2 John: 1-3
This letter is much shorter than 1 John. It is set out in the classic style of letters of that day. The purpose appears to be a warning to be wary of travelling preachers as the Gnostics sent out their own preachers to spread their message. John was concerned that the people would innocently host these antichrists and unwittingly assist in spreading the heresy they taught.
The letter starts in the style of its day with a greeting and good wishes. John introduces himself as the elder. By the time this letter was written, John was an old man and most likely the only surviving disciple. He was truly an elder, both in age and in experience of Jesus. His words carried the weight of witness and the wisdom age and long knowledge of Jesus gives. The letter is said to be addressed to a lady and her children. It is possible it was to a notable woman who regularly hosted travelling preachers. It could also be a code for a congregation of believers. One commentary I read suggested it may have been disguised in case the letter was intercepted. Whether the recipient was a single person or a group of people, John loved her/them in truth. As he admonished his readers in 1 John, the mark of a follower of Jesus is the love he/she holds for his/her fellow believers. For John the truth, as it resides in Jesus, leads to love, the love of salvation. This is emphasised in the greeting “Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love” v3 NIV.
Notice in the blessing John includes grace and mercy and peace. This is unusual in the New Testament and is only found here and in 1 and 2 Timothy. John is emphasising the message of God’s freely given gift in Jesus Christ which is grace. God shows us His grace because He is merciful. Peace is a gift of God and comes from the knowledge of the gift of Jesus to us. Notice also that in this greeting John says these things will be ‘with us’ not ‘with you’. He appears to be emphasising the unity of the good news of Jesus. It is never possible to have faith in Jesus on your own. You will always share that faith with other believers, even if you never meet them or converse with them in any way.
This letter may be brief, and it may appear to say very little, but the strength of the symbolism seen not only in these three verses, but in the entire letter, makes this letter a lot longer than the word count suggests, and gives this letter a greater depth of meaning than we might think. Already in these three verses we have learned that truth and love are important hallmarks of Christian living (as modelled by John). We also have learned that God’s grace is ours, as is His mercy and peace. We have been reminded that God is the Father and Jesus is His son and they are with us in truth and love. We have seen that this blessing is not just something nice John is saying to the recipient, but something that belongs to all believers. What an amazing start to a letter!

1 John 5:18-21
These four verses are the concluding verses of this first letter of John. They include three statements of knowledge. We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin (18). We know that we are children of God (and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one) (19). We know that the Son of God has come (20).
We know that when we are born of God we are filled with the Holy Spirit. In short Christ’s divine presence lives within us and keeps us alert so that, when we listen to His counsel, we are able to follow His path, not the one laid by satan. We are also protected by Jesus, who holds the authority over satan. Because we are born of God we also know we are children of God. We are under the power of God and He will protect us. Other people, those who are not born of God are in the world and are under the power of satan. Because we are children of God, born of Him, we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding through the Holy Spirit so that we may know Him. We also may know Him better and more clearly through insights given to us by the Holy Spirit.
These three statements sum up John’s message. We are born of God and that gives us protection from sin. We are children of God and under His control and we know Jesus, our Saviour, has come and continues to be with us. These are what a believer needs to believe.
In the final sentence John reminds the people to now keep themselves from idols. If you remember, he started the letter to refute the lies of the early Gnostics and here at the end he again reminds the people to stick to what they know as the truth and avoid idols. When John used the word idols he was not referring to the images used in worship. He was referring to the antichrists and their false gods. In the Amplified Bible this is described as “anything and everything that would occupy the place in your heart due to God, from any sort of substitute for Him that would take first place in your life.” I can think of myriad things that are able to occupy the place in my heart that God should be occupying. I am sure you are also able to think of many things that distract you from God. Some things are obvious and can be dismissed rapidly, others are more insidious and take longer to spot. Keeping ourselves from idols requires vigilance and a commitment to God.
I finish with the wonderful way Eugene Peterson put it in The Message: “Dear children, be on guard against all clever facsimiles”.

This concludes the First letter of John. In the next blog we will be commencing a study of the second letter of John.

1 John 5:16-17
These verses are very confusing. For years I have puzzled over just what they mean, In seeking to understand them I consulted many bible commentaries that were extremely unclear about what these verses meant. It is a difficult concept to grasp. So I asked God, read the verses He directed me to read, read the passage to my family at the dinner table and we had a discussion about what this verses meant. This is what God has revealed to me.
John speaks in these verses of seeing a fellow Christian sin a “sin that does not lead to death” and that is something we can pray about and God will hear our prayer. However, if we see our fellow Christian sin a “sin that leads to death” there is less certainty that prayer will be answered. So what is sin that leads to death and what is sin that does not lead to death?
Ephesians 4:30 tells us not to “grieve the Holy Spirit”. John 5:16-18 recounts how the Jews did not believe Jesus because he challenged their beliefs about the Sabbath and claimed to be the Son of God. Later in verse 24 Jesus said “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” NIV.
In the gospel of John 5, the Pharisees and Jewish leaders grieved the Holy Spirit by not believing that Jesus was the Son of God. This entire letter of 1 John was written to counter the Gnostics and other anti-Christs who denied Jesus was the Son of God. Denying Jesus grieves the Holy Spirit.
We all sin. We are saved because we believe Jesus is the Son of God and accept His forgiveness, but we still sin. We sin, we repent. Sometimes that takes a long time to happen. In this sin we do not die because in our sin we do not deny Jesus. If we were to deny Jesus then we would no longer be saved because the condition of our salvation is that we accept Jesus is the Son of God and accept His salvation.
So we see fellow Christians sin and we pray that God will reveal that sin to them so they may repent of that sin. Those prayers God will answer. They are definitely within His will. If we see someone deny Jesus then we are dealing with someone who has not met the conditions of salvation. It is likely they never have. Over the years I have met many people who attended church and made all the right noises of faith but who had none. They came to church because they thought it was the right thing and they were never challenged about their faith. Not everyone in a church congregation is a Christian. It is possible those people will never come to faith. You can certainly pray for their salvation but God does not guarantee that your prayer will be answered.