Our Sermon Series has included Prayer, Theology, Contemplation, and Missions; is going to include Worship and Evangelism; all drawing on lectionary readings from the first letter of John. 1 John, with its associated 'books', 2 John and 3 John make up his trio. It is written by the author of the Gospel of John and the book of Revelation. What's a lectionary? That's another post. Today, the focus is on the single largest type of literature (by number of books) in the First Testament. It is the 'epistle', the letter written by an apostle.
Paul is our big letter writer in the New Testament. Romans to Philemon (and Hebrews?...fodder for another post, or maybe an old one...) are his, or attributed to him (again, another post). They are different from the other letters, like John, because Paul's are named for their addressees, whether congregations or individuals.
James, Peter, John, and Jude are the other letter writers, named for the authors. It seems they are listed in that book order not because of importance as Apostles but on the lengths of their respective works. Of John's three letters, the second is addressed to an unnamed lady and the third to Gaius, both with John calling himself 'the elder'.
The first letter just gets into it. "We declare to you what was from the beginning..." He gives us a broad base of his beliefs, a powerful witness. Best clues as to who the audience is come in the last chapter. John says, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life." Then he closes with "Little children, keep yourself from idols."
It is one thing to have a gospel, a gathered narrative that has a purpose around our Lord Jesus Christ. Every gospel has its own focus and personality, but it is all about Jesus. What do we do with letters?
Reverse engineering maybe. I take this term mostly from military applications. A piece of enemy tech is obtained and then deconstructed, engineered in reverse, to figure out how it works. That works with letters too.
We have half the correspondance. But these are not letters that discuss the weather or how the family is faring. This is 'religio-business' correspondance, which required an investment is time, but also in writing materials, papyrus (maybe) and ink-all hand made, luxury items. Then, it needed to be sent. There was no general postal service, just an Imperial system based in the military. So every word was valuable. So, I am saying these letters were pricey enterprises, so their authors got to the point.
And they were a response. So, when John says 'keep yourself from idols' and it closes the letter, the last line, I believe we can assume there is an issue with idols. When he writes 'to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life', that the question of eternal life is a 'thing'.
Which is why, I believe, 1 John has lent itself to exploring the thoughts, words, and actions of the faith as we express our Love for God and our Love for Neighbor. That is what John is exploring in his letter. Maybe not in an explicit manner like this series of sermons, but definitely in how the faith is expressed and lived.
The story of Jesus, the story of His death and resurrection, the story of our salvation, it is all implicit to the entire text. John does not need to tell it again (he can refer folks to his gospel for more information).
Will we be able to construct the full backstory behind the letter? No. But that is okay. The Bible was written at specific times in the past, to their present circumstances, with an eternal message. The message does not change, but the circumstances do. Understanding that is why the Bible continues to be relevant today. It also mitigates against unloving interpretation that seeks to impose previous circumstances on the present day.
How can it do that? Well, as we like to say, it is 'the Word as inspired by God.' That's a 'church-ish' way of saying "God did it." To read these letters to best effect means we need to understand what they are as literary pieces and why they were written. I hope this helps make reading these books in the bible more accessible.
As always, I am delighted to try and answer questions, and still learning when I get them wrong.
Peace,
Pastor Peter
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