EMMAUS SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL STUDIES

1 John is a dip into the world of Gnostic thinking and once I got my head around that this book makes a lot of sense and is confronting many of the heresies that were going around the church in the late 80′s early 90′s AD.

The basics of Gnostic thinking that was going around were:

• God must be evil – the evil in the world points to an evil creator
• Jesus was an upgrade on Yahweh and was either full God and not human or was human and his divinity came and went depending on the situation.  (A god couldn’t suffer so Jesus couldn’t be God at the crucifixion)
• Believers were saved by attaining knowledge and what they did with their bodies wasn’t important

So John comes out with the intention of setting the record straight.  He was with Jesus – saw him, touched him, heard him teach – Jesus was really human but was also sent from God and fully God.  He also shows that Jesus was not separate from God and some upgrade on the original.  John reminds his reader that God is 100% good and there is no evil in him.  He created a perfect world and sin messed it up.

The Gnostic belief that matter was evil is strongly confronted by John as he challenges the believers to stop worrying about attaining knowledge and put their love into action with one another.   He reminds them again and again that if they say they love God they should love each other. 

John also drives home the need for a saviour, knowledge is not going to save a bunch of sinful people but the death of Jesus on the cross as an atoning sacrifice will. 

All in all this book is a reminder – Jesus is God and Saviour, God is good, Love one another!

John writes to the believers to encourage them in their faith. They are being deceived by false teachers who are teaching Gnosticism, and their faith is becoming shaky. John writes to correct the false teaching and encourages the believers with the truth about who they are as believers in Christ.

The false teachers were teaching things about God such as: he is evil, Jesus was not human, or the opposite, he was not divine. Another part of their teaching that came from Gnosticism was that these believers were not a part of the ‘enlightened’ group, or they didn’t know the ‘secret’ so they didn’t have salvation or eternal life. This teaching was confusing believers, causing them to doubt their own salvation, and producing within them fear, anxiety, and insecurity. John writes to tell the believers the truth: they have eternal life. He also comes against the false teaching of the false prophets with the truth that God is light, he is not dark, and he is not evil. He also shows that Jesus was human, and he is divine. John comes against the lies by declaring the truth.

Something that stands out to me in 1 John is the theme of love that John threads throughout the entire book. He not only urges the believers over and over again how they should love one another, he also speaks in such a way as to give them an example of this love. He calls them “little children”, and “beloved” over and over throughout the book (2.1, 3.2 are two examples). I was impressed with this and the fact that (as was mentioned in the lecture I heard by Kerry Neve), these people are teaching lies about Jesus, who John was with and loved very much, and yet he still approaches the situation, not by attacking the false teachers, but in a loving way teaching the truth. This whole book exudes love from John’s example and his exhortations to the believers. This was a challenge to me to really make an effort to love people, to put others first, to serve others, and to see others as better than myself.

I title this book this because John writes to the original reader most likely in Ephesus, surprise surprise.  The Ephesians are always getting into false doctrine, and yet again the Ephesians gave come to think a false teaching that is commonly known now as Gnosticism.  This is really important to understand because it teaches that “All Father God” is not involved in us, yet there is a god underneath him named Sophia.  To explain this sect is ridiculous. But mainly Sophia deposited these divine pockets of knowledge, and whoever they were given to are the only ones that were going to be in Pleroma, i.e. Heaven.  Crazy, yeah? Well, what’s even more wild is that they taught that Jesus was one of those people that got this divine knowledge.  That was simply it.  Their view of Jesus wasn’t so they could see their sin, and obtain eternal life through him.  They didn’t even see sin as a problem, rather their whole goal for their life was to be saved from ignorance, which is something I am confused still.  The most important reason I tell you all of this, is because John writes to a church that has no way to know how to decipher between someone who is truly a follower of Jesus, because they don’t discredit Jesus, thus making it confusing for the original reader.  It even gets more confusing when they believed in Dualism as well, which is the fact that their sins does not affect their spirit.  WRONG!  So, John writes to them and gives them these 3 tests…1. Disobedience Test, 2. Doctrine Test, and 3. Love Test. He equips the original reader with these to enable them to see if 1. they are not being obedient to God’s commandments, than they do not know God, 2, If they do not think that Jesus is the only way to heaven through forgiveness of sins, they are wrong, and 3. if they are not showing love to their brother and sister, they are definitely not from God.

I go into all of that, because if you get in the original reader’s shoes, it was probably so difficult for them.  The biggest thing that stuck out to me in this book was the very practical approach gives to the Christian life.  I should be modeling my life after him by laying my life down for one another, realizing the reality of Jesus, and taking my sin seriously.  These are crucial truths to apply to my life.  Going through this book, it comes in such a good time because I have been really seeing how God wants me to love him in the response of Jesus.  That statement was said by me a lot in the past, but just recently I have never taken it to heart so deeply.  What I learned in this book was just how much we need to be representing Christ in our lives, and not justifying our sinful lives, but rather look for more reasons to justify Christ. By first and foremost grasping this love of Christ that first spared me.

            What I really like about the book of 1 John was that it really provoked me to understand God’s heart when he commands his people to love others.  Of course it makes sense that God wouldn’t want us to hate others but I never really gave this idea of loving others much more thought.  As I was studying 1 John though I came across the verse 1 John 4:20 which basically posed the question, how can someone love God who is unseen if they can’t love their brothers and sister who they do see.  So God is training us to love others with the intent that we are then able to love him even more.  I often struggle with the fact that I love my family so dearly and I feel such a close connection to them and I feel guilty because I don’t know if I love God more than that.  While it isn’t good to love my family more than God I think it is good to understand loving those that I do see so much so that I can know how much more I need to love the unseen God.  In his epistle John really emphasizes the theme of abiding in love and uses it to counter the Gnostic influence infiltrating the church at the time and also just to encourage believers to remember the love of the Father over the love of the world.

            As I was studying for this book in Barnes and Noble I began people watching. At one point I saw a grandpa sneak up behind his little 3 yr. old grandson and surprise him.  As the boy turned around with excitement you could see all the love and joy in the grandpa’s eyes.  This just warmed my heart to see such love and joy and I know that is how the father looks at me.  So another thought came to mind, God’s number one command is that we love him and love others and the result of this love is pure joy, joy that cannot be bought or fabricated in any way other than through the Father.  So God wants us to know love in order to experience joy and be blessed as much as possible on earth. Looking back on my life, the times I have experienced pure joy have been such a blessing to me and now I know the way to continue in that joy in the future is to love God more and let that love pour out into the lives of others.

            All God wanted was for us to know his love, to love him back, and to love others. In the book of 1 John, there are Gnostic false teachers, an early belief system that rejected the humanity of Jesus and the goodness of God, that are getting in the way of the Christians acting this out. The apostle John reminds them over and over again that they do know God, that he loves them, and how loving others should naturally result from understanding the true reality of God’s love. In this book, I am just struck again at the deep love of God for us.

            John demonstrates the ultimate example of love in that God sent his only Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins, so that we may have life through him. How incredible is it that God would become man, so that humanity may not suffer condemnation and eternal death – the condemnation that we brought on ourselves! He gave up everything dear to him, his most precious loved one, so that an ungrateful, undeserving people may have the choice to have a relationship with him. My heart can’t grasp why he wants so desperately to love us and be in a relationship with us! However, I can see that there is nothing more that God could/can do to prove his love for us. He went to the greatest lengths possible to demonstrate that. I’m not a parent, but I don’t know any one that would willingly give up their child to be tortured and killed so that ungrateful people could reap the benefits. But God did.

            It is not then interesting how our first reaction is to blame God when we experience suffering or hardship? Why do we do that? Why do we question the love of God for us when he showed us so clearly and extravagantly his love on the cross? How much more convincing do we need? Jesus’ sacrifice gives us an objective truth that God loves us and has our best interest at heart. So, when things are hard, when we experience the death of loved ones or sickness, we can believe and trust that God loves us. That love is based on his ultimate demonstration of that on the cross. We no longer have to interpret his love for us through the lens of our circumstances – for they do not dictate God’s love! We could never experience any of his blessings or never feel God again and we could be confident that he still loves us. He already proved everything. How amazingly wonderful is our God that he would love us!

1 John was written to the church in Ephesus that was being infiltrated by Gnostic false teachings. The apostle John writes to remind them of the truth of God’s word, and to give them ways to recognize these false teachers. Throughout the book, John emphasizes love as one of the ways to reassure the church that they were abiding in God, and not living according to the Gnostic false teachings.

The Gnostic teachers of the Ephesian church taught that Jesus was a man, but he was not fully God. They believed that Christ was a spirit that came upon Jesus as he was baptized by John the Baptist, and later the spirit of Christ left him at crucifixion. They believed all these things b/c they did not see how a majestic and all-powerful God could actually allow himself to be killed for mankind; they truly did not understand the love of God at all.

As we know, Jesus is 100% God and 100% man, and the reason he came in the flesh was to destroy sin for mankind. It was out of his love that he did this, and therefore, the entire reason God wanted to die was to love us, and to have a relationship w/us. If we do not believe this, then we are believing false things about God, just as the Ephesian church did.

John calls the Ephesians to live their lives in love. He emphasizes that loving each other is the only natural way of life for a follower of Christ, b/c as they see God’s love for them, then they will be able to love others just as He does. Therefore, the importance throughout the book is knowing God, by living in His love and giving that love to others.

As I was preparing for this lecture I was trying to put into words what I want the students to walk away with, here is what I came up with: I want them walking away with a basic understanding of Gnosticism, of course, but for the purpose of them walking away with a deeper understanding and appreciation for what Christ accomplished for them, and why its so significant that he was both 100% man and 100% God. Why is it important for them to know that Jesus was 100% man. I think I need to back up and explain that we have a problem, humanity is in a mess, we have been separated from God and no amount of human effort, not earthly king, no army, no good intention can fix or heal that separation. So what is God to do, because He is Just, He will punish the wicked, He does care about how we live, He is Righteous and He did, in his righteousness make a high penalty for sin, for us choosing to operate independently of him. So what is this Loving,Merciful God, who wants to be in relationship with his children do? He Lovingly, Amazingly, Wonderfully, wraps himself in human skin, being 100% God, but ALSO 100% man and does for us what we could not do for ourselves! He comes and lives the life we could not live, He takes the punishment we deserved and he dies a physical, very real death, in our place, providing atonement for us! And when this captures our hearts the result is a life lived in LOVING response. We love God, we love others, we don’t walk in sin and hate our brothers and sisters, we are filled with awe and gratitude and we want to live a life of love! When we aren’t living this way it is because we are not abiding in him, we have lost sight. When I choose to protect myself more than love my brothers and sisters I have lost sight of the extravagant love of God on my behalf, I have decided its up to me to protect myself instead of entrusting myself to my loving Creator Who has already proven his love to me, how, because he first loved me and laid down his life for me! This is the beauty of the book, this is the message we don’t want to miss! That Jesus Christ came in the flesh, he made atonement for our sins and in HIM is eternal life!

John writes this epistle to a church struggling with identity. They struggle to comprehend the vastness of God and driven by selfish desires begin to define God through their worldview as opposed to defining their worldview through him. The heresy ties back to a desire not to line ones life up with Christ. This is evident in the lifestyles lived out of the Gnostic heresy. These people turned church functions into sex-feasts. The change was not a sudden shift in thinking, but instead is a gradual corroding of the nature of God.

Are we that much different today? We rationalize so many behaviors. If I do not like the way God is all I have to do is change his character and he no longer challenges me. The problem with this thought is that the way to truly know God and experience his love is through obedience. He begins to transform our hearts by the daily decisions we make to follow him. If we begin to rationalize God to make him fit our desired paradigm we no longer have a God that will draw us to change.

John finished the epistle by describing the role of those in the body of Christ to pray and hold each other accountable in the way we conduct our lives. This is a major issue in my life at present. I do not want to rock the boat and therefore when I see a brother or sister at the school who is walking in some error, I tend to just hold firm to the idea that the Lord will work it out of that person. The issue is not that the Lord won’t work it out of the person, but rather that he has called me to be a part of this process.

The more I think about this and truly meditate on it I desire accountability myself. I do not want to remain as I am I want to walk out of certain destructive patterns in my life. It is the beauty of living in a gospel environment an environment where people to see my mess and love me enough to not allow me to stay there. I do the body of Christ a disservice by not holding a brother or sister accountable

loving others is evidence of our faith (1 john 4:7-12). what good is it if we claim to know God and to love him but we do not love others? it is of no good. when we have the goods and the means to help others in need, and we turn around and walk the other way, or avoid them all together, we show that we do not know God. and we show that we do not love him. our love for God and our love for others cannot be seperated. they go together. we show love for God by helping those in need and loving others, and we love others when we put their need above our own. we live in such a me-focused society. i want this, i don’t like that, that is my right, i deserve this. we will never find happiness or contentment when we only focus on ourselves, we were created for love, and to love others is to serve them. when we serve others, we will then be content and by blessing others, we in return will be blessed.

this world is full of hurting, lost people. i can pray for them and bless them with my words and that is good, but true love is putting action to my words. i do not show that i love them until i physically help them. and in showing physical love to them, i am showing my love for God. Because i am loved i should love others. Christ laid down his life for me, even when i had nothing to give in return to him. i am called to lay down my life and my rights for others, even when i have nothing to gain by doing so.

It is incredible how humanity continues to go through the same issues and struggles over time. It is wonderful how the Bible truly is timeless truth because humanity still will always need a loving savior in order for us to understand how to truly love. There were a lot of very skewed views happening in the early church when the Bible was written just as there are today. We have to be so careful not to allow non-truths to creep into our every day and lie to us, making us think they are truth. We have to know that this going to come at us. Strange views, non-truths that oppose the gospel, crept into the lives of the early church just as it does today. So many people abuse the Bible today, making it say whatever they want it to mean so they can feel better about living the way they want to live.

We are to love people and this is a selfless act. 1 John 3:11 “You have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” In Mark 12:28-31 a scribe asks which commandment is first of all, Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second is you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”

How is the church today doing with loving people? It makes me sad to think of how many people in our own country, around the corner from church buildings are in desperate need of help and people come and go through the church doors oblivious to the need and the call on their life to love these people. 1 John 3:18-19 “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. By this we will know that we are from the truth.” How can we as Christians say we love someone and not take action to help them? 1 John 3:17 “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?” It is challenging to think about. Love is not just giving a smile and saying the words but it is much more than that. It is action. This action starts in the heart. We know love because Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down ours for one another (1 John 3:16). Loving God and loving others goes hand in hand. The love of God was first in us and it compels us to love others. 1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.” If we do not love others, we do not love God. 1 John 4:20 “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars…”

What a challenging conviction. What kind of reaction are we to have from this? Offended? Guilty? Unconcerned? These are not the reactions that God desires for us. He wants us affected by it so that change happens. Lets have a repentant heart so we can move on and put some change and action into this. We are forgiven now lets go put love into action.

John nails the false prophets to the wall!!! To know Christ is to love Christ, to love Christ is to obey him, to obey him is to truly live. John showed how these three are linked together, if you have one without the other, you’re not walking in the light, not really knowing Christ. John challenges them to stand against the false teachers and have discernment…Christ is the bar or the standard so if they don’t measure up to him, they are not true…false.
to live is to die and to die is to gain( louie giglio…sort of a quote)

We have eternal life in Christ Jesus. I am thankful for the truth in my life. I pray my love for others would lead them to repentance and eternal life with Christ Jesus. I want to throw off all the gods and idols and lies I believe and cling to the true Truth of Christ. I will choose to love others even when I don’t want to. Also in God’s love for me I am grateful that He is in control of my heart. He can make it not self-condemning, which I am thankful for. I want to recognize God’s love for me in such abundance that it pours out through me. That the evidence of my faith is God’s love in me; that is the only way I am capable of loving others. Yah, I don’t want a condemning heart either because I think being selfish in the flesh would use that heart to draw away from others to my inward self and not love as I am called to do.

I can change my life through the book of 1 John through realizing the root of unbelief is that lack of believing God’s love. If others and I could just a little bit wrap our brains around God’s love then we could imagine the Gospel for us. The love from God will change us to love people. Our faith will be proclaimed in love and the cycle of Love bringing people to Jesus will continue over and over. I can change by being near to God who has shown me love and will continue to do so. then God will be glorified in all his creation having eternal life through faith and being reconciled with him in eternity forever. 

Thank you Lord for the book of 1 John. I am thankful you chose to send Jesus to die on the Cross for my sins. I am thankful that all the days of my life I can rest in abiding in you. That you are the only the Truth. That you first loved me. I love you so much. I pray you can show me ways to love Kevin. And ways to love those around me. I need you. I need your help. Help all this head knowledge be heart knowledge. Thank you for choosing me. I want to choose you all the days of my life. Thank you for loving and setting me free. Thank you for sins forgiven and life reconciled with you. Please love and bless me family and friends. Bless them and keep them. I love you. In Jesus name, Amen.

Those who obey the commandments of God, which is those who love Him, must also love their brothers and sisters to truly know Him.(1 John 2:3,4:21)
It is contrary to God’s nature to live selfishly or self-protectively.(1 John 4:7-21)

I want to learn how to truly love people from this book. I want to not protect myself after people have hurt me over and over again. I want to love unconditionally. I have started doing this by not giving up on someone who I had written off as too hard to love. The funny thing is that God had to give me the grace to humble myself and be able to reconcile the relationship with this person. I am glad He did, because I feel so much better now. I think the truth is that we are to be in relationships with one another that are not perfect and argument free, but that are ruled by love. What does this mean? That people apologize and admit that they are wrong and give out lots of bear hugs afterwards.(smile:)
I am going to have a perfect opportunity to show agape love because I am going home for Thanksgiving. I pray that God will give me the love that shows, that is an action. Love that will do the dishes, feed the animals, let others have thier way. I want to emanate the agape love that Christ has shown me.