The world, taken in one sense, is one of the three great adversaries of the Christian. The three adversaries are, respectively, the world, the flesh, and the devil. All three are found in this passage. “. . . And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will …
Not Shades of Twilight
Throughout the book of 1 John, we see detailed treatments of three basic tests of genuine Christianity. They are the moral and ethical (keeping God’s commands), the familial (loving one another), and doctrinal (believing the truth). In this passage of his letter, we find John addressing the first two of these. Now by this we …
Evil “Sinlessness”
From the prologue we might have expected John to begin his “argument proper” with a discourse on the incarnation of Christ. But although his preamble begins with a strong assertion of the Incarnation, when he begins to interact with the teaching of antichrist, he begins at another place entirely. He begins with the moral issue. …
Cerinthus the Antichrist
All passages of Scripture must be understood in context, but some by their nature require more contextualization than others. First John is one such book. Without an understanding of the errors it was written to refute, the necessary result will always be more error, or at the very least, more confusion. That which was from …