Category: 1 John

Mercy, for a fanciful character, John cuts it to the cloth in this chapter.

He open up with “My little children…”, that sounds nice. John says we shouldn’t sin, but that if we do (and we know we will because he said in chapter 1 that anyone who says they have no sin is lying) that we have Jesus who advocates on our behalf, who has appeased the justice of the Father. This is good news (and it’s not just us, it’s available for the sins of the whole world.)

And then the hammer drops. We know that we have come to know Jesus if we keep his commandments. “Believe” must bring obedience and action, otherwise our belief is shallow (sounds like our man James, yes? Faith without works is dead.) If we say we know Jesus and we don’t keep his commandments John says we are lying (he’s quick to call out liars in this section). “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked”. John was the last living direct apostle, he likely knew everything written before him. Apparently at the end of the 1st century they’re having issues with people saying they believe in and follow Jesus who aren’t actually following him with their lives. John is having none of it.

Remember, though, that this doesn’t mean we can live a sinless life, John already made that clear. What he’s saying is, this ain’t no show. If you say you’re going to follow Jesus, you have to be doing what he did, doing what he tells you. If not, you might be hanging around the bros and wearing the clothes and reading the books but you’re not actually submitting to Jesus, which means your life as a Christian is a lie.

Then John breaks into talking about the “new” commandment being the same as the “old” commandment. This almost has to be love God with all your heart mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus says that sums up the law and the prophets and that continues to guide what we do today. That’s why John says here that if you hate your brother you are still in darkness, where those who love your brothers abide in the light (again, light and dark have connotations of the characteristics of God and us faithfully living those out.)

There’s kind of a neat little poem in the middle, pretty easy to get, though.

Then he moves into some stuff that sounds a lot like Galatians and James. He says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.” We have to pick who to serve, we can’t chase what the world honors because we know that Jesus didn’t chase that (in fact his life was a collection of shaming in the world’s perspective.) Ultimately, the world will pass away, but if we abide in God, He is faithful and we will be protected forever.

And then the antichrist(s) show up. That’s not capitalized because it’s not a specific person, the word basically means “those who oppose the Messiah”. Note John says there are many of them, they are around in John’s day and they are characterized as those who deny Jesus as the Messiah, or Jesus as the son and God as the father. And they apparently try to deceive others into denying those things as well (I’m looking at you, Jehovah’s Witnesses.) Even so, John says we don’t have to worry, stick with Jesus and the things we know about Him and we will be protected by the Son and the Father eternally. Stick with Jesus and it’ll be fine.

John is kind of erratic in this section, bouncing from idea to idea and back again. There may be some sinews that connect all of it but, at least at the moment, I’ve having trouble finding them.

We are reminded that God loves us so much that he is willing to call us children. That’s not a God who is simply pacified or tolerant that you made it into heaven, it’s a God who did whatever it took to adopt you into His family. And as children of God, we shouldn’t be surprised that the world doesn’t understand us because they didn’t get Jesus either. And beyond that, there’s even more to come, we’ve not yet fully realized what it’s like to live as God’s children, that will come to fruition when Jesus returns.

Then a digression: whoever sins acts as if there are no laws, no right way to live. But Jesus comes and sets that right and also provides an example so that we indeed may know how to live (in effect, Jesus is the law). But you can’t keep on acting as if that example didn’t exist. We must follow Jesus and do as he did. To not do so is to ignore what he has done as if it is not real or binding. That is lawlessness, and a rejection of Jesus, and comes from his opponent.

Let’s just note here that John is kind of difficult to parse at times in this section. He moves between what seems very broad (“…everyone who hopes in [Jesus] purifies himself…) and very specific and direct (…whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil…). In general, it seems safe to assume that his reaction to sinful behavior is habitual, consistent sinning since earlier in the letter we are told that anyone who thinks he doesn’t sin is a liar. Nonetheless, John continues to affirm that there is righteousness in what we do and that are deeds can indeed be righteous. (It is at least passingly curious that the two verses in 1 John so far that deal with works themselves being considered righteous pass without any verse commentary in the ESV Study Bible notes, which bend Reformed. I do wonder how Calvinism would comment on this association.)

John continues to tie this together with our understanding of the greatest commandments, loving and being obedient to God and loving others. If you aren’t practicing righteousness or you don’t love your brother, you’re not a child of God. He uses Cain as an example of someone who was murdered his brother because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s were righteous. [Squirrel!] Then he jumps to the reminder that we shouldn’t be surprised that the world hates us (just talked about that a few verses ago). I suppose the connection probably is Cain’s jealousy and worldly reaction vs. what Abel was doing.

Regardless, we know that we have passed from death to life when we love others like God has loved us. This is tough one: “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth.”

Finally, we come back to loving God and keeping his commandments. Which is kind of baked into the previous thing because we are told that God commands us to believe in his Son and to love one another. And we know God abides in us because He has provided the Spirit.

John introduced the fact that we know God is with us because he gives us in the Spirit at the end of chapter 3, which opens the conversation about the spiritual world. He confirms that there are spirits that are not from God, those who would claim to be from God or would influence people to speak falsely as if it is on God’s behalf. They can be made known by whether they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Unfortunately, this keeps us from being able to label any ol’ person who we disagree with theologically as having an evil Spirit because most folk actually still claim Jesus as the Messiah who came in the flesh; it’s why we can work with folk if we can agree on Jesus.

We get a drop on the antichrist again, which retains the context of being a person or spirit who opposes the Messiah (in this case by telling lies). That said, it’s a worldly issue, and because the Spirit who is in us is greater than any other spirits that are in the world, we don’t worry about those spirits.

John then hops back to loving one another. Love is from God, it shows we love and serve God, and God is indeed love. That phrase doesn’t negate everything else John has said (meaning, yes God is love, but you still can’t be a liar who claims to love God but doesn’t obey his commands). God’s love is demonstrated through sending Jesus, the ultimate example and act of love in sacrifice. And because God loved us, we are to love one another.

Ooh, don’t miss this. “No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” John understands that will have difficulty knowing what is is like to “love” God given that we’ve not actually seen him and our interactions with him aren’t quite the same as with our brothers. Don’t worry, God is aware of that. Love your brothers, obey God, love will show

Now back to who has the Spirit and who does not and how to know.

Now back to loving again. We love because He showed us how to love. What God has done for us is the context for our understanding of what love actually is. (Let that sink in. Mercy.)

Whoever loves God must also love his brother.