HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1507
1 John
I S T H E R E A N Y O N E who does not long for a strong family relation-
ship? This is a book about a wider family that we Christians are a part
of, a family that creates and maintains a strong sense of togetherness.
John talks about the family of God, the universal, worldwide circle of
Christians, who are bonded together in a fellowship or family, “glued
together” through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
What you will be
John is an old man now. Some say he lived to be
reading about
one hundred, a ripe old age even today, but highly
unusual in those days. Tradition says John wrote
1:1– 2:11
How to live as God’s children
this letter at Ephesus in the closing years of his
life. He is an aged man of wisdom, writing to his
2:12 -17
Do not love this evil world
“little children” with counsel and encouragement.
False teachers had permeated the church,
2:18-29
Beware of the enemies of
unsettling the Christians with heresies that
Christ
denied that the Messiah, God’s Son, was truly
Jesus of Nazareth. They reasoned that because
3:1-24
As God’s children, we must
flesh was evil, God’s Son could not have come
love others
in flesh. This struck at the very heart of the doc4:1-6
trine of the Incarnation and, ultimately, at the
Learning to recognize false
redemptive death of Christ on the cross. Robbed
teachings
of those doctrines, the core of Christianity was in
4:7- 21
question, leaving doubts and confusion among
True love comes from God;
those who listened.
God is love
John begins his book with a strong affirmation
5:1- 21
that he who was from the beginning, the Son of
Loving God brings eternal life
God, became flesh and was known as Jesus. John
and his fellow apostles saw him, touched him, walked with him. Jesus Christ,
with whom the apostles walked and lived, was truly the Son of God. It was he
who died on the cross for the sins of the world.
John then moves to the heartbeat of the book: We can have fellowship with
God and with his people—we can be part of the family of God. We join God’s family through confession of sin, receiving God’s forgiveness through Jesus. Then we
are “in Christ,” part of God’s family. We can fellowship with God and his people.
The test of that fellowship is simple: Do we love each other? Do we believe
in Jesus as God’s Son incarnate and confess that truth before others? Do our
hearts and consciences confirm our relationship with God? Does God’s Spirit
live within us?
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