An Overview of 1 John

1 John
Written By David Gooding

by David Gooding

The biblical authors used the literary conventions of their day to convey their message. These included structures and patterns less obvious to us in our modern age. David Gooding brought his expertise in ancient literature to the biblical text, and these study notes represent his thinking about the structure, patterns and thought-flow of 1 John.

When speaking to groups of Bible students, he often said, ‘When it comes to Bible study, there is structure, pattern and thought-flow, and the greatest of these is thought-flow. Here are the thoughts of God expressed. Our job is to follow the thought-flow’. He taught that the most important thing to grasp in biblical interpretation is the way the author develops his message, and that discerning structure and patterns within the text should always be directed towards that end.

David Gooding developed these study notes over many years and distributed them at public and private talks. The study notes are not meant to be the last word on the book, and may not cover it entirely. The Myrtlefield Trust offers them to Bible students, preachers and teachers in order to stimulate further thinking about the book, so that its message may be better understood.

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Study Notes

Preliminaries

Authorship of the Epistle

These study notes will assume, rather than argue the case, that the author of 1 John was the same writer as that of the Gospel of John, namely the Apostle John. The terms of the prologue (1 John 1:1) demand an author who physically touched the Lord Jesus when our Lord was on earth.

Historical Background of the Epistle

Scholars are much less agreed nowadays than they used to be over exactly what heresy or heresies John was combating in this epistle. For a helpful summary of the debate see I. Howard Marshall, The Epistles of John, Eerdmans, 1978, pp. 14–22. The general impression is, however, that the heretics were moving in the direction(s) of Docetism or Gnosticism, or both.

Glossary

Here is a small glossary of terms that occur frequently in the debate:

  1. Cerinthus: A first-century heretic who apparently taught that Jesus was not born of a virgin but was the son of Joseph and Mary; that Jesus was not himself the Christ, but after the baptism of Jesus, the Christ descended on Jesus in the form of a dove; and that at the end the Christ separated from Jesus so that the Christ, being impassable anyway, did not suffer and was not involved in Jesus' death. Cerinthus also taught that not God, but some inferior power created the world.
  2. Docetism: A heresy that denied that Jesus was a real man: he only 'seemed' (Greek: dokeo = 'to seem') to be a man and to suffer.
  3. Gnosticism: A heresy, which, as its name implies, made (superior) knowledge the key to salvation. It held that spirit is divine and good; matter created and evil. Not God, but some inferior powers created the world. Since matter was evil, no true incarnation of God was possible. In ethics their view of matter as being essentially evil led either to asceticism or else to moral indifferentism. Full-blown Gnosticism and its many sects were a second-century development.

The Structure of 1 John

The notorious difficulty of determining on what principles, if any, John has organized and grouped his material. Two-part, three-part and seven-part divisions have all been proposed (with detailed variations). Others hold that the epistle is one continuous chain of thought.

R. E. Brown's Analysis

  1. The prologue (1 John 1:1–4) .
  2. Part one (1 John 1:5–3:10): The gospel that God is light, and we must walk in the light as Jesus walked.
  3. Part two (1 John 3:11–5:12): The gospel that we must love one another as God has loved us in Jesus Christ.
  4. Conclusion (1 John 5:13–21): A statement of the author's purpose.

R. E. Brown, Anchor Bible (1982), p. 124.

R. Law's Analysis

An older (1909), very influential and very helpful analysis (followed with adaptations by many commentators) is that by R. Law (The Tests of Life, 3rd ed., 1913), given here in Marshall's summary:

  1. First cycle (1 John 1:5–2:28): The Christian life as fellowship with God (walking in the light), tested by righteousness (1 John 1:8–2:6), love (1 John 2:7–17), and belief (1 John 2:18–28).
  2. Second cycle (1 John 2:29–4:6): Divine sonship tested by righteousness (1 John 2:29–3:10), love (1 John 3:10b–24), and belief (1 John 3:24b–4:6).
  3. Third cycle (1 John 4:7–5:21): Closer correlation of righteousness, love and belief.

The Thought-flow of the Epistle

As a simple, practical device to help us grasp the thought-flow of the epistle we shall ourselves, somewhat arbitrarily, divide its contents into three major movements of thought:

I II III
From The manifestation of the life eternal (1 John 1:1–4). The manifestation of the Son of God and of the children of God (1 John 2:28–3:10). The manifestation of the love of God in his Son and in his people (1 John 4:7–11).
To The warning against antichrists who deny that Jesus is the Christ (1 John 2:18–27). The warning against believing the spirit of falsehood as distinct from the Spirit of truth (1 John 4:1–6). The warning against putting idols in place of the true God (1 John 5:18–21).

The Major Movements

Contents of Movement One (1 John 1:2–28)

  1. The nature, basis and content of our Christian fellowship (1 John 1:1–4).
  2. The principles on which we may have part in this fellowship (1 John 1:5–2:6).
  3. The family of God in contrast to the world (1 John 2:7–17).
  4. Heresy that would destroy the basis of fellowship (1 John 2:18–28).

Contents of Movement Two (1 John 2:28–4:6)

  1. The manifestation of the children of God by their righteous character and conduct which distinguishes them from the children of the devil (1 John 2:28–3:10).
  2. The duty of the children of God to love their brethren, which love distinguishes them from the world and marks them out as true believers (1 John 3:11–24).
  3. The faith of the children of God which distinguishes between doctrines that come from the Spirit of truth, and doctrines and theories that emanate from the spirit of falsehood (1 John 4:1–6).

Contents of Movement Three (1 John 4:7–5:21)

  1. God's love for us (1 John 4:7–19): Setting us the example and standard in our love for one another (1 John 4:7–11); giving us the perception to perceive and the ability to believe in and to witness to, the reality of the love of the unseen God (1 John 4:12–16); and, as it comes to full growth in us, filling us with fearless confidence in face of the day of judgment (1 John 4:17–19).
  2. Our love for God and his children (1 John 4:20–5:21): How, to be genuine, love for God must express itself in love for our brothers and how love for our brothers will mean keeping God's commandments (1 John 4:20–5:3); how this is a real, practical possibility for us in this sinful and hostile world through our faith that Jesus is the Son of God (1 John 5:3–5); what evidence there is that he is the Son of God, and how believing it brings us power to overcome the world (1 John 5:4–8); assurance that we have eternal life (1 John 5:9–13); and confidence in prayer for others (1 John 5:14–17). Finally, in view of the reality and certainty of the salvation and life which we have in the true God, we are warned against false beliefs, trusts, loves and practices that are in fact idolatry (1 John 5:18–21).

Movement One, Part One

The Nature, Basis and Content of our Christian Fellowship (1 John 1:1–4)

  1. The content of the fellowship: the life eternal.
  2. The membership of the fellowship: the apostles, the Father, the Son and those who receive the apostles' declaration.
  3. The basis of the fellowship: the historical manifestation of the life eternal in the life, death and resurrection of Christ.
  4. The apostles' joy in this fellowship.

Movement One, Part Two

The Principles on Which We May Have Part in This Fellowship (1 John 1:5–2:6)

  1. The principles determined by the fact that God is light and is now 'in the light'.
  2. The meaning of 'light' in this context.
  3. N.B. the balance between:
    • the all-importance of where we walk (1 John 1:6–2:2): 'in the light, as he is in the light', and not 'in the darkness'.
    • the all-importance of how we walk (2:3–6): 'ought . . . to walk even as he walked.'
  4. The meaning of the phrase 'where we walk' illustrated by God's provision for man's fellowship with himself under the old covenant: the position and function of the table, lampstand, and altar of intercession in the Old Testament sanctuary.
  5. What it means to walk in the light:
    • It is insufficient to come to the light; one must continue in it (cf. John 8:12, 31–32).
    • One must be prepared to be exposed as inherently sinful (1 John 1:8) and as sinful in practice (1 John 1:10). Contrast John 8:33–59.
    • One must genuinely seek deliverance from sinning (1 John 2:1; cf. John 8:31–32).
  6. The provision which makes it possible for failing men and women to continue walking in the light and so to continue sharing in the life eternal:
    • the cleansing blood of God's Son (1 John 1:7).
    • God's faithfulness and justice in forgiving and cleansing.
    • Christ's advocacy with the Father.
    • Christ as the propitiation (cf. Lev 16:16).
  7. The all-importance of how we walk. The purpose of 1 John 2:3–6: not to lay down conditions for entering and walking in the light, but to provide tests ('by this we know') by which we can be assured that we are walking in the light.
    • If we are walking in the light as God is in the light, we shall have come to know God; and knowing God means loving God (1 John 2:5) and loving God means doing his commandments (1 John 2:3–5).
    • Since God is light, walking in the light means nothing less than being and dwelling in God (1 John 2:6). People who so dwell in God as revealed in Christ will gladly acknowledge their bounden duty to walk as Christ walked (1 John 2:6), and will strive to fulfil it.

Movement One, Part Three

The Family of God in Contrast to the World (1 John 2:7–17)

N.B. John's careful arrangement of his material in this section:

  1. The old/new commandment: love one another; 'the darkness is passing away' (1 John 2:7–11).
  2. The family of God, its experiences, and the characteristics of its little children, fathers, young men (1 John 2:12–14).
  3. The prohibition: love not the world; 'the world is passing away' (1 John 2:15–17).

And its implications:

  1. The need to maintain the balance: love—love not.
  2. The family of God thus distinguished from the world: we must love our brothers; we must not love the world.

The Old/New Commandment (1 John 2:7–11)

  1. The sense in which the commandment to love is an old commandment (1 John 2:7).
  2. The sense in which the commandment to love is a new commandment (1 John 2:8):
    • As regards Christ: the true light now shines.
    • As regards believers: the darkness is passing.
  3. Loving/hating one's brother, a test of the claim to be in the light (1 John 2:9–10).
  4. The blessed result of loving one's brother: 'no cause of stumbling' (1 John 2:10; cf. John 11:9–10).
  5. The fearful consequences of hating one's brother (1 John 2:11): 'is in darkness'; 'walks in darkness'; 'does not know where he is going'; 'has been blinded'.

The Family of God, its Experiences and Characteristics (1 John 2:12–14)

  1. The possibility that 1 John 2:12–14 is a digression.
  2. The greater probability that in his thrice-repeated 'I am writing [this] to you because . . .' (1 John 2:12–13), John is explaining on what grounds he has just urged them to love one another:
    • They are members of the same family, all of them little children of the same Father.
    • The basic, common experience that has formed them all into one family is that everyone has had his sins forgiven for his (Christ's) name's sake. If my sins have been forgiven for Christ's sake, and my brother's sins have been forgiven for Christ's sake, how can I hate my brother and refuse him forgiveness and love, without repudiating the merit of him through whom not only my brother but I myself have been forgiven and made a member of the family?
    • 'Fathers' in the family of God not only have had the initial experience of forgiveness and of incorporation into the family, but they have had time to get to know 'him who is from the beginning'. They will realize therefore that the commandment to love one another is no new or novel commandment, but one that has existed from the beginning, because it stems from the unchanging character of God.
    • The 'young men' in the family have learned to recognize the source from which disruptions in the family come: the evil one (cf. Rom 16:17–20); and they have overcome him.
  3. The possibility that John's second series 'I have written to you because . . .' (Greek idiom = by the time you get this letter you will find that I have written . . .), merely repeats and reinforces the first series.
  4. The distinct possibility, however, that it looks forward to 'Love not the world . . .' and gives the ground on which John bases his appeal:
    • All in the family are little children who 'know the Father' (1 John 2:13–end). The Father and knowledge of the Father are, of course, basic and constitutive for the family. John is about to warn them that 'if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him' (1 John 2:15).
    • 'Fathers' in the family 'know him who is from the beginning' (2:14) i.e. they know God as the permanent unchanging one. They are to be reminded that to love the world is to love something which 'is passing away', and not of the Father (1 John 2:16–17).
    • The 'young men' are strong through God's word and 'have overcome the evil one', who, by tempting mankind to disregard God and his word, and to try to enjoy life in independence of God (see Gen 3:1ff), has brought about the state of affairs that the Bible calls 'the world'; and he presides over and controls it as its 'prince' (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11, Eph 2:1–3) and 'god' (2 Cor 4:4).
  5. To save ourselves from interpreting the term 'the world and all that is in the world' in an unduly narrow and moralistic sense, we may digress to notice:
    • That the terms 'world', 'prince of this world', 'overcome the world', etc. occur frequently in the Gospel of John (see 4.c. above). See also John 16:28–33; 17:6, 9, 14–15, 21.
    • That the Gospel echoes the terms and concepts of the book of Exodus. In Exodus, Moses is sent from God to declare God's name to Israel (Exod 3:10–16); to evoke their faith by God-given signs (Exod 4:4–9); and so to deliver them from bondage under Pharaoh, through the blood of the Passover lamb and the waters of the Red Sea. In John, Christ is sent from God into the world (John 16:28) to manifest God's name to the men given him out of the world (John 17:6); to evoke their faith by God-given signs (John 5:36; 20:30–31); and so to deliver them from bondage under the prince of this world (John 12:31–32; 17:15) through his blood as Passover Lamb (John 1:29) and through baptism in the Holy Spirit (John 1:33).
    • Pharaoh's Egypt, his treatment of Israel, and his attitude to God become, therefore, a vivid early example of what is meant by the world.

Movement One, Part Four

Heresy That Would Destroy the Basis of Fellowship (1 John 2:18–28)

  1. The heretics exposed (1 John 2:18–19).
    • Antichrist-doctrines a sign of the last hour (1 John 2:18).
    • The danger comes not from the world (as in 1 John 2:15–17), but from the professing church (1 John 2:19).
    • The heretics' behaviour and doctrine show that they never were true believers (1 John 2:19).
  2. The believers' resource (1 John 2:19–21). As a result of their 'anointing from the Holy One' true believers instinctively recognize the wrong of heresies regarding the Lord Jesus.
  3. The heresy defined (1 John 2:22–23).
    • A denial that Jesus is the Christ, cf. Cerinthus' heresy and many more modern 'reinterpretations' of Christianity (1 John 2:22).
    • To deny the Son is automatically and by definition to deny the Father (1 John 2:22–23). This makes impossible any fellowship 'with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ' (1 John 1:3); and removes the content of that fellowship which is that life eternal manifested incarnate in Jesus Christ.
  4. The believers' resource (1 John 2:24–27).
    • Doctrine. Retention of the original apostolic witness and doctrine is the only way to remain in the Son and in the Father (1 John 2:24). What we believe matters!
    • Only in this gospel is eternal life to be found either here or hereafter (1 John 2:25, cf. Col 1:22–23).
    • 'Reinterpretations' which in fact distort or replace the apostles' doctrine are ruinously false (1 John 2:26).
    • The anointing. The anointing of the Holy Spirit remains permanently in the believer, is utterly reliable and always leads the believer to remain in the Christ witnessed to by the apostles (1 John 2:27).
  5. The final exposure (1 John 2:28). If the heretics' abandonment of the apostles' doctrine exposes the emptiness of their original profession of faith and the falsity of their teaching (1 John 2:19), the coming manifestation of Christ will finally expose all doctrinal and practical disloyalty to the Lord (1 John 2:28).

An Overview of Movement Two

(1 John 2:28–4:6)

Note: 1 John 2:28 is a pivotal verse, concluding the last theme of Movement One and introducing the first major topic of Movement Two. For another example of this stylistic trait, see 1 John 3:24–4:1.

General Observations

The family of God

The fact that believers not only have fellowship with God but form a family of which God is the Father has already been implied by the terms used in 1 John 2:12–14. But now this great matter is developed at length and in explicit detail.

For the first time in the epistle the believer is said to have been begotten of God (1 John 2:29), whose seed remains permanently in the believer (1 John 3:9), so that he has a life which he did not have before (1 John 3:14); and with this life, a nature which is perfectly righteous (1 John 2:29; 3:7) and utterly sinless (1 John 3:9). This accounts for the fact that the child of God, even now while still not perfected and still needing to purify himself (1 John 3:2–3), cannot continue to practise sin (1 John 3:9) as the norm of life, but 'does righteousness' (1 John 2:29; 3:7, 10), loves his brothers in the family (1 John 3:11, 14, 18, 23), and sees through and rejects false doctrines which the world finds so convincing and attractive (1 John 4:4–6).

The world

Once more, as in 1 John 2:12–14 and 15–17, the family of God is further delineated by being contrasted with the world; only here the world is described in greater detail and set in much more somber light. In 1 John 2:15–17 the world is presented as a society attempting to satisfy its desires and urge for achievement independently of God and completely out of fellowship with the Father. Here in Movement Two the world is depicted as men and women whose sin is an expression of rebellion against God (1 John 3:4). In the same way as the source of the believer's righteous behaviour, love and belief is not in himself but in his Father, God, so the source of the unbeliever's sin (1 John 3:8), hatred of the children of God (1 John 3:12–13) and false beliefs (1 John 4:4–5) is not in himself but in the devil (1 John 3:8, 10), whose children unbelievers are. So throughout Movement Two there are two groups: the children of God and the children of the devil (1 John 3:10), the brethren and the world (1 John 3:13–14), Cain and Abel, the Son of God and the antichrist (1 John 3:8, 12; 4:3), the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood (1 John 4:6).

Men of the world, though children of the devil, are not necessarily irreligious (cf. Cain and his sacrifice, Gen 3:12 and Gen 4:3–8): certain religious leaders and ideas appeal to some of them (1 John 4:5). But when the testimony of God (as with Cain, Gen 4:6–7), or of Christ (as in John 7:7), or of the children of God (as with Abel, 1 John 3:12; Heb 11:4) convicts them that their works are inadequate and evil, the world's basic rebellion against God is apt to express itself in hatred against the family of God (1 John 3:12–13). Indeed loving the children of God as such is not a natural thing, but supernatural, an evidence of the new birth (1 John 3:14).

Conclusion

Movement Two, then, teaches us that righteous behaviour, love and belief on the one hand, and sin, hatred of God and of his people, and unbelief or heretical faith on the other, are not merely the personal, private states and activities of the isolated individual. Every individual belongs to one of two families, is informed and empowered by a source and a power beyond himself, and is a child either of God or of the devil. This is not to deny the responsibility of the individual; but it is to put the problem of sin and the way of salvation in their full and proper context.

Movement Two, Part One

The Manifestation of the Children of God (1 John 2:28–3:10)

  1. The amazing love of God has given us both the status ('that we should be called') and the life and nature of ('and we are') children of God (1 John 3:1).
  2. This is already true of us now even while we are still imperfect and need to purify ourselves (1 John 3:2–3).
  3. The final perfecting of the children of God will take place at, and be produced by, the manifestation of Christ at his second coming (1 John 3:2).
  4. In view of Christ's coming manifestation (1 John 2:28; 3:2), the true believer will seek to purify himself now, so as not to be ashamed before Christ when he is revealed as he really is.
  5. For a child of God must and will display the same character as God his Father (1 John 2:29; 3:9), and the same attitude to sin and lawlessness as was manifested in the mission of the Son of God at his first coming (1 John 3:5, 8).
  6. If the world does not recognize us as children of God that is not necessarily our fault: it did not recognize the Son of God either when he was here (1 John 3:1).
  7. But that gives us no excuse for lax living: while on the one hand, it is not yet made manifest what we shall be (1 John 3:2) and so the world cannot tell that we are children of God, in another sense it is already very evident who are children of God (1 John 3:10) and who are not: even unregenerate men can see it.

Movement Two, Part Two

The Duty of the Children of God (1 John 3:11–24)

  1. Note the emphasis achieved by 1 John 3:11 and 1 John 3:23.
  2. If the love of God has given us the status and nature of children of God (1 John 3:1), the self-sacrificing love of Christ on our behalf has placed on us the bounden duty to love our brothers after the manner of his example (1 John 3:16).
  3. 'Loving the brethren' is a product of supernatural grace, an evidence that we have been brought, not only as to our legal status, but as to our practical experience, from death to life (1 John 3:14–15).
  4. We are to be warned against an outward show of religion like that of Cain and his sacrifice (1 John 3:12), and mere verbal expressions of piety (1 John 3:18), that are but a cover over an unregenerate, hate-filled, or even simply mean and selfish, heart (1 John 3:17).
  5. We are admittedly still imperfect (1 John 3:3), and our hearts often condemn us. Real practical acts of brotherly love provide us ourselves with evidence, more solid than changing emotional states, that we are truly children of God. And God himself is not unrighteous to forget our 'labours of love' (Heb 6:10; 1 John 3:20).
  6. A child of God, whose conscience is clear, can have boldness in prayer and expect answers. But how could we expect God to give us what we ask him for, if we deliberately refrain from giving our brother the necessities of life which we have and he lacks (1 John 3:17, 21–23)?

Movement Two, Part Three

The Faith of the Children of God (1 John 4:1–6)

  1. We revert to the topic of 1 John 2:18–28, only with certain differences.
    • There it was a question of the anointing from the Holy Spirit teaching us to recognize false doctrine regarding the person of Christ. Here it is a question of our applying doctrinal tests to religious teachers to discern which of them is under the guidance of the spirit of God and which of them is under the sway of the great deceiver, the spirit of falsehood.
    • In 1 John 2:18–28 the false teachers came out of the professing Christian church. Here in 1 John 4:1–6 the false prophets do not necessarily come out of the church. Islam, for instance, and forms of Hinduism, would deny that the man Jesus is the Christ, or that the Christ suffered in the flesh at Calvary.
    • Peculiar to our passage is its emphasis on 'the world' and 'he that is in the world' (1 John 4:1, 3–5). The prince of this world has obvious reasons for wanting to deny that God could, or would even wish to, intervene in this world to the extent of becoming incarnate. There are all too evident signs of his influence in some modern reinterpretations of the Gospels.
  2. First John 4:4–5 give a somber explanation of the popularity and success of heresies and false religions.

An Overview of Movement Three

General Observations

John obviously does not organize his material into separate, distinct, self-contained themes. Rather it is a question of the emphasis being placed differently as the common multiple theme is restated with variations in each major section. So if in Movement One emphasis was placed on the manifestation of the life eternal which made it possible for us to have fellowship with God; and if in Movement Two emphasis was placed on the manifestations of the Son of God which have made it possible for us to become children of God and will one day make it possible for us to be manifested as fully perfected children of God; then in Movement Three emphasis is placed on the manifestation of the love of God, first of all in the Son of God and in his life and death on earth, and then in us as the children of God.

Movement Three, Part One

God's Love to Us, Through Us and in Us (1 John 4:7–19)

  1. God's love as the example to us of how we are duty-bound to love one another (1 John 4:7–11).
    • Notice how 1 John 4:11 picks up and repeats 1 John 4:7 and so binds 1 John 4:7–11 together.
    • Notice that the call to love (1 John 4:7–8) is a call to express the life, nature and powers that we have as those who have been begotten of God and know God (i.e. if we have been, and if we do cf. 1 John 4:8).
    • Notice that verse 9 deals with the manifestation i.e. the outward active expression of God's love; verse 10 deals with the principles and costs involved in that expression.
    • First John 4:9—love manifested:
      • by God sending his Son into the world.
      • by his being prepared to give his only Son that we might live.
    • Verse 10—the difficulties to be overcome in loving us and the cost to be paid:
      • we did not love him.
      • we were positively sinning against him.
      • to make loving us righteously possible, his Son must die as a propitiation for our sins.
  2. God's love makes possible our perception of, and witness to, the reality of the love of the unseen God (1 John 4:12–16).
    • Notice the repetition of the verb 'to behold', 'see', in 1 John 4:12 and 14.
    • Verse 20 is going to observe: 'how can a man love God whom he has not seen?' But there is a prior question: how can a man come to believe in the love of a God whom he cannot see and whom nobody has ever seen? One answer is that by our love for others we can make visible to them the love of the invisible God who dwells in us (1 John 4:12).
    • But how can we ourselves be sure that we are in him who is love, and he is in us? The answer is that:
      • he has given us of his Spirit (1 John 4:13).
      • as a result, not only did the apostles see Christ die, but the apostles and all believers perceive the significance of the coming of Christ into the world: the Father has sent him as Saviour (1 John 4:14).
      • really to perceive and then confess that the Jesus who came and died is the Son of God, is to discover what God is like, to abide in God, and to have God in us (1 John 4:15).
      • thus it is that the Spirit of God has made the love of God a reality which we can believe, revel in, and confidently express in word and action (1 John 4:16).
  3. God's love gives us fearless confidence in view of the day of judgment (1 John 4:17–19).
    • God's love is in itself perfect, but its working in us and our perception and expression of it require time to come to completion, 'to be perfected' (1 John 4:17).
    • But the 'boldness in view of the day of judgment' which the love of God produces is the birthright of every true child of God.
    • It is based on the fact that 'as Christ is, so are we in this world' (1 John 4:17):
      • Legally: already beyond judgment, in view of his propitiation (1 John 4:10).
      • Spiritually: we are already in him (1 John 5:20).
      • Practically: the love of God is already expressing itself through us towards others, as we begin to love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).

Movement Three, Part Two

Our Love for God and His Children (1 John 4:20–5:21)

  1. Genuine love for God (1 John 4:20–5:3):
    • Must express itself in love for my brother:
      • Because if I do not love my brother whom I can see, I have no guarantee that the supposed love I feel for God whom I cannot see, is not merely love for some religious doctrine or psychological construction in my own mind (1 John 4:20).
      • Because God has commanded me to love my brother (1 John 4:21).
      • Because if I really love God, I will love every one of his children (1 John 5:1).
    • Must express itself in the keeping of God's commandments; and, therefore, there can be no conflict between keeping God's commandments and loving his children. It is false to imagine that to love God's children could on times lead us to break God's commandments.
  2. How loving God and keeping his commandments is a practical possibility in this hostile world (1 John 5:3–9).
    • For the believer, God's commandments are not burdensome to keep in spite of all the pressures that the world exerts against keeping them (1 John 5:3):
      • Because the believer has a life and nature within him that has been begotten of God and therefore has the power to overcome the world (1 John 5:4). Cf. our Lord's victories in his temptations.
      • Because in the belief that Jesus is the Son of God lies the secret of overcoming the world (1 John 5:5–8).
    • First, then, the water and the blood as evidence which the Spirit uses to convince us that Jesus is the Son of God:
      • The water: Christ's baptism by the official forerunner and the descent of the Spirit witnessed by the forerunner marked Jesus out as the Son of God (John 1:31–34).
      • The blood: 'he came by blood' (5:6); that is, not only did he eventually die for our sins, but at his very (official) coming, the forerunner announced him as the Lamb of God come to die as a sacrifice to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). In this Christ is unique: no other has ever entered the world announcing (credibly) that he had come to die for the world's sins.
 
David Gooding
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An Overview of Colossians
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An Overview of Ephesians