First John-Introduction-First John: Themes First John Shares with John 13-17, Part 2
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday March 1, 2017
First John: Themes First John Shares with John 13-17, Part 2
Lesson # 14
A comparison of First John and John 13-17 which contains our Lord’s Upper Room Discourse makes clear that both share many common themes such as maximum joy, the Father’s relationship with the believer in His Son, knowing God by obedience to His commands and mutual love.
The theme of love appears in both First John and John 13-17.
The love mentioned in First John and John 13-17 does not refer to the function of human love but rather the exercise of divine-love that is produced by the Holy Spirit through the believer who is obedient to the Spirit inspired command of the Lord Jesus Christ to love one another as He loves.
Divine love exercised by Christians is distinguished from the exercise of human love in that the former is a response to God’s love for the Christian and an expression of faith in God whereas the latter is based upon the attractiveness of the object.
In the upper room, Jesus referred to the Father’s love for the Son (John 15:9; 17:23–24, 26), the Father’s love for those who love Jesus (14:21; 16:27), the Father’s love for those who keep Jesus’ word (14:23), and the Father’s love for those who believe Jesus came from the Father (16:27; 17:23).
The love of the Father for the Son is reciprocated by the Son’s love for the Father (15:19; 17:23).
The Father’s love, as taught in John 14–17, is reflected in First John 2:5 which alludes to John 14:15, 23, in which Jesus said that the love of God is demonstrated in obeying His commands.
This love for the Father is not experienced when a believer loves the world or the things belonging to it according to 1 John 2:15.
John also wrote that the Father’s love for believers is seen in His sending His Son to take away sins (4:7-10, 14-16).
Jesus often spoke of His love for His disciples (John 13:1, 23, 34; 15:9, 12), His love for all believers (14:21), and His love for the Father (v. 31).
When John wrote of Jesus’ love, he focused on His laying down His life for believers, whereby His love serves as the model for mutual love between believers (1 John 3:16; 4:10) which originates from Jesus’ own emphasis on this theme in John 13:34-35 and 15:12-13.
The command to love one another as modeled perfectly by the Lord Jesus Christ appears in John 13:34; 15:12-13, 17, and this love reveals to others that His followers belong to Christ (13:35).
The Lord exhorted His disciples to abide in His love by keeping His commandments (14:15, 21, 23; 15:9-10) and those who love Jesus will be loved by the Father (14:21).
The themes of love and obedience are combined several times in John’s first epistle (1 John 2:5; 3:23; 5:2-3).
These verses in First John are clear allusions to Jesus’ words in the Upper Room Discourse.
When a believer loves other believers, his love shows that he is abiding “in the light” (2:10).
John’s repeated admonition that believers love each other (2:10; 3:11, 14, 16, 23; 4:7, 11–12, 21; 5:1–2) reflects Jesus’ command to love other believers (John 13:34; 15:12).
The theme of hate appears in both First John and John 13-17.
Jesus mentions the world hating Hid disciples in John 15:18-19 because the world first hated Him and the Father (vv. 23-25).
In His prayer to the Father He said that “the world has hated them [believers], because they are not of the world” (17:14).
First John 3:14 echoes this theme.
First John 2:9 and 11 teach that if a believer “hates his brother,” he is “in the darkness” (2:9, 11) and is at heart a murderer (3:15) like Cain (v. 12).
If they claim to love God but hate their brother, they are a liar (4:20) and they do not really love the Lord.
To love God and yet hate another believer is inconsistent, because truly loving the Lord results in loving others.
John’s polarizing of love and hate reflects some of Jesus’ teachings in the Upper Room Discourse.
Next, we come to the theme of fellowship since 1 John 1:3-7 speaks of fellowship with God which echoes the Lord’s teaching in John 13-17.
The church age believer can experience fellowship with God because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
Fellowship with God and their fellow believer is based upon their union and identification with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
In 1 John 1:3, John states that what he and fellow eyewitnesses have seen as well as heard, they were now proclaiming to the believers in the Roman province of Asia in order that they would also continue to regularly experience fellowship with he and his fellow eyewitnesses.
He then asserts that their fellowship is in fact, as an eternal spiritual truth existing in the state of being with the Father as well as with His Son, who is Jesus, who is the Christ.
In 1 John 1:6, John writes that if, any of us enters into making the claim that we have been experiencing fellowship with Him yet we have been living in the darkness, then, we are, as an eternal spiritual truth lying to ourselves.
Consequently, we are, as an eternal spiritual truth unequivocally not practicing the truth.
In 1 John 1:7, he writes that on the other hand, if any of us does, at any time live in this light as He Himself is, as an eternal spiritual truth in essence existing eternally in the state of being that light, then, we are, as an eternal spiritual truth existing in the state of experiencing fellowship with one another.
Consequently, the blood of Jesus, His Son does, as an eternal spiritual truth cause each one of us to be purified from each and every sin.
Although κοινωνία, “fellowship” is not found in the Fourth Gospel as it is in First John 1:3-7, the concept of fellowship in 1 John echoes Jesus’ words in the Upper Room Discourse on oneness and unity.
The Lord prayed for the unity of believers in John 17:11, 21-23.
Believers loving each other demonstrates their unity (13:34–35).
First John and John 13-17 share the theme of believers being the children of God.
Τεκνία (“little children”) occurs in the New Testament only in John’s writings.
In John writings, whether Jesus is using the word or John, the term also functions as a term of affection for the believer and expresses the care and nurture for the believer.
This term is used by Jesus in John 13:33 and by John in 1 John 2:1, 12, 28, 3:18, 4:4 and 5:21.
Lastly, the concept of the world appears in both First John and John 13-17.
The noun kosmos (κόσμος), “the world” has three main uses in John writings:
(1) The orderly arrangement of the heavens or the earth and all things in their complex order and composition as created by God, created in perfect order and subject to the laws God established to govern its operation (Matt. 13:35; John 21:25; Acts 17:24).
(2) The cosmos (Greek, kosmos) may also refer to the world in its arrangement of the inhabitants of the earth in tribes and nations or peoples (Acts 17:26; John 3:16; 1 Cor. 4:9; 1 John 2:2; 2 Pet. 2:5).
(3) Kosmos is used of a vast system and arrangement of human affairs, earthly goods, godless governments, conflicts, riches, pleasures, culture, education, world religions, the cults and the occult dominated and negatively affected by Satan who is god of this satanic cosmos.
This system is promoted by Satan, conformed to his ideals, aims, methods, and character, and stands perpetually in opposition to God the cause of Christ.
This world system is used to seduce men away from God and the person of Christ.
It is anti-God, anti-Christ, and anti-Bible, and very anti-humanity though it often appears as humanitarian as part of Satan’s masquerade as an angel of light.
The first usage occurs in John 16:28, 17:5, 24 but it does not occur in First John and the second usage occurs in John 14:17, 19, 22, 31, 16:8, 20, 17:9, 21, 23, 25 and also in 1 John 2:2, 3:1, 13, 4:5, 14, and 5:19.
This third usage appears in John 13:1, 14:27, 30, 15:18-19, 16:11, 20, 28, 33, 17:6, 11 and in 1 John 2:15, 16, 17, 3:17, 4:1, 3-4, 19, and 5:4-5.
