An Introduction to 1 John
The epistle of 1 John is one of the most powerful, cram-packed books in the Bible. There is so much truth and practical application in such a very small letter. It’s truly awesome - and it is relevant even in our culture today. In fact, John Stott once wrote that “John’s three letters struck me as still extraordinarily relevant to the current scene in the world and the church.”[1] I’d like to spend some time pulling out some of those truths to see how they might apply in our Christian walk.
We all have such short online attention spans. Therefore I want to keep these articles short, meaning I will only be able to deal with small sections of 1 John at a time. That means it will take quite a few articles to work
through the whole letter, but I believe it will be worth it because of the wealth of truth this epistle has to offer.
Today’s article is will essentially introduce the blog series and the epistle in general.
Of course, most conservative Christian scholars believe wholeheartedly that this letter was written by the Apostle John. My ESV Study bible says that the epistle was written in the 90s A.D. According to John MacArthur,[2] the fact that there are no mentions in the letter of Emperor Domitian’s persecution (which began in 95 A.D.) suggests that it was written in the early 90s. This means that more than likely, he wrote this letter during the time he lived in Ephesus.
Most commentaries agree that the reason the letter was written was to address certain false teaching in the church, most likely Gnosticism. However, in reading through 1 John, a dominant theme begins to emerge. That theme is the idea of fellowship, or in the Greek, koinonia. Certainly, not every thing John deals with in 1 John ties directly into this theme, but the letter as a whole is all about what it means to be a part of the fellowship – to be IN Christ. Love, which is a key component of fellowship, is addressed throughout the letter and will come up repeatedly as part of these articles.
Because fellowship is such a dominant theme of 1 John, I have adopted that as the main title of these articles. As such, I’m adopting 1 John 1:7 as the key verse for the series:
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we
have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us
from all sin. ESV
I would encourage you to memorize
this verse.
To finish out this introductory article, let’s take a moment and focus on that word, fellowship – or, as it occurs in the Greek, Koinonia. When we think of fellowship in the context of the church, we almost always think of getting together to eat. At least I do, especially as a Southern Baptist. We Southern Baptists love our potluck dinners. In fact, if you mention “let’s have a fellowship” there is an extremely high probability that whatever gets scheduled will have a meal as part of its primary focus - and I can assure you that meal will almost always include some good old fashioned southern fried chicken. To our fault, while Koinonia may encompass this concept of fellowship, that’s not really what John has in mind here.
Similarly, outside the context of church, we think of fellowship in terms of hanging out together, maybe visiting with friends, maybe watching sports together, or playing games like UNO or Bridge or spades. Again, Koinonia may encompass all that, but it is also so much more than that. Let me give you my personal definition of Koinonia as I understand it.
Koinonia:
The act of sharing and participating in life through a close personal bond.
Think about the many things that may bond us. We can have koinonia because we belong to a football team, in which case it is the football game that binds us together. We can have koinonia because we are part of a quilting club, in which case it is quilting that binds us together. There are many ways in which we can be bonded together to form koinonia.
But for the church, that bond is something altogether different and special. For the church, the close personal bond that ties us together is Jesus Christ. In other words, when we talk about the fellowship of believers – that is, the church – our koinonia is not getting together to eat, and it is not getting together to watch a football game. We have been bound together as a family of God, adopted as children of God through our faith in Jesus Christ. He is our savior, or Lord, and our brother, making us brothers and sisters IN CHRIST. It is a bond that supersedes all other bonds, even the familial bonds of blood.
Our koinonia is being a close part of one another’s lives as if we were family – living our lives FOR Jesus. That is how we are intended to be as a church. The church is not a place where we come on Sunday and then we don’t really see each other again until the next Sunday. That’s not church. If we are going to live as and function as a church in the way Jesus called us to live and function – we must figure out how to move beyond surface “fellowship” to true koinonia – true fellowship in Christ.
The next couple of articles are going to focus on 1 John 1:1-10 and will dig more into this idea of fellowship. In fact, we will look at three important aspects of fellowship resulting from chapter 1 of 1 John:
The Prerequisite of Fellowship,
and
The Result of Fellowship
I encourage you to read 1 John – at least 1 John 1:1-10 before moving on to the next article. If it is not already out there, be looking for it over the next few days.
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge
of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For
who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has
given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and
to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Romans 11:33-36 (ESV)
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