#100 To The Family in Christ | 1 John – Part 1 CH. 1-3

#100 Welcome to Episode #100 of Way of the Bible podcast. This is our fourth of eight episodes in our thirteenth mini-series entitled, General Epistles | James to Jude. On this episode, To The Family in Christ, we’re going to overview the first three chapters of the book of 1 John.

John the Apostle, the disciple who Jesus loved (Jn 21:20), is believed to have written his gospel first, then the epistle of 1 John, and then the book of Revelation sometime between 90 and 100 AD. He noted in the gospel of John, that it was written in hopes the readers would believe in Jesus and have eternal life in his name (Jn 20:30-31). He noted in the epistle of 1 John, that it was written that the readers would live eternal life now believing in Jesus’ name (1 Jn 5:13). And in the book of Revelation he noted, that is was written for believers to see the things that were, that are now, and the things that are to come (Rev 1:19).

We’ll see what John addresses is not, the life in the body (the church). The other epistle writers addressed this topic in great detail. John is addressing how to live eternal life in the family of God. Or put another way, what family life in-Christ should look like. 

Having just studied out the book of 1 John for this episode my sense is the Holy Spirit through John encapsulated the entire new testament from Matthew to Jude in one short five chapter book. The spirit would bring remembrance to me passages from the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and the epistles by Paul, the writer of Hebrews, Peter, James, and Jude. And of course all these tie back hidden passages of the Old Testament revealed in the New. All this to say it is one packed book that is best studied verse by verse. My hope on this episode is to give you a flavor of what to expect on your own journey into the book of 1 John.

With that as a brief introduction, let’s jump into the text.