I JOHN 5:21

I John 5:21 John’s 1^st letter ends rather abruptly. “Dear children, keep yourself from idols.” It is a single sentence that seems to start a new subject, but the letter just ends here. I noticed in the 2^nd and 3^rd letters that John ended with greetings. What do scholars say about this ending? Is our copy of the letter thought to be incomplete?

Very perceptive! If you also look at the start of I John, you will notice that there is no opening greeting or prayer of thanksgiving. No one that I know of has suggested that the ending is incomplete, but many have questioned whether it should really be called a letter at all.

There are two basic approaches one can take here. The first starts with a realization that the standard form of ancient letters was merely a guideline for authors. Paul, for example, occasionally departs from the usual letter format by leaving out or expanding one element or another. So we can allow John, in this particular letter, to frame it in the manner he wishes and leave out the standard opening and closing elements.

The more common approach, however, that scholars take is to view I John as either a circular letter addressed to more than one specific church, a short sermon by John, or a tractate (dissertation or treatise). Similar suggestions have been made concerning Hebrews, which is missing the opening addresses and greetings. Brevard Childs (The New Testament as Canon: An Introduction) outlines these suggestions and points out some of the difficulties with each option.

Whatever the solution to the unusual form of I John turns out to be, almost all scholars agree that it is doubtful that John was worried that his audience would actually be tempted to literally worship foreign idols. I. Howard Marshall's explanation for this concluding verse is that it (a) refers to being misled into following false concepts of God or (b) is another way of saying “keep yourself from sin.” (The Epistles of John, p. 255) Either of these options would fit in well with the three basic thrusts of I John: proper doctrine, keeping the commandments, and loving one another.