1st John: An introduction

Who: The Apostle John

Good morning brothers and sisters, as you all know we will be working through the Apostle Johns first epistle this winter. As you all know by know its crucially important to understand context. Context is king and so today we will simply be getting aquainted with the historical and cultural context that Johns first epistle finds itself within. First things first, we need to ask who it is that wrote the epistle and as you have all probably guessed by now, the writter is the apostle John. John is the author of our belovid Gospel of John: the only book of the bible written to unbeleivers so that they may recieve the free gift of everlasting life. John was the son of Zebedee, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. While critical scholars try to argue for nonapostolic authority the style of writing shared between Johns gospel and his three epistles are closer in style than any other example in Greek literature.

Unlike other epistles that address the audience being written to, 1st John is not addressed to any particular group of Christians. However, the author is clearly well aquainted with the people audience as he addresses them as ‘little children’ which indicates they have been under his discipleship. Moreover, the use of the term ‘bretheren’ as well as the audience having the promise of everlasting life 1 John 2:25 points to the fact that this letter is written to believers and therefore it should be enterpreted in light of that fact.

What: Fellowship

The reason for John writing this letter is evidently fellowship as can be established by the purpose statement. 1 John 1:3-7 Some false teachers have argued that this epistle is to provide tests by which one can measure if their beleif is genuine, a la John Macarthur. This theory can be easily dismissed based on the audience already possessing everlasting life 1 John 2:25 a gift which cannot be lost once recieved by beleiving in Jesus Christ for it and the fact the letter is addressed to ‘bretheren’. Furthermore throughout the epistle John references the readers ‘brother’ - a term used throughout the New Testament to refer to a fellow believer. 1 John 3:14 supports this fact that brother and bretheren are interchangable and that both refer to fellow believers. The apostle John could not speak of loving the brethern or brothers if the intended audience were not infact believers.

No it is quite evident that the apostle John wrote this letter to be circulated amongst fellowships of believers in order that their fellowship may be strengthened and by doing so that they may experience fellowship with the Father and the Son. Throughout the letter John gives several ways in whih we maintain fellowship, they are:

Confessing our sin and walking in the light.

Resisting the teaching of those who would make you doubt your eternal security.

Love for the bretheren.

The duel nature of the believer (innerman vs the flesh)

The entire message of first John could be best described by one single word: love. Out of all the books of the New Testament, first John uses the word love the most times at a total of 51. The Gospel of John comes in at a close second with 44. This could be because first John is an expansion of Jesus upperroom discourse with the twelve disciples in the Gospel of John chapter 13-15. We will have a closer look at the overlapping themes as we work through the epistle.

Where and When?

Despite the desires of critical scholars, the epistle was almost definitely written before 70AD as there is no mention of the destruction of the temple. The anhiliation of Jerusalem and the razing of the temple mount was predicted by Jesus as judgement for Israels rejection of her Messiah and His kingdom, if an epistle was written after the fact it would certainly reference what would be akin to the world ending for the Jewish people. THe GES commentary on first John has the following to say about where and when the epistle was written:

The Grace New Testament Commentary, Revised Edition Introduction

The statement in

However GES goes on to state that in light of the reference to false teaching a date of 64-65 seems preferable. John likely wrote the epistle when he was living in Jerusalem with the remaining apostles c.f 1 John 2:19.

How: Literal-Grematical-Historical-Cultural Hermaeutic

As with all of Gods word, we shall proceed to interpret the truth found in Johns first epistle with a literal-grematical-historical-cultural hermenutic. God is not a God of confussion and therefore it is completely reasonable to assume that Holy Spirit would have inspired the writers of Scripture to communicate in a straight forward, intelligable way. We assume the same thing everday when we talk to one another or read any piece of information - that is we assume that the plain sense meaning of what we are hearing or reading is the intended meaning - unless there is good reason to interpreate it allagorically - such as the use of hyperboly or figurative language.

Dr. David L. Cooper (1886-1965), fouder of The Biblical Research Society, famously said:

“When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense: therefore. take every word as its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.”

This is the literal-grematical part of Literal-grematical-historical-cultural hermeutic, the historical and cultural aspect is what we have already touched on today and will continue to as we work through the epistle. It’s important to place ourselves in the context of the original audience to truly understand what they were reading through their lens.

The fundamental aim of exegesis is the interpretation of the intended meaning of the text by the original author to the origial audience. We find that intended meaning by using a literal hermeneutic coupled with the laws of logic, once we find the intended meaning we can establish the underlying principles and apply them to our contemporary context.

The Epistle of First John

Church I am excited to walk through this epistle with you over the winter, how about you? Amen. We will understand the truths found in the epistle the way the original audience understood them and as the original author intended, the apostle John under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit. We will learn how we experience fellowship with the God of all creation, how amazing is that? And in doing so we will have our minds renewed by the sanctifying word of God. Church I hope today has served you well as a breif introduction to the Gospel of John and has given you a foundation for understanding the epistle in context as we start in chapter 1 next week. Lets close with a word of prayer.