentioned the Word of Life stuff, John interrupts himself in 1:2 to tell us more, not about the Word, but about the Life, and how it is related both to us and to God. Also, we have started a discussion board in a Slack workspace. If you would like to join us for discussion and sharing, send me a note in the Contact Form at the bottom of the homepage at studentsoftheword.org, and we'll...

In this session, we discuss the rest of 1 John 1:1 (yep, the whole verse!). Questions discussed: Which arche? Who is the "we" in all these clauses? What is the logic of the progression of the noun clauses, and what do they suggest about our relationship to the Word of Life?

In this first episode, Corey gives an introduction to the Bible study, explaining what we are and are not setting out to do in these sessions. After answering a lot of questions, we do finally start discussions, which get almost as far as "the beginning".