Bible Study

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general letter to the churches. Further, “Based on the contents of the three letters (1, 2, and 3 John), the way the readers are addressed, the language used, and the concepts involved, many scholars have concluded that these churches shared a common adherence to the sort of Christianity which is reflected in the Fourth Gospel.” It could be supposed that, John, like many leaders today, probably led his followers to see Christianity through his eyes and what he saw with his time with Christ.

LITERARY CONTEXT

In verses one through six, John had just finished telling the readers of 1 John to test the spirits of those around them. Based on the context, there appeared to be some conflict and division going on within these churches. To understand John in context, one must go back to the beginning of the discussion in vv. 7-8 when John writes, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (NASB). This schism and hatred between the churches and the members of the churches was most likely caused by early Gnosticism that indicates why it was important to tell the followers to test the spirits of those around them (vv. 1-6). In his writing, it appears some of the readers had “lost their grip on the clear and vital points of the apostolic faith under the influence of the Gnostic speculations.” Because of this, John opens this portion of the discussion by telling his followers, by what might be able to easily be read in paraphrase as, “Be sure and let us love one another. If you truly have the spirit of God and not the spirit of evil, you will love one another because God is love.”

In the words of David M. Scholer, John gives two standards of the Christian faith and life in his writing. He says, “In 1 John there are two criteria by which true membership in the community is determined: (1) believing in the name of God’s Son Jesus Christ (see 1 John 3:23; 5:1, 5,10,13) or confessing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (see 1 John 2:22-23; 4:2-3,15); and (2) loving one another (see 1 John 3:11; 3:23; 4:7,1112, 20-21). The two tests are expressly brought together in 1 John 3:23-24.” However, as John had probably taught them earlier just not as directly, they had begun to lose these principles and had begun to tend to be more “Christian” in name than in faith and practice. John here had a dilemma in fighting the evils of Gnosticism and what it appeared had taught to his disciples. Many pastors today face similar dilemmas and John’s response to the dilemma he was facing at the time is one that modern day pastors could learn from as well. John’s handling of the conflict and division in his churches are captured in eternity as the standards of the Christian faith and life.

ANALYSIS OF TEXT

Understanding what the author truly meant is important to the reader to take from the text and to apply the truths from the text into his/her life. Because of this reason, in this section, this writer would like to spend sometime studying and analyzing 1 John 4:15-20 and attempting to break down the meanings of various key words to gain a greater analysis of what was originally written to the Johannine community. The passage has been broken down into pericopes (1 John 4:15, 16, 17-18, 19, and 20) for easier study and to gain a greater understanding of what John was attempting to say to his readers. By doing so, it is this writer’s goal to gain a deeper understanding of the passage and to use the information in this passage for personal application as well as application of his readers.

First Pericope: 1 John 4:15

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God”

In verse fourteen, John has just reminded his readers, “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” John continues on with this same frame of thought by stating, “whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God…” The word John uses to describe what should be done whether it is “confess” or “acknowledge” is the Greek word, “ὁμολογέω” or transliterated as “homologeō.” The word is translated as “confesses” in the NASB; however, the NIV (1984) translates this word as, “acknowledges.” It is obvious that there is quite a difference between acknowledging (something that is done in the mind) and confessing (something that is done within the heart and with the mouth). Because of differences like these, it is important to gain a greater understanding of how the word is better translated.

The Greek-English Interlinear New Testament agrees with the use of the word, “confesses.” The Strongest NIV Exhaustive Concordance tends to agree with the idea that “confesses” would be a better translation although the NIV itself translates it differently. It describes the word as meaning as, “to confess, acknowledge, agree, admit, declare; this can be a profession of allegiance, an admission of bad behavior, or an emphatic declaration of truth.” It could be stated that even though some translations may have translated the word, “ὁμολογέω” as “acknowledge,” John had “confession” in mind when telling his readers that they should not just know that Jesus is the Son of God but rather literally confess it with their mouths.

In the second part of this verse John states, “…God abides in him, and he in God.” The word translated as “abides” is the Greek word, “μένω” or “menō.” Warren Messman in his writing of 1 John 4:13-21 says, “The modern translations use ‘dwell,’ ‘live,’ ‘abide,’ ‘remain,’ ‘remain in union,’ and ‘continue in union.’ The range of thought in English demonstrates that the fullness of the Greek word is difficult for us to capture.” Obviously, again, there is a great difference in God “abiding” or “living” in His children and merely “remaining” or “continuing” in union with them. Because of this, it is important to study this word to properly analyze this verse. However, as Messman states, the meaning of the Greek word is difficult to capture and clearly a doctrine of God living inside us, although this is this writer’s opinion, could not be built upon this word alone. The Strongest NIV Exhaustive Concordance lists the meaning as, “to stay, remain, live, dwell, abide; to be in a state that begins and continues, yet may or may not end or stop.”

Final Analysis of Pericope

1 John 4:15 could be best understood as saying, “Whoever confesses [with their mouth and their heart]