What the book is
1 John reads more like a sermon than a letter: it has no greeting and no closing. It was written to churches shaken by a split, when some who had belonged to them “went out from among us” (2:19), denying that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh. John writes so that those who remained may know where they stand. He circles round three tests, again and again: believing that Jesus is the Christ, keeping God’s commands, and loving one another. And he says what love is:
This is where love is found: not in our having loved God, but in His loving us and sending His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Two short sentences from it are among the best known in the Bible: “God is light” (1:5) and “God is love” (4:8, 16).
Who wrote it, and when
The letter names no author. Its writer speaks as one of those who heard, saw and touched “the word of life” (1:1), and its language is so close to the Gospel of John, with its light and darkness, truth, remaining, and eternal life, that it plainly comes from the same circle. From the second century it was credited to John the apostle. Many scholars think instead that it was written by a leader of the communities that treasured John’s Gospel, perhaps the “elder” of 2 and 3 John. It is usually dated around AD 90–110, after the Gospel.
How the book is laid out
1 John does not follow a straight line; its themes return in widening circles.
- The word of life (1:1–4): what was there from the beginning, heard, seen and touched.
- Walking in the light (1:5–2:17): God is light, confessing sin, Christ the atoning sacrifice, keeping his commands, and not loving the world.
- The antichrists (2:18–27): those who went out, the anointing, and remaining in him.
- Children of God (2:28–3:24): what we will be, not going on in sin, and loving in deed and truth.
- Testing the spirits, and God’s love (4): the spirit that confesses Jesus Christ come in the flesh, God is love, and perfect love casts out fear.
- Faith that overcomes (5): the testimony of the Spirit, the water and the blood, and knowing that you have eternal life.
How Open Word Bible translates 1 John
The atoning sacrifice (2:2; 4:10). Christ “is the sacrifice that atones for our sins, and not for ours alone but for the sins of the whole world”. The Greek word has long been debated: older Bibles say “propitiation”, a sacrifice that turns away God’s anger; others say “expiation”, a sacrifice that wipes out sin. The draft says “atoning sacrifice”, marks the decision in 2:2 uncertain, and gives both older words in the footnote.
The Johannine Comma (5:7–8). In the King James Version, verses 7–8 add “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one”. These words are in no Greek manuscript before the late Middle Ages; they first appear in Latin writers and copies of the Latin Bible, and came into the printed Greek text from there. The draft follows the SBL text, “there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood”, and the footnote gives the longer words and their history. See The Johannine Comma.
Not going on in sin (3:6, 9). John says that whoever is born of God “does not sin”, yet he has also said that “if we claim that we are free from sin, we are fooling ourselves” (1:8). The decisions read the present tense as a way of life: the one born of God does not go on sinning. Both are marked uncertain, and the footnotes give the other readings.
The sin that leads to death (5:16). John does not say what it is, and the decision says so; the footnote gives the main suggestions, among them refusing Jesus as the Christ and deliberate, persistent sin.
Water and blood (5:6). Jesus “came by water and blood”: most likely his baptism and his death. The footnote gives the other readings, among them the water and blood that flowed from his side.
The key words. The world, truth, believe and eternal life are kept as in John’s Gospel. See also The genitive problem on “the love of God” (2:5).