John's First Letter ...

Perhaps after examining books that may well have been written by the family of Christ, the next place to look from those who knew Him best, would be to the one he called “the beloved”.  John may have been the unnamed disciple who was with Andrew at the side of John the Baptist and left to first follow Christ.  But whether Simon Peter preceded John in joining Jesus, or whether John came just before Peter, we know John was with Him very early in His ministry.  John was the only disciple who managed the courage to attend the crucifixion of Christ and was able to comfort Mary at that horrific time.  John was also the only disciple to die of old age, after being freed from the isle of Patmos where he had been consigned because the Romans were unable to burn him alive in boiling oil.  Every other disciple died a martyr’s death but John.  Perhaps that was because John still needed to be used to communicate to the early church with his writings.  In any case it is interesting to study the inspired works of one who seemed to know Christ so well, and loved Christ so much, that he earned the title “the beloved”.

First Letter to the Church …

The first epistle or book one of John was likely written between 95AD and 110AD, which means it is possible it may have been written after the book of Revelations.  In any case, it was a letter written well into his old age.  With old age, comes the wisdom of experience, and perhaps for those of us less fortunate, the wisdom of regret as well.  But as we age, we gain a clearer and clearer perspective of what it really important in life, and what is not.  It may be that as our mortality starts to become an ever present reality, we begin to lose interest in the unimportant things, and begin to focus more on those things that truly carry meaning.  If this was so in the life of John, then the themes which John focused on, would be those themes he felt were perhaps more important than others.  And what might you expect to be a central theme from one called “the beloved”?  That’s right, LOVE.  But perhaps the greatest revelation ever given the disciple John, was that God Himself … is love.

Chapter One …

In chapter one he begins with an outline of the reality of Christ.  John is clear that the Father God his people had traditionally worshipped had a Son, who was sent to the world and became one of us.  Christ was a real person.  He was more than just the Word of God, or an idea, he was real.  John states He was … “made manifest”.  What is more John offers a reason why this is important; fellowship.  Being near to God, having a close proximity to the God of the Universe, is the highest ambition any sentient being can attain.  John is here drawing a circle and saying to his readers that it is Christ who was real, who makes it possible for you to join with us in the circle of fellowship.  When you join in fellowship with Christ, and those who follow Him, you are also joining in fellowship with God the Father.  Hanging out with Jesus was something his contemporaries might have been able to relate to, but hanging out with God the Father seems beyond the reach of anyone.  Here is John saying, it is just like being with Christ, there is no difference.  And it is because of Christ that your fellowship with God is possible, and therefore is something results in … “your joy may be full”.

Beginning in verse 5 John begins to articulate the character of God.  We have seen the same theme in the writings of Jude and James, where Christians may be tempted to use the forgiving nature of God as an excuse to embrace evil rather than to seek a cure from evil.  John begins by plainly stating that God has no evil in Him.  “God is light” … there is no darkness in Him.  If we aspire to be with our God, and share that fellowship with Him, it will not be done in a place of darkness but in one of light.  How often do we tend to commit our deeds of evil in secret, outside of public view and scrutiny?  Bank robbers wear masks to hide their faces.  Rapists attack at night and in places where they are largely isolated and alone.  Corporate criminals hide behind nameless and faceless business entities that are hard to track, and even harder to prove personal liability.  It is darkness that facilitates hiding our evil deeds.  And there is no darkness in the presence of God.  His light dispels it.

John is equally clear about our own nature.  We are not naturally creatures of the light.  Instead we tend to prefer darkness in our natural state.  Johns tells us in verse 8 … “if we say we have no sins, we deceive ourselves”.  And further in verse 10 … “if we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar.”  John is making the point that none of us are naturally perfect, or naturally inclined to be completely in the light.  We are more like cockroaches that search for a place to hide from the light which reveals our nature.  But this is not a condition we were meant to have to endure.  John, like his contemporaries Jude and James, consistently reveals how salvation from evil works.  In verse 7 he states that … “the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.”  And again in verse 9 … “to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Jesus forgives our past, and by His blood pays the penalty we should have paid. 

But beyond forgiveness, comes the cleansing from ALL unrighteousness.  It is not just our past the Lord is focused on, but also on our present.  In order to walk in the light, we must become like our God who is the source of light.  We do not do this on our own.  On our own we sin, and run from the light.  But as we submit ourselves to Christ, as we confess that we are “unable” to Christ, He forgives and cleanses us.  John is saying to his readers that you do not do it on your own, that would make Him (Christ) a liar.  Rather, all of us need Him, all of us can be forgiven by Him, and more than that, all of us can be made perfect, or cleansed by the work He does within us.

Chapter Two …

In Chapter two John continues by citing the reason for his letter … “that you sin not.”  Now John just finished writing in the previous chapter that we all sin, and that we all have sinned.  What is more he continues immediately after citing this reasoning by saying … “But if any man sin” … and continues again with the mechanism of our forgiveness.  So why would John give a reason he writes when he seems to clearly understand who we are, and that we are all far from perfect?  Perhaps because John is trying to remind us, that the removal of sin from our lives, is the very process of salvation.  As God’s transforming love alters who we are, our sins and even our desire to sin, is what is removed from us.  As we embrace God and forsake the evil of self, we lose the pain our self-focused actions always brought to us and inevitably to all those who care about us.  The removal of sin then, is not a punishment, or a threat, it is a cure, and a relief from the pain in our lives.  John writes to remind us that Christ is the source of this relief.  Even if we fail as the very next thought reveals, we can still go to Christ, and begin again on the process of perfection He offers us as gift.

In verses 3 to 6 John, like James, shows how we can measure whether our faith has been transformative or not.  John, like James, measures our knowledge of God by the actions we take.  When we keep the commandments of God, it is because we are allowing God to transform how we think, what we want, and how we love.  We do not keep His commandments in order to obtain a transformation, but rather because we are undergoing a transformation.  John writes … “in him verily is the love of God perfected:”  Here is where the rubber meets the road, it is ALL about love.  It is love that transforms us.  It is love that was willing to save us.  It is love that motivated the life and actions of Christ.  And when we begin to let Christ change us, and teach us what it means to love like He loved, we begin to walk like He walked.  Love is the motivation behind the law of God, and the actions of God.  When love motivates the commandments can be kept.  When love is not the motivation, there is no way to keep the law.  We can only keep a law we are in harmony with, and this is not our natural state.  We can be transformed to be in harmony with God, and with His law, only as we allow His love to remake who we are from the inside out.

In verses 7 through 11 John reiterates how our saying we love God can be measured against how we love our brother.  When the power of God’s transformative love has truly infected us, and has become our central motivation, we will love like He loves.  God loves us all, even while we are not yet perfect.  Our perfection is not a prerequisite to His love, it is an after effect, and this is a very good thing.  He loves us in spite of our imperfection, and His greatest desire is to see us lifted out of our state of self-inflicted pain.  His love wishes only to see us relieved from the pain we embrace, not continuing to languish in it.  How often Christians look at those still engaged in their public sins and try to avoid “those people”.  How often we look down our noses at them, cast dispersions on them, consider ourselves fortunate not to be them – and still call ourselves by the name of One who would only think to love those very same people with His entire life.  Our God died to save that murderer, that homosexual, and worse that arrogant “Christian” staring back in the mirror.  He did not die because He had to.  He died because He loves, and wants only to save the erring one from the pain of his error.  When arrogance is replaced with humility and submission, Love is allowed to replace it.  When love becomes an overpowering motivation, it is no longer the sin of others we see in them, but the infinite potential God sees, and the infinite value their lives carry with God, and now with us.  This is the transformative effect Love will have upon us, when in humility and submission, we allow Him to perform His work within us.  This is why it is so clear to John, that we can tell a Christian, by how they love.

In verses 12 through 17 John talks again about how we love, and what we love.  When … “the Word of God abideth in you, you have overcome the wicked one.”  This is the nature of salvation.  When it happens within us it changes what we love.  The things of this world are no longer the things we value.  The world around us is obsessed with pleasing self.  Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are not the things associated with God, only with the world.  The life of Christ stands as a shining example of what our God is like.  Christ’s life was one of selflessness.  Our God was our servant.  Our God thought only of us and never of Himself and His own comfort or pleasure.  Instead He took pleasure in seeing freedom from the oppression of the slavery of self, relieved within us.  Our God thinks only of saving us, the children that chose to leave Him.  This is a marked contrast with the philosophy of the world that seeks only to please self, even if at the cost of another.

In verses 18 to 25 John addresses a similar problem as Jude had done.  It was not from the outside that the attacks of the devil would find success against the Christian church, it was from the inside.  People and leaders formerly associated with the Apostles “went out from us, but they were not of us”.  John distinguishes between those who remained in the fellowship of the Apostles and those who chose to break away and preach their own ideas about salvation.  These men are identified for their most heretical disagreement with Christianity – to deny Jesus Christ.  By denying the work of the Son, they cut themselves off from the presence of the Father. 

The work of salvation can only come through submission to Jesus Christ, when that work is denied, bondage to self and sin remain.  Again, a Christian leader who plainly stated they did not believe in the divinity of Christ would have been rejected by those of the Christian faith.  A belief in Jesus is the central tenant of Christianity.  However, to deny the “work” of Christ in saving us, and instead profess a belief in Him, without expressing a need to see Him change us, is to deny His work.  The “antichrists” that John describes were not like the Jews who simply did not believe at all in the divinity of Christ, but those who professed the name of Christ, yet denied Him control over themselves.  Any form of Christianity that denies the work of Jesus Christ within us, and instead seeks to promote the idea that we can through our own will and good works save ourselves from evil falls into the category John classes as “antichrist”.  The opposite of Christ’s selflessness is the self-focus of those deemed antichrist.

In verses 26 through 28 John again reminds his readers to stay steadfast in Him, to keep their salvation based in the work of Christ and not of self.  Only in Christ can we abide to the end.  Only in Christ is it possible to see evil removed from within us.  Only in Christ can we be confident that at His returning our perfection will have been achieved.  If we were to rely on self for our cure, we would inevitably fall short of His perfection and find ourselves wanting to avoid His coming.  But by allowing Christ to do the work of perfection for us, and within us, will not be ashamed at His coming, but rather our righteousness will be born of Him.  John is careful to never take the credit for what is good that is reflected through us.  Rather he always points his readers back to Christ, the source of our righteousness.  Like his contemporaries he is ever mindful of the power of transformative love that Christ brings to each human soul.  Every good thing or good deed that may come our way, does so by the power of Christ to transform how we think, what we want, and therefore what we do.  And behind it all is the love of Christ reflected through us.

Chapter Three …

In chapter three, John begins with perhaps the most astounding words in scripture.  He declares that God’s love for us is so great that we … “should be called the sons of God.”  Notice, John did not say the ‘friends’ of God, or to be accurate the ‘redeemed’ of God.  Most of us aspire to both of those.  But to use a familial analogy in Greek, Roman and Hebrew cultures where parentage on the father’s side determined most of your destiny was a stunning revelation.  All throughout scripture only Christ was ever referred to as the Son of God.  John is here stating that because of the sacrifice of Christ, and the love both He and His Father have for mankind, they are elevating us to family status.  We are beyond the role of best friend, beyond the role of treasured associate, or needed companion – we are to be thought of as actual “sons” of God.  I do not believe this was intended for us to internalize as meaning we are to be given “god-like” powers at some point in the future.  Nor are we to become equal with Christ in stature with His Father, or equal in our abilities to create things by sheer power of will.  But the love that binds us together with God is in fact so strong, that Christ thinks of us, as His direct and immediate family.  The bond of love we best understand is the one Christ uses to show just how intimate he wants to be with each of us.  Christ does not seek a casual, periodic, convenient sort of love relationship with us, but an intense one, one that is always with you, one that is in your face so-to-speak.  His passion for us is so great, He is actually referring to us as His kids.  John marvels at love that is so great.

John continues that he has no idea just what the end of the transformation process will have us looking like.  He is not referring to our physical forms, but to the wonder of transformation that turns our evil horrific lives, into the bliss of perfect service.  The transformation is so radical, so pervasive, so complete that what it will turn us into is something we cannot even imagine.  To be so like Christ that we too look like sons of God, is way farther that humans have the capacity to begin to dream about.  And it is important to note, that Christ finds value in how He loves us.  We often measure God or Christ by their omnipotence, or wonderful power to bend laws of physics, time, or space.  But the simple equations that God created to govern physics are not the rules he values.  God puts value in the expression of love to another without regard to self.  On that score, the life of Christ sets a benchmark of what it means to be devoid of self, and dedicated to the service of others, even your enemies.  The most powerful, being that has ever, or will ever exist, set the benchmark for humility and service.  He did not wield miraculous power to control others, only to relieve the pain of others.  He did nothing for Himself, yet did not leave even one in need unattended.  This is the value God places on existence.  To be like that, is something John has a hard time imagining.

In verses 4 to 10, John again describes what allowing the love of Christ to transform us, looks like.  When we submit to Christ, and allow Him to remake us, allow His love to re-create us, our sin goes away.  We become in harmony with the law of God, which is only a cursory definition of love.  When love itself is our primary motivation, we do not think to steal, or lie, or murder, or cheat.  Love is not expressed in those actions, only pain is.  Love seeks to relieve pain, not cause it.  We begin to sin no more, because love just does not think the same way about life.  The devil sins and violates every principle associated with love, because his first and only interest is in himself.  Anyone who gets in the way of Satan is trampled underfoot by Satan.  His philosophy is in direct contrast with God’s.  Looking out for number one, is Satan’s idea, not Gods.  God is looking out for everyone but number one.  He died to prove it.  Satan is not interested in dying for you, he is only interested in your death.  When the focus of your existence is based in pleasing self, your goals will inevitably come up against the goals of someone else.  When that happens, a self-based philosophy, seeks first to please itself, if someone else has to suffer, so be it. 

Verses 11 to 19 focus on the same theme nearest and dearest to the heart of John, loving one another.  John states it plainly, when you love your brother, the love of Christ is in you.  When you do not love your brother, it is because you have shut out the love Christ from transforming you from what you are today to what you should become.  When you love like Christ loves, you simply cannot ignore the needs of others.  Christ does not fault the poor for their poverty.  He does not blame the alcoholic for his addiction.  He does not condemn the sinner for the fact that they are decidedly guilty of their sins.  Instead He loves.  He seeks to relieve their pain.  He meets the needs of the poor, the hungry, and the naked.  He gives anything He owns to those in need, without a second thought, or moment’s hesitation.  And He brings peace and relief from the self-inflicted pain our sins cause us and everyone that cares about us.  Christ did not make social policy arguments about how we need to teach the poor to get themselves out of their situation.  If someone was sick, He healed them.  He did not give them health lessons about how illiterate they obviously are, or how their bad habits have led them to this fate, or how our stupid decisions lead to pain.  He just healed them, because He loved them, and they needed it.  If they were hungry He fed them.  If they were lonely, He held them.  If they were feeling guilty from their deeds, He forgave them, and then freed them from the bondage of serving self.  This is the life of Christ.  Those who can ignore others in need, do not know who Christ really is, because they have not allowed Christ to change how they think, and how they love.

In verse 20 John describes the mystery of salvation.  He says … “if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart”.  Our nature is not to want to be saved.  Our nature is to ignore or reject God and continue down the path of self-destruction until we reach the demise we crave.  It takes an act of intervention on God’s part to interrupt this natural chain of events, so that we can even be free to make the decision to change our fate, and embrace His redemption.  If left to us, we would choose “under the influence” of our addictive slavery to self, to remain in slavery.  Instead, God elevates us so that we are able to choose Him, without our nature overpowering the choice itself.  Our heart need only remind us of the truth of our failures, to rightly condemn us.  But here too, God is greater than our heart, and His mercy is greater than the truth of our failures.  It is a mystery that His love is so great it can forgive.  But it is this mystery that frees us.

John concludes the chapter by summarizing the keeping of the law in simply loving one another.  John understood motives matter more than actions.  I can refrain from hurting you, without ever loving you.  In so doing I have not truly kept the law.  But when I love you, I do so much more than simply refrain from hurting you, I seek to bring you joy.  When love motivates, it is natural to do good.  When love is absent, no deed accomplishes anything.  It is easy to tell sincerity from mere oral arguments.  I can say anything.  But when I mean it, my words are backed by my actions, intentions, and consistency.  My actions do not create my sincerity, rather they are a result of it.  My actions do not create my intentions, but result from them.  My consistency comes because I mean it, I believe it, and I am not casual about it.  This kind of love can be seen, not simply described.  Christ loves us in sincerity, and John makes the argument that when Christ dwells within us, we truly love each other, and His Spirit is evident in us.

Chapter Four …

John opens with a very practical admonition, to paraphrase he says ‘don’t believe everything you hear’.  Just because a prophet claims to prophesy in the name of God, does not mean he does so.  John recognizes that there are supernatural forces at work in our world, both to redeem mankind, and to work for his utter destruction.  “Spirits” may see beyond our immediate vision, and as such, John does not say to test them by their accuracy.  But he does counsel, we should test them by whether they admit that Jesus Christ came to this world in the flesh, and that He is the Son of God. 

It is also interesting that throughout his letter, John addresses his readers as “little children”.  For it is only as little children that our dependence on Christ for literally everything is recognized.  Our strength in spiritual matters is determined by “who” we allow to abide within us, not as a picture of our own merits, abilities, skills, and experience.  In verse 4 John addresses the “how” we have overcome those who work to our demise … “because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.”  It is not about how “strong” we have become on our own, or the list of various good deeds that help us to defeat the enemy.  Instead, like little children, who are fully aware they need daddy for everything, particularly protection, our enemy is defeated by He who is “in” us.  Little children are not ashamed of their dependence, they are actually happy to know they can depend.  Little children are not burdened with the “work” of salvation, as they realize that “work” is being done for them by Dad.  Little children then, are free to love, free to play, free to enjoy.  When you encounter a Christian who loves first, and is happy, and is playful; my bet would be you have encountered a true little child of God, who has finally accepted the truth of how our salvation works.

In verses 5 and 6 John notes that the transformation is so astounding that how we think changes, therefore what we hear and understand changes.  Ever considered the little phrase … “that does not make sense”?  How many times do we apply logic to our day-to-day decisions and always attempt to make sense of what we do.  Yet when you look at the basic relationship with God, it really does not make sense.  God asks us to believe in what we cannot see.  God tells us He will change who we are, despite the fact that we have been unable to do so.  God often asks us to do things that just do not make sense to the world like … ‘build an ark for a flood no one has ever seen’, ‘step into a Red Sea that has been parted by unseen hands’, ‘look at a snake on a cross to be miraculously cured of a poison bite’.  In our day, as in times past, our God asks you and I, to let go of the illusion of control over our own lives, and submit our every breath to His control. 

The only way that what God asks us to do begins to make sense at all, is when we let go of our own ideas about wisdom, and begin to see things from His perspective.  The fundamental conflict in the universe between good and evil arose, because Lucifer did not trust what God said about the nature of evil.  To Lucifer what God was saying … just did not make sense.  Lucifer trusted his own wisdom on the matter of pleasing self, instead of serving others, and everything that has transpired since has been a tangible lesson in the opposite of love.  This same test of trust is the one we face.  It does not make sense that God can do in me, what I have seen myself fail at time and time again.  But it works.  As such, and like a little child, I start caring less about what the world thinks “makes sense” and start seeing that what God says “makes more sense to me”.  It may well be the difference between seeing things from a logical and tangible perspective, and a dependent spiritual one.

In verses 7 through 12, John again sums up the nature of God.  In verse 8 he says … “for God is love.”  Imagine it, the very things we attribute to love, may well be the composition of God Himself.  Beyond matter and energy, there is love.  Beyond the limits of our imagination, there is love.  Every time you think you have a handle on what love is, it surprises you.  A young couple fall in love and get married, right then they believe they understand what love is.  But introduce a new baby in the mix, and they are both astounded to find, they knew only one dimension of love before, now they see another.  Introduce another child, and even though they have one before, they find a new love in the new relationship they introduce into their family unit.  Even when after many years, their children are grown and gone with families of their own, the love the couple has for each other has grown as well, matured, deepened, become more intense, and when they look back at their youth, they realize just how little they really knew of love.  This is God Himself.  We will never be done knowing who God is.  Just when we think we understand His love for us, it will surprise us.  God never tires of showing us what it means for Him to love us.  He does it before we are even aware of it.  He loves us before we even know who He is.  It is His love for us that draws us to Him and inspires love in us for Him.

In verses 15 to 21 John closes out the chapter reiterating the theme of how love dwells within us.  John tells us that when love dwells within us, that God dwells within us.  The belief on Jesus Christ is the mechanism, love is the result.  In verse 17 John states … “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world.”  Our love is made perfect, we are in effect made perfect.  While it is not our natural state, through submission to Christ, we are made perfect, and the work of this perfection is done inside of us by Christ.  The result is actually boldness in the day of judgment.  We actually have a sense of our harmony and affinity with God.  It is not that we are proud of the changes in us, but that we long to be with God, and upon His return, we are anxious to be with Him.  We would run to Him, rather than to call on the rocks to fall on us and hide us from the brilliance of His coming.  Our boldness reflects a lack of shame, and a harmony with our Lord, and most of all a burning desire to be at His side.  In this His love makes us perfect, the work of salvation from the evil of self, to the beauty of service, this is the work that love perfects within us.

Our perfection then leads us to a lack of fear in the presence of God.  Were there any still hidden desires to sin, we like Adam before us, would tend to run and hide from the revealing light of God.  But due to the beauty of grace, His work, His love has made us perfect from the inside out.  And the beauty of love, is that our God loved us first.  He loved us before we knew who He was.  He loved us, while we still called ourselves His enemy.  He loved us while we still preferred the slavery of pain and death.  And His love works a transformation in us, so that we no longer only love ourselves, but instead love others ahead of self in every way.  The evidence of this transformation is traced back to how we love those we have around us.  We begin to love like Christ loves, unconditionally, fully, without reservation or hesitation.  Thus loving our brother begins to be natural to us.  Those who have a hard time loving their brother are still relying on their own strength to accomplish it.  Humans are frail, weak, and fickle.  It takes a divine remake, to love like Christ loves.  This is a work only He can do within us, and only as we allow it.  So John concludes chapter four.

Chapter Five …

John opens chapter five with a measurement of our love against the commandments of Christ.  The law of love was summed up by Christ in that we love God with all our hearts, and our brothers as ourselves.  Against this standard, only love is measured.  The words “I love you” ring hollow if they are said while I lie, steal, cheat, envy, lust and dishonor you.  My actions over-ride the sentiment said from my lips.  But when by faith, I allow the love of Christ to transform who I am, the commandments of love become part of the very core of who I am, and thus how I love.  The commandments are no longer thought to be a burden or grievous, instead they are like breath, something we do without thinking.  This is the victory over the world, over self, over slavery to pain.  It is our faith in the work of Jesus Christ; it is our submission to Him that brings the victory.

In verses 5 to 10 John enumerates how one God is made of three distinct parts.  Our God is made up of a Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit – three in union, in purpose, united to bring us home.  There are those Christians who do not understand the concept of the Trinity, how one God could be made of three unique entities.  But perhaps this confusion is due to a lack of understanding about love itself.  The very essence of God is to love someone other than Himself, this is easier to accomplish when a Father loves a Son, and a Son loves a Father.  Love expressed both within the Godhead, and to us, the creations of God.  In Genesis when the creation of man is recorded, the words reflect the idea … “let Us make man in Our image.”  Even at the creation of man God is referred to in the plural form, reflecting a family relationship that man was created with the ability to emulate.  We understand the love parent has for child, and as John has pointed out earlier, this is how God feels about us.  We are His kids.

In verses 11 and 12 John details what life itself is.  Life itself is found in Jesus Christ.  Christ is not only our creator and originator of our lives, but life itself is only found in Him.  “He that hath the Son hath life.”  In Christ is everything that makes existence worth having.  Without Christ, our existence would be defined only by our pain, and craving for the relief of death.  A life remade by Christ is a life of freedom from pain.  A life untouched by Christ is an existence bound by slavery to self, and the extreme pain it causes everyone.  When we refuse to allow Christ to remake us, we are bound to our pain.  It is not a threat John is making regarding our salvation, it is a statement of fact – life is found only in the Son of God – those who reject this idea doom themselves to the strength of their own humanity, and thus to the pain of failure they are unable to avoid.  The problem with Islam, and Judaism, and Buddhism, and every other religion in the world is the lack of Christ being able to remake who we are.  Without divine intervention, our best efforts will always be nothing more than an existence of pain, the pain we create, and the pain we endure.

In verses 13 to 15 John assures us that belief will lead to transformation as we submit.  When we submit our will to the will of God, instead of to our own ideas about perfection and how we can save us, our prayers become petitions we can be sure about.  Doubt disappears when we submit what we want, to be in harmony with the will of God.  Instead of putting our own desires first, we seek the will of God to be first in us, and then what we ask of God becomes more about what He wants, and less about what we want.  The key is to be in sync with God, this takes submission on our part, not on Gods.  John writes that we should “know we have eternal life”.  For as discussed earlier, eternal life is found in Jesus Christ.

John wraps up his letter by discussing differences in sin.  There is a sin unto death.  While all sin is bad, when we replace Jesus Christ with something else, when we look somewhere other than Jesus to get rid of our sins, we risk the sin unto death.  There is no way to obtain forgiveness let alone transformation when we look away from Christ.  Idols, whether made of stone, or simply elevated in our hearts because of the financial investment we place in them, lead us to look away from Christ.  Idols by definition lead us to worship self, place value in self.  They serve as a replacement for the actual God our Christ, whose existence is defined by love and service to others, with something incapable of service to others.  Looking in the mirror for the removal of sins, is worshipping at the altar of self, and it is risking a sin that leads only to death, or away from the source of life, Jesus Christ.  John’s final words of his first general letter again reminds us to remain “little children” and to keep ourselves away from anything that would seek to replace the work of Christ within us.