“Reading Notes From Run-Thru - First John ”


Sept to Nov 15, 2014

Jottings based on Robert law’s book the tests of life.

General. – the spiral structure (“contrapuntal”) and underlying Hebrew (wisdom literature/poetry), linguistic echoes.

It reminds me of the PBS program on brain research update which sites the early rain fell (right brain – left brain) who speculated that the left brain suppresses the right brain – and this guy speculates that in pre-frontal dementia, the left brain deteriorates and the suppression is lifted, letting the “anesthetic” side emerge more – as the mind finds other pathways to operate – until such a time as the entire brain deteriorates.

As I reflect on my own “explosion” of the 15 novels and 800 poems in the last seven years or so, age 58 to 65, and on some of my friends, I can relate to that and appreciate this book’s [1 John] contribution even more – a senior’s perspective on the Christian life.

What a marvelous output comes from our “right brain” indeed!

5:13 – general – the book is a set of “tests” but which one might know if they are “begotten of God” (have eternal life)

This is repeated three times in a spiral (that is, after the intro section).

  1. The three tests of walking in the light.
  2. The three tests of having divine sonship
  3. the interrelation of the three tests (love, belief, and righteousness) (that is why we use those three tests, and how they relate to each other.

Lord, I see that I could do a novel/series of novels in which all of these insights could be incorporated/introduced/conveyed to people artistically and in and accessible format – wouldn’t that be a hoot! That is, “person-ify” this stuff –Hmmmm.

Themes/ideas of the epistle – the main ones are righteousness, love, and belief.

The sub themes are as follows:

  1. God, true one, idols.
  2. Father, begotten of God, children of God.
  3. Son of God, word of life, Christ come in the flesh, Jesus.
  4. Spirit, spirits.
  5. Anointing, teaching, witnessing.
  6. Word, message, announcing.
  7. Truth, lie, error
  8. beholding, betray, knowing, confession, denying
  9. brotherhood, fellowship.
  10. Righteousness, commandment, word of God, will of God, things that are pleasing in our sight.
  11. Sin, lawlessness, unrighteousness.
  12. World, flesh, antichrist, devil.
  13. Blood, water, propitiation, Paraclete, forgiveness, cleansing.
  14. Abiding, passing away.
  15. Beginning, last hour.
  16. Perousia, day of judgment, manifestation, hope.
  17. Boldness, fear.
  18. Asking, receiving.
  19. Overcoming

[See cycle diagram in notes]

Gen. – from the diagram I notice that the prologue is actually a cycle on the spiral.

That the last cycle derives from the nature of God’s unity – which is manifest in us in that we are of his nature (as righteousness also is) (per cycle two), and therefore love, belief, and righteousness intersect with each other.

That, relative to us, God is light, and therefore in his light we do see what is light and shadow, good and evil, in all three areas – of righteousness, love, and belief – can’t hide it.

Chapter 2 – polemic of the book.

It is against a form of Gnosticism – Docetic and Antinomian in practice.

When it is listed out, according to John, the Gnostics say:

And John says:

The writer:

Robert law feels that John (gospel and letters and the book of Revelation), is the author, who likely lead a lot of the mature theological thinking that developed in the first century.

1:1ff – what our hands touched (etc.) versus the Docetic, Gnostic, spiritual Jewish one.

God is life and light.

Jottings – based on Peaks Commentary As a Base.

1:1 – the Real Christ – not the Ascetic Spiritual Jesus That Did Not Get His Hands Dirty – Born in a Stable, and downhill from there.

1:1 We (Apostles) – Christ’s 12 – Sent over the Jewish Cultural Wall to the Other Cultures with Salt, Light, and Leaven for Their Cultures – from Him Who Was with God, and Was God from the Beginning.

1:3 – “so That” – fellowship is possible when god is at the center of people’s lives – the inter-gift allergy dissolves – Christ is the “way” for god to get back into people’s lives as the central reality.

1:1 – “the Word of Life” – became flesh and dwelt amongst us – no phantom

1:5 – that our/your joy might be complete.

1:1 – the eternal life (seen, heard, touched, from the beginning) – within the word – made manifest in Jesus.

[Restart September 1/2014] [at the start of “walking to Fargo”!

1:1-4 – communion with God depends on Christ initiative (word?), And a brotherly love.

1:1-4 – is this book/letter/homily actually a snapshot of an Apostle on the front lines, and therefore a model for us? (“We) apostles)

1:3, Christ the antidote – that you might have a fellowship – Christ is proclaimed as the way back to the father (after the garden of Eden).

1:4 – “that’s your joy may be complete” the objective of the apostolic ministry – salt, light, and leaven in their cultures.

[October 20/2014]

1:5-2:17 – claim number one of the Gnostics – “we are the enlightened ones”

enlightened? Tests of behavior – yeah? Test of righteousness, test of love, test of belief – that is – how does your so-called “enlightenment” really hold up to close scrutiny?

1:5-26 – test number one – test your “enlightened” attitude to sin and righteousness – the degree to which a life drawing from that outlook actually “walks in righteousness” [he seriously doubts it].

1:7 with 5:19 – world is in the power of the evil one, and therefore we all need in dealt with in our lives – constantly. []

3:9 with 1:7 – “should not” and “could not” don’t match up, so we all need 1:7 (cleansing) – inability increases. Therefore we need grace and forgiveness daily.

1:5 – we don’t see light – we see (by) what light reflects off and into our eyes (4:20) God whom we have not seen indeed – he is the light – any claim to “enlightenment” needs to take that into consideration – therefore you look at you to see what God’s light “reveals” of you.

With 4:7-12 – God reveals himself as love (therefore test number two) and as righteousness (therefore test number one) as truth (therefore test number three) – how do those three dimensions of God make out as they bounce off/reflect off you and your lifestyle – “enlightened” as you claim it is?

1: 7 – Fellowship is not just with God, but also with his children – hence the test of “enlightenment” is in the reflection of God’s loving standard off us as we interact (or not) with others – i.e. is there Fellowship?

1:5 – God’s light is a huge Old Testament/New Testament theme:

1:9 with 3:20 – God knows Anyway – but he also knows the context, even if we don’t.

1:7-1:9 (with 2:2) – Jesus is faithful to the covenant, yet does not throw out justice (bad news for us as sinners! – But 2:2 is also true – it is by the effect (continuous and ongoing) of his blood that we are able to stay in fellowship with God – it deals with the justice aspect without throwing out justice in order to have relationship. Covenant and justice are incompatible without the “covering” of blood (cf as in “who whacked the beaver?”)

1:9 with 3:1-5 – God’s objective is to clean us of sin, not just to forgive our blowing it – he forgives us in order to give us the chance to try again and grow up in him.

2:1 with 5:16 – regarding “sin so serious nothing can be done about it.” – A verse that has proved problematic over the years – Jesus Christ is the defense counsel.

Cf. my own experience with the UCC at the kangaroo court.

2:5 – walking in the same way – for me, “as a Spirit Walker”

1:4-2:6 – so – “walk the talk – obey and imitate Christ’s life as a Spirit Walker” – how does your “enlightenment” hold up to that standard? Esoteric theology is all well and good, and no doubt you are “enlightened” by it – but how does your actual life play out in the light of it?

Enlightened? Test of love.

2:10 – like Peter’s urging Christ, not to go the hard road – (vehicles? – word), through whom rebellion to God comes.

2:11 – darkness has blinded his eyes – cf. Isaiah 50:10 – walking in the light of your own torches – ends in trouble

.

2:12 – father – because you know – assurance of faith, still (of course), but it is assurance. However, there are still experiences of “mis-apprehension” and “deceptions” by (for example) the dominant society – the British hate the Spanish etc. and demonized them, even in old age – but we know him (father, son, Holy Spirit – of which most of us have problems with at least one of those three aspects).

2:15-17 – sensuousness, covetousness, arrogance – are not from the father of life, but from a passing world (system), which is driven by them.

Enlightened? The test of belief.

2:23 (etc.) – cf. “who is he who overcomes the world? He who has Jesus (5:5) – that is the key – CF. “The loop” for me and all the changes that brought (cf. Ephesians chapter 1 and two) with Christ in the heavenlies. [This was prior to the “kingdom layer” understanding]

2:18 – last hour – we often know. “Our time has come” (or not) cf. Jesus on his last evening.

2:20 f – spirit led learners indeed!

2:18 ff – “out” of fellowship versus “out” of an institution – in the case of the UCC – “they” got the institution and broke fellowship with the “shunned”.

2:26 – walking in the light? You have the Spirit which “enlightened” you about everything, so stick with him. cf. “We have the right to be led by the Spirit, versus being led by someone else who is led by the Spirit” – for the Spirit’s anointing teaches us everything – walk in that light.

[October 30, 2014]. [written approximately one month before mom’s death]

Lord, as I do up these last few chapters in first John, and finally wrap up the run through – I see they are to feed me over this next while. And I am to “be being fed”/”filled” with the spirit, not just output – and that I’m to establish a “new normal” routine into which I am to move so that what’s gone on need not (and will not) happen again. Thanks Lord for this. [That is, otherwise, if I don’t, it will – only on a much larger scale].

2:26 and this is part of the “new normal” – stick with the Spirit which enlightens everything about everything. Thanks, Lord.

2:28-3:10 – my dream at Keewatin, early fall of 1978 – “Well, Stu, how did you make out? … I want the job done, I don’t care how it gets done – I want it done!” – “Abide in Him. now, Stu.” Okay, thanks.

Lord, I’m hearing that you want(ed). Three things done through me – church renewal (which required the “missing piece” of apostolic ministry as cultural boundary-crossers for the purpose of “decoding” cultures) native education philosophy up (which required the autodidactic aspect to be re-affirmed) and the re-connection/integration of the giver financier group, into the body life (which requires the addressing of the “inter-gift allergy” with the antidote). And that that is, “the job.” You wanted “done” and hence the resources required for that are provided. Thanks.

Lord, I also hear that “Spirit Walking”/abiding in you” are (for me at least) how you wish to do that. Okay. Thanks Lord for this.

2:29 – “born of God”/”of the Spirit” (John 3:6). He states here is about living righteously. For example, God is righteous/just to forgive – so too, we do the same if we are “born of God”/”begotten of God.”

3:1 – “behold! What amazing love – that he calls us begotten of him!”

3:2 – with John, 14:9 (show us the father) – as we see (Christ), we are begotten of God – it’s wired together with “pure in heart see God (Matthew 5:8) and peacemakers are sons of God (Matthew 5:9)

3:1 f – (with John, 1:10) it we either walk right by what we fail to comprehend, or else comprehend it, and drawback from it – like oil and water.

3:2, with John, 16:33 – “I have overcome the world” – what we shall become – “children” grow up.

3:1 ff – (with John, 17:14) – in the world but not of it – and hated because of it – there is a variation in values and assumptions in the two groups. I had not connected John’s gospel statements with his letter statements about Sunship and growth within that “familial relationship” – of my work with G____ and his project – i.e. this gives a much bigger vision to that “mentoring” relationship.

3:4-10 – the mentoring relationship (“sonship”) in both the abstract and concrete – when it floats off to the esoteric arguments with groups/philosophies which are now quite vague to us (and therefore out of context to us), it gets shaky indeed – best left until

here, we’re “listening in on one end of the telephone conversation” – as the letter was “assembled” not “written in order to go into the Bible”.

3:8 with Romans 6:1 – and don’t use grace as a cop-out regarding sin – Christ came that we be freed from temptation and evil, in him, by grace.

3:8 (with Hebrews 2:14) – cf. Hebrews – Christ is a great advocate because he too was tempted, and did not capitulate on the first round – and is with us in our time of temptation, walking with us through tough situations.

3:8 (with John, 8:37 f) – like father like son – who’s your “father”?

3:8 with Mark 4:11 – parallel the 8:11 – sower and the seed – word snatched away, if not integrated into life – Ah! Here is where the seed word grows in us (versus being snatched away/choked out/*.of resource) – and therefore we are begotten of God, not just in our “conception” and “gestation” but also in our ongoing generation of 120 (more or less) years of life.

3:8 with James, 1:18 and Ephesians 4:9 ff) – brought forth to fruition by the word of truth – humanity’s first fruits.

He’s not talking perfection off the hop” here, but rather, growth in grace into full maturity in Christ – equip the Saints that all may grow to maturity.

3:10 – note here He also connects love and behavior As two signs of who we are “begotten of”.

That is, not just behavior or love but the interface of both. That says to me that our little attempts at structuring this letter still don’t “get it” and it has yet to be “cracked” (IMHO – grin).

3:1 ff – now “begotten of God” is looked at closely by the details of the “test of love.”

3:11-24 – the closely interwoven tapestry/fabric of our life in Christ, in the world context – note how he also links love and belief, and love (righteousness/behavior?) Here as well – like three legs on a stool – take any one of them away and the other two fall over – and each of the three interface with the other two – the “heretics” seem to want to split out one or other of the three legs – two stools actually – “we are enlightened” (not you/or more than you), and “we are begotten of God” (not you/more than you.) and he looks under the stool at the three legs as “tests” of each claim – and also at the three inter-bracing connections between each, which gives the tests of “real orthodoxy” versus sham (word?) Claiming of easy grace and sloppy agape, etc. (Cain versus Able; world versus Christian).

3:14 (with Ephesians chapters 1 and 2) – John’s version of Paul’s “loop”) [now adjusted to ‘kingdom layer” model insight] – and the implication of/for life. “In the world but not of it – antagonism to God-centered lives.

3:16 ff – [November 6/2014] – the complexities of laying “life” down for others – that includes, especially, real spiritual life, not just stuff were already “did too,” and passed from into life – it is that new life we are challenged to lay down for people as we “Spirit Walk” (24 b). In Christ, in doing that – letting go of the world’s goods that brothers might have life (real re-born life as well as straight physical life – and as long as we keep our channels with God clear throughout such escapades we keep “the supply lines” open, and know that God sees the “bigger contextual picture” even as the world attacks, and we persevere in such a “Spirit Walk” – it’s complex, tight and life-giving as our walk with Christ, where the spirit leads, “post-loop” [revised to kingdom layer imagery now] – and, I might add, “scary as hell” – far beyond our comfort zones – especially when there is little by way of proximal results, response, or reciprocal action – i.e. we love such actions when they are short-term and effective, without appreciable loss – John says, “not” – but rather, “loss of relationship, resource, and life itself” – “there is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood. Hmmm – thanks Lord (i.e. the story of these three years (so far). For me).

3:17 – God’s love in us – to me it’s not “our love for God” but God’s love through us (though the other is also true). It is more parallel to Matthew 5:17 – Christ fulfills the law of love in and through us – that is, God’s love has a practical side (diagonal diagram type love)

Overall – 3:11-24) – quite the test for just how “enlightened” we claim to be – a test which, for me encompasses complexities far beyond the easy “low cost” rescue of the lost from the hillside in the storm – and assures us when/while we are still in such storms, walking completely by faith – knowing we could be very wrong, and yet willing to step out, despite that, in faith, and lay everything on the line – “such love, indeed.”

See what manner of love the father has shown us, and through us, whom he calls “begotten of him”.

Hmmm – thanks Lord for this.

3:20 – I love Robert Law on this – God sees the larger picture and it is okay in him – even if we can’t see his bigger picture, he’s bigger than our hearts.

4:6 – spirit of truth (see John 14:16 ff send a comforter, even the Spirit of truth) – see Isaiah 61:1 ff for what the redeemed/spirit-filled will do, having been spirit filled..

4: 3 – confess Jesus Christ in the flesh – the incarnation reality gives relevance of spirit and faith in daily life – applied Christianity for real life.

4:6 – the drawn lines of polemic indeed – and sometimes it comes down to that – as in the UCC today.

4:7-21, especially verse eight). Note: the commentator in Peaks figures this is the heart of John’s contribution to theology – for both gospel and letter(s) – “God is love”

That is, “love is God’s most characteristic activity” (not “God equals love equals God”)

Dodd is big into this as well – we should also love each other in a like manner, “gracious concern.” (Robert Law would add, “this reality is the genesis of love/loving concern which we also participate in”. End of note.

4:12 – interesting – a third claim that can be (likewise) tested, “that God abides in us” (and we abide in God”).

(Robert Law only seems to pick up on the first and second of these views and then views the third “cycle” as synthesizing A and B – but really I think these are three claims People need to have tested (example by John’s tests of behavior (attached to sin and righteousness); love (relationship to each other); and belief (attitude towards God’s saving actions).

And in that this letter is very relevant.)

4:12 c – notice also the theme of “abide in me and I in you of John’s gospel – it’s huge there and very “layered” – so, First John adds in some pretty basic “tests” of the degree to which we actually live in/out of that reality.

5:13-20 – if we strip off his “conclusions” where he states the “certainties” (“we know.”) Of the Christian faith (from his point of view at an advanced age in Christ), then perhaps the intervening material (4:12-5:12) can be seen as a reflection on the “layered” complexities (at theoretical and practical level) of this third “claim” that some people seem to have been making – i.e. That God abides in them, and they in God – Hmmm – interesting concept, indeed! (And maybe worth exploring some time in depth).

[Note – perhaps in the Awkey bird book?]

4:1 – we love because he first loved us – that is the apostolic ministry’s fruit – the carrying of that love, and word of that love (both) across cultural boundaries.

4:20 – the guy from Peaks commentary comments that “Brothers far away and, therefore, unseen” fare better or worse, depending on the situation than those close at hand – just like God”.

4:18 – no fear in love – cf. relapse impetus in addiction is fear, and therefore backing off life is dynamite. For apostles in hostile territory, fear is dissolved for them, but not necessarily for the other folks, by God’s presence and Lordship in life (two trees in the garden issue).

4:16 – love of God shows/expressed in daily life is a central test as to the reality of the claim that we abide in God and/or he in us – love is of God’s nature – and is it our nature also?

4:17 – “in this is love perfected in us” – i.e., it takes a bit of time for his presence in our lives to show itself in daily life – we change, but not quickly.

4:13-20 –

not so much theoretical as practical demonstration of that reality. This is what abiding in God and he in us means in very cryptic form.

5:1-5 with John, 11:25-30 – “the King’s kids” – in Christ we are made part of the family of God, and here (and John, 11:25 ff) we see some of the key effects.

First John passage:

Belief Jesus is Christ the son of God – child of God. [See diagram page 18 of notes]

Gospel of John passage:

[See diagram page 18 notes]

With John 11:27 – others may know aspects of God, but they are a mishmash – Christ knows the father, and he introduces all that to whom he chooses (the “babes” of the world versus “wise and understanding” (i.e. the ones who are not so full of themselves that they are unteachable.

Note: (To be fair to the teacher researchers (i.e., wise and understanding), they need to be of thick skin and non-influenced/nonresponsive because (as I found out in the editing of the punctuation on A___’s book –). Pretty soon my “grammar sense” was thrown off by her terrible punctuation errors – teacher researchers are virtually impenetrable (and I noted the fact that she worked in the school system and therefore must know something I didn’t).

5:6-7 – real indeed was the historical Jesus, whom John knew from the time of baptism to the time of crucifixion, and the spirit descended on him at baptism and left him at death – baptism witnessed to the coming of the spirit; crucifixion to the witness of his real death for us and the spirit witnessed through his life to God’s favor upon him, etc. – anyone who said Jesus was not “real” is nuts – he ached, and sweated, and peed, and pooped, and laughed, and cried, and worked, and rested, etc., just as we do. God testifies that Jesus is his son – John saw it all.

5:11-12 – the bottom line – God’s testimony to us of Christ relation to God – we have eternal life in Christ (cf. life of eternal quality, etc.) and those who don’t believe, lack that – open your eyes, boys and girls – “that this (eternal) life is in (abiding in) his son – so come on into that relationship, boys and girls, “and take his yoke upon yourself and find rest to your souls.” Etc. etc.

5:13-20 - So we may know, and those seven things we know –

  1. We have eternal life.
  2. He hears us in whatever we ask (we have confidence he hears what we ask in Christ’s name/according to Christ’s will therefore assured we “have it”).
  3. We know he answers our requests (regarding life for a fallen brother) because we know we are heard.
  4. We know anyone born of God doesn’t sin, but rather, Jesus keeps him. And therefore, the evil one does not touch him.
  5. We know we are of God, and (/while) all the world is in the power of the evil one.
  6. We know Jesus, son of God has come and has given us understanding to know him who is true – in whom we “are” with Christ, and therefore we have/abide in the true God and in life eternal.
  7. He came so we might know God truly and what things are of eternal value.

5:21 – so, people, stay away from all the other “ersatz” diversions.

Now I’m done. The “run-through” in the Sandy Lake way/process – (I left out first John, having done it in another way back in the very first – now they are all done). Thanks Lord for this. 15. November/2014 – 2: 4 5 AM – (note – my mother died of heart/Alzheimer’s disease 12 days later).

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