1 Jn 1:5-2:11 theme verse 1 Jn 2:5
The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.
In this twenty fourth Sunday after the Pentecost, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, through the first Epistle of Peter, we could know that even though the temptation and hardships of this end era challenge us, when we endure them in His living hope, we could receive praise, glory and honor at His return, after our faith may be strengthened. This week we would like to look at what kinds of cult tempt His people in this end era and how we can overcome those wrong teachings through today's text.
1) The first/second/third Epistles of John are known as the last letters among general Epistles, i.e., James, Hebrews, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude, and 1, 2, and 3 John. The author of the first John is the Apostle John. The author of this letter, the Apostle John was the second son of Zebedee and whose elder brother was James. He lived as a fisherman with his older brother James in Capernaum with Peter and his brother Andrew. While repairing the nets on a boat on the lakeshore of Gennesaret, he and his brother James were called to follow Him so that they followed Him, leaving his father and the hired hands behind them to become Jesus’ disciples. It is known that he followed Jesus most closely with Peter and his brother James, being called as Jesus’ beloved disciple. Originally he and James were both quick to anger and narrow-minded, so Jesus gave them the nickname “Sons of thunder,” yet, as he followed Jesus, he was transformed and eventually known as the Apostle of love. And as his disciples, there were Ignatius the third Bishop of Antioch and Polycarp, the presbyter of Smyrna Yet, when he saw Jesus arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, it was known that he fled in fear, but he returned after and eventually followed Jesus to Golgotha and was with Him until His death. So Jesus who was on the cross, could entrust his mother Mary to him so that he cared for her to the end. And also among the apostles, only John heard Jesus’ last words, “I thirst,” and “It is finished,” watching Jesus’ soul leave him. And after the Pentecost, he did missionary work with Peter in Jerusalem and Samaria. According to church tradition, in AD 44, he fled to Asia Minor to escape the persecution of Herod Agrippa I, where he led the seven churches, that is, the churches in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. And while he was there it is known that he wrote the Gospel of John. And then in AD 95, when he was captured during the Christian persecution by the Roman Emperor Domitian and was exiled to the island of Patmos, it is known that he wrote the Book of Revelation there. And in AD 96, when Emperor Domitian was assassinated, he was pardoned and returned to Ephesus again and then there he spent the rest of his life and died around AD 100. And it is believed that before his death there in Ephesus, he wrote three epistles of John.
2) In the end of the first century when these letters were written, the circumcision controversy between the Apostle Paul and the circumcised Jews had almost ended, and Christianity was faced up with a new controversy with Gnosticism. Gnosticism believed that Human beings have the good soul yet trapped within evil body so that if human being gains mystical divine knowledge, his or her soul can be freed from the shackles of evil body and be saved to the ideal world so that typically, these believers fell into extreme asceticism which abstains their bodies or ethical debauchery since evil body will be disappeared anyhow. Therefore they denied the fact that the divine Jesus came to this earth in human body, and also denied that Jesus became the Christ who achieved human salvation through his death and resurrection so that they were separated from the church. Accordingly, the Apostle John sent this letter to the churches in order to keep the church from these errors of Gnosticism, through which he tried to help churches to have a correct understanding of Christ's humanity and ministry, emphasizing the importance of right faith and practice, and urging them to live a life of love like Christ, as a hallmark of true knowledge of God.
3) To summarize its contents based on the Hebrew chiasmic structure, even with the difficulties to grasp its structure due to the repetition of the themes and additional explanations on those themes, first in the introductory section, since he saw, heard, and touched Christ who is the Word of eternal life, John said he proclaimed what he has seen and heard so that they could have fellowship with His people and also with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ in joy. Then in the main body of the letter, he first said that God is light, in other words, pure and true, so if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with Him, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin, and those who live in the light should obey His commandments to love their brothers. However, he said the Antichrist denied that Jesus is Christ and separated from His church, so the children of God who have received God's love should purify themselves by living in Christ, and love one another through which we could know they have passed from death to life. And then he continued to deepen the themes again, following the chiasm of Hebrew literature, that is, the symmetrical parallel structure. He said that the Antichrist did not acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the human body, but those who received the Spirit of truth, knew God and believed it. And those who know God also know God is love, so that they love God and love their sisters and brothers, and that knowledge of God makes them alive through His only Son who dwells in God's people as God's people also dwell in Him. Furthermore, he says that those who believed that Jesus is Christ were born of God and not only keep His commandments and love one another, but also overcome the world through the faith in Jesus who dwells in them. And finally, in the closing section, John concluded his letter by saying once again that the reason he wrote this letter was to let the recipients know that they had eternal life and whoever was born of God does not sin, but abides in Jesus Christ, so keeps oneself from idols.
4) We would like to meditate and learn few lessons through today’s text, 1 Jn 1:5-2:11. First of all, the Apostle John said in chapter 1 verses 8 and 10 that all human beings have sinned and also has sinfulness so that if we confess sins, Jesus will forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, while Gnosticism said that human beings have good soul, yet trapped within evil body, so that they can be saved from evil body through the acquisition of secret, divine knowledge to enter into the world of light. Here based on the facts that verse 10, which is written in perfect tense and the verse 8 which is written in present tense, we could know that we not only have sinned from the past until now, but also we have sinfulness in us, even after being born again. That’s why Rom 3:10 says that “none is righteous, no, not one,” and Rom 7:25 sighs that “I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”
5) Therefore, that’s why John said we have to abide in Jesus. The meaning of abiding in Jesus as 2:3 says we know Christ, 2:5 says we are in Him, 2:6 says we live in Him, and 3:6 says we abide in Him is that as 2:6 says “whoever says “I abide in Him”, ought to walk just He walked,” John meant that those who are in Jesus are those who do like Jesus did, and then according to 3:10, those who do like Jesus did are those who do righteousness and love brothers and sisters, and also as 3:9 says “those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them,” and 5:1 says “everyone who believes that Jesus is Christ is born of God and everyone who loves the Father loves His children as well,” as those who are born of God love their sisters and brothers, John meant that such life of love and righteousness is the life to know God, the life to walk in Christ and the life to abide in Christ. That’s why Gary Derickson says in his commentary that “Abiding involves habitual obedience. It is a life lived like Christ lived His. Though habitual obedience is not automatic in the life of the believer, it is an obligation.”
6) And then John said the reason why those who are born of God do righteousness and love is because God has those attributes. I mean, in 1:5, after he said ”God is light”, so he said again in 1:7 that we who are born of God, walk in light, I mean, do the righteousness. And also as 4:16 said “we have come to know and to believe the love that God has in us. God is love, and the one who resides in love resides in God, and God resides in him,” John said we who are born of God who is love, become to live the life of love. Therefore I pray that we all may know that we are born of God by His holy Word and live the life of righteousness and love in this world, following the will of His calling through God of light and love to proclaim we are children of God of righteousness and love.
Key Questions as Small Group Activity
Q1 According to today’s text, even if we are born again, our sinfulness, i.e., the flesh, still resides in us so that it often makes us slip into sins and according to the Canoon of Dort, through those weaknesses, we can become more and more humble. So, if we exp[experience those weakness and sins, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.
Q2 And also in today’s text, it is said that because of those weakness, we have to abide in Jesus more and more. So after defining what it means to abide in Jesus in your language, I hope we could share our thought and experience with each other to learn from each other.
Love you. Thank you. God bless you.
Prayer Note
Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!
Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or even during the week )
Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!
Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),
please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized ).
I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon )
Please help me to live in that ( learned way of life )
I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.
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