Reflections on 1st John (part one)

I started memorizing 1^st John last spring. Over the months that I worked on getting it down, and then the later months of retraining it, it was constantly in my mind, challenging me and often leaving me puzzled. I thought that I would share some reflections I’ve had over the past year and how it has and continues to encourage me to live a life pleasing to God.

I remember reading 1^st John at the end of 2023. I was far from God at that point and confused about what I believed. I would read the Bible every night, but none of it made sense. As I read that night, I tried so hard to understand what it meant. I remember thinking, “This will teach me how to be acceptable to God!” but it was like I was reading words in another language. I knew they were truth, but at the same time it was meaningless noise to me.

However, over the past couple years, God has given me the ability to (begin to) understand His word. But a disclaimer – I am by no means a theologian. All that is written here is merely my imperfect thoughts and reflections on a glorious passage of Scripture. Don’t take my words for truth – go to the Bible and read 1^st John for yourself. I’m learning that we can’t truly know the Bible through secondary means. Commentaries, books on the Bible, reflections about the Word – these are all good things. But if they keep us from the Bible, then we are losers spiritually.

What is the Message of 1^st John?

John touches on many subjects in his short epistle, however I see three main themes.

#1: Love

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1^st John 4:7-8)

John is adamant that, as Christians, we must love God and each other. We cannot say that we love God and hate our neighbor (1^st John 4:20). God has commanded that if we love Him, we must also love our brothers (1^st John 4:21).

#2: Jesus is God & Savior

John put an emphasis on Jesus’s divinity, as well focusing strongly on the fact that Jesus is our Savoir, the promised Messiah. He also tells us how we can recognize false spirits. Those who do not confess that Jesus is the Christ are antichrists and false prophets (1^st John 2:20-23 and 4:1-3).

“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1^st John 4:9-10)

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” (1^st John 4:14-15)

“Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1^st John 5:5)

“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.” (1^st John 5:20)

#3: Eternal Life

John wanted to give his readers hope of eternal life. This is the promise that God gave to us and something that we eagerly await.

“And this is the promise which He has promised us – eternal life.” (1^st John 2:25).

“And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” (1^st John 5:11)

“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” (1^st John 5:13)

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I’ll end this post here and next time I will share my reflections on the epistle. Let’s talk in the comments. What are your thoughts on 1^st John? What themes do you see? What book of the NT is your favorite and why?

~Hattush