Ancient manuscripts are unanimous in naming “John” as the author of 1 John. This was understood to be John the son of Zebedee, the “beloved disciple” who was also the author of the Fourth Gospel. The style and vocabulary of 1, 2, and 3 John are so close to that of John’s Gospel that they beg to be understood as arising from the same person. Some contemporary scholars theorize that an “elder John” (see 2Jn 1; 3Jn 1), not the apostle, may have written the letters. Others speak of a “Johannine school” or “circle” as the originators of the epistles of John (and perhaps Revelation too). But the view with the best support is that Jesus’s disciple John was the author.
Second-century sources reported that around AD 70, the year the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, John left Jerusalem where he was a church leader and relocated to Ephesus. He continued his pastoral work in that region and lived until nearly AD 100. Ephesus is probably the place where John wrote the three NT letters that bear his name. They could have been composed at any time in the last quarter of the first century.
First John maps out the three main components of a saving knowledge of God: (1) faith in Jesus Christ, (2) obedient response to God’s commands, and (3) love for God and others from the heart. This epistle shows how Jesus expects his followers to honor him in practical church life and wherever God calls his people to go and serve.
It is widely agreed that 1 John does not logically, methodically, or rigorously set forth and develop its arguments. For this reason scholars are divided on the best way to structurally outline the letter. It is the least letter-like of the three Johannine epistles because of its lack of identification of the sender and the recipient. It is more like an unsystematic treatise. It often makes assertions along thematic lines, moves to related or contrasting themes, and then returns to the earlier topic, or perhaps takes up a different subject altogether.
The fact that Christ was really in the flesh, that he was no phantom, no shadow mocking the eyes, is exceedingly important. Eyesight is good, clear evidence. But better still John had leaned his head on Jesus Christ. His hands had often met the real flesh and blood of the living Savior. We need have no doubt about the reality of Christ’s incarnation when we have these open eyes and hands to give us evidence.
1What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life — 2 that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us — 3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things A so that our B joy may be complete.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. 6 If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. 7 If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
QUOTE 1:7
There is no fear that all my daily slips and shortcomings will not be graciously removed by this precious blood.
1:1 “What we have seen with our eyes . . . and have touched with our hands.” The fact that Christ was really in the flesh, that he was no phantom, no shadow mocking the eyes, is exceedingly important. Eyesight is good, clear evidence. But better still John had leaned his head on Jesus Christ. His hands had often met the real flesh and blood of the living Savior. We need have no doubt about the reality of Christ’s incarnation when we have these open eyes and hands to give us evidence.
1:7 “If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light . . . the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” If guilt returns, his power may be proved again and again. There is no fear that all my daily slips and shortcomings will not be graciously removed by this precious blood.
1:8 “If we say, ‘We have no sin,’ we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” The natural tendency of our heart is to try to appear to be what we are not. We all, more or less, struggle against this tendency. Love of approval, rightly checked and kept in order, has its uses. But often it pushes people to pretend to be better than they are. The Lord cannot stand with us on the platform of seeming and appearance but only on the ground of what we really are. We must, therefore, judge ourselves severely. If we do not, our natural tendency to falseness will lead us to delude ourselves into the foolish belief that we are what we proudly represent ourselves to be.
2My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father — Jesus Christ the righteous one. 2 He himself is the atoning sacrifice A for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.
QUOTE 2:1
We may have great growth in sanctification, progress in graces, and development of our virtues. But I earnestly pray we never put any of these where Christ should be.
3 This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God is made complete. This is how we know we are in him: 6 The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.
QUOTE 2:6
This is the aim of election, the objective of redemption, the fruit of calling, the companion of justification, the evidence of adoption, the earnest of glory—that we should be holy even as Christ is holy.
7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old command that you have had from the beginning. The old command is the word you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. 9 The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother or sister is in the darkness until now. 10 The one who loves his brother or sister remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. B 11 But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
12I am writing to you,
little children,
since your sins have been forgiven
on account of his name.
13I am writing to you, fathers,
because you have come to know
the one who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
because you have conquered the evil one.
14I have written to you, children,
because you have come to know the Father.
I have written to you, fathers,
because you have come to know
the one who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
because you are strong,
God’s word remains in you,
and you have
conquered the evil one.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions — is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.
18 Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. By this we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.
20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. A 21 I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.
24 What you have heard from the beginning is to remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he himself made to us: eternal life.
26 I have written these things to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. Instead, his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie; just as it has taught you, B remain in him.
28 So now, little children, remain in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
2:1 “I am writing you these things so that you may not sin.” John is anxious that they should not sin. He knows they do; if they say they do not, they lie. Still the Christian’s objective is sinless perfection. Though we will never have it until we get to heaven, that is all the better because we will always be pressing forward and never reckoning that we have attained it.
2:1 “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one.” Every day I find it most healthy to my soul to try to walk as a saint. But in order to do so, I must continually come to Christ as a sinner. We may have great growth in sanctification, progress in graces, and development of our virtues. But I earnestly pray we never put any of these where Christ should be. “Jesus Christ the righteous one” stands up to plead for me, and pleads his righteousness. And note: he does this not if I do not sin but if I do sin. There is the beauty of the text. When I have sinned, I come creeping up to my prayer closet with a guilty conscience and an aching heart, and feel that I am not worthy to be called God’s son, I still have an advocate because I am one of the many who sin.
2:6 “The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.” The first thing about a Christian is initiation into Christ. The next thing is imitation of Christ. We cannot be Christians unless we are in Christ, and we are not truly in Christ unless the life of Christ is lived over again by us as we are able. We certainly have not had the purpose of God fulfilled in us unless we have been conformed to the image of his dear Son. This is the aim of election, the objective of redemption, the fruit of calling, the companion of justification, the evidence of adoption, the earnest of glory—that we should be holy even as Christ is holy. The Spirit of God has anointed all the chosen of God who are regenerated, and he dwells with them and in them. The Spirit cannot produce unholiness. If, then, the Spirit dwells in us (and if it does not, we are not in Christ), he must work in us to conform us to Christ that we may “walk just as he walked.”
31 See what great love C the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children — and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him. 2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, D we will be like him because we will see him as he is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins, E and there is no sin in him. 6 Everyone who remains in him does not sin; F everyone who sins G has not seen him or known him.
7 Children, let no one deceive you. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who commits H sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works. 9 Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, I because his seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, J because he has been born of God. 10 This is how God’s children and the devil’s children become obvious. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother or sister.
11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, 12 unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.
13 Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. 16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has this world’s goods and sees a fellow believer A in need but withholds compassion from him — how does God’s love reside in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.
19 This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and will reassure our hearts before him 20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things.
21 Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. 23 Now this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps his commands remains in him, and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he has given us.
3:1 “See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children.” What intense love is revealed to one who is favored to be called a child of God! It is love in the highest degree. What love a person would have in his heart if he were to take a malicious enemy and say, “You will be my child.” Only think, then, what it must be for God—the infinite and eternal Spirit—to say, “You will be my child. I will take you, though you are an heir of wrath, and make you mine.” This is love worth pondering.
3:2 “We are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed.” At present we are in our seed stage; sowing time is coming. Let us not worry that it is so. There will be a time for our poor flesh to sleep in the silent grave. But at the voice of the archangel and the blast of the trumpet of the resurrection, we will rise. Just as the flower rises in spring, the dead body in the tomb will rise incorruptible in the image of the Savior.
3:16 “This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us.” True love is not satisfied with expressing itself in words. Love must express itself in deeds. Love delights in sacrifices. Love rejoices in self-denials. The more costly the sacrifice, the better is love pleased to make it. Christ’s love is best seen in the laying down of his life. There were no claims on him on the part of those for whom he died. I can understand a mother dying for her children. I can see some reason a noble citizen would die for his city. But the Son of God had no relationship to us until he chose to assume one out of his infinite compassion. There was no more relation between him and us than between the potter and the clay. If the clay on the pottery wheel is misshapen, what does the potter do but discard the clay? So might the great Creator have done with us. Yet with no claims on himself, of his own free will, he yielded to death because of his amazing love for us.
4Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not confess Jesus B is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.
4 You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us C in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice A for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in B us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God — God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. C So the one who fears is not complete in love. 19 We love D because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. E 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.
QUOTE 4:19
What love is this that shone on us when we were the serfs and slaves of Satan, the dishwashers in the kitchen of iniquity?
4:10 “Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” It is the greatest marvel that ever will be—that he who is God over all stooped so low as this. I can understand his stooping to poverty and being a carpenter. I can understand his stooping to hunger and thirst. I can even understand his stooping to death. But that he should bear our sins—this is the greatest stoop of all. How must the Lord Jesus have loved us that he did not disdain to bear even the enormous burden of our sin?
4:19 “We love because he first loved us.” Love is the cause of love. We love second and after him because he loved first and before us. He loved us when we could not have been worse or further from him than we were. What love is this that shone on us when we were the serfs and slaves of Satan, the dishwashers in the kitchen of iniquity?
B 4:3 Other mss read confess that Jesus has come in the flesh
C 4:18 Or fear has its own punishment or torment
E 4:20 Other mss read has seen, how is he able to love . . . seen? (as a question)
5Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father F also loves the one born of him. 2 This is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God and obey G his commands. 3 For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden, 4 because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.
5 Who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 Jesus Christ — he is the one who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and by blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: H 8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood — and these three are in agreement. 9 If we accept human testimony, God’s testimony is greater, because it is God’s testimony that he has given about his Son. 10 The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
14 This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him.
16 If anyone sees a fellow believer A committing a sin that doesn’t lead to death, he should ask, and God will give life to him — to those who commit sin that doesn’t lead to death. There is sin B that leads to death. I am not saying he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that doesn’t lead to death.
ILLUSTRATION 5:16
An owner of a country estate may put up a sign that reads, “Danger: Beware of traps and spring guns.” No one would think of going to the front door of the mansion and saying, “Would you please tell me where the traps and spring guns are set?” If we asked that question, the answer would be, “The purpose of this warning is not to tell you where they are, for you have no business to trespass there at all.” So “all unrighteousness is sin,” and we are warned to keep clear of it. “There is sin that leads to death,” but we are not told what that sin is on purpose that we may, by the grace of God, keep clear of sin altogether.
18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the one who is born of God keeps him, C and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one. D We are in the true one — that is, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.
5:2 “This is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God and obey his commands.” Love is a practical thing. Love without obedience is a mere pretense. True love shows itself by seeking to please the one who is loved.
5:13 “So that you may know that you have eternal life.” Every person who believes in the name of the Son of God has eternal life. We may not doubt this. It is not a matter of inference and deduction but a matter of revelation from God. We are not to form an opinion about it but to believe it, for the Lord has said it. It is right for a child of God to know that God is his Father and never to have a question in his heart as to his sonship. It is right for a soul that is married to Christ to know the sweet love of the bridegroom and never to permit a cloud of suspicion to come between himself and the full enjoyment of Christ’s love.
5:16-17 “There is sin that leads to death. . . . All unrighteousness is sin.” Perhaps someone thinks he has committed this unpardonable sin and is at this moment grieving over it. If so, it is clear that he cannot have committed the “sin that leads to death,” or else he could not grieve over it. Whoever repents of sin and trusts in Jesus Christ is freely and fully forgiven; therefore, he has clearly not committed a sin that will not be forgiven. There is much in this passage to make us prayerful and watchful, but there is nothing here to make a troubled heart feel anything like despair.