Showing posts with label God is Light. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God is Light. Show all posts

Sunday, April 26, 2020

Teaching Notes Book of FIRST JOHN Chapters 1 and 2

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Teaching Notes Book of FIRST JOHN Chapters 1 and 2

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Hugh Wood, Atlanta, Georgia





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Papyrus 9 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering),  P9, and named Oxyrhynchus papyri 402, is an early copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the First Epistle of John, dating paleographically to the early 3rd century.

Papyrus  P9 was discovered by Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt. Papyrus 9 is currently housed at the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Semitic Museum Inv. 3736, Cambridge (Massachusetts).

The surviving text is a fragment of one leaf containing verses 4:11-12,14-17, written in one column per page. The original codex had 16 lines per page. The text on the manuscript was written very carelessly, evidenced by the crude and irregular handwriting, and the manuscript contains some unintelligible spellings.


Papyrus 74  designated as P74, is a copy of the New Testament in Greek. It is a papyrus manuscript of the Acts of the Apostles and Catholic epistles with lacunae. The manuscript paleographically had been assigned to the 7th century.



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The first Quarantine in the USA since 1918 continues.  It is Day 44.

ZOOM Church today.  Still very strange.

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"The grass withers and the flower [fades], but the word of [the Lord] endures forever."  Isaiah 40:8; 1 Peter 1:24-25.




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1 JOHN

Jesus is the Son of God
Those who Follow Him Must Live Righteously
If We are His We Will Love One Another

This Epistle, like the Epistle to the Hebrews, names neither
its Author, nor the Persons to whom it is addressed, though it is
very personal, as appears from the frequent use Of “I“ and “You".
From the beginning it has been recognized as a Circular Letter
of the Apostle John to the Churches around Ephesus, “to empha-
size the Main Essentials of the Gospel, and to warn against in-
cipient Heresies which later produced a Corrupt and Paganized
Form of Christianity.

According to long received tradition, John made Jerusaiem his
headquarters, caring for Jesus‘ Mother till her death, and. after
the destruction of Jerusalem, made his residence at Ephesus.
which by the close “oi the Apostolic generation had become the
Geographic and Numerical Center of Christian Population. Here
John lived to great age, and wrote his Gospel, his Three Epistles.
and Book of Revelation. Among his pupils were Polycarp, Papias,
and Ignatius, who became, respectively, bishops of Smyrna, Hier-
apolis, and Antioch.

Background of The Epistle

Christianity had been in the world some sixty or seventy years,
and in many parts of the Roman Empire had become an important
religion and a powerful influence. Naturally there came to be
all sorts of efforts to amalgamate the Gospel with prevailing
philösophies and systems of thought.

 A form of Gnosticism which was disrupting the Churches in
John’s day taught that there is in human nature an irreconcil-
able principle of Dualism: that Spirit and Body are two separate
entities: that Sin resided in the Flesh only: that the Spirit could
have its raptures, and the Body could do as it pleased: that lofty
mental mystical Piety was entirely consistent with voluptuous
sensual life. They denied the Incarnation, that God had in Christ
actually become Flesh, and maintained that Christ was a Phantom,
a Man in Appearance Only.

In Ephesus a man named Cerinthus was “leader of this cult.
He claimed for himself inner mystic experiences and exalted
knowledge of God, but was a Voluptuary. Throughout this Epistle
it seems that John must have had these heretics in mind, in in-
sisting that Jesus was the Actual, Material, Authentic Manifesta-
tion of God in the Flesh, and that Genuine Knowledge of God
must result in Moral Transformation.

Chapter 1:1-4 The Incarnation

God became Flesh, in Human Form. 21 times in this Epistle
Jesus is called The Son of God.1'2 times God is spoken of as The
Father. Thus the Deity- of Jesus, the Father and Son relation of
 God and Jesus, is a special emphasis of the Epistle.

John was Jesus' most intimate earthly Friend. For three years
John accompanied Jesus ín His journeys over Palestine, minis
tering to Him day and night, as Jesus wrought His Mighty Mir
acles. At the Last Supper, John leaned on Jesus” bosom, as Jesus
talked of His approaching Crucifixion.

To John, Jesus was no Phantom, or Dream, or mere Vision; but
a Real Person, the Embodiment of Life, Eternal Life, 2.

And John wrote this Epistle that others might share his feeling
of Fellowship, Companionship, and Joy, in Christ and in the
Father, and with one another, 3,4.

Chapter 1:5-10. God is Light

That is the “way” John‘s Gospel starts: the Word of God . . .
the Light of Men, John 1: 1,4. Jesus had Said, I am the Light of
the world, John 8:12.

Light stands for God's Realm of Truth, Righteousness, Purity,
Joy, Inefiable Glory. Darkness stands for this World of Error,
Evil, Ignorance, Wickedness, and Abode of the Lost;
In a more real and literal sense, Light may be an attribute of
God beyond the understanding of fleshly eyes. God Clothes Him
self with Light, Psa 104:2. God dwells in Light Unapproachable,
I Tim 6:16. Father of Lights is one of God’s names, Jas 1:17.

Jesus’ Garments, at His Transfiguration, became glistering White,
Mark 9:3. The Angel at Jesus' Resurrection was White as Snow,
Matt 28:3. The two who accompanied Jesus in His Ascension were
in White, Acts 1:10. In the vision in Rev 1:14-16, Jesus’ Head and
Hair were White as Snow. See further on Rev 3:4.

Chapter 2:1-17. Walking in the Light

Walking with God does not mean that we are Without Sin. We
have Sinned in the past. and we still have Sin in our nature.
It is by virtue, Not of our Sinlessness, but of Christ’s Death for
our Sin, that we have our Companionship with God. The moment
we are conscious of any Sinful Act, if that moment, in genuine
penitence and humility, we confess it, our Companionship with
 ”God may remain unbroken. The Saintliest of “men invariably
have been deeply conscious of their own Sinfulness.

One” of the conditions of having our Sins Forgiven is that we
Keep His Commandments, 1—6. Yet Sin is «itself the Failure to
Keep His Commandments. This is one of John’s paradoxes. See
further on 3:1-12.

1 John Chapter 2:18-29.  The Anti-Christ

The word “Anti-Christ" is mentioned in 2:18,22; 4:3; II Jn 7.
It occurs nowhere else in the Bible. It is commonly identified
with the Man of Sin. II Thess 2, and the Beast of Rev 13. But the
Bible itself does not make the identification. The language im-
plies that John’s readers had been taught to expect an Anti-
Christ in connection with the closing days of the Christian Era,
18. However, John applies the word, not to One Person, but to
the whole group of Anti-Christian Teachers, 2:18; 4:3. The New
Testament idea seems to be that the Spirit of Anti-Christ would
arise in  Christendom,  manifesting  itself  in many ways,  both.
Within the Church and Without, finally culminating in One Per-
son, or an Institution, or Both.

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The Bible Project 
The Books of First, Second and Third JOHN

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1 John 1 New International Version (NIV)
The Incarnation of the Word of Life
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our[a] joy complete.

Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[b] sin.

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

Footnotes:
1 John 1:4 Some manuscripts your
1 John 1:7 Or every


1 John 2 New International Version (NIV)
2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Love and Hatred for Fellow Believers
3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God[a] is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister[b] is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister[c] lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

Reasons for Writing
12 I am writing to you, dear children,
    because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
13 I am writing to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
    because you have overcome the evil one.

14 I write to you, dear children,
    because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
    because you are strong,
    and the word of God lives in you,
    and you have overcome the evil one.

On Not Loving the World
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father[d] is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

Warnings Against Denying the Son
18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.[e] 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

24 As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us—eternal life.

26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

God’s Children and Sin
28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

Footnotes:
1 John 2:5 Or word, God’s love
1 John 2:9 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family; also in verse 11; and in 3:15, 17; 4:20; 5:16.
1 John 2:10 The Greek word for brother and sister (adelphos) refers here to a believer, whether man or woman, as part of God’s family; also in 3:10; 4:20, 21.
1 John 2:15 Or world, the Father’s love
1 John 2:20 Some manuscripts and you know all things

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Audio Book NIV  Book of First John

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New International Version (NIV)

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Some content adapted from Halley, Henry H., Bible Handbook, Grayson Publishing, Minneapolis, MN.  © 1927 - 1959, 1964

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Hugh C. Wood, Atlanta, Georgia

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