un-puzzling 1 John

1 John is very poorly understood. People treat John like he had Alzeimers, and couldn't string two consistent thoughts together, saying there is no outline to the book and he was highly repetitive and simply repeated certain themes. This is pure nonsense.

God put an interest in 1 John in me back about 1980. In 2000 I started putting in serious time to understand this little book. 3000 hours of time in the last 20 years. That is the equivalent of 1½ years full time work.

As I started to study 1 John the seeming contradiction that Christians can sin and cannot sin stood out. How could John say Christians sin in one place and don't sin in another place? It is pretty obvious from the Greek that the idea that John is referring to a state of sin in one place and not in another is not correct; and trying to make one set of verses apply to ongoing sin and the other verses not do so- that doesn't work, either. Even more bothersome is seeing interpretations of the Greek get manipulated toward one's theology in some versions.

And what did he mean when he said that we are anointed ones?

And what does John mean about sin to death and sin not to death?

And why does John use long terms for Jesus like Son Jesus Christ. Why such wordiness, when one word will do? Or will it do?

And just why was he so repetitive?

I knew from a study in 1980 that word definitions are critical when dealing with John. I had learned that the Greek word agape- the only word translated “love” in 1 John- has nothing to do with emotions or liking someone, but is instead “the unconditional commitment to the well-being of another you are in or have a possibility of being in a relationship with” (I usually just say “unconditional commitment”).

I also knew there must be an outline to the book that explained the repetitiveness and the seeming contradictions. John was old, but he was no senile fuddy duddy. Senile people don't give masterful presentations on “love: unconditional commitment”.

“Unconditional commitment.” This is the idea behind Blood Covenant, an idea uncovered both in the Bible and around the world in all the recorded ages by Christian sociologist H. C. Trumbull in the late 1800's. Blood Covenant- the idea behind John 6 and our communion services. I learned about it in 1995 or so. John has the Blood Covenant concept in his gospel, so there was a good chance it was in 1 John, too.

I have written commentary on 1 John 4 times, learning as I went. I sought to find answers to “problems” with the book in the book, without superimposing a theology system on it. I did not use other commentaries, nor did I rely on English translations. Where God led me, that is where I went.

I discovered there is an outline to 1 John, and it is right there in the book: 2:12-14 refers to little children, young men, and fathers. It doesn't say it is the outline, but it eliminates the seeming repetitiveness and the seeming contradictions. A big problem was finding out where John was speaking to one group of Christians and not another, and why he would put his outline in such an odd place.

Definitions of “Jesus”, “Christ”, “anointed”, “eternal life”, and other words are critical to understanding this book.

Blood Covenant turns out to be a critical concept in 1 John.

My conclusions on 1 John can be found in God WANTS You: Sin Is Not a Deal Breaker, a verse by verse commentary on 1 John.

And to people who want to disagree with me, my first question is: How long have you spent in this little book, in the original language? 3,000 hours? No? Hmm...

I am not perfect in my understanding, but I am more apt to have found real answers than someone who has put little time into the book, and even then probably mainly relied on others who themselves have put little time in the book.

I will say my conclusions do not fit the standard theology systems of today. But they do fit 1 John. You may have to choose between 1 John or your theology. And trust me, adjusting your theology to fit the Bible is a lot of hard work.

Largely due to 1 John, I have wandered into a new theology system. It can be called Anointing Theology, or Sharing-of-Life Theology, or even simply IN Theology (as in Christ IN us and we IN Christ). I didn't set out to do this. It is just there.

To God be the glory.

4-25-2022