Tag: Apostle John

Today’s passage: 1 John 2:7–11

Focus verse: Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. (1 John 2:10)

John launches into a discussion about an old command and not a new one. Then he pivots just as quickly to talk about a new command. Which is it?

This is confusing until we realize who the author is. John delights in tapping our imaginations with his playful, poetic prose. 

As such, the old command and the new command are one in the same. But John doesn’t tell us what this old/new command is. At least not in this passage. Elsewhere in his letter, it’s clear that this command is love. 

He says this most clearly in 1 John 3:11 when he says the old command, which we’ve heard from the beginning, is to love one another. Later, in 1 John 3:23, he writes that we are to believe in Jesus and love one another, just as he commanded us to live.

To discover more about the old part of this command to love, all we need to do is look at the Old Testament. In a broad sense, all the commands we read there either relate to loving God or loving others, our brothers and sisters. 

Many of the Old Testament commands prescribe the right way to worship God—that is to love him properly—through their rituals and celebrations.

The rest of the Old Testament commands instruct the people how to rightly interact with others—that is, to love them properly through their daily interactions.

We even find these two aspects of love when we look at the Ten Commandments. The first four commands relate to our relationship with God, which is loving him. The last six relate to our relationship with others, which is loving them.

With this as our background, Jesus arrives on earth. He personifies love to his creation. His life and teaching all relate to love, modeling it for us to follow.

When asked what Old Testament command is the most important, Jesus says to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Then he tacks on a second one, to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves.

Everything else we read in Scripture flows from these two commands, and they stand as the greatest of all (Matthew 22:36–40 and Mark 12:28–31).

Anyone who claims to follow Jesus—that is, follows the light or walks in the light of Jesus—but doesn’t love his brothers and sisters is still in darkness. Yet when we love our brothers and sisters as he commanded us, we prove that we walk in his light.

And when we live in the light, we will not stumble. 

Questions

1. Are our lives marked by the love of Jesus? 
2. In the same way that Jesus loved us, who do we need to do a better job at loving? 
3. How can we connect loving God with loving others?
4. How can we connect worshiping God with loving him?
5. What can we do to walk in light?

Discover more about love in John 15:13 and 1 John 3:16.

Tips: Check out our tips to use this online Bible study for your church, small group, Sunday school class, or family discussion. It’s also ideal for personal study. Come back each Monday for a new lesson.

Read the next lesson or start at the beginning of this study.

Discover practical, insightful, and encouraging truths in Love One Another, a devotional Bible study to foster a deeper appreciation for the two greatest commandments: To love God and to love others.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Today’s passage: 1 John 2:1–2

Focus verse: But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. (1 John 2:1)

John’s desire for us is that we do not sin. That’s one of the reasons he writes his letter. Yet if anyone does sin, he reminds us that we have an advocate to represent us to the Father.

Our advocate is none other than the righteous Jesus who sacrificed his life to atone for our sins and for the sins of the entire world.

In a general sense, an advocate is someone who represents us to a person of authority. This may be because we lack access to them or don’t have the ability to properly plead our case. We need someone to stand in for us and speak on our behalf.

A lawyer is a familiar advocate in our world today, often in the courtroom.

Lawyers are expensive and can’t guarantee a successful outcome. However, we’ll realize a much better chance of winning with a lawyer representing us than if we tried to represent ourselves. The lawyer advocates on our behalf.

In a spiritual sense, Jesus is our advocate before his Father. Imagine Jesus standing up when we sin, reminding Papa that he already atoned for them. And since we’ve confessed them, God remembers them no more; he wipes our slate clean.

This is a comforting thought that gives me much assurance, yet I’m not sure if it’s necessary. After all, Jesus and the Father are one, so they both know what the other is thinking. Jesus doesn’t need to remind his Father of anything. Father God already knows.

Yet I like the idea of Jesus as our advocate. If Jesus is for us, who can be against us? (See Romans 8:31).

Most of the time when the Bible uses the word advocate, however, it’s not in reference to Jesus but instead to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also our advocate. How amazing is it that we have both the Spirit and Jesus to advocate for us?

And unlike our human advocates here on earth who are expensive to hire and don’t always succeed, our spiritual advocates work for us at no cost and have a much higher success rate—I suspect 100 percent. 

When we sin—and we will—we need to confess it. Then we can push aside our guilt, because Jesus has already died for that sin, and the Father has forgiven it. In addition, Jesus (and the Holy Spirit) advocates on our behalf.

We can’t lose.

Questions:

1. How should we react to the idea of Jesus being our advocate? 
2. When have we last thanked him for being our atoning sacrifice?
3. What do you think about Jesus and the Holy Spirit both being our advocates?
4. How can we let go of guilt over the sins we’ve confessed and the forgiveness Jesus has provided?
5. When we pray for others, how might we be acting as their advocate?

Discover more about our advocate in Job 16:19, John 14:16, John 14:26, John 15:26, and John 16:7. Yes, most of Scripture’s references to advocate come from John’s writings

Tips: Check out our tips to use this online Bible study for your church, small group, Sunday school class, or family discussion. It’s also ideal for personal study. Come back each Monday for a new lesson.

Read the next lesson or start at the beginning of this study.

Discover practical, insightful, and encouraging truths in Love One Another, a devotional Bible study to foster a deeper appreciation for the two greatest commandments: To love God and to love others.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Today’s passage: 1 John 1:8–10

Focus verse: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

As a young teen, I had a Sunday school teacher who claimed he sometimes would go an entire day without sinning. Granted, he didn’t claim to be without sin, only that he had some days where he avoided it. 

Though he was a godly man and I respected him deeply, I questioned if such a thing were possible. At least I doubted it was for me.

It could be I was too sensitive to sin or wrongly confused temptation with sin, but I wondered if I could even go one hour without sinning, let alone twenty-four.

Today’s trio of verses addresses sin and our attitude toward it. This passage opens and closes with parallel verses that restate the same idea: if we claim to live a life without sin, we delude ourselves. (My teacher only claimed to be sinless for a day, not a lifetime.)

Scripture says that everyone has sinned and falls short of God’s expectations (Romans 3:23). Therefore, if we claim we’re sinless, we make God out to be a liar and do not accept his truth.

Fortunately, we don’t need to wallow in our sinfulness. Sandwiched between these two verses about our sin-filled nature, we find a most encouraging promise. 

John says if we confess our sins, God will forgive them, purifying us from our unrighteousness, that is, from our wrong behavior. We can count on it.

John also writes that Jesus died for the sins of the entire world (1 John 2:2), but we don’t automatically receive his forgiveness. Through this sacrificial death, Jesus has prepared the gift of salvation for everyone. But until we receive his present it’s not ours. 

We can receive Jesus’s gift of salvation when we admit our faults. But to do that, we must first acknowledge that our sins need forgiving.

When we confess our sins, that is, admit our faults to Jesus, we can have confidence in his response of forgiveness. This is because he’s already died for our sins to make us right with Father God.

He will be faithful to forgive. And his forgiveness is because his death satisfied what justice demands. This is what it means when John writes that Jesus is faithful and just.

When we confess our sins, we will receive his forgiveness. This purifies us from all the wrongs we have done and all the wrong things we will do. 

Questions:

1. How do you define sin?
2. Why does the world oppose the word sin?
3. Have you confessed your sins to Jesus and received his forgiveness? 
4. What does confession look like to you?
5. How should we live our life knowing that he has purified us from our unrighteousness?

Discover more about confession in Psalm 32:5, Proverbs 28:13, and Acts 19:18.

Tips: Check out our tips to use this online Bible study for your church, small group, Sunday school class, or family discussion. It’s also ideal for personal study. Come back each Monday for a new lesson.

Read the next lesson or start at the beginning of this study.

Discover practical, insightful, and encouraging truths in Love One Another, a devotional Bible study to foster a deeper appreciation for the two greatest commandments: To love God and to love others.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Today’s passage: 1 John 1:5–7

Focus verse: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)

As John continues in his letter, he moves from fellowship and joy, to talking about the light. God is light. That is, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit give us light.

In their light there is no darkness. The good light of Jesus overcomes the darkness of the enemy where sin and evil abound.

John discusses this light—the light that shines in the darkness—in depth in his biography of Jesus (John 1:4–9). It’s a great parallel passage to today’s reading, with the two smartly complementing each other. But there’s more.

Let’s go back to the beginning, back to creation. Jesus is at creation, and all created things come through him (John 1:2–3).

When creating our reality, God first makes light. He declares that this light is good. He separates light from darkness. This marks the first day of creation (Genesis 1:3–5).

Not only is Jesus—who gives light and is light—present at creation, he’ll also be present at the end of the age. This is when God ushers in a new heaven and a new earth.

This new heaven and new earth will contain a new Jerusalem. This city will not need sun or moon to illuminate it, for God will light it through the lamp of the Lamb, the light of Jesus.

All nations and their rulers will walk by this light and give their glory to it—that is, to Jesus, the light (Revelation 21:23–24). 

From their thrones in the great city, God the Father and Jesus the Lamb will rule. They’ll give light to all, without the need for sun or lamps. In the light of our Lord there will be no more night, with God’s light forever chasing away darkness (Revelation 22:5).

Throughout this we see Jesus as light: at creation, during his time on earth, and for all eternity. And, as followers of him, he is our light today.

The light of Jesus pushes away all darkness.

Now John ties this back to fellowship. If we claim to have fellowship with our Lord yet continue to walk in darkness—that is, in sin—we delude ourselves. But if we walk in his light, we’ll enjoy fellowship with other believers because Jesus has purified us from all sin. 

We may worry that our sinful actions remove us from fellowship and make us liars. But we must remember that as followers of Jesus he has forgiven our sins (Hebrews 8:12 and 1 John 1:9; see Day 5).

This includes both in the past and for the future. As a result, we’re qualified to experience fellowship with one another and with God. 

Thank you, Jesus!

Questions:

1. Have we received the light of Jesus? 
2. What can we do to shine the light of Jesus into the darkness of our world?
3. How can we fully embrace the truth that when Jesus died for our sins, he has forgiven them and remembers them no more?
4. Why do we remember our sins when Jesus doesn’t? 
5. What do you think about Jesus being the light at creation, for us now, and later in heaven?

Discover more about light and darkness in John 3:19–21, John 8:12, and 1 John 2:8–11.

Tips: Check out our tips to use this online Bible study for your church, small group, Sunday school class, or family discussion. It’s also ideal for personal study. Come back each Monday for a new lesson.

Read the next lesson or start at the beginning of this study.

Discover practical, insightful, and encouraging truths in Love One Another, a devotional Bible study to foster a deeper appreciation for the two greatest commandments: To love God and to love others.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Today’s passage: 1 John 1:4

Focus verse: We write this to make our joy complete. (1 John 1:4)

John uses the pronoun we a lot in this letter, over forty times in its short five chapters. Later we’ll see him use we as inclusive language to embrace all those who follow Jesus.

Yet other times, especially in the opening, we refers to himself and a group of unidentified others who join him in penning this epistle.

John now says that their purpose in writing is to make their joy complete. On the surface it strikes me as a self-centered reason. It’s as if he’s not writing for our benefit, but for his, quite simply to experience complete joy. 

Yet when we’re doing what God calls us to do, joy should be the outcome. As we obey him fully, it’s reasonable to expect that we’ll have complete joy.

The word joy appears in over half of the books of the Bible. John uses it in all three of his letters, as well as in his biography of Jesus.

Joy is more than happiness. Some people are often happy, but they’re not as often joyful. We can think of joy as an immense satisfaction or an intense, ecstatic happiness. We can experience joy in an accomplishment or in a situation. 

For example, I feel joy each time I complete a book to share with others. It’s an outcome of being obedient and answering God’s call to do my part to advance his kingdom.

Whether it’s few people or many—I pray that it’s many—I know that my words will affect others on their journey with Jesus. This fills me with joy. 

Even more so, joy fills me knowing that my books are a legacy. They can continue to encourage others in the future, even after I move from this earth to live with Jesus eternally. This gives me even more joy. I might say it makes my joy complete.

In addition to accomplishments, situations can also fill me with joy. 

These seldom occur when I’m alone. They happen when I’m with others, enjoying community with them. It’s times of Christian fellowship—the kind John writes about—that fill me with joy.

In this way, fellowship and joy connect, with God-honoring fellowship producing God-given joy.

Another situation that fills me with joy doesn’t occur when I’m savoring a spiritual connection with people. Instead, it’s when I’m connecting with God.

Though I need to be in the company of others to interact with them, I can interact with the Almighty at any time. 

Sitting with him and basking in his presence in the spiritual realm fills me with joy, an indescribable joy. In fact, I had a time of fellowship with him as I sought his direction on what to write for this chapter.

And the results fill me with joy.

Questions:

1. If our fellowship doesn’t produce joy, what needs to change? 
2. How can we make our joy complete?
3. How can we help others experience joy?
4. How do you define joy?
5. In what ways can we experience joy when we fellowship with God?

Discover more about joy in 2 John 1:4 and 12. Read what Jesus says about joy in John 15:11, John 16:19–24, and John 17:13.

Tips: Check out our tips to use this online Bible study for your church, small group, Sunday school class, or family discussion. It’s also ideal for personal study. Come back each Monday for a new lesson.

Read the next lesson or start at the beginning of this study.

Discover practical, insightful, and encouraging truths in Love One Another, a devotional Bible study to foster a deeper appreciation for the two greatest commandments: To love God and to love others.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Today’s passage: 1 John 1:1

Focus verse: This we proclaim concerning the Word of life. (1 John 1:1)

We notice many similarities between the beginning verses of 1 John and the opening passage of the gospel of John. We don’t know which one John wrote first, but we sense that one informed the other.

It could be that John wrote his letter first and then expanded on the opening verses when he wrote his biography of Jesus. Or it could be the other way around, with John penning his gospel first and condensing the first eighteen verses to begin his letter.

In the opening lines of 1 John, the disciple confirms Jesus’s presence at our world’s formation (also consider John 1:1–2). And John confirms Jesus’s presence during the apostle’s lifetime.

Consider other biblical writers. We can applaud Luke for investigating the life of Jesus to write his biography of the Messiah (Luke 1:3–4). We can also affirm Paul’s experience with Jesus who appeared to him last (1 Corinthians 15:7–8) in a supernatural encounter (Acts 9:3–6).

Yet John reminds us that his knowledge of Jesus is firsthand. He has an eyewitness account of the life of Jesus. Using the pronoun we, John says he’s not alone in his testimony of the Messiah. It was a group encounter.

Along with others, John heard Jesus’s words. John saw Jesus with his own eyes. And after Jesus rose from the dead, John experienced the resurrected Christ, looking at him and seeing his scars (John 20:20).

John writes his letter to tell others of his experience with the Savior. He proclaims what he knows about the Word of life—about Jesus—to his readers then and to us today.

In addition to being the Messiah (the Christ) and our Savior, Jesus is the Word of life. 

Just as the words he spoke brought forth life during creation, the words he spoke during his time on earth brought forth life to those who followed him then—and to us now.

And when we die, the Word of life will bring forth eternal life for us so we can join him and live with him in paradise.

Yes, Jesus is the Word of life. 

And John proclaims the Word of life to the readers of his letter so that we can personally experience Jesus. His kingdom is for us now and for eternity. As the Word of life, he guides us in how to live our lives today and guides us into living with him forever.

Questions

1. What do you think about Jesus taking part in creation?
2. What does the phrase Word of life mean to you?
3. Do you believe in the Word of life?
4. How might John’s firsthand witness of what Jesus did elevate John’s writing above most other books of the New Testament?
5. What do you think about Jesus’s kingdom being for us now and for eternity?

Discover more about the Word of life in Philippians 2:16 and the words of eternal life in John 6:68.

Tips: Check out our tips to use this online Bible study for your church, small group, Sunday school class, or family discussion. It’s also ideal for personal study. Come back each Monday for a new lesson.

Read the next lesson or start at the beginning of this study.

Discover practical, insightful, and encouraging truths in Love One Another, a devotional Bible study to foster a deeper appreciation for the two greatest commandments: To love God and to love others.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Some refer to the book of John as the gospel of love because he mentions the word love thirty-nine times, more than Matthew, Mark, and Luke combined and more than any other book in the New Testament.

In all the Bible, only the lengthy 150-chapter book of Psalms uses love more often.

In John’s much shorter letter of 1 John, love shows up twenty-seven times (and seven more times in 2 and 3 John).

John, it seems, is all about love. And as followers of Jesus, so should we. That is, we should love one another. This is what Jesus tells us to do and what John repeats to us.

Unlike most of the letters in the New Testament, John doesn’t address 1 John to a specific church or person, with content unique to them. Instead, he gives universal truths for everyone.

As such, we can apply 1 John to ourselves to follow Jesus with more intention and greater confidence. 

Questions:

1. What does love mean to you?
2. How well do we do at loving others? 
3. What can we do to love more fully?
4. As followers of Jesus are we known for our love? What does that say about us?
5. How willing are you to consider 1 John as more applicable to us than Paul’s letters?

Discover more about love in John 3:16, John 13:34–35, and 1 Corinthians 13.

Tips: Check out our tips to use this online Bible study for your church, small group, Sunday school class, or family discussion. It’s also ideal for personal study. Come back each Monday for a new lesson.

Read the next lesson or start at the beginning of this study.

Discover practical, insightful, and encouraging truths in Love One Another, a devotional Bible study to foster a deeper appreciation for the two greatest commandments: To love God and to love others.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

The apostle John (not to be confused with John the Baptist) is one of Jesus’s twelve disciples and part of Jesus’s inner circle, along with his older brother James and his friend Peter.

But there’s more. In his biography of Jesus, John refers to himself as the disciple Jesus loved. 

Imagine that. 

Consider that Jesus has many followers. He picks twelve of them to be his disciples and three of them to be in his inner circle, but beyond that John rises above them all as the disciple Jesus loves. (The word love occurs often in John’s writing, which we’ll cover throughout this study.) 

John also wrote five of the New Testament books. Only Paul wrote more. 

As far as the New Testament’s content, John wrote about 20 percent of it. Only Paul and Luke wrote more, about 33 percent and 25 percent respectively.

This clearly places John as one of the top three authors in the New Testament and a leading source of our Scriptural understanding of Jesus and our faith.

It’s interesting that Paul wrote only letters (epistles), while Luke wrote only historical accounts (the books of Luke and Acts). John, however, wrote in both of these genres, as well as a prophetic book, making his contributions to the Bible more holistic.

John is best known for his beloved biography of Jesus (his historical book). Many cite it as their favorite gospel for its poetic language and unique content. 

John is also well known for his epic vision of the end times, called Revelation (his prophetic book). Its evocative imagery intrigues and perplexes readers. 

John’s letters, however, are not as well known. He wrote three of them, which we know as 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John.

This is unfortunate as John’s letters present valuable insights to help us grow in our faith and understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. This is most true of his longest letter, 1 John.

We’ll dig deep into these three letters to mine simple truths and profound insights to move us forward on our faith journey.

Questions:

1. What else do you know about John?
2. What do you think about John calling himself the disciple Jesus loved?
3. Which of John’s five books do you like the most?
4. Which of John’s five books do you know the least about?
5. What are your expectations for this Bible study?

Discover more about John’s writing in Living Water: 40 Reflections on Jesus’s Life and Love from the Gospel of John and A New Heaven and a New Earth: 40 Practical Insights from John’s Book of Revelation.

Tips: Check out our tips to use this online Bible study for your church, small group, Sunday school class, or family discussion. It’s also ideal for personal study. Come back each Monday for a new lesson.

Read the next lesson.

Discover practical, insightful, and encouraging truths in Love One Another, a devotional Bible study to foster a deeper appreciation for the two greatest commandments: To love God and to love others.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.