LETTERS (EPISTLES) OF ST. JOHN
INTRODUCTION
Saint John the Apostle is considered the author of these letters, written soon after his gospel. The purpose of the letter is to combat certain false ideas, especially about Jesus.
The letter is of particular value for its declaration of the humanity and divinity of Christ as an apostolic teaching and for its development of the intrinsic connection between Christian moral conduct and Christian doctrine.
1 JOHN CHAPTER 2
My children, I am writing this to you so that you may not commit sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. He is expiation for our sins…The way we may be sure that we know him is to keep his Commandments.
Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him. This is the way we may know that we are in union with him. Whoever claims to abide in him ought to live [just] as he lived.
[REFLECTION
Jesus is the Way, The Truth, and the Life John 14:6 Jesus is the way to the Father. Jesus is the fork in the road we must choose. To do otherwise by choosing any other god of this world is the road to destruction leaving collateral damage in our wake as we pursue our way over God’s.]
BACK TO JOHN’S EPISTLE, 1 JOHN CHAPTER 2:7
The New Commandment
[“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. Matthew 5:17]
Beloved, I am writing no new commandment to you but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. And yet I do write a new commandment to you, which holds true in him and among you, for the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is nothing in him to cause a fall. Whoever hates his brother is in darkness; he walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes…
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself
LUKE 10:27
I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one. Do not love the world or the things of the world.* If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, sensual lust,* enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world…
SATAN IS A LIAR JOHN 8:44
I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth. Who is the liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ; whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the Antichrist. No one who denies the Son has the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well.
Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made us: eternal life….
Children, remain in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be put to shame by him at his coming. If you consider that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by him.
I AM THE VINE YOU ARE THE BRANCHES
JOHN 15:5