New Testament Study Guides - ElectronicGospel

THEMES
Each of these three letters have unique themes, although the brevity of
the last two makes them fairly simple in thematic elements.
First John reads something like a sermon rather than a letter or a reply.
John’s purpose is stated in the fifth chapter: “That you may know that you
have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the
son of God” (13). Gnosticism was based on the flimsy idea that this group of
thinkers had such excellent knowledge of Christ that they could see beyond
the Incarnation doctrine and comprehend the division of body and soul.
Their influence led Christians to reject the virgin birth and humanity of
Christ, and to tolerate iniquity because they assumed the works of the flesh
had no impact upon the eternal spirit.
John goes to great lengths to explain the reality of sin and that it could
not be accepted as inevitable without forfeiting the commitment to
righteousness necessary to maintaining salvation. The Gnostic lifestyle
vainly tried to combine a spiritual temperament with sinful indulgence; John
argued that Christians must cleanse their minds and hands at the same time.
He categorizes the way of this world as an appeal to the lust of the eyes and
flesh and the pride of life and counsels his readers to rise above them.
John distinguishes between committing a sin and walking or living in
sin. All sin and even Christians are far from immune to temptation, but none
should ever be content to remain in sin, impenitent and risking apostasy.
God gives him time to repent, but if he refuses to show contrition, he forfeits
his fellowship with God and the church.
John echoes many of Christ’s commandments to the apostles before his
crucifixion in urging disciples to be obedient to the will of God, disposed to
laying down their lives for others and holy in demeanor. Obedience is
coupled with love, so that complying with the commandments of God is not
some heartless ritual or futile stab at earning divine favor, but is instead the
natural reaction to the offer of grace. Reverence, or godly fear, is valued, so
that one need not be terrified of God and unable to approach his throne.
Besides general obedience, John uses Jesus as an example of one willing
to lay down his life for his brethren. He argues that apathy toward a brother
is tantamount to hatred and that such a one would be lost.
More than any other writer, John tries to expose the antichrist element
working among the churches. Far from being some distant individual, John
identified the false doctrines of his own day as against Jesus, or “antichrist.”
The Judaizers, Gnostics and idolaters were all antichrist in their own way,
and today their number and kind have only proliferated. The writer instructs
his readers to test their teachers’ doctrines to make certain they are of the
truth and to refuse fellowship to all who are not.
John also must touch on division in the local church as a man named
Diotrephes tried to rule one congregation as a malevolent dictator. Many are
the churches divided even today by those who would rule on their own.