Page 72 - Biblical Ethics Course

1-3 John
John speaks against false teachers who questioned Jesus’ divine and human nature. His response is loud and
clear: Jesus is fully God and fully man. This is not some obscure theological debate; John knows that if his
readers get this teaching wrong, everything else falls apart. 2 John combats false teaching in the church.
Christians are characterized by their love for one another, and this love embraces truth and resists evil. Instead
of offering hospitality to false teachers, John’s readers are not to share in their evil deeds in any fashion. For
John, the basics of Christianity are summarized by adherence to the truth, love and obedience. The theme of 3
John is the commendation of the proper standards of Christian hospitality and the condemnation for failure to
follow those standards.

Because God is light, believers can walk in the light.
Morally, “light” refers to holiness or purity while “darkness” refers to sin or wrongdoing (Rom. 13:11–14; 1
Thess. 5:4–7). The heretics claimed to be the truly enlightened, walking in the real light, but John denied that
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because they do not recognize their sin

1 John 1:5–10 (NASB95)
5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no
darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not
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practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another,
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and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves
and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
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us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

3 John 11 (NASB95)
11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil
has not seen God.

Because God is love, believers know what love looks like and can respond in love.

1 John 4:7–11 (NASB95)
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us,
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that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not
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that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so
loved us, we also ought to love one another.

2 John 6 (NASB95)
6 And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have
heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.

The key cycle of true spirituality in 1 John is that a proper belief in Jesus produces obedience to His commands;
obedience issues in love for God and fellow believers. Like 1–2 John, 3 John connects intimacy with God to right
actions. When people do evil, their claims about knowing God lose all merit. A genuine relationship with God
always bears the fruit of right actions: loving others (1 John 4:7), remaining in Christ’s teachings (2 John 9), and
doing good (3 John 11). This means getting out of our comfort zone for the sake of God’s work.

41 Ibid,.1964.

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