How To Read 1 John

- Have you ever felt shaky or uncertain

when it comes to your faith?

Maybe you've been confused about what's true

or not true and who you should trust.

Maybe you were rattled by something you heard

in a TikTok and it sparked some doubts.

Or maybe someone said something to you

or about you that really hurt

and now that's the soundtrack you hear

in your mind every time you set out to try something new.

Is it possible to find healing

and actually have confidence in what we believe?

You'll have to stick around

and we'll hash it all out together.

(upbeat music)

Well, hello fellow Bible nerds.

I am excited to get to hang out with you all today,

because we're starting a new series.

Together over the next few weeks,

we're gonna take a deep dive,

into what is quickly becoming,

one of my personal favorite books of the Bible.

But before we get there,

as all of us legit Bible nerds know

when we set out to read the Bible,

we approach it with humility and curiosity

by remembering the big idea that Jesus is king

and context is everything.

So, today we're going to apply that filter

to the letter that we call 1st John.

And here's what you need to know about 1st John.

This letter was written to a group of Jesus followers

in the middle of a really unsettling situation.

People around them were abandoning their faith

in Jesus left and right.

These people were struggling to try

and match up the wisdom of Greek culture

with the message they had received about their savior.

And as a result

they kind of just lived however they wanted to,

amidst all the confusion.

They were claiming to know God and belong to him,

but they didn't actually act like it at all.

They thought that they were better than everyone else

and eventually they left their community

and that community of believers

that they left behind was hurt and confused,

about what was even true anymore.

Can you relate to that?

Have you ever had a group of friends

that you were a part of actually just fall apart

and you've had to navigate the hurt and confusion

that came with that?

I know I have.

When I was in eighth grade,

I had a really solid group of friends come together.

It was like all of a sudden I had a place to belong.

I had people who were fun to be around,

who would do Bible study with me

and who helped me grow in my walk with Jesus.

We did everything together.

We served together,

we went to youth group stuff together

and we goofed off a whole bunch as well.

But as we continued to grow up,

things didn't stay so perfect.

Some of us got into relationships that weren't the best

and it pulled us away from community.

Some of us fell into bad influences at school

that ended up causing a lot of harm.

And short of long,

this group of people that I loved being a part of fell apart

in front of my eyes

and it left me feeling unsettled and confused.

What did I need to know to move forward?

What did the people who got

the letter of 1st John need to hear in those moments?

Well, this is what John says to start off his letter.

"We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning,

"whom we have heard and seen.

"We saw him with our own eyes,

"touched him with our own hands.

"He is the word of life,

"the one who is life itself was revealed to us.

"And we have seen him and now we testify

"and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life.

"He was with the Father and he was revealed to us.

"We proclaimed to you what we ourselves have actually seen

"and heard so that you could have fellowship with us.

"And our fellowship

"is with the Father and his son, Jesus Christ.

"We are writing these things,

"so that you may fully share our joy."

This is the intro to the book of 1st John.

And as we look at it today,

let's remember the principles that we have

for reading the Bible wisely.

And first things first,

the Bible is God's word for us,

but it wasn't originally written to us.

So, that leads us to ask a couple of questions.

Who is the author?

Who is the audience and why did they write what they wrote?

Well, what we can learn from this intro

is that the author was someone who was an eyewitness

to the life of Jesus.

And in this case it was the Apostle John,

one of Jesus' closest disciples.

This was a guy who walked up close and personal with Jesus,

throughout his entire ministry here on Earth.

And John makes a pretty big deal

of his personal experience with Jesus in this letter.

And I want you to think about that,

while we move on to the next question,

which is who's the audience?

Well, we talked about how this letter was written

to a group of people whose community had just fallen apart

and it looked like their faith was gonna fall apart with it.

So, why did John write it?

Well, as we move through this book

what we're gonna discover

is that John wrote this letter to help

that community find healing and confidence

by recommitting themselves to be true followers of Jesus.

I love verse four in that intro,

where John says that the letter was written,

so that we could fully share in the joy

that comes from knowing Jesus Christ personally,

like John did.

And that's the context.

And here's the thing,

this book leads us to Jesus right from the very beginning,

because John is setting out

to remind this confused community

that the message about Jesus that they heard at first

is still really good news

and it's news because Jesus actually came

and entered history.

He lived and loved and taught and died and rose again.

And there were people like John who witnessed all of that.

And and that makes it news.

And Jesus's entrance into history,

changed absolutely everything for the better.

That's why it's good,

because Jesus showed us in person

what God and his love are really like.

Said another way,

because of Jesus we can know what God is like

and because we can know what God is like,

we can know what love really is.

This is what John says following that introduction.

"This is a message we heard from Jesus

"and now we declare it to you.

'God is light and there is no darkness in him at all.'

"So we're lying if we say we have fellowship with God,

"but go on living in spiritual darkness.

"We're not practicing the truth.

"But if we are living in the light as God is in the light,

"then we have fellowship with each other

"and the blood of Jesus,

"his son cleanses us from all sin."

So, as John's saying that to walk with Jesus,

we literally physically have to walk

in the light at all times.

Like no flashlights for us?

No, because when we read the Bible we read it literally,

not just literally.

And John uses these metaphors to show his readers

that because of Jesus we can have clarity and intimacy,

instead of confusion and isolation.

One of the central verses in 1st John

is found in chapter four verse 19,

which says, "We love each other because he loved us first.

"We can see what real love is,

"because God showed us through the person of Jesus."

He didn't stay at a distance and make us guess how he felt

or if he was mad or happy or anything in between.

Now, he came in person

and made himself known to us through Jesus.

This is 1st John 4:9 through 10.

"God showed us how much he loved us

"by sending his one and only son into the world,

"so that we might have eternal life through him.

"This is real love,

"not that we loved God,

"but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice

"to take away our sins."

We don't have to be confused,

about where we stand with God or how to live.

John actually helps us make that connection

when he says in the very next verse,

"Dear friends,

"since God loved us that much,

"we surely ought to love each other."

That's why it's important to read the Bible in passages,

not just pieces,

'cause those connections are key.

So, as a recap throughout this letter,

John reminds us of the family that we are invited into

and what it looks like to actually be a member of it.

Because sometimes when it feels like everything

is falling apart,

we just need to be reminded that it's not actually

that complicated and we aren't actually alone.

This letter is clear and at times really confrontational,

because the Bible was written to transform us

and not just inform us.

It speaks to us today

and invites us to become more like Jesus.

So, what can we do now?

I would challenge you guys to start reading 1st John,

it's only five chapters long.

So, just take a chapter a day for the rest of the week

and study it

and see what God wants to say to you through this letter.

And then if you get stuck

or need a reminder about any of these principles,

about reading the Bible wisely,

go ahead and check out the "Bible Nerds 101" playlist

and just brush up on your skills.

And as always,

keep tuning into "Bible Nerds,"

because we love to process with all of you

and we're gonna keep digging apart this letter

of 1st John together.

So, with all that being said,

keep on reading and stay nerdy.