1-3 John

This coming weekend, I'll be at Otford Manor, the base of Oak Hall Expeditions, for a teaching weekend. Roughly 4 times a year, they run weekends under the title of "Unlocking the Bible", at which a speaker takes one book of the Bible, and seeks to unpack and apply its main message for today.

I'm just coming to the end of a preaching series in 1 John. (11 sermons down, 1 to go on 1 John 5:13-21). This short letter will get another outing in September in a different context.

As I've preached through 1 John chapter 5, it has increasingly felt that this chapter has a summing up and drawing together function. The main threads of the letter come together.

I've just taken delivery of the commentary on 1-3 John by Colin Kruse, published in the Pillar series by IVP.

Smalley, commenting on 1 John 2:3, is very helpful on the place of obedience in the Christian life.

David Jackman is spot on in his analysis of 1 John 4:13-21. In his commentary in The Bible Speaks Today series, the penultimate paragraph discusses the notion that we can love God, and yet not love our Christian brothers and sisters. He says this:

Is this not one of our greatest sins as Christians today? We may talk a lot about loving God, we may express it in our worship with great emotion, but what does it mean when we are so critical of other Christians, so ready to jump to negative conclusions about people, so slow to bear their burdens, so unwilling to step into their shoes? Such lovelessness totally contradicts what we profess and flagrantly disobeys God's commands. It becomes a major stumbling-block to those who are seeking Christ and renders any attempts at evangelism useless. In many churches and fellowships we need a fresh repentance on this matter, a new humbling before God, an honest confession of our need and a cry to God for mercy and grace to change us. (Pages 131-132)

Picking up, again on this CHN article. The Bible is quite clear that it’s a fair question. Jesus did die for the sins of the whole world. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”.Just a small exegetical observation.

I’m preparing a sermon for a wedding on 1 John 4:7-11.

Having found a way of laying the text out in a way that I think is quite helpful, I thought I’d share it…