The Chapters – Quick Access
Basics
BOOK: 1 John
(also 2 & 3 John – see lower on page)
Description: A letter clearly written to believers (see 2:12-14,19; 3:1; 5:13) to encourage them in a variety of ways, and specifically to counter the errors of Gnosticism.
Author: The author is John, son of Zebedee, the apostle and the author of the Gospel of John and Revelation
Date written: Probably somewhere between AD85 and AD95
Chapters: 5
Brief Synopsis
- The letter contains many exhortations to live a good (holy) life, contrasting good and right behavior with wrong behavior.
- In the outline below we have identified each block of teaching showing the way believers live as contrasted with others in the world but believe that the links between them are so seamless that it is really false to try to categorize them any further.
- The letter is easily read at one sitting but becomes more and more meaningful if you take account of the things below and with repeated readings.
- It is a letter with vital teachings within it, both for then and for now.
Why Read 1 John
Well, John’s first letter is some of the most compact and specific teaching in the New Testament. For example, and examination of specific word uses shows the things on John’s heart in these five short chapters:
- the name ‘Jesus’ occurs 15 times (the salvation reminder)
- the word ‘God’ occurs 44 times (the submitting to God focus)
- love occurs 27 times (the heart of our lives)
- by contrast ‘sin’ occurs 20 times (that now rejected from our lives)
- ‘world’ occurs 16 times (meaning the way of godless unbelieving humanity opposed to us)
- ‘life’ occurs 12 times (more than material existence)
- ‘brother’ occurs 12 times (emphasizing our duties to the family of God)
- and ‘children’ occurs 14 times (reminding us of our divine relationship)
As we say, realizing there are only five very short chapters in this letter, we can see the thrust (and narrowness) of his teaching.
Trying to summarize John’s key teaching we might encapsulate it in “God is love, God loves us, so we love one another. He who loves will not carry on sinning.”
The last point needs clarification. He does not say we will never sin (in fact he makes specific pastoral provision for the occasional times when we do fail – 1 Jn 2:1) but that ongoing sin will NOT be a part of the life of the child of God.
Outline
- 1:1-4 John’s testimony about Christ
- 1:5-7 The necessity of walking in the Light.
- 1:8-2:2 The necessity of confession of sin
- 2:3-6 The necessity of obedience
- 2:7-14 The necessity of loving one another (1)
- 2:15-17 The necessity of NOT loving the world
- 2:18-25 Living in the last hour
- 2:26-29 The necessity of resisting deception and holding to what is right
- 3:1-10 Sinless children of God
- 3:11-18 The necessity of loving one another (2)
- 3:19-24 The necessity of holding a clear conscience
- 4:1-6 The necessity of testing the spirits
- 4:7-12 The necessity of loving one another (3)
- 4:13-21 The means of loving – His Spirit in us
- 5:1-3 Love is expressed by obedience
- 5:4-21 Overcomers of the world
The Error of the day, of Gnosticism, to be countered
Towards the end of the first century a heresy appearing in various forms but coming under the general description of ‘Gnosticism’ arose. It is clear from John’s content that he is countering many of the heresies of Gnosticism of which some were:
- A belief that the body and all things material were evil and therefore only spirit is good
- Salvation comes by escape from the body through ‘special knowledge’ (Greek gnosis = knowledge)
- Christ was not truly the divine Son of God, but only ‘appeared’ to have a body and some said the divine only came to it at his baptism and left at his death.
- Because the body was evil it was to be treated harshly and a form of asceticism followed.
- Paradoxically this also led to licentiousness. Because the body was evil, the use of ‘matter’ did not count, therefore you could do what you liked.
John countered these errors by
- Giving an eyewitness account of Jesus incarnation, a physical body, seen, heard and touched (1:1-3 – see above)
- Denying the need for special teachers with special knowledge as believers had the anointing of the indwelling Holy Spirit to teach them (2:20,21,27)
- Warning about false teachers and false spirits (2:18,19,22,26, 4:1-3))
- Reassuring them about their salvation which was sure and secure
- Giving strong and repetitive teaching about right and wrong behavior.
Concluding Comments
As we said at the beginning of this page, we believe this letter has vital teachings within it, both for then and for now.
We would encourage you to really take in the information above and then read and reread this letter to see its value.
2 John
Basics
BOOK: 2 John
Description: A short note, almost, to a lady who provided hospitality for travelling ministries
Author: The apostle John who wrote the first letter
Date written: Probably between AD85 and AD95
Chapters: 1
Brief Synopsis
- The apostles traveled from town to town staying with believers. So did the teachers of the heresy of Gnosticism!
- John writes to this unknown lady who is clearly a believer and who obviously offers hospitality to traveling ministries to warn her to be careful not to take in heretics (in 13 verses the word ‘truth’ appears five times)
Outline
- v.1-3 Greeting
- v.4 Commendation
- v.5,6 Exhortation
- v.7-11 Warning
- 12,13 Conclusion
3 John
Basics
BOOK : 3 John
Description: A short letter of encouragement to a fellow worker, Gaius.
Author: The apostle John who wrote the first and second letters
Date written: Probably between AD85 and AD95
Chapters: 1
Brief Synopsis
- Gaius is a fellow worker of John’s, a spiritual child of his who looks after other traveling ministries when they come to his town.
- Diotrephes is a senior leader of that church who does not like the apostles and is full of himself.
- The letter is basically to encourage Gaius who (implied) struggles with Diotrephes bad attitude.
- Demetrius is presumably one of John’s emissaries, coming with the letter, who John commends to Gaius.
Outline
- v.1,2 Salutation
- v.3-8 Commendation of Gaius
- v.9,10 Condemnation of Diotrephes
- v.11 Exhortation to Gaiusv.12 Example of Demetrius
- v.13,14 Conclusion