Untitled Sermon (5)
1 John Work
Sometime after the writing of this early form of the Gospel, difficulties arose within this community. Some of the members had taken on board certain beliefs about the person and work of Christ that were unacceptable to the author of the letters and those associated with him. These beliefs involved a denial that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, come in the flesh (1 John 4:2–3), and that his death was necessary for the forgiveness of sins (1 John 5:6–7). A sharp disagreement arose which resulted in the secession of those who embraced these new views (1 John 2:19).
The secessionists or false teachers (as we shall call them hereafter) were not content to keep their new beliefs to themselves. Instead they organized a group of itinerant preachers who circulated among the churches and propagated their beliefs with a view to winning people over to their understanding of things (1 John 2:26; 4:1–3; 2 John 7).
This created confusion among the believers who remained loyal to the gospel as it had been proclaimed from the beginning, the gospel that had come down from the eyewitnesses. As a result of the confusion, these believers began to question whether they really knew God, whether they really were experiencing eternal life, and whether they were really in the truth. The primary concern of the author in writing 1 John was to bolster the assurance of such people by providing them with a clear presentation of the gospel message they had received from the beginning. He also provided them with criteria they could use to evaluate the false claims being made by the secessionists and with which they could also reassure themselves that they were in the truth (1 John 1:5–2:2; 2:3–11; 3:7–10, 14–15; 4:4–6, 7–8, 13–15; 5:13, 18–20). This letter, sent as a circular around the churches affected by the mission of the secessionists, was directly encouraging for the readers, and indirectly polemical as far as the secessionists were concerned.
There are many examples of this, but most striking of all are the similarities between the prologue of the Fourth Gospel and the opening section of 1 John. Also, the purpose of writing both the Fourth Gospel and 1 John has to do with faith in Christ and receiving eternal life (John 20:31; 1 John 5:13
What is clear from these citations is that early Christian tradition is unanimous in ascribing 1 John to John the disciple and apostle of the Lord. This corresponds with the internal evidence that, taken at face value, indicates that the author was an eyewitness of the Word of life. Although there is, as we have seen above, a reluctance on the part of some modern scholars to accept this testimony, it does seem to be the fairest way to read the evidence
The author’s main purpose in writing was to bolster the assurance of his readers by showing them that they were in the truth. This accords with the one explicit statement of purpose in the letter: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (5:13