1 John 3:4-24

Read 3:4–7.

Anyone who sins also...

Why did Jesus come?

What does someone who knows Jesus do?

Why?

Read 3:8–10.

Anyone who does what is sinful...

Why did the Son of God appear?

What does someone who is born of God do?

Why?

John seems to repeat himself, with some elaboration, in 3:4–6 and 3:7–9. In each case though, he summarizes the purpose of what he's explaining. What is it? Verse 10 helps to clarify.

Read 3:11–15.

This is not the first time that John mentioned the message you heard from the beginning. Where did he use it before, and how does this use relate to his earlier use?

What does it mean that Cain murdered Abel because his own actions were evil?

Why would (or does) the world hate us?

If we have problems with other people in the church, we need to resolve them. What then ought we do if the world hates us?

Read 3:16–18

That Christ laid down his life for us shows us what love is, not just that Christ loved us. And so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. What can we say that love is?

What light does knowing what love is shed on John's instruction?

Read 3:19–24

What does it mean to set our hearts at rest? Is this something that we should be trying to do?

How can we have confidence before God? What kind of confidence can we have before God? (John has talked about confidence before...)

1 John 2:12-3:3

I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.1 John 2:12–14

To whom does John write? He writes, somewhat abstractly, to three classes of individuals, not necessarily disjoint: children, fathers, young men, and again, children, fathers, and young men. What sort of significance is there in these three groups? Firstly, they are stages of growth, both physical and spiritual. We start off as children, grow into young men, and eventually, God willing, become fathers. In what ways does what John writes address the spiritual needs that are associated with the stages of life?

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.1 John 2:15–17

In the man who does the will of God, we see a close parallel to the passage of Ecclesiastes that we studied on Friday, specifically:

A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.Ecclesiastes 2:24–26

We cannot find enjoyment and satisfaction apart from God, Solomon tells us, and John explains that everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man [all the pleasures that Solomon tried to satisfy himself with], the lust of his eyes [the many things that gathered for himself] and the boasting of what he has and does [he built magnificent things, and became supremely wise]—does not come from the Father but from the world. Solomon doesn't make it explicit, but he does reveal an almost Taoist fact that man can only be satisfied in the things that are eternal and permanent. Earthly pleasures are not, but man's need to work and labor and eat and drink are. John makes it clear, when he writes that The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.

I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.1 John 2:18–27

Though John uses the somewhat overloaded (in modern times) term antichrist, it seems that he is warning against apostasy and false teachings, and teachings that claim to build upon the Gospel of Christ. I would posit the notion that John explains what the issue is (apostasy and false teaching), how we can detect it (Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?), and what the remedy is, and how we can protect ourselves from it (let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning.)

And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.1 John 2:28–3:3

What do confident and unashamed mean in this context? When John writes that everyone who does what is right has been born of Him, what does this mean? We proclaim that there is one way to Heaven, and that no one comes to the Father except by Me, but John's words suggest that any righteous person is of Him. John writes about what we will be, and that it has not yet been made known, except that we shall be like Him, and that, ideally, we will be confident and unashamed. Thoughts?