The structure of First John is different from most of the N.T. letters we have read. Generally, letters follow a somewhat logical progression. First John is different in that this letter is more of a spiral. John will discuss several topics and then circle back and expand on an earlier topic. A good way to pick up the structure is to look at an outline of the book before you read it. Study Bibles and commentaries usually have such outlines. Looking at an outline helps you understand the flow of the writer’s message and helps with keeping the context in mind. First John is loaded with theology. Notice as you read it what John tells us about God, what he says about Jesus, what we learn about the Spirit. Notice also what he says about those who have been born again. John also states his many reasons for writing this letter. The last reason he states is found in 1 Jn. 5:13. It reads in the CSB, “I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” Having a Know So not a Hope So faith is important.

In the second to fifth centuries a heresy that plagued the Christian church was known as Gnosticism. It had several different flavors but there was one main ingredient in each. That ingredient was that matter was evil and spirit (that which was immaterial) was good. From that concept their understanding of Christ was that He could not have had a material body. In other words, no incarnation. Olson and Adam state,

Some taught that this Christ appeared as Jesus but that Jesus was never really a physical human. This Christology is known as docetism, from the Greek word meaning “to appear” or “to seem.” For these Gnostics, Jesus only seemed to be human. Surely God would not taint himself by actually becoming human.

Other Gnostics taught a dualistic Christology in which “Christ” entered into Jesus at the baptism and left him just before he died. He used Jesus’ vocal cords, for instance, to teach the disciples but never actually experienced being human.^[1]

While it doesn’t appear that this heresy was fully developed in the first century, it does seem that something similar was being taught by the false teachers that John is warning about. When you are reading First and Second John notice John’s rebuke of this teaching. He also makes comments that seem to have this false teaching in the background. For example, in 1 Jn. 1:1, why does he mention that in addition to hearing and seeing Jesus that he had actually touched Him.

Hospitality was important in the first century. In 3 Jn. 5-8 John commends Gaius for his hospitality shown to traveling Christian strangers but in 2 Jn. 10-11 he warns against showing hospitality to the false teachers that were apparently traveling ministers.

Jude was a half-brother of Jesus. He also writes to confront false teachers who seem to have infiltrated the church by guile and are living and teaching a sensual lifestyle. The church must always be on guard to not allow heresy and sin to infiltrate the church under the guise of being loving and tolerant.

Verse 9 is difficult since the O.T. does not mention this. The CSB study bible comments, “Jude contrasted the heretics’ blasphemy of angels with the restraint that Michael the archangel showed when disputing with the devil in an argument about Moses’s body. Scholars generally agree that this story was taken from the Assumption of Moses, an apocryphal book. In the story, Michael sought to bury Moses’s body. The devil opposed the burial with the claim that he was lord over matter and Moses was a murderer. Rather than assuming the right to condemn Satan for his slander, Michael called on the Lord to judge.”^[2]

^[1] Olson, Roger E., and Adam C. English. 2005. Pocket History of Theology: Twenty Centuries in Five Concise Acts. The IVP Pocket Reference Series. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.

^[2] Wilder, Terry L. 2017. “Jude.” In CSB Study Bible: Notes, edited by Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax, 2012. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.