Pastor Brad Franklin uses N.T. Wright's book, The Letters of John, to guide us through 1 John. These nine studies from Tom Wright help us become believers who are "walking in the truth" in our own day--people in whom the very life of God is at work for all to see.
Watch this episode on our YouTube Channel at:
https://youtu.be/ojT329-waKM
Study Guide:
1. Read 1 John 2: 3-11. Obeying or disobeying God’s commandments would appear to be a matter of externals—what we do or refrain from doing. How does John explain obedience as a matter of the heart (vv. 3-6)?
2. Why does obedience to God give us assurance that we know him?
3. John does not overtly state the “old command” (vv. 7-8). From the context, what is this command?
4. John says the old command is also the new command. But while there is similarity and continuity between the two, in what way is the new command actually new?
5. In verses 3-6 John writes that if we say we know God but don’t keep his commands, we’re liars. How does verse 9 offer a similar thought but in a different way?
6. John writes serious warnings about hating a family member in Christ (vv. 9-11). How are conflicts destructive for those on both sides of a dispute as well as for the church as a whole? For John, as for Paul, and above all as for Jesus, the commandments are all summed up in one word: Love. The Life of God’s New Age is revealed as the Love of God’s New Age. All other commandments—the detail of what to do and not to do—are the outflowing of this love, the love which has been newly revealed in Jesus, the love which God now intends should be revealed in and through all those who follow Jesus.
7. Given John’s warnings about hating a fellow believer, how should we respond instead when we find ourselves in deep disagreement with people in our fellowship or the church broadly?
8. Read 1 John 2: 12-14. How does John’s style of writing change from the preceding passage?
9. John addresses several groups of people. What does he say each group has known or experienced?
10. Following his stern warnings in 2: 3-9, how are these words now an encouragement?
11. Sometimes when we sing hymns, the hymns tell a story. There is something satisfying about this. We feel we have been on a journey and have arrived somewhere. But in some traditions the songs we sing in church are deliberately repetitive. We use them as a way of meditation, of stopping on one point and mulling it over, of allowing something which is very deep and important to make an impact on us. Repetition can touch, deep down inside us, parts that other kinds of hymns cannot reach, or do not very often. In verses 12-14, John breaks into a sing-song, repetitive formula. Perhaps we shouldn’t try to analyze it in strict terms but rather appreciate it as a meditation, a long, lingering gaze at his audience and what they need, at the way God works in people’s lives. Perhaps it’s only as we give ourselves to the strange, haunting repetition that the meaning will begin to sink down into us. As you let the repetition of these verses sink in, what effect does it have on you?
12. How do the themes in 2: 12-14 offer a summary of what John has written about so far?
— The Letters of John (N. T. Wright for Everyone Bible Study Guides) by N. T. Wright
