(A) Reflections from 1 John

John the Apostle, like Apostle Peter in his epistles, in 1 John, also shared that he was a living witness of the Lord Jesus Christ; in fact, he wrote, ‘we have heard’,..’we have seen with our own eyes’…’we have looked at’..’our hands have touched’ (1 John 1:1 TNIV). He went on to write, “The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us” (v3).

What a complete and comprehensive testimony of the Lord Jesus and His identity!

Need we have more? He is the eternal life and light; He is one with the Father, and also He is God ( 1: 5-7; cf John 1:1-3).
John wrote to assure the believers of the truth and reality of our faith; he wrote to dispel the false teachers and their teachings.

In chapters 3 and 4, it is interesting to observe how John wrote and the issues he sought to emphasise:

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another: (3:16).

“This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: if our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts; and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God (vs 19-21).

…”And this is how we know that he lives in us: we know it by the Spirit he gave us” (v24b).

“This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world” (4: 2-3).

“We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood” (4:6).

“This is how God showed his love among us; he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” (4:10).

(B) Exhortations from Apostle John in 2 John and 3 John

We have considered what the Apostle John communicated in 1 John: John himself was a living witness of the Lord Jesus Christ -the incarnate Son of God, just as Apostle Peter was.

In 1 John, he dwelt on the subjects of love, truth, obedience, purity of heart and conscience, the Holy Spirit’s ministry that helps to distinguish truth from error, and holiness (note how often he used the terms ‘light’, ‘life’, ‘love’ in Christian living, as opposed to ‘darkness’, ‘death’).

In 2 John and 3 John, these positive subjects again came to the forefront, indicating how important and relevant they are for believers. We need to be aware also that the Apostle was combating wrong teachings and wrong ‘teachers’: for instance, ‘gnosticism’ which taught that material is evil and they have a ‘higher knowledge’; ‘docetism’ which taught that Jesus Christ was not a real man; – all these in effect were rejecting the ‘INCARNATION’. Such false teachers were characterised by ‘pride’, ‘being unteachable’ and focusing on isolationism and a refusal to acknowledge God’s authority in His Word and Apostles; whereas truth is always characterised by humility, holiness, and obedience to God and His commands. What is most essential is the ministry of the Holy Spirit – John emphasised that it is by God’s Spirit and His ministry that believers could distinguish truth from error – notice how John continued to emphasise also how ‘love’, ‘obedience to God’, truth’ go together, and also the need to continue to ‘walk’ in truth and in love. ‘Walk’ refers, not just to adhering to these virtues, but to the outworking of life and perseverance in the living-out of these virtues in the Christian life. Consider what John wrote in 2 John and 3 John:

“..to the children, whom I love in the truth – because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us for ever” (2 John1-2) – here truth takes on a picture of ‘a Being’ – the Holy Spirit of God, the God of truth, who is against evil and all forms of untruth.

“It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us” (2 John4).

“And this is love that we walk in obedience to His commands. As you have heard from the beginning his command is that you walk in love” (2 John 6). Walking in obedience to God’s commands is tantamount to walking in love. Those who claim to love and to walk in love and yet live a life of disobedience to God are not of the truth.

“Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Such a person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for…” (2 John 7-8a).

Here we realise that the spirit of antichrist is already working in the world even before the coming of ‘the antichrist’ – and it is working against God and His people, and the truth. People with the spirit of antichrist are deceivers, rejecting the truth, and distorting the truth of the gospel.

If we do not want to lose what the Apostles had worked for and passed on to the churches today, we need to defend the truth and to be bold to speak against falsehood, deceptions and distortion of God’s revelation; we must continue in the teaching of Christ (vs 9).

In 3 John, John continued to emphasise faithfulness to the truth, walking in the truth, and continuing in love (3 John 3-4,6,8).

John highlighted Diotrephes, one who loves to be first, and refuses to have anything to do with the Apostles. On top of that, he spread malicious nonsense about God’s servants. Pride, self-centredness, critical spirit, lack of teachability – all these are characteristics of those who pursue wrong ‘spiritual status and popularity’ as against truth, humility and faithfulness to God.

John reminded the believers not to imitate what is evil but what is good (vs11). Furthermore, those who do what is good are from God, whilst those who do what is evil have not seen God (vs11).

These exhortations from the 1 John, 2 and 3 John came from the ‘pen’ of the same John who later was exiled to the island of Patmos, and who wrote Revelation. We would do well to pay close attention to what he wrote and respond accordingly.