Last week, the author focused on the future hope of seeing God to motivate believers to turn away from sin; this week he calls on the example of Jesus for the same purpose. Like the beginning of the letter, this section is infused with references to the Gospel of John, especially Jesus’s vine sermon (John 15:1-17). As with last week’s reading, it’s important not to take the author’s statements out of context. It is true that the author calls believers to love “in truth and action” and to “obey the commandments” (3:18, 22). At the same time, however, he destabilizes readers who are overly confident in their knowledge of what those commandments actually are by reframing the traditional two-fold summary of the Law. Instead of “you should love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind” and “you should love your neighbor as yourself” (see Mark 12:30-31), he maintains that “we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another” (3:23). Whereas the first framing emphasizes love in both halves, 1 John’s framing subordinates love to faith in Jesus Christ, and the author’s statements on the nature of love and following the commandments should be read in light of this.
Week 3 (7/7/2024): 1 John 3:16-24
Last week, the author focused on the future hope of seeing God to motivate believers to turn away from sin; this week he calls on the example of Jesus for the same purpose. Like the beginning of the letter, this section is infused with references to the Gospel of John, especially Jesus’s vine sermon (John 15:1-17). As with last week’s reading, it’s important not to take the author’s statements out of context. It is true that the author calls believers to love “in truth and action” and to “obey the commandments” (3:18, 22). At the same time, however, he destabilizes readers who are overly confident in their knowledge of what those commandments actually are by reframing the traditional two-fold summary of the Law. Instead of “you should love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind” and “you should love your neighbor as yourself” (see Mark 12:30-31), he maintains that “we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another” (3:23). Whereas the first framing emphasizes love in both halves, 1 John’s framing subordinates love to faith in Jesus Christ, and the author’s statements on the nature of love and following the commandments should be read in light of this.