1John

PSacramento

Every morning I read the bible.

Yypically I read everyday, in order, the NT, when I finish I start again and everytime I read it I find something the hits me, in a good way LOL !

Today I read 1John and decided to post about it :)

John is probably my favorite writer of the NT, his writing is beautiful and eloquent and truly express the most important teachings of Jesus (in my very humble view), that of Love.

And nowhere is that more evident than in the frst letter of John.

John makes it clear from the very beginning that God is light and light is love and to walk with God is to walk with love and no love means no god.

John syas the man that does the will of God lives forever and that the will is Love.

John speaks of those that deny that Jesus is the Christ,that he was made flesh, that there are the antichrists ( plural not single).

We are all children of God for God dwells in us IF love dwells in us, love not only of words but of actions.

John reiterates Jesus last comandment that we love one another as he loves us, to give up our lives for one another just as jesus did for us.

Note: The loving part goes back to Matthew too where Jesus says to love those that don't love Us, for if we love only those that loves us, what's the big freaking deal? ( I am paraphrasing obviously ).

John also reminds us to TEST the spirits ( and the spirit in which things are said obviously) and to not take anything for granted.

He also presents a base to go from, that every spirit must acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh and came from God.

He reminds us to have Faith in the Son of God, that Jesus was born of God and all that loves God loves the son as well.

He reminds us that if we say we Love God and hate our brother (another) we are liars, for if we can't love our brother that we see, how can we love God that no one has seen? and he voices the commandment from God that all that love God must love each other (love his bother).

In Chapter 5 John goes on reminds us that to overcoem the world we must h ave faith in Jesus and believe that he is the Son of God.

John mentions that the Spirit, Water and Blood are in agreement and the SPirit speaks only the truth ( A passage that has caused some debate at times).

John makes clear the testimony of God: God gave us eternal life and this life is his Son, Jesus, he who doesn't have the Son of God, doesn't have eternal life.

1John is so filled with love and hope and portrays so a loving and devoted God and Son that one wonders why so many forget the True message of God and the last commandment of the Son of God.

Love each other as he has loved us.

To give of each other as he gave of himself for Us.

wobble

The last time I read it I gained much that strengthens faith ,as you have. I pondered though,Johns last words in the letter :

"Children , you must stay away from idols "

I wondered how that applies to us today, to Johns readers familiar with many literal idols, it would be obvious to what he referred, I suppose for us it means do not place your faith anywhere but in Christ, and to do that we need to walk with Jesus Christ each day.

love

Wobble

snowbird

Thank you for those thoughts, PSac.

1 John 4:1 helped lead me out of the WT.

Wobble, the WT is an idol to a lot of JW's.

Sylvia

PSacramento

Wobble,

Idol worshipping was a big issue of the time, people actually prayed to Idols and I don't mean liek some do where they use a symbol of sorts to "direct" or "focus" their prayers, not they woudl pray to statues and images as if those images could answer their prayers.

Fact is, I know a few Catholics that do that too and it breaks my heart, they will pary to a picture of some saint in hopes that saint will sanswer their prayers, which is as close as idol worship as you can get, outside of blatant Paganism.

Of course in the more deeper sense, like you said, to stay away from idols meant to place our faith solely on God and Jesus.

The word Idol in greek - adolon, refers to:

an image, a likeness, an image of a heathen God, a false God.

So the word in itself can be a direct warning to say away from false Gods and heathen images.

Narkissos

Just a couple of remarks (I am also very fond of Johannine writings).

- loving one another (a leitmotiv in the second part of the Fourth Gospel and the epistles) is quite different from loving one's enemies (as per Matthew and Luke). The former is more limited in scope, although Johannine thinking arguably makes it deeper (equating God with love, and taking it to the point of laying one's life/soul for the other). It is a matter of mutual recognition between the 'elect,' between brothers, because of their common source in God, cf. 5:1f: "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child (literally, the begetter / the begotten). By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments." The flip side of this is rejection of those who are deemed "not to belong to us" (2:19, and 2 John 9-11 of course).

- the admonition against idols (5:21) has little to do with the common Jewish/Protestant concept of idols as literal religious images imo. That would be a very shallow ending to such a profound work. Idols in context are rather everything that misses God's ultimate, final, absolute, complete self-revelation in Jesus Christ (v. 20).

PSacramento

Narkissos,

In 1John 2:19, the ones that didn't belong were the antichrist that came from them and what made them antichrists:

We go back to Johns definition of antichrist: Those that deny Jesus was Christ and made flesh.

Leolaia

PSacramento....Have you ever read the Odes of Solomon (likely early second century AD)? They have a very similar "Johannine" ring and may have originally circulated in the community where the Johannine writings first made their mark. I find them quite lovely and I have sometimes wondered how Christianity would have turned out if this book were canonized instead of Revelation.

Here is an excerpt:

"Fill for yourselves water from the living spring of the Lord,
because it has been opened for you.
And come all you thirsty and take a drink,
and rest beside the spring of the Lord.
Because it is pleasing and sparkling,
and perpetually pleases the soul.
For more refreshing is its water than honey,
and the honeycomb of bees is not to be compared with it;
Because it flowed from the lips of the Lord,
and it named from the heart of the Lord.
And it came boundless and invisible,
and until it was set in their midst they knew it not.
Blessed are they who have drunk from it,
and have rested by it" (Odes of Solomon 30:1-7).

Here is another:

"My heart was pruned and its flower appeared,
then grace sprang up in it and produced fruits for the Lord.
For the Most High circumcised me by his Holy Spirit,
and he uncovered my inward being toward him
and filled me with his love" (Odes of Solomon 11:1-2).

TD

One of the most striking things to me about 1 John are the differences not just in vocabulary, word choice etc. but the overall tone when compared to Revelation.

homeschool

P, I really respect your opinion. But can you explain why you only read the NT? I'm so curious. As you know, I am reading the OT at this point and god does NOT seem loving. AT ALL. I don't want to judge or criticize...but maybe you can explain again. (?)

Chalam

John is probably my favorite writer of the NT

Same here dude! Pure poetry but power too.

Homeschool, you cannot really get to grips with the OT unless you read the NT. Jesus is the way, truth and life and He turns up in person in the NT. The law bring death so you are going to read a lot about it in the OT. The NT brings life, in this life and the next. You can press on but it will be hard going. Can I suggest you try a reading plan? This one is excellent, I use it myself

One-Year Tract Bible Reading Plan

This plan is based on the M'Cheyne reading system, featuring four different readings for use in both family and personal devotions. Each day has two passages from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament, and one from either the Psalms or the Gospels. In one year, you read the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice.

There is audio there too so you can listen to all the hard to pronounce OT words!

All the best,

Stephen

1John

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