First John-Introduction-First John: Literary Form and Structure of First John
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday February 21, 2017
First John: Literary Form and Structure of First John
Lesson # 10
First John appears to be a circular letter meaning it was sent to all the churches in the various cities in the Roman province of Asia where it was copied and passed along.
The literary structure of the book has caused a lot of problems for biblical scholars and some have even given up attempting to find a structure to this work.
There are have been a plethora of proposals with regards to the structure of this letter.
However, the work of John Christopher Thomas has convinced me that First John has a concentric or chiastic structure since he has sufficiently proven to me that the text of First John mirrors itself.
“Chiasmus” is the use of inverted parallelism of form or of content which moves toward and away from a strategic central component and explicitly states what the inverted parallelism only implied.
In other words, “chiasmus” is a literary form in which ideas that have been presented in order (A, B, C…) correspond to ideas that later occur in reverse order (…C, B, A) and revolve around a central component.
For example, the statement “Winners (A) never quit (B) and therefore, perseverance is the key to success (C) because quitters (B) never win (A).”
So we can see that the statement “winners never quit because quitters never win” emphasizes that winning demands perseverance.
Thomas has suggested the following as the basic structure of First John.
A-1:1-4: Prologue (Eternal Life)
B-1:5-2:2: Making God a Liar by our Walk
C-2:3-17: Familiar Commandment to Love One Another
D-2:18-27: Antichrists
E-2:28-3:10: Confidence by Practicing Righteousness
F-3:11-18: Love One Another
E’-3:19-24: Confidence by Practicing Love for One Another
D’-4:1-6: Antichrists
C’-4:7-5:3: God’s Love and Our Love for Each Other
B’-5:4-12: Making God a Liar by Unbelief
A’-5:13-21: Epilogue (Eternal Life)
This proposed structure of First John is indicated by the structural markers employed by the writer.
First, the expression ἐὰν εἴπωμεν appears three times (1 John 1:6-2:2).
Secondly, three sentences which appear in 1 John 2:4-11 use the phrase ὁ λέγων.
Thirdly, seven clauses which appear in 1 John 2:29-3:10 contain the construction πᾶς ὁ followed by a participle.
Furthermore, three times οἴδαμεν is employed as the lead verb in 1 John 5:18-21.
Lastly, there are three pericopes which never break up due to their subject matter, namely, 1 John 2:12-14, 2:15-17 and 4:1-6.
As Thomas points out, while not solving the puzzle of the structure of 1 John as a whole, these markers do reveal something of the nature of the microstructure, if not its macrostructure.
Just as important as noted by Thomas, “a careful reading of the content of the individual passages reveals broader indicator in the text, such as the book’s flow and development of thought and especially its repetition of theme and vocabulary, which point to the work’s structure.”
He also suggests that the concentric or chiastic structure of First John would be helpful in facilitating his readers memorizing this letter if it were intended as a teaching document for the Christian community.
Consequently, this would enable this community to retain much of this letter “orally.”
This proposed structure of First John reveals that the command to love one another is the most important section in the letter since it is standing in the middle of the letter.
The emphasis on love is further developed in sections C and C’ and is mentioned in two other parts of the book, namely, section E and E’ which stand on either side of this central pericope.
Section E address the subject of confidence before God by practicing righteousness and section E’ concerns itself with how a believer can have confidence before God as a result of practicing the command to love one another.
These two concepts are closely connected or intertwined since practicing righteousness expresses itself by obedience to the commands to love God with one’s entire being and one’s neighbor as oneself.
In other words, if a believer is loving God and their neighbor they are practicing righteousness since righteousness is fulfilling one’s obligation to love God with one’s entire being and fulfilling one’s obligation to one’s fellow human being to love them as one would love oneself.
Sections D and D’ deal with those who oppose the gospel and thus oppose the Christian living according to the standard of God’s holiness which involves love for God and for one’s fellow human being.
Section D address the subject of false teachers whose false doctrine threatens the Ephesian Christian community’s fellowship with God.
Section D’ provides information as to how the Ephesian Christian community can identify these false teachers and their false doctrine.
The two sections (C and C’) standing on either side of the Antichrists passages develop the central idea of loving one another.
Section C presents the imperatives of fellowship with a holy God, which is obedience to the command to love one another.
It also addresses the subject of the provision of sin and the imperative of confession of sin to God in order to be restored to fellowship with God.
The believer is restored to fellowship with a holy God because of the merits of Jesus Christ and His death on the cross which satisfied the demands of God’s holiness that sin be judged.
Verses 12-14 are poetic sections containing six declarations which address the subject of forgiveness, knowledge of the eternal God and victory over the devil.
John assures his readers that they have been forgiven, they know the eternal God experientially and are thus experiencing fellowship with Him.
He also affirms that they have experienced victory over Satan by their obedience to the Word of God.
This section concludes with a warning that love for the cosmic system of Satan demonstrates a failure to love God.
Section C’ reminds the Ephesian Christian community that love originates with God and is one of His attributes.
In this section, John reminds them that Jesus Christ’s death on the cross for sinful humanity was the greatest manifestation of the love of God in history.
His readers are the beneficiaries of this love and are thus obligated to love one another.
This section assures the reader that the Spirit testifies or confirms that the believer is experiencing fellowship with God.
The practice of love gives the believer assurance as well that they are experiencing fellowship with God.
John teaches that the one who hates their brother or sister in Christ is not experiencing fellowship with God.
In fact, by obeying the command to love one another, they will know for certain that they are children of God.
The sections A and A’ that stand on either side of the sections devoted to love teach how the believer can call God a liar.
Both A and A’ explicitly mention making God a liar.
Both begin with similar expressions, namely “this is the message” (1:5) and this is the one who comes” (5:6).
In section A, John reminds his readers that they make God a liar when they live their lives in disobedience to God’s Word.
In section A’, he says that they make God a liar by failing to exercise faith in God’s Word.
Unbelief produces disobedience whereas faith produces obedience.
When they exercised faith in Jesus at justification, they receive eternal life and when they obey God’s Word after justification, they will experience eternal life.
Lastly, the prologue and the conclusion or epilogue address the subject of eternal life.
In the former, John testifies to being an eyewitness that Jesus of Nazareth is eternal life incarnate whereas in the latter, he assures his reader that they possess eternal life through faith in Jesus at justification and are experiencing eternal life by obedience to his apostolic teaching.
In section A’, he also assures them that when they present a request to God in prayer, they can be confident that they will have these requests fulfilled if they ask them according to His will.
John reminds them again that sin prevents them from experiencing eternal life.
However, they can also be assured of their eternal security because of their faith in Jesus at justification and consequently, they are protected from Satan.