The complete commentary of the book of First John

The author of this letter  is the same Apostle who wrote the Gospel of John , 2^nd and 3^rd John, along with last book of the Bible, The book of Revelation. It’s easy to see the consistency in style; how the Holy Spirit uses John in this epistle just like he used him in the Gospel of John. This book along with the others were written at the close of the first century according to scholars – around 90-95 A.D.

James and John was originally called by Jesus “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17). James who was the older brother of John was killed by Herod (Acts 12:2). John was part of the inner-circle-three along with his brother James and Peter. These three are the ones that were eyewitnesses to the transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1).

John referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20).

The Apostle by this time is an old man providing eye witness testimony to what he has seen, felt and heard (I John 1:1). The reader can rest assured that John’s summation of the events will be pinpoint accurate, and with Spirit of God as his guide one hundred percent correct. Anyone that opposed his teaching was from the spirit of the antichrist and should be avoided. John said those that do not listen to the Apostle”s doctrine is not of God (I John 4:6).

Main themes:  John is instructing like a loving father would to his children. Some of the main areas are: belief in the only begotten Son of God (I John 4:15; 5:1, 10a). Loving our brother (I John 3:11, 23; 4:20). Not loving the world (I John 2:15-17). Confession of sin (I John 1: 6-10).

These commands and many more were taught to John by the Lord himself. John was simply imitating and reiterating these same transforming message(s) that his Savior gave to him.

                                                                      Chapter One

The Apostle John was sovereignly chosen by Christ to be a disciple. John declares he witnessed the miracles, and was taught by the Lord; this same Lord he is going to declare to his own spiritual children.

John says the same Jesus we have heard from the beginning is He who we have seen and handled. Anyone who believes on the Lord Jesus has genuine fellowship with the Father and with the Son. This relationship produces fullness of joy (vs. 1-4).

John goes on to teach saying no one can say they have fellowship with God and walks in darkness. Darkness is an expression that is synonymous with  a sinful lifestyle. Remember Jesus said in the gospel of John 3:19, “Men loved darkness rather than light because their deed are evil.” The person that makes this false claim is a liar (the one that claims fellowship with God yet walks in darkness). The true children of light are those made pure by the blood of Christ. We can’t be children of the light and darkness at the same time – has to be one or the other (vs. 6-7).

One of the most powerful verses in all of scripture, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (vs.9). The mark of a true child of God is ongoing acknowledging and confession of sin. Our sins have been forgiven forever judicially because the Lord Jesus wiped away our sins on the cross. Jesus paid our eternal sin debt to the Father and He was satisfied.  This means we will never eternally perish. This sacrifice of our sins was the ultimate High Priestly act to God the 

Father on our behalf. But, because we continue to disobey and offend the Lord in this time and space  due to our sinful flesh, and often un-renewed minds, confession is still a command so that the blood of Jesus continues to be an infinite provision and cleansing agent for us.

For whoever claims they have no sin John says is a liar and is not even saved (vs, 10).

                                                                     Chapter Two

The Lord Jesus Christ is our defense attorney (advocate) before the Father when I sin (vs. 1). Our relationship is secure when we obey God. We will never do this perfectly, but because of the Spirit of God, and our willingness to obey, we will succeed (vs.2).

Liars are the ones that claim relationship with God yet deny Him in their actions (vs.4). This describes the world at large.

He who hates his brother walks in darkness and can not see the light. Darkness is wickedness, sinful (vs. 9-11).

False teachers/believers are labeled as Antichrists, the Greek word is “Antichristos” means against or instead of.

A person who is an Antichrist is against Jesus or is purporting to be Jesus – take the place of Him – a false messiah. These are the ones that will depart from the faith they once embraced; they are apostates (vs. 19).<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[i]<!--[endif]-->

Genuine believers always persevere in faith because they are preserved by the Holy Spirit. We will abide in the truth to the end (Phil 1:6). As a result, we have the promise of eternal life right now and forever (vs. 24-29).

                                                                      Chapter Three

The word hope in vs. 3 is the Greek word elpis which means a favorable and confident expectation. It’s not a natural hope that is unsure of what may happen. The hope described here in vs. 3 is based on divine truth so it’s a certainty that what was promised (the return of Christ in the future) will happen.

Vs. 6 & 9 appear to be contradictory on the surface. We read in I John 1: 8-10 that we clearly do sin and to deny that we sin is to make God a liar, so the word is not in us.

So, what does John mean in vs. 6 & 9 in chapter 3?

A clue to understanding vs. 6 & 9 is vs. 7. It says, “he who practices righteousness is righteous. Verse 8 says he that sins is of the devil…

There is a commonality between the righteous and the wicked in that each performs their deeds on a continual basis.

For the righteous righteousness, for the wicked wickedness. So verse 6 & 9 can not be stating that we can not literally sin. A more accurate translation is we can not continue or practice sin and call ourselves Christians because of the indwelling Holy Spirit (vs. 9). Those born of God have been born from above. A heavenly birth is perfect essentially with no sin because it does not involve man – it’s from God alone.

Man never ever contributes to his salvation in that God needs us in order to make salvation actual or complete. We are only the beneficiaries of sovereign grace, not co-signors of it.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[ii]<!--[endif]-->

Verses 10-15: John reiterates the importance of loving the brethren. He that doesn’t love his brother is like  Cain who killed his brother Abel out of envy. Cain was evil and Abel righteous. So the Apostle states that he that hates his brother is a murderer at heart and does not possess eternal life.

Essentially that type of person is a dead man walking.

Eternal life was hinged on the solitary love act of Jesus Christ dying on the cross for his people; the ultimate act of forgiveness to those who believe. For if He could accomplish this for an enumerable company of sinners, how much more should we be willing to forgive our brother for any offense committed against us? One that hates his brother is either envious, offended because of him or both.

Love for our brother is a command of the Lord, and an essential component of true salvation along with practicing righteous, holy living. This distinguishes the children of God and the children of Satan.

John teaches us that love is an action word. True love always does. True loves meets  the temporal needs of those less fortunate. Love must be demonstrated amongst the family of God or else how will the world know we belong to God (John 13:35)? Vs. 16-17.

We can only have true joy in our salvation and our relationship to the Father if we do what He commands us. A life of obedience is a life of joy. We please God this way and our prayers will be answered (vs. 18-22).

Once again John binds believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and loving our brother together. These are the commandments of the Lord. We must not disobey them. By obeying these commands, we assure our hearts that God is in us, and we in Him. We are inextricably linked forever with our creator and sovereign of the universe (vs. 23-24).

                                                                   Chapter Four

John commands his readers to judge or test the spirits because of prevailing false teachers and their demonic doctrines. Believers must have discernment when it comes to determining truth from error. We must be most discriminate in what someone is teaching (vs. 1).

The Spirit of God is operating in a person when one declares that Jesus Christ is God incarnate; that is Jesus was manifest in the flesh. Anyone who denies this truth is not of God, but is of the evil spirit of the Antichrist which is currently in this world (vs. 2-3).<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[iii]<!--[endif]-->

John said those that are of God listens to us. This fact distinguishes truth from lies (vs. 6).

And again John is commanding that we love one another. Love proceeds from God. Those that love are from God. Those that do not love are not of God for God is love (vs. 7-8).

The ultimate expression of the Love of God was that Jesus was made incarnate to save sinners (vs.9).

Since God loved us and sent Jesus to die to pay our sin debt, the least we can do is love one another (vs. 10-11). This is a sacrificial love.

Other love benefits in this chapter deal with: God abiding in us due to God’s love. God’s love provides confidence in the day of judgment. God’s love assures us that we can be fearless; for love and fear never mix. For the Christian our love must increase, and our fear decrease. This is an ongoing progressive act.

God’s love is an aggressive, tenacious, efficacious force. It’s so powerful, that it regenerates us from the dead, grants us repentance and faith to believe and be saved.

Is it any wonder the Apostle says, “We love Him because He first loved us?” Our ability to love God is only possible because of God’s antecedent love toward us. We have no capacity or willingness to love God until His love was first perfected in us in a mighty way.

That’s why it’s tragic for someone to say he loves God and hates his brother; that person is a liar. We can’t see God so how can we say we love God whom we can’t see and hate our brother we can see?

Our love for God is in direct connection on how we love our brother. If we hate our brother we hate God as well (vs. 12-20).

                                                                         Chapter Five

Only those that truly believe that Jesus is the Christ are born of God. Again John stresses the importance of loving one another. These two truths believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and loving one another are  bookends in this letter.

Proof that the love of God is in our hearts is when we obey the commands of the Father and Jesus Christ which are not a chore to carry, but should be joyful (vs. 1-3).

No doubt John was echoing Jesus command when Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

Another wonderful feature of being born of God is that we are world conquerors. The faith we have been given to believe on the Lord Jesus  makes this a reality in the life of the believer (vs. 4-5).

John discusses the internal witness of Jesus incarnation – came by water (baptism) and blood (crucifixion). This witness is by the Holy Spirit which of course is the Spirit of truth (vs. 6).

Most of vs. 7 up to the word “record” and all of vs. 8 are not in the ancient Greek manuscripts. They are variant readings.

Next John goes on to say God’s testimony of Jesus is true and anyone that does not believe God’s testimony might as well say God is a liar which of course is blasphemous. God here is testifying of Jesus Christ the one He sent to give us eternal life. He that has the Son has life and receives the testimony of the Father. He that does not have the Son does not have life but death due to the fact he has rejected the testimony of the Father (vs. 10-13).

As a matter of fact John says in his gospel said he that does not have life the wrath of God abides on him (John 3:36).

Those who belong to the Lord also have the benefit of petitioning the Lord in prayer  (vs. 14-15).

Verse 16b regarding the sin unto death is one of the most difficult passages in all the bible. Some believing the sin unto death is one solitary sin. It is not because notice John never mentions a single particular sin. A sin unto death has to mean a unbroken pattern of rehearsed unconfessed, unrepentant sin a believer (in this text not an unbeliever) is engaged in. A person could be involved in fornication (I Cor 5:2, 5), adultery, lying (Acts 5:1-11), stealing, idolatry, drunkenness, anger, malice, unforgiveness, etc.

Anyone of the aforementioned sins and those not mentioned if not dealt with could lead to ruin; meaning God in his perfect wisdom may decide to end that person’s life – very serious! Their habitual evil behavior is contaminating the body of Christ and should they refuse to repent it would be better that they die and go on to glory than to live like they are a child of the devil. As a matter of fact, God may give you over to Satan for the destruction of your sinful flesh (I Cor 5:5).  No wonder why John said not to pray for that person, because God has pronounced final judgment on them.  This is also hard to determine as well unless you spend quality time with an individual and you know their lifestyle in a personal way. Only then will you be able discern if prayer is warranted or should be withheld.

If we are truly honest, too many of us live like we are not even saved. An insult to our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus.

We need personal, corporate church, and national revival beloved (II Chronicles 7:14), or else our God may decide to put our lights out (Revelation 2:5). Let’s turn from our wicked ways and repent.

In vs. 17, these same sins are committed by other believers, but they are not a patterned behavior with them. You know you can pray for these individuals because the person is brokenhearted over their sin. They are quick to confess their offences to God (I John 1:9),  and they also request forgiveness and healing through prayer (James 5:16).

In this scenario, this sin is not unto death.

John reiterates as he did in chapter 3 that we are not to practice sin (vs. 18).

Last two admonitions from John: Jesus Christ is eternal life; keep yourself from Idols (vs. 20-21).

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<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[i]<!--[endif]--> There are many that unfortunately believe that apostates were once genuine believers that decided to depart from the faith. We know that Jesus had many followers other than the twelve, However when He told them what was required of them to follow Him truly, the majority turned their backs on the Lord and walked away never to return (John 6:66). The problem was they  chose Jesus for a while, but He never chose them. Those that walked away were never given to Him from His Father (John 6:37-40). They were never true believers in Him or else they would have remained. They only wanted to see what Jesus could do for them, not what they could do for the Lord.

<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[ii]<!--[endif]--> Our salvation is in three parts. 1. The Father God planned our salvation before time; i.e. created the blueprints.  2. He sent Jesus to the earth to save those who He commanded Him to save in time by His substitutionary death. Jesus said, “All those whom the Father has given to me will come to me, and those that come to me I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37). 3. The Holy Spirit applies salvation to the hearts of those who believe (the elect) in time now and forever. Salvation is infinite from eternity past to eternity future.

<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[iii]<!--[endif]--> A first century heresy that denied the incarnation of Jesus was called Docetism. Docetism said Jesus was divine but only appeared to have a body but really didn’t. This totally flies in the face of everything Jesus did as the God/man. Perform miracles, heal the sick, fed the multitudes, became hungry, tired and slept, and most importantly died for the sins of mankind. Only a real human being can shed blood. A spirit being has no blood. Jesus was fully God from eternity past, and became fully human through Mary. Both natures reside in Him; separate and distinct in one body. These natures never co mingle.