Content related to 1 John

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1 John 3:1-7

Easter 3B

It keeps coming up like a bad burp.  So much of 1 John is lyric.  Few passages talk better about the meaning of love than ones you can find in John’s first epistle.  The opening verses of this third chapter likewise are simply gorgeous, waxing eloquent on the love lavished on us by God our…

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1 John 1:1-2:2

Easter 2B

John wants us to be serious about sin.  Of course, some Christian traditions—my own Reformed Calvinism perhaps leading the pack—have perennially been pretty good about having such seriousness.  As the late Lewis Smedes once wrote (tongue firmly embedded in cheek), “Anyone who knows he’s totally depraved can’t be all bad.” In a more serious vein,…

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1 John 2

I find the letter/sermon in 1 John to be exceptionally pastoral and truthful. Scholars have helped us piece together the conflict that prompted all three letters with John in the name: it’s clear that the community of believers were being bombarded with challenges to core beliefs about Jesus and the nature of things by people…

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1 John 4:1-6

Comments and Observations: I once had a conversation with a colleague about the incarnation. “The incarnation,” she claimed, “is at the center of the Gospel to me. The Good News is that Jesus came into the world at all.” This conversation has stuck with me. While I may not necessarily place the incarnation at the…

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1 John 5:9-13

Easter 7B

Comments and Observations Many scholars have noticed that I John reads more like a sermon than a letter, since it lacks so many of the elements of other New Testament letters: the greeting that usually identifies both author and readers, the introduction that so often previews the issues to be covered in the letter, and…

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1 John 5:1-6

Easter 6B

Comments and Observations This is a hard text to preach in our day, not only because of the complexity of John’s argument, but also because his argument runs counter to the prevailing cultural currents of our age.  That’s precisely why we should preach on it.  Here’s what I mean. The postmodern philosophy that dominates the…

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1 John 4:7-21

Easter 5B

Comments and Observations When I read this passage, I hear the Beatles’ famous song, “All You Need Is Love.”  But I don’t hear John agreeing with John, Paul, George, and Ringo–not completely.  Though he insists on the absolute importance of love, John has more important things to say about love than “all you need is…

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1 John 3:16-24

Easter 4B

Comments and Observations Rarely is taking a test a joyful experience, but the author of I John has woven four tests into his letter/sermon designed to bring his readers joy.  “We write this to make our (yours and mine?) joy complete.”  (I John 1:4) The way to complete joy, he says, is to be sure…

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1 John 3:1-7

Easter 3B

Comments and Observations As I meditated on these words, two pictures from my last church came to mind.  I saw 50 fresh faced, neatly dressed girls, ranging in age from 8 to 13, sitting behind me in the choir loft as I preached from this text.  This was on a Sunday that honored those girls. …

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1 John 1:1-2:2

Easter 2B

Comments and Observations All of the readings from the epistles for the season after Easter are from I John.  That’s an interesting choice, since the theme of I John is certainty, assurance of salvation.  “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know…

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