The First Epistle of John

"In the beginning

was the Word, and

the Word was with God,

and the Word was God. He was

in the beginning with God. All things

were made through Him, and

without Him nothing was made

that was made."

John 1:1-3

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Good morning ladies! As with all Bible studies, we will begin with prayer....

"Father God in heaven, as we come together at this time of year to celebrate your birth, life, and death, may we never forget what it was that You did for us: conquered death once and for all so that we may never face it. You alone lived the perfect life here on earth that we may know how to live and You died the perfect death that we may know how to die for God, but You conquered our foe, Satan, once and for all so that we now face a conquered foe.

I seek the forgiveness of my sins knowing that my sins affect all of creation. I know that my sins separate me from You and I pray that You will cleanse me and renew me this day.

I pray for this study of the first book of Your servant, John. I pray for each lady reading this study that she will glean much out of it. I pray that after reading these words of John, she will know for sure that she has eternal life.

I give You this study, LORD, and ask that You be glorified in it.

In Jesus' name.....amen."

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An Overview of First John

In this first lesson we will look at the whole book of First John then, later in the next lesson, we will concentrate on chapter one. I pray that you were able to print out the first chapter and mark it for key words, if not you may want to do that now by cutting and pasting the chapter from http://www.bible.com/ if you are not comfortable marking your Bible.

This study will mirror Kay Arthur's First John study. If you have ever been in a Kay Arthur study, you know that it is inductive. This means that we will only look at the facts in the Bible and come to a conclusion on what the writer meant. We won't use commentaries unless necessary.

In this overview of First John, we will look at the book in its proper context and how the author reveals his purpose for writing the book.

We can do this with any book in the Bible by asking the 5 W's and an H questions:

Who?

What?

Where?

When?

Why
and

How?

• First John was written by the beloved apostle, John. It was written while he was exiled on the island of Patmos during the time of Ignatius and Polycarp (110 A.D.).
• First John is believed to have been written after the book of John because of how clearly John criticizes false teachings and antichrists. It seems to have been written at a time when identifying yourself as a Christian was well-established. John seems to be writing a a certain group of people.
• The "letter" does not have the usual greeting or salutation as in other letters in the New Testament, but it is considered a letter due to how it was written.
• First John was written as a warning to Christians on how to spot antichrists from among them and about how to know when someone is a true Christian or not....even themselves. So you can see how contemporary and relevant this book is to us today when many people call themselves Christians.

Let's now look at each chapter in an overview:

Chapter one:

Uses the word "know" 4 times and "sin" 5 times as well as "light" 3 times.

Chapter two:

Uses the word "abide" nine times and "sin" 4 times, but John uses the word "know" here 13 times and "love" 5 times. He also uses the word "write" 11 times and "light" 3 times.

Chapter three:

Uses the word "sin" 10 times and "know" 9 times as well as "love" 9 times. He uses the phrase "born of God" 5 times in this chapter and "abide" 7 times.

Chapter four:

Uses that word "love" 27 times and "know" 7 times as well as "abide" 6 times and "born of God" 1 time.

Chapter five:

Uses the word "know" 8 times, "love" 5 times, and "born of God" 3 times in this chapter.

By looking at the book in this way, we can easily see John's message: we may know and abide in Christ and be born of God and we may know love if we do not sin.

I call chapter three the "sin" chapter and chapter four the "love" chapter. It helps me remember these books easier!

The book theme of First John is:

That we can know that we have eternal life in Christ Jesus, that we cannot just say this but we must "do" this as well, and that we may know what salvation is and isn't.

So many times we meet someone who claims to be a believer, but how can we know for sure? First John was written that we may know.

Key words:

fellowship

abide

light

love

know

sin

born of God

write

world

eternal life

truth

Purpose of the book:

That we may know...

Historical setting:

False teachings were everywhere

Believers were turning away from their faith

Some believers were Jewish and knew scriptures

Chapter themes:

1) Fellowship with God through Jesus- if we know God obey Him, if we sin confess it.

2) If we abide in Jesus we know no sin; abide in the light. Know Him, keep His commandments.

3) Anyone born of God cannot continue to live in sin.

4) We must love one another as God loved us. LOVE.

5) Know that you have eternal life through Christ.

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Okay! This concludes our Overview of the First Epistle of John. I hope that after reading the book and this overview, you have a better understanding of this book. I hope that you will have pure joy in reading this book as it reveals to you the assurance...absolute assurance...of your salvation in Christ Jesus!

• We will look at chapter one next time and use scripture to study its contents further until we know what the chapter says.

I am excited! I hope you are too...

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Until next time...................

"But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness."

-Romans 6:17-18

Blessings,

Ruth