Insights on 1, 2 & 3 John, Jude

Charles R. Swindoll

• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781414393742
• eBook ISBN: 9781496410610

The four short letters of 1-3 John and Jude deliver powerful messages of correct living in a wrong world and are as relevant today as they were in the first century. Written near the end of the John's life, 1 John was meant to revive the faith, love, and hope of his readers and encourage them to renew an authentic, contagious walk with Christ. Like two siblings, 2 and 3 John are letters with unique personalities but also some striking similarities, each taking a unique approach to a single, urgent message: balance unconditional love with discerning truth.

Jude, the brother of Jesus, writes with a twofold purpose: expose the false teachers that had infiltrated the Christian community, and encourage the believers to stand firm in the faith and fight for it.

The 15-volume Swindoll's Living Insights New Testament Commentary series draws on Gold Medallion Award–winner Chuck Swindoll's 50 years of experience in studying and preaching God's Word. His deep insight, signature easygoing style, and humor bring a warmth and practical accessibility not often found in commentaries. Each volume combines verse-by-verse commentary, charts, maps, photos, key terms, and background articles with practical application. The newly updated volumes now include parallel presentations of the NLT and NASB before each section. This series is a must-have for pastors, teachers, and anyone else who is seeking a deeply practical resource for exploring God's Word.

INSIGHTS ON 1, 2 & 3 JOHN

Here, nearing the end of his life, with clarity of perspective and singularity of purpose, the Lord’s “beloved disciple” sought to revive the faith, love, and hope of his younger readers. He hoped to encourage them to renew an authentic, contagious walk with Christ. And his message of right living in a wrong world is as relevant today as it was then.

1, 2 & 3 JOHN

INTRODUCTION

In the twilight of his long life, the apostle John gathered his thoughts, surveyed the landscape of the world around him, and then sat down with parchment and ink to sum up his final words to the churches.

So much had changed since he had walked with Jesus as one of the original Twelve. Those brief but impactful three-plus years John spent with Jesus were followed by six long and painful decades. Erosion had set into the life of the church. In many places, the newness of fresh faith had begun to wane now that the church was in the hands of second- and third-generation Christians. A subtle, lethargic boredom had replaced the excitement modeled by those early followers of Jesus. The initial thrill had subsided, the bright flame of devotion reduced to a flicker.

In a setting like that, the subtle seeds of heresy are easily sown and rapidly grown. Cults feed off complacent churches, where ho-hum indifference replaces dynamic enthusiasm. Also, over the course of time, core values like truth, love, and hospitality can begin to be compromised, misdirected, and abused. Tragically, these scenarios were playing out in the church of John’s day —and that’s precisely what led him to write these letters.

1 JOHN

When he wrote the letter known today as 1 John, it’s likely that the aged apostle had more years behind him than he had months ahead of him. He was probably somewhere between 88 and 93 years of age. Let’s just call him a 90-year-old man. Isn’t it remarkable that a man at that age was so in touch with his times? In fact, I would argue that because of his age, he saw more clearly than ever. And that’s what troubled him enough to write this letter.

Here, nearing the end of his life, with clarity of perspective and singularity of purpose, the Lord’s “beloved disciple” sought to revive the faith, love, and hope of his younger readers. He hoped to encourage them to renew an authentic, contagious walk with Christ. And his message of right living in a wrong world is as relevant today as it was then.

THE AUTHOR, PLACE, AND DATE OF 1 JOHN

Although the author of this five-chapter message never names himself, several clues point us to the writer’s identity. First, the author clearly places himself as part of a group of apostolic eyewitnesses to the life and ministry of Jesus, noting that “what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also” (1 Jn. 1:3). This narrows our pool of potential candidates and points us to one of the original disciples of Jesus. But which one?

We are helped by the fact that the language, style, and themes of this letter are similar to those found in the fourth Gospel. Although the author of the fourth Gospel is also unnamed, it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to narrow the possibilities to one. The author of the fourth Gospel refers to himself indirectly as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20). This is undoubtedly a reference to the apostle John for a few reasons. First, he had to be one of the twelve disciples who had personally witnessed the events about which he wrote. In John 21:24, the author said, “This [disciple whom Jesus loved] is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.” Second, because the description “the disciple whom Jesus loved” implies a close, personal relationship with Jesus, it’s most likely that the author was one of the three disciples in Jesus’ “inner circle” —Peter, James, or John (Matt. 17:1; Mark 5:37; 14:33). Third, the author couldn’t be Peter because he distinguishes himself from Peter (John 20:2), and he couldn’t be James because James was martyred too early to have written the Gospel (Acts 12:2). This leaves only one reasonable conclusion for the authorship of the fourth Gospel: John, the son of Zebedee and brother of James (Mark 3:13-17).[1]

Because we have great confidence regarding the authorship of the Gospel of John, we can rely on that knowledge to determine the author of 1 John, which we can then use to determine the authorship of 2 and 3 John. One commentator of yesteryear describes the reasoning this way: “If the Gospel were wanting, we might be in doubt as to who wrote the Epistles. If the First Epistle were wanting, we might be in doubt as to who wrote the two short Epistles. If the Second Epistle were wanting, we should certainly be in serious doubt as to who wrote the third. But as it is, there is no room for reasonable doubt.”[2]

Because of the close relationship between John’s Gospel and the first of these three epistles (1 John), we can identify John as the author of this letter as well. And because of the relationship between 2 and 3 John and their common relationship with 1 John, all the puzzles about authorship fall into place.

The clarity of the authorship of John’s Gospel helps us determine the authorship of 1 John, which in turn helps us determine the authorship of 2 and 3 John.

Besides this evidence, among the earliest Christians there was little doubt that the apostle John wrote the fourth Gospel as well as 1 John. In fact, both of these books are included as authentic works of John in the Muratorian Canon, a list of New Testament books used in the church of Rome in the middle of the second century:

The fourth book of the Gospels [was written by] John, one of the disciples. . . . What marvel therefore if John so firmly sets forth each statement in his Epistle too, saying of himself, “What we have seen with our eyes and heard with our ears and our hands have handled, these things we have written to you”? For so he declared himself not an eyewitness and a hearer only, but a writer of all the marvels of the Lord in order.[3]

Already, in the early second century (around AD 110), one of John’s disciples, Polycarp of Smyrna, offered a paraphrase of 1 John 4:2-3, when he wrote, “For everyone who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is an antichrist.”[4] In the next generation, Irenaeus of Lyons, a disciple of Polycarp, clearly linked the Gospel of John and 1 John as written by the disciple of that name:

John, the disciple of the Lord, verifies [this], saying: “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have eternal life in His name.” . . . For this reason also he ha...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Author’s Preface
• The Strong’s Numbering System
• Insights on 1, 2 & 3 John
• 1, 2 & 3 John: Introduction
• A Joyful Life (1 John 1:1-10)
• A Clean Life (1 John 2:1-17)
• A Discerning Life (1 John 2:18–4:6)
• A Confident Life (1 John 4:7–5:21)
• Insights on Jude
• Jude: Introduction
• A Manual for Survival (Jude 1:1-25)