04/18/2021 – Day 336 // I John 1 – 3// 1 of ?/ Intro.; background and little about the messenger, one of the “sons of thunder”.
Once again, I rely on my Haley’s Bible Handbook to provide us with an introduction into this book. Henry Halley places three themes up front for this book: “Jesus is the Son of God / Those Who Follow Him Must Live Righteously / If We are His We Will Love One Another”
And now let’s look at what brother Henry has to share with us:
“This Epistle, like the Epistle to the Hebrews, names neither its Author, nor the Persons to whom it is addressed, though it is very personal, as appears from the frequent use of “I” and “You.” From the beginning it has been recognized as a Circular Letter of the Apostle John to the Churches around Ephesus, to emphasize the Main Essentials of the Gospel, and warn against incipient Heresies which later produced a Corrupt and Paganized Form of Christianity.
John
According to long received tradition, John made Jerusalem his headquarters, caring for Jesus’ mother till her death, and after the destruction of Jerusalem (Jimmy insert – 70 A.D.), made his residence at Ephesus, which by the close of the Apostolic generation had become the Geographic and Numerical Center of Christian Population. Here John lived to great age, and wrote his Gospel, his Three Epistles and Book of Revelation. Among his pupils were Polycarp, Papias, and Ignatius, who became, respectively, bishops of Smyrna, Hierapolis and Antioch.
Background of the Epistle
Christianity had been in the world some sixty or seventy years, and in many parts of the Roman Empire had become an important religion and a powerful influence. Naturally there came to be all sorts of efforts to amalgamate the Gospel with prevailing philosophies and systems of thought.
A form of Gnosticism which was disrupting the Churches in John’s day taught that there is in human nature an irreconciable principle of Dualism; the Spirit and Body are two separate entities; that Sin resided in the Flesh only: that the Spirit could have its raptures, and the Body could do as it pleased (Jimmy note: How conveniant!): that lofty mental mystical Piety was entirely consistent with voluptuous sensual life. They denied the Incarnation, that God in Christ actually became Flesh, and maintained that Christ was a Phantom, a Man in Appearance Only.
In Ephesus, a man named Cerinthus was leader of this cult. He claimed for himself inner mytic experiences and exalted knowledge of God, but was a Voluptuary. Throughout the Epistle it seems that John must have had these heretics in mind, in insisting that Jesus was the Actual, Material, Authentic Manifestation of God in the Flesh, and that Genuine Knowledge of God must result in Moral Transformation.”
Here are some of my own reflections about the messenger:
It is not about the messenger, but keep in mind some of these are “tongue in cheek”, although I’m sure you won’t have any problem identifying which ones those are that provide a chuckle break.
In the book of John, as I noted John referred to himself not by name but as : “the disciple Jesus loved.” He and his biological sibling James were nicknamed the “the sons of thunder” , the brothers from the house of Zebedee. Their mother Mary, in a gospel account comes up to Jesus in a crowd of people and asks Jesus that He grant that her sons would receive a special place at his right-hand in The Kingdom. (Check me on this, this is from memory, and Lord knows, it is not as reliable as it once was…) Well, suffice to say, with all these things considered, I’m sure John was most popular with all the other disciples, excluding his sibling brother James. And sibling brothers being what they are, perhaps there was many an internal argument there as to “who was the greatest”. But as I quoted from Alistair Begg not too long ago: “we must never forget that the best of men are men at best”.
Lastly, I saw a famous actor years ago play the Apostle John in a one-man play production. It was excellent. Of course it suitably covered his banishment by the Roman empire to the island of Patmos, where tradition has it that he ended his days. And perhaps the only one of the disciples that did not die as a martyr , again from “tradition” accounts . If true, that is ironic seeing as how tradition has it that Peter was put on a cross in Rome upside down , by last request because he wasn’t worthy to be put right side up. And too, given the gospel account, after Jesus tells Peter that he will be paraphrased: “taken to where he didn’t want to go”. To which Peter replies , “How about him?” as he pointed to John. To which Jesus replied that it wasn’t of any concern to him.
But I would like to catch that televised play, full length in the near future. God willing, before they “take me to where I don’t want to go.”
Semper Fi by His grace and through prayer, Soli Deo Gloria!