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Letters of John (1 John, 2 John, 3 John) is a group of three early Christian documents included in collections of the New Testament.

Overview

The community of John does not claim to bear a secret knowledge

“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, that we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life” (1 John 1:1).

“Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God…” (2 John 9).

In the tradition of John, Jesus is the only source of knowledge (the problem here is knowledge not salvation!)

Thomas said to him: “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him” (John 14:5-7)

“Whoever says, ‘I have come to know him,’ but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such person the truth does not exist” (1Jn 2:4).

Love not knowledge is at the center of the Christian life (cp. Paul, 1 Cor 13 ! )

“In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1Jn 4:10).

“If we say that we have not sinned, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us…. If we say that we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar and his Word is not in us” (1Jn 1:8-10; see Paul, Rom 3:9ff ! ).

“Since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another” (1Jn 4:11). “We love because he first loved us” (4:19; see Rom 5:6-11 ! )

“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment” (1 Jn 4:17).

The Gospel of John, which is often called the Gospel of Truth, is first of all the Gospel of Love.

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (13:34-35).

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (15:12)

Paul had expressed in similar terms the relation between knowledge, faith and love:

(1 Corinthians 13) If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

(Galatians 5:6 -- In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.

Distinction between mortal and non-mortal sins

“If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one—to those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin but there is sin that is not mortal” (1Jn 5:16-17).

The reality of incarnation

“Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 John 4:2). “Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” (2 John 7)

The coming of the end

“Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour” (1Jn 2:18).

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