1. John and his brother James apparently meet Jesus through the preaching of John the Baptist (John 1:35–37).
2. John leaves his fishing nets on the Sea of Galilee to follow Jesus (Matt. 4:21, 22). He and his brother James are called “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17).
3. The disciple travels with Jesus during His public ministry, hears His teachings, sees His miracles, and witnesses His transfiguration (Matt. 17:1–9).
4. John remains with Jesus during the final week of His life. He is present for the events of the Triumphal Entry, rejection, Last Supper, Garden of Gethsemane, trial, and Crucifixion, where he and Mary are instructed by Jesus to love each other as mother and son (John 19:25–27).
5. The apostle works with Simon Peter as a leader of early church at Jerusalem (Acts 3–4); he is not heard from in Acts after death of his brother James (12:1, 2).
6. John is banished for a time to the island of Patmos, where he writes the Book of Revelation (Rev. 1:9).
7. According to tradition, John spends most of his later years in Ephesus, where he probably writes the Gospel of John and his New Testament letters.
More: Modern believers regard John as the apostle of love, but he was not always a model of Christian charity. Learn more about this man who wrote much of the New Testament at the introduction to the Gospel of John and at his profile at John 1:1.
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John often writes in either/or terms. Unlike the moral relativism that defines the modern world, John sees spiritual issues in black and white, leaving no room for gray areas. Watch for these strong contrasts in 1 John:
Either … : Light
Or … : Darkness
Either … : Truth
Or … : Deception
Texts: 1:8–10
Either … : Keeping God’s commandments
Or … : Not keeping God’s commandments
Texts: 2:3–6
Either … : A new commandment
Or … : The old commandment
Either … : Loving God
Or … : Loving the world
Either … : Christ
Or … : The Antichrist
Either … : Truth
Or … : Error
Either … : Child of God
Or … : Child of the devil
Texts: 3:1–10
Either … : Righteousness
Or … : Lawlessness
Texts: 3:4–9
Either … : Life
Or … : Death
Either … : Love
Or … : Hate
Either … : Spirits confessing Christ
Or … : Spirits not confessing Christ
Texts: 4:1–3
Either … : We are of God
Or … : We are not of God
Texts: 4:4–11
Either … : Love
Or … : Fear
More: Old Testament Wisdom Literature also presents behavior in well-defined categories of right and wrong. See “Two Paths” at Ps. 1:1, 2.
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John said he was bearing “witness” (1 John 1:2), a word that many people associate with pushy evangelists. But speaking as someone who saw Jesus up close, John lauds some basic elements of authentically communicating Christ to others:
• We know and experience Christ directly (1:1–4).
• We pass along what we have learned from Christ (1:5).
• We act on our faith at all times, avoiding anything that contradicts our message (1:6, 7).
• We own up to our shortcomings, not deceiving ourselves or God about our true state (1:8–10).
Truthfulness, clarity, consistency, and honesty should mark us as Christ’s followers. All of these things matter to people evaluating the faith, and we can offer nothing less.
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As Christians we rely on Christ as our Advocate. Not only is He our go-between with the Father when we sin, He also helps us avoid wrongdoing in the first place. But this doesn’t mean that we can expect ourselves or anyone else to live without sinning. See “Breaking Sinful Habits” at 1 John 3:6.
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We inhabit a broken world of sinners. We need moral safeguards to protect human rights, enforce commitments, define relationships, ensure privacy, and respect the sanctity of life. We can be thankful that God stepped in to define moral absolutes, because sinful human beings cannot be trusted to define goodness or justice. Without God’s rules and standards as boundaries, we would experience not freedom but chaos.
God intended for humans to exercise authority over all creation (Gen. 1:26–31), but sin and rebellion has made us incapable of carrying out that responsibility (3:22–24; Rom. 1:18–32). Fortunately, Christ opened the way for us to reestablish our relationship with God and once again take up the responsibilities for which He designed us. Christ …
• Provides for the forgiveness of our sins (John 3:16–19).
• Renews all of life (2 Cor. 5:16–21).
• Empowers us to do His work (Acts 1:6–8).
• Guides our conduct (1 John 2:7–17).
Parents interpret obedience from their children as a sign of loyalty and trust. God similarly expects His children to follow His commandments. When we obey God and act like Him, we demonstrate that we belong to Him. And following His commands brings true liberty. As His obedient children we can experience fulfillment, effectiveness, and joy as we look forward to the promise of eternal life (2:17).
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The reality of death is so painful that most people choose not to think about it and make little or no preparation for death or its aftermath. But John articulates the one way that we can actually do something about our own mortality. He reveals God’s revolutionary promise—that we can live happily ever after. God makes that pledge of eternal life to all who put their faith in Jesus Christ.
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Most Christ-followers agree that they should pursue high moral integrity. But John’s statements seem to elevate that standard to an unattainable level of perfection. If the person who sins “has neither seen [Christ] nor known Him,” what hope is there for any of us?
The English language fails us here. The word sins seems absolute and final: one slip-up and God cuts us off. But the Greek verb—hamartanei—connotes continuous action: no one who abides in Christ makes a habit of continually sinning. The point is that sinful patterns fade as we grow in Christ. Sincere believers gradually replace wrongdoing with new habits of faith and love. By reconnecting with God, choosing a new course, and sticking to our decision, we will make progress.
The fact that we will never be perfect does not mean that we should deal lightly with sin. If we fail to be outraged by our own sin, we offend God and risk destruction. If we persist in sinful habits, we distance ourselves from Christ and diminish His work in us. We risk severe consequences, including losing the ability to repent (Heb. 6:1–12).
Jesus came to keep us from sin (1 John 2:1, 2). If we continue to fall into a particular old habit, we can escape that frustrating predicament by learning the art of abiding in Christ. Developing new habits, such as regularly reading God’s Word, engaging with Him in prayer, and recognizing His loving presence, is a good place to start. We can’t overcome sin by focusing all of our energy on avoiding it. Devoting ourselves to a relationship with Christ, however, will allow us to confess our sins while also becoming more like Him.
More: Alvin C. York was a man of sinful habits until he became a Christian, when he immediately abandoned his old ways. Not everyone experiences such a complete reversal, but York’s story can serve as inspiration for anyone looking to quit a bad habit. See here for an article on the life of Alvin C. York.
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Lazy workers often resent conscientious workers. People who steal from their employers dislike honest officemates. The person who cuts corners feels awkward around others who give an honest day’s work. Why? Because the unrighteous hate the righteous. Seeing the light of integrity in someone else makes them painfully aware of their own moral darkness.
John’s reference to Cain is sobering. Resentment made him kill his brother Abel (Gen. 4:3–8; Heb. 11:4). When an employee with a bad attitude and poor work ethic resents a coworker whose performance makes him look bad, he may “murder” his nemesis in his mind and try to damage his reputation. We should be on alert against our own dislike of people who outperform us. If we find ourselves mentally emulating Cain, we are on the wrong side of the equation.
More: One group of workers so resented a coworker’s integrity that they rigged political policy in order to kill him. See “Integrity Incites Jealousy” at Dan. 6:1–5.
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John suggests that we can assess our spiritual health by our behavior toward the poor. Anyone can love in the abstract, but John challenges us to put love into action, just as Jesus did. See “Christ Became Poor” at 2 Corinthians 8:8, 9.
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Love does not require us to unquestioningly accept ideas or values. God never commands us to shut off our minds in matters of faith. While John repeatedly appeals for love (1 John 2:10; 3:3, 10–24; 4:7–12, 16–21), he also prizes truth—the absolute and eternal truth of God’s Word.
John challenges us to “test the spirits” (4:1) in order to discern between truth and falsehood (4:6). He tells us to avoid sin, which requires us to tell good and evil apart (2:1; 3:4–10). He instructs us to distinguish between worldly things and God’s will (2:15–17). And he teaches us to identify liars and shun them (2:18–29; 3:7).
Paul likewise wants us to be tough-minded about faith. To be spiritual means to be able to “judge” (“discern” or “test”) all things (1 Cor. 2:15). We are to have the mind of Christ: tough in discernment, loving toward all, and fearless in the face of judgment (Phil. 2:5–11, 17, 18).
The ultimate acid test of truth is God’s Word. When we regular engage in the study of Scripture, we are better equipped to discern between right and wrong.
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A Liberating Love
Born in Uruguay and trained as a physician, Juan Luis Segundo (1925–1996) followed a calling to become a priest. To his seminary training in Argentina he added a doctorate from the Sorbonne in Paris in 1963. Upon returning to his home country, he began teaching courses examining Christianity and contemporary problems in society, and he wrote the in-depth five-volume series A Theology for Artisans of a New Humanity. In his most famous work The Liberation of Theology, Segundo provides a theological basis for a school of thought called liberation theology, which began within the Catholic Church in Latin America but has since become an international and interdenominational movement.
A rudimentary understanding of liberation theology may be grasped from the following story told by Segundo about an African bishop who was visiting the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro:
The two [the bishop and his guide] strolled through the city, its luxurious villas, its world-renowned beaches and night clubs, its gigantic statue of Christ looming above the city, and other landmarks. Eventually, however, they came to the hillsides encircling the city, which are also world-famous for the fetid favelas (slums) that perch precariously on the slopes, whose inhabitants pray daily that rain or mudslides will not destroy their jerry-built hovels. Finally, the astonished bishop turned to his guide and blurted out: “You say that you are a Christian country and that you have inhabited this land for over five hundred years.… Is this what you mean by Christianity?”
Segundo tried to answer that question for the rest of his life.
Concerned over how Scripture can be rightly interpreted and applied, Segundo challenged accepted methodologies by arguing that God’s self-revelation “is embodied in a social context or lived experience.” Thus, Christian thinking must be done not in an “antiseptic laboratory” removed from everyday struggles but in a “hermeneutical circle” where the Bible is challenged by its social setting and speaks to that same setting. The Bible is only fully understood when explored in community, and our understanding of the Bible, like our community, is in a state of continual change.
While Segundo valued the traditions he inherited, he recognized that the church had in some ways become cruelly irrelevant. Its academic theology had disconnected the church from the masses’ struggle for survival in Latin America. Local priests serving destitute congregations continued to dispense an alienating theology that ignored or even fostered poverty and repression. Segundo and others called for a remaking of Christian thought via liberation theology. Though some are uncomfortable with the extremes of liberation theology and others have criticized it as a cloak for Marxism, the movement has also been saluted (even by some of its detractors) for upholding justice, rejecting violence, and stressing the Christian’s responsibility to ease the suffering of the poor and oppressed.
Remembered as one of Latin America’s most profound and original theologians, Segundo helped to remind Christians that they have a God-given duty to work for change in societies that have for too long accepted their own brokenness. By issuing a call to churches to re-evangelize their congregations in becoming communities of faith based on a doctrine that liberates and loves, Segundo fought for a social expression of Christianity that would be worthy of the Savior who watches over our world.
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John has been called the apostle of love, and 1 John offers plenty of evidence for that epithet. For example, John writes that we can be sure that we are born of God because we love Him and keep His commandments. But John invests much more meaning in the word love than we often do. In fact, all of Scripture defines love against the standard of God’s love. His love is …
• Lasting (Ps. 136; Rom. 8:28–39; 1 Cor. 13:8).
• Sacrificial (John 15:12, 13; Rom. 5:8; 2 Cor. 5:14, 15; Gal. 2:20; 1 John 3:16, 17).
• Healing and reconciling (Matt. 5:38–48; Luke 6:27–31; 2 Cor. 5:17–19).
• Shared between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt. 11:27–30; John 14:31).
• More than emotion; it is effective and action-oriented (1 John 3:18, 19; 4:21; 5:1–3).
• Fearless (Rom. 1:16; 1 John 4:18).
• Discerning (1 Tim. 1:3–7; 1 John 2:15–17; 4:1–7).
• Accepting (Luke 15:11–32; 18:10–17; John 3:16, 17; Rom. 8:1).
• Generous (Luke 10:25–37; Rom. 5:8, 15–17; 6:23; 1 Cor. 2:9; 1 Pet. 3:8, 9).
The best summary of godly love appears in 1 Corinthians 13, the Love Chapter, in which Paul describes God’s love as it should be lived out among the Christians at Corinth. The finest one-verse expression of God’s love is John 3:16, where we learn that it was love that drove God to offer His only begotten Son as an atoning sacrifice for the world’s sins.
As we study the qualities of God’s true love, we become aware of areas where our own love needs to evolve. This growth starts when we comprehend the dimensions of God’s love for us (Rom. 8:35–39; Eph. 3:14–19). Fully experiencing His unstoppable, perfect love enables us to ignite our own hearts and actions with Christlike love, transforming ourselves into modern-day apostles of love. John said it well: “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
More: Look for additional descriptions of genuine love in “Love Is as Strong as Death” at Song 8:6. The New Testament uses four distinct words for love, each with its own shade of meaning. Learn more in “What Kind of Love?” at Matt. 22:34–40.
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John urges his readers to exercise discernment (1 John 4:1; 2 John 1, 2, 4; 3 John 3, 4), in part because of the rise of a system of false teachings known as gnosticism. The term gnosticism comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnōsis. Gnostics believed that salvation was attained only through their special knowledge of the nature of the world. Several New Testament writers condemned early manifestations of this philosophy. Paul emphasized a wisdom and knowledge that comes from God as opposed to idle speculations and fables (Col. 2:8–23; 1 Tim. 1:4; 2 Tim. 2:16–19; Titus 1:10–16). Both in his Gospel and in his letters, John countered heretical teaching that could be considered emerging gnosticism.
The Principles of Gnosticism
Gnostic teachers accepted the Greek idea of a radical dualism between God (spirit) and the world (matter). They claimed that the created order is evil, inferior, and opposed to anything good. The earth is surrounded by cosmic spheres separating humans from God. These spheres are ruled by archōns (spiritual powers) who guard their spheres by barring souls that seek to ascend from the lower realm of darkness and captivity to the higher realm of light.
Gnostics also taught that humans are composed of body, soul, and spirit. Because the body and soul are part of earthly existence, they were disdained as evil. But enclosed in the soul is the spirit, the divine substance of human beings. According to gnostic teaching, this spirit is asleep and ignorant, and needs to be awakened and liberated by knowledge. The aim of salvation in gnosticism is to release the inner man from his earthly dungeon so that he can return to the realm of light, where the soul is reunited with God.
These beliefs led to two behavioral extremes. Some gnostics became ascetics, attempting to separate themselves from matter in order to avoid contamination. Paul may have been opposing such a view in 1 Timothy 4:1–5. Other gnostics felt that since they had received divine knowledge and were fully informed about their divine nature, it no longer mattered how they lived. They concluded that their “knowledge” gave them the freedom to indulge their every wish.
Gnosticism and the Early Church
When blended with Christian beliefs, gnostic teachings created serious heresies and disrupted church communities. Those who were “enlightened” considered themselves superior to those who lacked the same knowledge, and divisions arose. New Testament writers severely condemned this attitude of superiority, asserting that Christians are “one body” (1 Cor. 12:13) and should love one another (ch. 13; 1 John 4). Whatever spiritual gifts God has given are for the entire Christian community, not just for individual use. Used correctly, they promote humility rather than pride (1 Cor. 12–14; Eph. 4:11–16).
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