Bobservations Column: "Fervent Charity"

In the Book of Revelation, John proved to us that he was an obedient servant in chapter 1:19. When told to “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;” that is what he did, and with precision. He had seen all of Jesus’ Earthly ministry, and the first century of church history. He recorded all of it: the good, the bad, and the ugly. From the blessings of Christian brotherhood to the errors of doctrine that gained a foothold in one church or another, John made sure he wrote of it. But because of what John had seen during that first century, his First Epistle introduces the need for Revelation 2 & 3. False doctrines, false teachers, and false prophets had quietly snuck into Jesus’ Church, lest any forget Whose Churches these are!
Hence the subject matter of the Epistle we are going through now.