1 John

No. 31 1 John 2:7-11
The first letter of John was written to Christians unsettled by teachers who had left their community claiming a superior knowledge of God. Much of the letter offers plain tests for whether someone knows God...
No. 149 1 John 2:18-23
The community John writes to has just been through a split. A group left, and the letter is written partly to steady the people who stayed and are wondering what it meant. This passage is his account of it.
No. 1008 1 John 2:12-17
John pauses to reassure the different generations in his church, addressing children, fathers, and young men in turn, reminding each of what is already true of them: your sins are forgiven, you know the...
No. 1248 1 John 2:1-6
John writes so that his readers will not sin, and then, knowing they will, offers a comfort: if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is himself the atoning...
No. 1388 1 John 4:13-21
John writes about the love of God and its effect on us. God is love, he says, and whoever remains in love remains in God, and God in him. We love because he first loved us. And he draws out what this love...
No. 1440 1 John 3:13-17
John writes about the love that marks those who have passed from death to life. Do not be surprised if the world hates you, he says; we know we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers, and...
No. 1466 1 John 3:18-24
John urges his readers not to love merely in word or speech, but in deed and in truth. And by this, he says, we shall know that we belong to the truth and can reassure our hearts before God: for whenever our...
No. 2159 1 John 5:6-12
John draws his testimony about Christ to a sharp point. God has given us eternal life, he writes, and this life is in his Son. And then he states the matter with striking clarity: he who has the Son has the...
No. 2175 1 John 1:1-10
John writes that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all, and he draws out what this means for people who still sin. If we claim to have no sin, he says, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in...
No. 2573 1 John 5:1-5
John writes that everyone who believes Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and that loving God means keeping his commandments. Then he adds a line that reframes obedience entirely: his commandments are...
No. 2623 1 John 3:7-12
John draws a sharp line between the children of God and the children of the devil, and marks it by two things: doing right and loving one's brother. In the middle of it he states the purpose of Christ's coming...
No. 3057 1 John 4:1-6
John gives both a warning and a test. Do not believe every spirit, he says, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Not everything that...
No. 3651 1 John 4:7-12
John gives us one of the profound statements in all of Scripture: God is love. Love is not merely something God does; it is who he is, the very essence of his being. And John grounds our call to love not in...
No. 4002 1 John 2:24-29
John writes to believers surrounded by false teachers trying to lead them astray, and his counsel is simple: let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If the truth they had received at the first...
No. 4112 1 John 5:13-21
John states the very purpose of his letter near its close: I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. He does not want believers to...
No. 4139 1 John 3:1-6
John pauses to marvel at the love of God: see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. It is a wonder worth stopping over, that God, in his love,...