1 John - Introduction

1 John

Introduction

The first letter of John is unusual in that, like Hebrews, it gives no direct indication of who the author is. So why is the letter attributed to John the apostle? The evidence is essentially in two parts. The first is the evidence of the early church. Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian and Origen all attributed the letter to the apostle John. Moreover, there is no evidence of anyone else having been attributed with authorship of this letter, and the letter was widely accepted in the church as canonical.

Then there is the internal evidence. The style of the letter is similar to that of the gospel of John. The style of Greek is similar, and many phrases and expressions are common to both.

In the opening of the letter, the author claims to be an eyewitness to Jesus. Also, the author writes in a very authoritative manner. Commands and instructions are given in a very clear manner.

All in all, there seems no reason to doubt the Johannine authorship of this letter.

The letter was probably written sometime between AD 85 and 95.

Just as we have no direct indication of the author, neither do we have any direct indication of the recipients! Evidence from early Christian writers indicate that John was based in Ephesus during the latter part of the 1st century and it is most likely that the letter was written to churches in the Roman province of Asia (modern day Turkey).

The letter is countering false teaching, largely an early form of gnosticism. One of the key aspects of this false teaching was that matter, and therefore the human body, is evil. So this is to be contrasted with God who is spirit and wholly good. Salvation was achieved by knowledge, rather than faith. Most importantly, perhaps, it denied the full humanity of Christ. This came in two main versions. One was Docetism, which said that Jesus only seemed to be human.  The other, Cerinthianism, said that the divine joined the human Jesus at baptism. This is probably the form that John was dealing with. It is interesting that most early heresies tended to deny the full humanity of the Son, rather than, as now, denying the full deity of the Son.

Treating the body as evil in Gnosticism had two opposite outworkings. Some would treat the body harshly, ie they were ascetics and Colossians deals with this in the latter part of chapter 2. Others, went to the opposite extreme and said it didn’t matter what people did, so people could be very licentious. This latter form was probably the more popular for obvious reasons!

So John’s letter is aimed at countering the false teachings, note that he also exposes the false teachers. At the same time, there is much positive teaching in the letter as well.

As always, here are my primary sources of information:

The Epistle of John, John Stott, IVP

NIV Study Bible, Zonvervan

Reflections on Psalm 22 - Part 1

As Easter approaches I thought it might be useful to give a few thoughts on Psalm 22, one of the most relevant Psalms in the context of Easter. So two or three posts will appear over the next week.

This psalm is famously associated with Jesus in the cross. Jesus uttered the words of the first verse when on the cross (Matt 27:46; Mark 15:34). There is no known incident in David’s life that exactly fits the events described in this psalm, though of course David did face many difficult circumstances in his life. However, it is best to see the Psalm as looking forward to Christ on the cross.

We need to be careful in interpreting the words of Jesus on the cross. Jesus would know what the whole psalm said, and where it ended, and so it is not just a cry of dereliction. It is a mistake to focus purely on the suffering, but equally the suffering absolutely must not be overlooked. Paul says that the message of the cross was an offence to the Jews and nonsense to the Greeks (1 Cor 1:23). Muslims cannot conceive of how a pure servant and prophet of God (as they see Christ) could possibly suffer the ignominy of the cross. To see the cross aright we need to take suffering in all its reality, and the victory in all its fullness. Moreover, in quoting the first verse, Jesus was almost certainly alluding to the psalm as a whole.

Anyway, it seemed as if God was “so far from helping” Jesus. Jesus’ suffering on the cross was absolutely real. There was no anesthetic against the pain, and the wrath of God, God’s judgement on man’s sin, was poured out upon Him.

So the pain and suffering was real, but that was not the end of it. Jesus also knew of the absolute righteousness and faithfulness of His Father. And in v3-5 Jesus reminds Himself of the holiness of God and the fact that God had on many times delivered Israel.

1 Corinthians 16:17-24 - Final greetings

16:17,18

Stephanas and two other individuals are mentioned. These verses could be something of a rebuke to the Corinthians, when Paul says they supplied what was lacking from the Corinthians. These fellows refreshed Paul’s spirit. It is not clear what was “lacking”, but it may have been personal contact, something that will feature in 2 Corinthians.

16:19

Aquila and Prisca (or Priscilla, the better manuscripts have Prisca) are mentioned several times in the New Testament (Acts 18, Romans 16:3, 2 Tim 4:19). In the latter two references Priscilla is mentioned first. A church met in their house. They could be viewed as a model for a husband and wife pastoring team.

16:20

Now here is a verse that in countries like UK and US is roundly ignored, even by the most ardent reformed Christians (some South American churches seem quite keen on this sort of thing). Why, because it is cultural!  But it is a clear command, and one given elsewhere (Rom 16:16, 2 Cor 13:12, 1 Thess 5:12, 1 Pet 5:14), and we ignore it.This is just an example that some commands in the Bible are cultural.

16:21-24

Paul,s letters were mostly written by an amanuensis, but here he adds something in his own hand. The letter closes with a blessing and a curse! “Accursed” is “anathema”. The church as a whole is far too mealy mouthed about false teachings and false teachers. Paul had no hesitation about calling things what they were, and he knew the danger of false teachings. Of course, we should not go to the other extreme, but we are definitely too far at the other extreme these days.

1 Corinthians 16:12-16 - Be on your guard

16:12

Apollos is mentioned in Acts, and in Act 19:1 it says he was in Corinth while Paul went to Ephesus. He is first mentioned in Acts 18:18-28.  So it seems that he did eventually go to Corinth. We are not told why he was unwilling to go, probably because he had other things to do.

16:13,14

These two verses give brief and to the point directions. We need to be on our guard. There are always false teachings about, there is always a war against the flesh. So we need to be on our guard. We need to stand firm in the faith. The only grounds for our hope is what Christ has done for us on the cross, we must not be moved from that. We will face much opposition, and encounter difficult circumstances, so we need courage and we need to be strong. Elsewhere, Paul talks about being strong in the Lord. And all this is to be done in love. We can become so concerned about resisting the enemy, which is indeed essential, that we forget about love. We need to love God and to love others, love not being some soppy thing, but a true and real concern for the well being of the object of love.

16:15,16

Paul uses examples of good disciples to encourage and teach the Corinthians. Stephanas and his household are commended for their faith and their service to the Lord’s people. The Corinthians are urged to submit to all people who commit themselves to the Lord’s work. Today we have enormous problems with submission. The primary reasons are twofold. The first is a reluctance to submit to anyone or anything, this is part of the fallen condition of humanity. The second is a misunderstanding of what submission means. We think it means that the one who submits is inferior to the one submitted to. This is not the case. Christ submitted to the Father, but He is not less than the Father. In the New Testament it is often a case of submitting to each other.

1 Corinthians 16:5-11 - Macedonia

16:5-9

Travelling wasn’t as easy in those days! So Paul's journey might have involved a long stop over with them. The nature of travel in those days did have advantages as it allowed people to spend more time with each other! To use a modern phrase, Paul wanted to have “quality time” with them. However, for the time being Paul would remain in Ephesus because an great opportunity had opened up. Notice that the opportunity also went hand in hand with opposition. When God is doing something significant in through our lives there will very often be opposition. God’s purposes are achieved in the midst of opposition.

16:10,11

Paul was going to send Timothy to them. Timothy was a protege of Paul, and someone for whom he cared deeply. Paul knew the opposition that was brewing in Corinth, and of which we will read more in 2 Corinthians. He did not want this to be unleashed against Timothy, so he seeks to ensure that Timothy is treated properly. He was as much a servant of the Lord as Paul himself was. Paul expected Timothy to return to him from Corinth with a good report.

Jesus the Judge

In Acts 10 we read of Peter going to the house of Cornelius, this being the big breakthrough of the gospel from the Jewish world to the Gentile world. In Acts 10:39 Peter declares that he, and the other disciples, were witnesses to everything that Jesus did, in particular to his death on a cross, and His resurrection. God made Jesus to appear to witnesses. These were not vague appearances, but solid events, for He ate and drank with those who knew Him. Any talk of a mere spiritual resurrection is just so much rubbish. The resurrection was a physical reality, witnessed by many.

These witnesses were then commanded to preach to the people. This preaching was not merely saying that Christ has risen, but highlighting the consequences of it. They were to testify that Jesus is the One appointed by God to judge the living and the dead. Contrast this with some of the rubbish that is often preached today. First, there is the “do not judge” nonsense. Part of the gospel is that Jesus has been appointed as judge. Jesus is not just your “friend”, He is also the judge. This world, and everyone in it, will be judged by God. Then there is a tendency among some apologists today to say that the fact that Jesus is raised from the dead is all that matters. It isn’t, the consequences are just as important, and Peter and the apostles knew that this was so. It isn’t just the event, it is the meaning of the event.

As Easter approaches there will be various pieces in the press and other media on the “Easter message”, much of this will be well meaning, but is nonetheless pretty vacuous (as will stuff preached in some churches). The real Easter and the real gospel are far more solid. We have a real resurrection, and the message is that Jesus Christ is Lord, He has been appointed as judge of all. So we will all have to answer to Him, regardless of what our own opinions are.

Then in Acts 10:43 we come to the really good news. “Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name. We need to recognise who Jesus really is, only then can we receive the true riches of Easter.

1 Corinthians 16:1-4 - Taking up the collection

16:1

The collection mentioned here was for the church in Jerusalem, and Paul will give greater mention to this in 2 Corinthians. The church there was going through a hard time, so Paul was organising a collection of funds for them from the Gentile churches. We see here that the Galatian churches are explicitly mentioned.

16:2

Notice the ordered way in which things are done.Of course, order has been a theme of much of Paul’s teaching in this letter, particularly with regard to the work of the Holy Spirit. When something is Spirit led it may well be a very orderly thing. So at the start of each week people were to set aside a certain sum of money. The amount is not specified, but the more someone earns, the more they should give. So when Paul arrived there would not be a “Gift Service”, but all the money would have already been collected. This is not to say that gift services are wrong, but there is nothing superior to a church or an individual giving a one-off large sum, to someone else or a church regularly giving a lesser amount.

16:3,4

Now see that all things are done properly. Obviously, financial regulation and charity laws etc did not exist in those days as they do now! However, steps were taken to ensure that everything was done in an open and proper manner. Notice also that the Corinthians themselves would choose the men that would go with the gift. Money can be a very contentious matter. It is also a matter in which a church will be often attacked. So it is essential that we do things in an open and transparent manner.