I JOHN: INTRODUCTION

“Attempts to trace a consecutive argument throughout I John have never succeeded,” in the view of F. F. Bruce, as many other students of this work would agree. That situation has led scholars to search for a more literary, rather than logical, structure to better follow the author’s flow of thought.

Verses 1:1-4 These four verses are a single sentence in the Greek and are almost unanimously regarded as the prologue to the work. In the same way, I John 5:6-21 can be seen as its epilogue epistle (Read 5:6-9). It has been pointed out that these two passages share similarities with each other and with the conclusion of John’s Gospel. Look at the purpose for writing in each.

“We declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.” (I John 1:3)

“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.” (I John 5:13)

“These signs are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31)

The body of the book organized around several attributes, or tests, of a true Christian. They have been variously identified by scholars:

Grayston-- (a) belief in Jesus as the Son of God and (b) brotherly love within the Christian community.

von Wahlde-- (a) belief in the name of Jesus = keeping his word and (b) brotherly love.

Barker-- (a) belief in Jesus and (b) love = obedience.

P. R. Jones-- (a) God is light, (b) God is righteousness, (c) God is love.

Kistemaker-- (a) Walk in the Light, (b) Believe in Jesus, (c) Love God

But these themes do not occur in large discrete sections. Grayston notes, “The repetitions which every reader notices are deliberate. Nothing is acceptable until it has been said, and repeated, and confirmed.”

According to my analysis, the repeated literary units appear to cluster around the following three themes describing evidences or characteristics of the Christian life:

1. Love, especially of Christian brothers and sisters. Key words under this theme are “love” and “hate.” Read 3:11-18 1. If you hate, you are a murderer like Cain. 2. Show love in concrete ways.

2. Belief, or doctrinal emphasis, especially regarding the person of Jesus Christ. The words “truth,” “liar” and “know” are especially prominent in these sections. Read 4:1-6 One form of heresy that was apparently around at the time involved the theory that Christ only borrowed Jesus' earthly body and left it on the cross. Islamic teachings similarly deny that God would have let Christ die in such a manner.

3. Obedience – an ethical emphasis sometimes expressed more in terms of its opposite, sin. Read 3:4-9 What about the statement that a Christian can't sin? The opposite idea is expressed in 1:10 and a sort of compromise in 2:1.

The question is: which of these characteristics is the most importance?

One way of looking at the the letter is to state that John purposely presented his ideas in such a jumbled and complicated fashion in order that one characteristic would not stand out above the others. Thus, all three are equally important.

However, I have found that there are at least two ways in which the literary structure of the letter can be analyzed. According to both proposals, there are 17 sections in the epistle. This alone is significant since that is a number of symbolic significance to the Apostle John in both his Gospel and the Book of Revelation. This helps to confirm the traditional authorship of the work. Also, the root word agape defining the “Love” sections appears in the epistle a total of 51 (17 x 3) times in this letter – interesting since John was the apostle whom Jesus loved.

Of the 17 sections, in addition to those devoted to one of the three themes, there are miscellaneous sections falling into three clear categories: summaries of the three major themes (3:19-24 and 5:1-5), words of reassurance (2:12-14, 3:1-3 and 5:13-20) and commands (2:15-17, 2:26-29 and 5:21).

Without going into all the detailed analysis involved, the conclusion one draws from both of the proposed structures for the book, there are a number of clear indications that the most prominent theme in John's eyes is that of “belief.” Thus, John follows in this epistle the well known pattern of Paul by emphasizing the (at least temporal) priority of Christian belief over living an obedient Christian life. This makes perfect sense since without first coming to Christ there is no hope for us with our own resources to either keep the commandments of God or truly demonstrate love to others.