As we begin this study on the book of I John we must understand why the book was written and what it is about. John was dealing with something called Gnosticism which was highly influenced by Philosophy or human thought. Plato and other philosophers greatly influenced Gnosticism. The wild thing about this is that the Gnosticism that John had to fight so violently in the Gospel of John and his three letters are very similar to Modern American Christianity and the problems that we face today.
As mentioned earlier Gnosticism was highly influenced by the philosophy or human thought of the day and it doesn’t take long for a person to realize that the human thought or philosophy of today is humanism. Dictionary.com defines humanism as “any system or mode of thought or action in which human interests, values, and dignity predominate”. In other words people are given the ultimate priority in the Universe. No longer is God the most valuable thing in the Universe, but our happiness is the most prized and valued thing in the Universe. Modern American Christianity is so influenced by humanism that one walk through your local Christian book store will prove it. The top sellers are books like “Your Best Life Now” and other books about being happy in this day and hour and that are not all that worried with theology and the study of God and who He is. It is all about us and not about God, in today’s times where it is oh so important for us to be happy. The two most horrendous things that come out of this are that people actually believe that the most important thing in the world is for me to be happy and that Christ died to make me happy, that God is at our service to make us happy and that the central theme in all the universe is man’s happiness instead of the glory of God.
Another very important matter is the subject of evil and good. Gnostics believed that matter was evil and that the Spirit was good. This was very dangerous because Gnostics thought that they could do whatever they wanted in the flesh and it didn’t matter because the Spirit is good anyway. This led to twisting of scriptures on very important topics. For example they believed that Jesus only existed in Spirit. We know that this is not what scripture teaches, but there are some similarities with Modern American Christianity. Modern American Christianity has chosen to ignore what the Bible says about being “Born Again”, for the sake of keeping people happy and having more people in the building. It has led to the belief that one can do whatever they want because they are saved, and what is worse a lot of church leadership will not confront people in their sins because their happiness is more important to them than God’s reputation and His glory or even that person’s salvation. They said a prayer one time and got fire insurance that they never really got, and we will discuss this at greater detail later in our study of I John. It has also led to a belief in something called Carnal Christians which do not exist, and the modern church is left with little to no understanding of the power of God in the salvation of men.
Gnostics also claimed elevated knowledge, only those initiated had mystical knowledge of the truth. This does not seem like Modern American Christianity, but is characteristic of every cult that has been created over the last few hundred years. The Bible is the truth not elevated knowledge and everything must be measured by its standard.
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” –Ezekiel 36:26-28-ESV
“Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”-John 3:5-6-ESV
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”– II Corinthians 5:17-ESV
“Little children let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”-I John 3:7-8-ESV-
“Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”, will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter” – Matthew 7:21
Because of what the Bible teaches about salvation most estimates of saved verses unsaved people in the physical churches of today are quite horrifying. (I cannot put the stats in here due to copyright laws but you can look them up at www.barna.org) The Bible makes it obvious and clear that those who are actually God's people will actually do the will of God, or what He has commanded here on earth.
The intro is now over and we get to the scriptures. John gives us the reason for writing this letter in the last chapter “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” – I John 5:13 John actually within this short book gives us many tests that we will look at to see if we are in the faith. John attacks all of the issues that we covered in the introduction and tells us what a believer looks like and writes about the basic beliefs of Christianity, which he seems to imply are believing the truth, loving your brothers and sisters in Christ and obedience to God’s commands. I John 1:1-4
John expresses how he and the other apostles were witnesses of Christ’s earthly ministry and talks about Jesus existing from the beginning(V.1 and John 1:1) In talking about his and the other apostle’s relation to Jesus he says in verse 1 that they heard Him in person, saw Him with their own eyes, and touched Him. In verse 2 he says they had seen His life and that the apostles testify and proclaim eternal life that Christ had revealed to them. They proclaim what they have seen and heard, so that we may have fellowship with the Father and the Son, which is eternal life. John also gives another reason for writing this letter. “These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete”, true eternal life creates true everlasting joy in the believer. It is impossible to have this joy without truly having eternal life. We have seen Christ, we walked with Him, we talked with Him, we touched Him, and He taught us and we write to you so that your joy may be made complete and know that you are truly a child of His.
It is funny how humanism/the philosophy of today cannot achieve what it aspires to achieve, and that submitting to God will make our joy complete. “Thou madest us for Thyself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee” – St. Augustine
Dwain Minor