Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-may-1-2025
I John 2:3-11, 18-25
Love and Hatred for Fellow Believers
3We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
7Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.
Warnings Against Denying the Son
18Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
20But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25And this is what he promised us—eternal life.
At the beginning of the year, we adopted a new policy — that each time the lectionary list of epistle readings changed to a new book, we would devote one day’s Reflection to thinking about that book in general. A couple of days ago, the lectionary begin to list readings from the First Letter of John. The gospel readings on those days were coming from the Gospel of John’s account of the Last Supper, and those readings seemed too important to put aside. So we’ve delayed getting on to the letters of John, but now it’s time to think about them.
The reading listed for today comes from the First Letter of John, but we will think about the three letters of John together. That’s because the second and third letters are very brief, and because the scholars believe what can be said about one of the letters applies to the others as well.
Most Christians don’t devote a great deal of time to reading the letters of John. The letters of Paul — along with the four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles — are generally regarded as making up the core of the New Testament. The letters of Peter and James get less attention than Paul’s, but they’re also considered important books. The letters of John, however, seem to be ignored by many followers of Jesus. They’re short, they’re stuck at the back of the New Testament, and a couple of them seem to deal with matters that are so specific to their time and place that people wonder whether they have anything to say to us in the 21st century.
Although some scholars question who wrote the letters of John, they are generally assumed to have been written by John the son of Zebedee, who is understood to be the author of the Gospel of John and also of the Revelation. Lots of readers also believe he’s the “beloved disciple” described in John.
You might remember from past Reflections on passages from the Gospel of John that we’ve suggested it might have been written after John’s death by some of his disciples who wanted to record all that John had passed along to them from his time with Jesus. It’s possible that the same could be said about the letters of John — that some of the leaders of the part of the church John founded were continuing his ministry.
It seems that by the time John passed away, he and his disciples had founded a number of churches, and were continuing to provide leadership and support at the end of the first century. You might remember that the beginning of the Book of Revelation is a series of letters to seven churches in modern-day Turkey. So the scholars say these might have been seven of the churches in the part of the church John and his disciples had established. So it’s quite possible that the three letters of John were written for the same audience — to the churches John and his disciples had founded.
Probably the main thing that persuades New Testament scholars that the gospel of John, the Revelation, and the letters of John were all written by the same group of people is that they all share many of the same theological themes. And for that matter, they share some literary characteristics that don’t appear elsewhere. For instance, the letters include criticism of some theological opponents who are called “antichrists.” That’s a term we remember from the Revelation, but one that doesn’t appear anywhere in the New Testament except in books bearing the name of John.
Some of the themes that John’s letters share with the gospel will sound very familiar to those who have followed these Reflections.
First of all, these books all share the theme that Jesus provides our closest understanding to the character of God — that our only way fully understanding the nature of God is by studying the teachings and life of Jesus.
The gospel of John and the letters also share the understanding that the only real sin is a refusal to accept Jesus as the Messiah and Savior of the world. Some of the bitterest rhetoric in the letters is directed at those who deny that Jesus is the Messiah. In fact, the scholars believe at the time these letters were written, there may have been some who denied that Jesus had ever been physically present in the world at all.
Both the letters and John’s gospel express the understanding that a defining characteristic of the followers of Jesus would be their love for one another. That’s an idea that’s fresh in our memory from our recent Reflections on the Last Supper, during which Jesus said. “By this they will know you are my followers, that you love one another.”
Another theme shared by the gospel and the letters is the idea that Jesus represents truth and light in a world full of falsehood and darkness. That’s a theme that begins at the very beginning of the Gospel of John and shows up throughout its accounts of the life and teaching of Jesus. Some of the most famous verses in the Gospel of John deal with this idea – including “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Those who deny the lordship of Jesus are characterized as liars with no truth in them.
It’s also worth noting that the letters of John sometimes refer to the body of Christian teaching that has been passed along to those who are reading the letters. In other words, there’s an understanding that the church has been performing its ministry for long enough that many people have been given a firm grounding in the life and teachings of Jesus, and of how we are to live as his followers.
This Reflection has been much more general than most — addressing the letters of John and his gospel and Revelation rather than focusing specifically on our day’s reading. But doing any justice to the letters of John probably requires that kind of focus for a day. And it seems to me that if you read the passage again you’ll find that most of what we’ve said about the letters of John can be seen in the text. So thanks for your patience with a different approach for today.
Personally, I’m thankful for the different perspective on the life and teachings of Jesus that shows up in John’s gospel and letters — and in the Revelation for that matter. It seems to me that John and his disciples have given us a version of the Christian faith that invites us to think and reflect deeply on what Jesus did and said. I think our understanding of the faith is enriched by that different perspective, and by the accounts of how people have wrestled with the faith that John and his disciples provide.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the ministry of the apostle John and his disciples. We thank you for their leadership in the early church, and for the writings they left for us that challenge us to ponder the deeper meanings of the life and teachings of your son and our Lord, Jesus the Christ. Amen,
Grace and Peace,
Henry
Recent Comments