1 JOHN: AN INTRODUCTION

John, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, was the son of Zebedee, a Galilean fisherman (Matthew 4:21; Luke 5:10; John 21:2). His mother was Salome, sister of Mary, Jesus’ mother. This can be verified by comparing the women who attended Our Lord’s crucifixion and those who were present at the empty tomb and mentioning her as “His mother’s sister” in John 19:25. As the chart below indicates:

He was the brother of the Apostle James, who suffered martyrdom, c.42 A.D. by the hand of Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:2). The Lord Jesus gave John and James the name “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17).

The Apostle John, the self-proclaimed “beloved” apostle (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20) is the writer of this epistle. He is not identified as the author, but the similarity of vocabulary and writing style in the Gospel of John is evidence that he is the writer of the this and 2 shorter epistles along with the last book of the New Testament, the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

Following the resurrection of Jesus Christ, John's activity in the book of Acts is featured for only a short time. He is last mentioned having been sent to Samaria with Peter to minister to new believers (Acts 8:14f). There is very little in history to explain what John’s later ministry entailed. The only other mention of him in the New Testament is by Paul when he and James and Peter gave Paul the “right hand of fellowship” at the beginning of Paul’s ministry (Galatians 2:9).

It is believed that John relocated to Ephesus sometime after 63 A.D. and after the martyrdom of Peter and Paul in order to “take charge of the orphan churches, exposed to serious dangers and trials.”1 This undoubtedly refers to the Gnostic heresy that the Apostle Paul forewarned in his address to the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20:17-38; cf. 1 Timothy 1:3-7.

The church historian, Philip Schaff, states that “according to the unanimous testimony of antiquity, he lived till the reign of Trajan, i.e., till after 98 [A.D.], he must have attained an age of over ninety years.”2

Date of Writing

John wrote his gospel account and epistles near the end of the 1^st Century around 90 A.D. Irenӕus, bishop of Lyon c.180 A.D. stated that John wrote his Gospel and letters at Ephesus and Revelation at Pátmos and that he died in Ephesus.3 His writings were the final definitive statement of the truth of Jesus Christ pertaining to His life, death, resurrection and second coming, with the intention of presenting a defense against the apostasy of Gnosticism. J.B. Lightfoot determined that this apostasy “in its manifold and monstrous developments will disturb the peace of the Church for two centuries to come.”4

John’s animosity towards the Gnostic heresy and its advocate, Cerinthus, was documented by the 2^nd Century church father, Irenӕus (c.130–c.202 A.D.), relating an incident “from the lips of Polycarp”5 a disciple of John’s:

There are also those who heard from him [Polycarp] that John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, “Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.”6

Irenӕus further stated that John sought “by the proclamation of the Gospel, to remove that error which by Cerinthus had been disseminated among men.”7

Purpose For Writing

John has a three-fold purpose for writing this epistle: (1) to expose the false teachers who were attempting to deceive his readers, 2:26; 3:7; (2) to promote fellowship with the Godhead, 1:3 and with fellow believers, 1:5; (3) to provide believers the assurance of eternal life, 1:2; 2:25; 4:9; 5:11, 13, 20.

Schaff characterized 1 John as “a postscript” to the fourth Gospel “or a practical application of the lessons of the life of Christ...and earnestly warning them against the Gnostic ‘antichrists.’ already existing or to come.”8 He maintained that only John “could complete the work of Paul and Peter” for the unity of the Church and to secure for it “self-preservation against persecution from without and heresy and corruption from within.”9

Concerning Judaism and Gnosticism

Paul had fought off the infiltration of Judaism in early Christianity dispelling their attempts to regulate what meats to eat and what to drink or which festival, new moon or Sabbath day to observe (Colossians 2:16). And concerning the initiatory rite of circumcision—that had actually been settled in Acts 15—he contrasted this by recommending spiritual circumcision.10 (Colossians 2:11). John is not confronted with this issue, according to Schaff, because he resolved the problem of Judaism “with one sentence: For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).11 

With this, John becomes the defender of truth in combating the false teachings of Gnosticism. This heresy “implies the possession of a superior wisdom, which is hidden from others. It makes a distinction between the select few who have this higher gift, and the vulgar many who are without it.”12 The Gnostics believed in a blend of Eastern mysticism and Greek dualism, which claimed that the spirit is completely good but matter is completely evil, thus attacking the incarnation and humanity of Jesus Christ. John counters this in the prologue—the opening four verses of 1 John. And throughout his epistle, he provides substantial evidences of the Person and Work of Jesus Christ so that the believer can know Him and maintain fellowship with Him in their moment-by-moment walk of faith.

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[1] Schaff, Philip (2006) History of the Christian Church. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1.425.

[2] Schaff, 1.414

[3] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-John-the-Apostle [Retrieved January 17, 2024]

[4] Lightfoot, Joseph B. (1999). St. Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, p.42

[5] Schaff, 1.430.

[6] Irenӕus, Against Heresies, 3.3.4. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103303.htm [Retrieved January 19, 2024]

[7] Irenӕus, Against Heresies, 3.11.1. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103311.htm [Retrieved January 19, 2024]

[8] Schaff, 1.748.

[9] Schaff, 1.425-426

[10] Lightfoot, Joseph B. (1999). St. Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, p.73.

[11] Schaff, 1.549

[12] Lightfoot, Colossians, p.77.

 © 2024 David M. Rossi

THE REST OF GOD

Because of today’s technology everything imaginable is flooding our TV’s, smart phones, computers and radios seemingly in milliseconds. The world feels like it is spinning around at high-speed, and we can’t even seem to catch our breath, let alone find rest and peace of mind with all the mayhem about us.

And then there are those about us, the people in our lives that simply drive us crazy with their idiosyncrasies, their pettiness and their boasting. They exist in every area of our lives: family, work, neighbors and even at church.

People deal with these difficulties in a variety of ways: by turning a blind-eye and ignoring the problem; lashing out with outrage; protest marches; pulling out ones hair (if you still have any).

But here is something for believers to resolve in the New Year: to become proactive and not reactionary to life’s nuisances. James, in his epistle, tells us that these are tests to strengthen the durable quality of our faith:

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. (James 1:2-3)

I know what you may be thinking, that this is easier said than done. But by examining God’s viewpoint we can learn how to overcome life’s turmoil and achieve tranquility and rest.

History of Rest in Scripture

The meaning of God’s rest has historical implications. In the Genesis account of creation, God worked six days (Genesis 1:3-31) and then rested on the seventh day when the heavens and earth were completed:

By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. (Genesis 2:2–3)

God’s resting does not imply that He was physically or mentally tired—it meant that He had completed His work of creation and was now “taking a break”.

There is also the rest God promised to His people, the nation of Israel—a “promised land.” God directed Moses to lead the Jews out from their Egyptian enslavement:

“So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.” (Exodus 3:8)

It was much more than a place where they ceased from enslaved work, but a land that would provide them with a “resting place” (Deuteronomy 12:9) and an intimate relationship with their God as My people.

“Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” (Exodus 6:7; cf. Jeremiah 30:22; Ezekiel 36:28)

Rest for the Believer Today

Since God provided a place for His people, Israel, to rest from their burdens and enjoy the rich inheritance of His blessings, God has provided rest and comfort today for all who have believed in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Two things should be considered. First, the offer Jesus made:

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30)

No matter what century a person lives in, they are confronted with various trials and conflicts—social, political and personal. But what God offers is a remedy for spiritual unrest which disrupts a person’s life at every level. This rest He provides freely is eternal life, a life that can be enjoyed now and beyond into the afterlife. He did all the work on our behalf when His son, Jesus Christ, “bore our sins in His own body on the cross” (1 Peter 2:24).

Belief in Jesus Christ as Savior is the integral step in understanding the core issue of unrest in one’s life. Once a person comprehends the true significance of their existence—to attain peace and harmony with their Creator—then they will be able to serve Him and enjoy life now and for all eternity.

Jesus confirms God’s offer of eternal life:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Secondly, the wise instruction of Solomon from Proverbs:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

And do not lean on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)

We must realize that our own understanding is human viewpoint. Relying on our impulses or our ‘best laid plans’ is nothing more than rejecting God’s perfect solution for the problems we face. The Apostle Paul tells us to be careful how we live, “not as unwise men but at wise” (Ephesians 5:15), and concludes with this caution:

So then do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5:17)

Knowing the will of the Lord is vital to achieving a relaxed mental attitude in the midst of troubling circumstances. His will is that we trust in Him exclusively. To do this we need Divine viewpoint, His Word to guide us. Jesus had us in mind when He prayed to His Father: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:17). He wanted God the Father to set us apart (sanctify) from the thought process of human viewpoint thinking and direct us to Divine viewpoint thinking. This requires the renewing of our mind with His truth (Romans 12:2) in order to procure His perfect peace.

Conclusion

All people crave rest from the exhaustion of work and the weariness of life. But true rest begins with belief in Jesus Christ as Savior to secure His offer of eternal spiritual rest. Note the Apostle John's warning of the consequence of failure to believe in Christ:

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36)

This should evoke a profound understanding of the eternal significance of our existence—we are creatures of the Creator intended to “serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14; cf. Ephesians 2:10).

And for us who have believed, by learning God’s truth and applying it in our moment-by-moment experiences of life, we will be relying upon divine viewpoint reasoning and thinking; learning to rest in His promises and find the peace and rest we truly need. Again, the writer of Hebrews maintains that there is a stipulation:

Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. (Hebrews 4:1–2)

For believers to benefit (profit) from the promises of His Word they must mix (unite) His promises with faith; having a firm belief that what He says, He will perform. For Scripture declares this very truth:

God is not a man, that He should lie,

Nor a son of man, that He should repent;

Has He said, and will He not do it?

Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Numbers 23:19)

 

© 2024 David M. Rossi

THIS IS ETERNAL LIFE

John 17:1-3—Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” 

 At the conclusion of the Last Supper, Our Lord commenced what has become known as the Upper Room Discourse in John 13-17. Dr. L.S. Chafer contends that the intended audience of this discourse is different than the Sermon on the Mount or the Olivet Discourse, outlining that its content was “that form of doctrine which belongs only to the Church in the present age.”1 He maintains that it “is the seed plot of all grace teachings...and is the foundation of that which constitutes the positions, possessions, and privileges of the Christian.”2

Turning our attention particularly to the 17^th chapter, known as the Great Intercessory Prayer of the Son of God, Our Lord’s prayer is directed to the Father concerned His work on the Cross, which He was about to undertake, and of His disciples, then and through the ages, that they would be kept from the evil one (vs. 15) and set apart by the Word of Truth (vs. 17).

In verse 2, Jesus proclaims that the Father has given Him “authority over all flesh (mankind)” so that He (Jesus Christ) may give them eternal life. For He is the personification of “the eternal life, which was with the Father”, as declared by John in 1 John 1:2.

In order to provide eternal life to all mankind, He would submit to the humiliation of crucifixion, sacrificing Himself for the atonement of all the sins of mankind (1 John 2:2). This fulfilled the righteous demands of the Father that resulted in “justification of life to all men” (Romans 5:18ff). This “life to all men” is what Our Lord freely gives to those who believe in Him as stated by John, along with a cautionary note:

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36)

It should be established that ‘eternal life’ is being saved from the eternal wrath of God. It is attained by faith alone in Jesus Christ in response to the gospel of salvation. The Apostle Paul gave the most concise gospel presentation in Acts 16:31: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved...” And the Apostle Peter boldly proclaimed this also before Annas, the high priest:

“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Most Christians believe that eternal life simply means that we are going to heaven after death instead of the eternal punishment of Hell. However in verse 3, Jesus described eternal life not “in chronological terms [after one dies] but by a relationship.”3 This is conveyed by the Greek appositional phrase “that they may know You.” It is a grammatical usage employed frequently by John in his writings and can be translated: “This is eternal life, namely, that they may know You”4—You meaning God the Father. But unfortunately not knowing God is something which impedes the believers’ spiritual advancement. J.I. Packer astutely observed this over 40 years ago and it’s still true today:

Ignorance of God—ignorance of both of His ways and of the practice of communion with Him—lies at the root of much of the church’s weakness today.5

Dr. Merrill Tenney explains further:

For the complete fulfillment of our being, we must know God. This, said Jesus, constitutes eternal life. Not only is it endless, since the knowledge of God would require an eternity to develop fully, but qualitatively it must exist in an eternal dimension.6

Love and Fellowship

So what exactly is this relationship with the Father that defines eternal life as knowing Him? The answer to this should produce a desire in every believer to seek and experience this relationship which is fundamental for understanding the true significance of their existence.

First, this is a love relationship that we have with God the Father—the foundational component for knowing God. Our personal love for God the Father should be our appropriate response to the love He has demonstrated to us. This is supported by the Apostle Paul:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8; cf. 1 John 4:19)

Hence, our response should comply in the manner which Our Lord instructed:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37; cf. Deuteronomy 6:5)

This describes the love relationship as being a mental attitude of love emanating from our heart, soul and a mind—our whole being. To accomplish this, the Apostle Paul advises that we “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2a). This is a life-long process that involves the study of God’s Word to gain the knowledge of God (2 Peter 1:3; cf. Ephesians 4:13).

Second, this relationship is described as having fellowship with all three members of the Godhead: “with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3) and with the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14; cf. Galatians 5:16, 25). The Greek word for ‘fellowship’ implies “an association involving close mutual relations and involvement.”7 This means that we participate or share in common all the endeavors of God.

Our fellowship with God is based upon the love relationship as John described:

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:16)

But note also, the effectiveness of our fellowship is conditioned on keeping His commandments as proof that we love Him: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”(John 14:15). We are able to learn His commandments by the teaching of the Holy Spirit of truth who “abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:17)—for “He will teach you all things” (John 14:26).

Our Lord proclaimed the results of keeping His word:

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:23)

Making “Our abode with him” is the quintessence of fellowship with the Godhead, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, indwelling the believer. This is the Divine essence of eternal life—the eternal love relationship with our Creator, as intended by the God of the universe for all mankind.

A question for those of you who believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior: Do you strive to achieve this relationship of love and fellowship with God in your daily lives? I encourage you to do so, in order to secure the present and eternal reward of knowing God.

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[1] Chafer, Lewis Sperry (1976). Systematic Theology, Dallas, TX: Dallas Seminary Press, 5.140.

[2] Chafer, 5.141.

[3] Tenney, Merrill (1979). John, In The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Gaebelein, Frank E., Gen. Ed.), Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 9.162.

[4] Wallace, D. B. (1996) Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the Greek New Testament, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, p. 475. Also, Dana, H.E. & Mantey, Julius R. (1957). A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, Toronto, Ontario: Macmillan Co., p. 249.

[5] Packer, J.I. (1977), Knowing God, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, p. 6.

[6] Tenney, 9.162.

[7] Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition.). New York: United Bible Societies, 1.445.

 

© 2023 David M. Rossi