INTRODUCING JOHN'S FIRST LETTER​

John's letters were probably written from Ephesus, where he was bishop to the seven churches listed in Revelation. Originally having been founded by Apollos (Acts 18:24ff), the church in Ephesus had experienced explosive growth during Paul's two-year ministry there, and the gospel had spread to the other cities in the province (Acts 19:10). Paul later prophesied to the Ephesian elders that the church would come under intense attack, both from non-believers and from heretics within the church (Acts 19:28-30). It seems he left Timothy there to nip some speculative doctrinal diversions in the bud. But by the time John wrote this, more than twenty years after Paul's death, all the other apostles were long-since dead; and heresies about Jesus's true identity were being spread by ex-church-members who claimed to have a deeper knowledge of God than he.

Though he never specifically identifies the heresies, it is clear that one motive for this letter is to re-assert the truth about Christ's incarnation: that Jesus was both fully God and fully man - the eternal Logos and only-begotten Son of God, but a truly human sacrifice for our sin. However his primary concern was to safeguard those left, whose faith had been deeply undermined by the split in what had been close-knit communities.

It seems to have had its desired effect, at least in Ephesus; for about five years later John records Jesus's message to the church there: "I know your works, your labour, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have laboured for My name's sake and have not become weary."

The letter is a natural sequel to Jesus's teaching in the Upper Room, about what sharing Christ's resurrection life looks like in the here-and-now. So as well as enabling them to test itinerant preachers' orthodoxy, it is a clear and powerful prescription for how to live in communion (or fellowship) with the Father and the Son - through the Holy Spirit.​

• Holiness is our calling and destiny

'God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all'.  The very first thing John says about God in this letter, is that God is utterly holy.  We cannot commune with Him, while we 'walk in darkness'.  God’s purpose in drawing us to Christ and adopting us as His sons, is that ‘we should be holy and blameless before Him in love’ (Eph 1:4).  God calls us saints - holy ones - when we first come to Christ - in that we are set apart from the world.  This is imputed righteousness, or justification. 

But this change of our legal status before God,  is meant to lead to a process of sanctification, or impartedrighteousness, as we grow into the likeness of Christ. (Sometimes a teacher will choose one of their more unruly pupils to be Form Prefect.  They know that the status will change that child’s behaviour.  Suddenly, the troublemaker begins to marshall others into good order!)  God has shown us wonderful grace in calling us His sons, but 'it doesn't yet appear what we shall be'.  Christ isn't yet fully formed in us. 

The Apostle says that when Christ returns, we shall be like Him, because we see Him as He truly is (1 Jn 3:1,2).  And that should galvanise us into purifying ourselves as He is pure.  John Wesley emphasised that salvation's purpose is about restoring the image of God in us.  In his view, any gospel that ignored this was self-deception.  'Without holiness, no-one will see the Lord' (Heb 12:14).

• Holiness comes from fellowship with God, not just the absence of sin

It has always been so.  The Law of Moses made a distinction between things being clean or unclean, and holy or unholy.  Uncleanness was either an inherent quality, or caused by actions or contact with other unclean things; and uncleanness could not draw near to the Presence of God.  But cleanness did not of itself make something holy: in fact very few clean objects were holy.  Only those which God called holy, or that had been offered to God on the altar, were holy.  The temple gold wasn’t holy in itself, but because it was in the Temple.  And gifts to God were not of themselves holy, until laid on the altar (Matt 23:17,19).

Jesus expressed this in His analogy of a vine and its branches.  Separated or apart from Him, we can do nothing.  Without an ongoing flow of resurrection life from Him to us, we cannot bear fruit - we wither and die.

• Jesus promised us fellowship with all three of the Trinity, in the here-and-now

Once Judas had left the Last Supper, Jesus taught His disciples about a radical change in their relationship with Him that would take place after Calvary and the resurrection.  They would share His resurrection (zoe) life.  "Because I live, you will too".  "Zoe life is to know the only true God, and His Son Jesus Christ".  "The Holy Spirit will indwell you permanently and continuously, and will take everything I’ve taught you and expound and outwork it in your lives".  "Without realising it you’ve already seen the Father in Me; but now you’ll know Him in His own right".  "I will manifest Myself to you".  "Father and I will come and dwell with you".  "You’ll be able to talk with Him directly rather than through Me".  "You’ll be joined to Me like branches to a vine, bearing fruit because of the flow of sap".  "Others will see Me in you, and either love you or hate you - but the Holy Spirit will teach you how to reply".  "I’m going back to My original glory beside the Father in heaven, but I’ll ask Him to let you gaze on My glorified self". And so on.....  extraordinary promises which if truth be told, make our spiritual lives look very anaemic.  But which John, Peter, Paul and many others down through the ages have proved true in their experience.

• Some were claiming deeper knowledge of God, & denying Jesus was a real man

As Paul had prophesied, some amongst the church in Ephesus (where John was now the bishop) were coming up with perverse heresies about Jesus, in order to build up their own following (Acts 20:30).  They had withdrawn from fellowship and were sending their false teachings around the other six churches under John’s care.  The loving community that had validated John’s gospel (John 21:24) was being torn apart.  Those left were wondering whether they were somehow second-class Christians: their assurance of salvation was under threat.

• Christ’s identity is the key to both testing & experiencing true fellowship with God

Aged in his nineties when he wrote this, John asserts his status as the last surviving apostle and eye-witness to the resurrection, assuring them that what he has proclaimed since the beginning of the gospel is still bedrock truth.  Christ, the eternal and only-begotten Son of God, came in the flesh to reveal God's character, to be our propitiation, and to give us eternal life.

His motives were to safeguard their fellowship with him and with the Father and His Son, Jesus; to teach them how to identify false teachings; and to deepen their own experience of fellowship with God.  He identifies three markers from Christ's life, by which we can assess our own Christian growth and experience, and test anyone claiming to have new revelation about Christ:

• the truth of the incarnation

• growth into holiness; and

• love for one another