Ways and means

"I am writing to you, dear children, because …" 1 John 2:12

If I asked you to read my grandchildren a bedtime story you would not read them the statement the chairman of Shell gave at the 2024 Annual Meeting for shareholders. And if you ask me to recommend something to read in the sunshine by the poolside on your holiday I would not suggest you slog through the pages of your car’s operating manual. All literature is written in a carefully chosen literary style for different types of occasion, even Graffiti, Military Orders and Heavy Metal Music!

And this is the case for each one of the 66 books in the Bible.

So in order to understand all that John is going to teach about how to discern true Christianity from false Christianity we must first consider how to read and listen and watch and study the way the sentences are written, the phrases the author uses, and the words he has chosen to use, (sometimes again and again), to express the points in his developing argument.

When we read 1 John we very quickly see that the letter is written in a distinct style.

For example, notice the three claims he refutes and corrects after he has opened the letter:

"If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness …" 1:6
"If we claim to be without sin …" 1:8
"If we claim we have not sinned, …" 1:10

Think for a moment; what do you think that tells us about the people John is warning the believers about – those he later states are trying to lead the believers astray, 2:26 and 3:7?

It tells us that these people, who had left to form a schismatic church were in different ways denying the inherent sinfulness of humankind.

Again, notice the way John uses doubles in the letter:

There are two leading defining statements about God: "God is light" 1:5, and "God is love" 4:16. The promise of answered prayer is affirmed twice; 3:21-22, and, 5:14-15, and there are several other doubles in the letter.

And, look at the way John uses repeated phrases:

We know that …
… we have come to know him if we keep his commands … 2:3
… when Christ appears we shall be like him … 3:2
… he appeared to take away our sins … 3:5
… we have passed from death to life … 3:14-15
… we have eternal life … 5:13
… we have what we asked of him … 5:15
… anyone born of God does not continue to sin … 5:18
… the evil one cannot harm them … 5:19
… that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may
know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus
Christ. He is the true God and eternal life … 5:20

And, …

This is how we know …
…that we are in him … 2:5-6
…what love is … 2:16-18
… that we belong to the truth … 2:19-20
…that he lives in us … 2:23
… that we can recognise the Spirit of God … 4:2-3
…we recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood … 4:6
… that we live in him and he in us… 4:13

John uses and repeats these phrases to outline the difference between what is true from what is false.