First Epistle of John
John is considered Jesus’ favorite disciple. He lives relatively isolated, like a monk and was exiled by the Romans to Patmos. There are no historical references and some believe that he has not died. He focuses more on the meaning of love than on practical teaching. He writes two letters which are universal to all. In the first letter he refers to love for all.
The epistle was probably written from the Greek city of Ephesus in Asia Minor, aound 9th century AC. John was very old (probably over 90 years old) and therefore he addresses the believers as his “children”.
It is important to mention a few facts about the historical background of that period. Along with the spread of the gospel of Jesus there were parallel philosophical/theological movements (influenced by the Greek spirit of these times) that distorted the essence of the gospel (and this was more prominent in the great cities of the Greek world, such as Ephesus). Some claimed a that Jesus was a great teacher but denied His divinity, and there were others who emphasized the dichotomy between the material world (which is worth nothing and was not created from the Great God) and the Spirit, which is eternal. As a result of this perception, Jesus was presented as a kind of divine spirit who had no contact with the material world. This view was advocated by the Gnostics, a spiritual movement that exists to this day! (gnosticism).
Therefore, John mentions several times in his epistle the importance of the true understanding of Jesus as a figure who combines an earthly body and a divine spirit, both of which are themselves complete.
Already in the beginning of the Epistle, John emphasizes that he is talking about Jesus, whom they had seen and felt (ie someone who lived physically). On the other hand, he points out that whoever does not understand that Jesus is God and that He and the Father are the same, misses His entire message and even belongs to the spirit of the “antichrist”!
The main messages that John repeats several times in this epistle mainly include:
- 1. The concept that God is love and it is impossible to know and connect with Him without feeling this love and without projecting our love to our neighbor.
- The idea that God is only light and there is no darkness in Him. Those who are in the darkness of sin cannot be connected to God. Therefore, faith in Jesus and living in sin cannot get along.
According to John’s words, it seems as if a true believer is incapable of committing sin. However, this is not true ! Proof of that is that the Epistle is addressed to believers, asking them not to sin. When we sin, we have an advocate, an intercessor, who has outlined us to the Father, Jesus Christ. He continually stands in our name and offers His sacrifice for our sins as our protection. Jesus is the atonement sacrifice for our sins who eternally appeased God’s “wrath” against us (Isaiah 54:9-10). Romans 3:25 and satisfies God by putting His righteousness in our account.
Jesus is the “atonement” not only for our sins (i.e., for all those who accept Him by faith), but also for the sins of the whole world. This means that even the sins of the unbelievers were paid for in Christ’s atonement (1 Timothy 4:10). This means that personal sins are not the reason that brings someone to hell(because all their sins have been “paid”) but only the sin of rejecting Jesus that people will have to account for.
The concept of traditional religion is that observance of God’s laws and pleasing God are achieved by our actions. But the truth is probably the opposite. John does not say that keeping God’s commandments makes us know Him, but quite the opposite. Knowing God (not only intellectually but also experientially) will cause us to keep His commandments. This is how we will know if we are truly born of God, if we are born again by the Spirit. If our actions are not affected, we do not have a true relationship with God. Knowing God (in the biblical sense of intimacy with Him) begets a just life, not the other way around. Therefore, it is not by keeping God’s Word that we attain God’s love, but once we experience His love, this will cause us to follow His instructions.
As1 John 3:3 says, “Every man who has pinned his faith on Jesus, this faith will purify him”. Jesus is our example, and we should all behave as Jesus, as possible. We will never do it perfectly, but that should be the direction we are taking.
The New Testament is not new in the sense that it has changed the way we should act, but because holiness should come from the inside out and not from the outside in. The New Testament is new because now it is our relationship with God by believing in God’s grace that brings about right actions. Actions are the fruit, not the root of the relationship with God.
The standards of holiness established in the Old and New Testaments are not much different. But they are different in another sense. The commands of the Bible were given to control our actions. The law of love of the New Testament is given to control our hearts, which leads to control of our actions. So both the motif of the Old Testamentand and that of the New Testament reach the same place, but through two different ways.The Bible dealt with man’s external actions and left the impression that if our actions were “right” toward God, then we would be righteous and holy. But Jesus went deeper than that. In the Sermon on the Mount (especially in Matthew 5), Jesus showed that even if we do not sin externally we are in our hearts, and therefore we are guilty in God’s eyes . He told the Pharisees that they “clean” the outside but not the interior (Matthew 23:25-26). Jesus told us that His main teaching is to love (John 13:34). If we truly love our neighbor as ourselves, we will not break any of the Ten Commandments (Romans 13:8-10).
Whoever purports to be ruled and guided by the Holy Spirit but hates his brother is lying. As Jesus showed us (Luke 23:34and Acts7:60), it is the new birth in the spirit, that makes us love one another.
If we show hatred in our hearts towards our brothers, what should we do? Should we try to stop hating our brothers so we can be into the light? It’s impossible to succeed like that. Only if we come into the light, then hatred for our brothers will be banished. It’s like trying to suck the darkness out of the room so that there will be light. Although the absence of light is darkness, the opposite is not true. The absence of darkness is not light! Just bringing in light will cause the darkness to disappear. It is impossible without turning on a light. Similarly, we experience God’s light by believing in God’s grace, and then the darkness (the evil in our lives) escapes.
Clinging to the Light (remaining in God’s love) will make us love our brothers (1 John 2:5). We cannot love our brothers if we have not first received (and felt) God’s love for us. We can’t give what we didn’t get. What someone has to do is turn to God and admit that he doesn’t really know Him, and ask Him to be revealed to him. When God begins to dwell within us, He will bring the Light to our hearts and the darkness (hatred for our brother) will fleed away.
Love is the greatest of God’s commandments. Whoever does not keep the law of love is doomed to death! If you “have” and see that your brother is deprived and you do not give him, then where is God’s love? We should not express love only in words, but love needs proof, even materialistic proof. (1 John 3:13-18: Do not wonder, therefore, my brethren, if you are hated by the world. We are well aware that we have moved from spiritual death to spiritual and eternal life, because we love our brothers. But he who does not love the brother remains in the state of spiritual death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer. But whoever has the goods of the world (which make life comfortable) and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart and remains unmoved by his misery, how can God’s love abide in him? My beloved children, let us not love with words alone, but let us love with works of kindness and with the sincerity imposed by God). John the Evangelist says that the best judge is within us and is our conscience! Consciousness is the micro-God within us. We know well within ourselves whether we were right towards our fellow man. Our conscience knows us well. Surely God knows better what is happening within us, but the spiritual man does not even need God’s judgment and condemnation, nor that of an external judge (First epistle of John, 3/20: But if our conscience accuses us that we love our brother only with words, much more will God accuse us, who is of course infinitely superior to our conscience and knows fully and completely, everything). When our conscience does not blame us, then we have strength and courage before God to ask for our requests. And whoever asks will receive. As long as our conscience remains clear then we will receive. When our prayer does not work, let us look within ourselves, where we err or where our conscience does not allow. And if we apply the greatest commandment, the commandment of love, then we can stand with a pure heart before God, we can ask and receive. Only then can we stand before God. (First epistle of John 3:21:22: Beloved, if our conscience does not accuse us, then we have courage toward God, and whatever is asked of him, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what is pleasing to him; and we thus become children of his blessings).
John in this letter addresses 3 groups of believers, young children, adolescents and adults (fathers). It symbolizes the phases of a person’s spiritual growth: First, we are babies. It describes those who only know that their sins have been forgiven. As we get older, we become stronger and exercise our authority over devil. The final stage of development is to be truly mature (spiritually “Father”) and progress in knowing and connecting with God and Jesus.
John points out that those who love the world and the things it offers cannot love God. And those who love God will not love the world or the things that the world offers. Love of God and love of the world are incompatible. The word “world” certainly does not refer to the planet we call Earth. Psalm 19:1-4says that the whole creation continually praises God. So it can’t be that we are talking about the whole wonderful physical world. It stresses the importance of not loving the creation more than the Creator (Romans 1:25).
John explains that this refers specifically to the three areas of “love of the world” (1 John 2:16): the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
Every evil thing, every sin, can be put into three categories. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve were tempted by the lust of the flesh (hunger), the lust of the eyes (the tree was pleasing to the eyes), and the pride of life (the tree would make them wise and equal with God). Jesus experienced three temptations that also correspond to these three realms(Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke4:1-13). In any case, this physical world will dissolve one day(2 Peter 3:10-12); Then all the things we longed for will disappear (1 John 2:16). But he who does the will of the Lord will rest forever.
John the Apostle, (also in this letter) uses the word “antichrist” several times. He is the only New Testamentwriter to use this term. He speaks of an individual antichrist who will come in the future, but also of many antichrists who were active in the world during his day.
Paul also spoke of the antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2:2-10, calling him “the man of sin… son of perdition” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). In Revelation, there is another nickname for the antichrist, “the beast.” Jesus spoke of the days of the antichrist (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 17 and 21) but did not mention him specifically.
This is a person who will embody all that is not divine, and who will appear in the last days. But anyone who does not admit that Jesus came in a physical body is also a kind of “antichrist” (2 John 1:7). Anyone who denies that Jesus is the Son of God also denies the Father (John 5:23).
In general, the spirit of the antichrist was already active in John’s time andis certainly active in our world today. The antichrist spirit is behind almost every power that rules our world.
The relationship with God the Father depends entirely on the relationship with Jesus, the Son of God. There is no other way to have relation/communion with the Father except through the Son (John 14:6). Any rejection of Jesus is a rejection of the Father, and acceptance of Jesus is equal to acceptance of the Father.
John the Evangelist emphasizes in his letter the immense importance of this second commandment (beyond that of love), namely the acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and His incarnation. Here one may wonder, why is it not enough to love but also to accept Christ as the Messiah and Son of God ? Because Christ is the highest expression of love, the most perfect example of what it is like to love. Thus, if a person believes that he feels love but does not accept Christ, then in essence he does not know and practice what is true godly love, since God “is” love. It is not really a “commandment,” but an understanding of the love of God, who sent His Son, not because we loved Him and to reward us, but because He loves us ultimately. The Old Testament creates the impression that God is not so much a loving God as a punisher. At least that’s how he was understood during this period. Christ came to show the true face of God the Father and was the perfect implementer of absolute love. His sacrifice was God’s ultimate expression of love for humanity. We must always see God as our father. If a child will receive frequent and hard punishments for his actions, then all he learns is fear and he certainly does not learn how to love and how to give love himself. The Old Testament’s “God/Father punisher” (as people mistakenly understood Him at the time) was transformed into the God of absolute love through the mission of his Son for the atonement and salvation of all His people, who had already proved that by no means could they approach holiness by the Law (Fisrt epistle of John I, 4:2-3: And you can distinguish and know the Spirit of God by this criterion; that is, every person who presents himself as having the Spirit of God, if he unscrupulously confesses and believes that Jesus Christ took flesh and came as God-man redeemer to the earth, is indeed of God). Love makes us fearless, and the lack of it leads us to constant fear and anguish. Fear of an imminent punishment for some evil that may happen. Lack of love is responsible for most of our anxiety and phobias. He who loves, has nothing to fear. He has a clear conscience and as a result the certainty that he has God with him (First epistle of John, I 4-17,18: Fear before the judge and judgment does not exist in the heart of the man who loves, but perfect love according to God brings out of the soul and drives away fear. Because fear presupposes punishment because of guilt. And he who fears because of his guilt, it is evident that he has not become perfect in love).
According to the word of the Gospel (John 17:3), eternal life is knowing God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, “knowing” in the biblical sense of the word. It’s about intimacy/communion. A person who comes to Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, but does not continue to have an intimate relation/communion with Him, misses the very meaning of salvation. And it’s not just about the afterlife and paradise. Eternal life begins on earth (John 3:36; John 3:36; 5:24; 6:47) in the form of fellowship with the Father and Son. Sin was a barrier blocking our access to God. Without the removal of this barrier, there can be no true fellowship with the Father. Jesus shouldered the sins of the whole world (John 12:32), reconciled us with God (2 Corinthians 5:19), and broke down the wall of enmity between us and God.
John emphasizes that it is not enough to believe based on someone else’s experience of what God looks like. We need to know God personally. It’s not that we don’t need the insights of others at all and can’t benefit from what they have to say (Ephesians 4:11-13). It’s just that all of us as believers have one personal teacher, the Holy Spirit (John 14:26) who anoints us and guides us to the truth.
