READ IT! - Introduction to 1st John 1

Introduction to 1st John 1

Context 

The First Epistle of John is the first of the Johannine epistles of the New Testament, and the fourth of the catholic epistles. It is attributed to John the Evangelist, traditionally thought to be the author of the Gospel of John and the other two Johannine epistles. This epistle was probably written in Ephesus in AD 95–110. The work was written to counter docetism, which is the belief that Jesus did not come "in the flesh", but only as a spirit. It also defined how Christians are to discern true teachers: by their ethics, their proclamation of Jesus in the flesh, and by their love. It appears that John might have also been rebuking a proto-Gnostic named Cerinthus, who also denied the true humanity of Christ. 

Chapter 1 

The epistle begins with a prologue much like the Gospel of John describing the reality of the incarnation. He writes, “We proclaim this about the Word of Life - which was from the beginning, and which we have heard, seen, and touched. We proclaim that we saw the life appear - the eternal life, which was with the Father - so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.”

He then goes on to discuss the topic of fellowship and how it is motivated by God’s dealings in the past. First, he discusses the principles of fellowship, or walking in the light, saying:

“We declare the message we heard from him to you: God is light. We are liars if we say we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim we’ve never sinned, we’re fooling ourselves. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive and purify us. If we claim we’ve not sinned, we’re calling him a liar and his word isn’t in us.”