Want to learn more about 1, 2 & 3 John? Use these Bible Studies for personal devotion, group Bible studies, or teaching a church class. Below are links to the lessons in this 13-part series.
This week we start a new quarter and a new study on the letters of John. Our study this week is the first 4 verses of 1 John 1. You may be interested to know that in the Greek these four verses form a single sentence. Lets jump right in!
Lets review for just a minute. Remember we learned last week that John had a message for us about the Word of life (Jesus). That message was that he was a competent witness to tell us about the Word of life; and that if we listened to him we could enter into fellowship with John, Jesus and God the Father. To enter into this fellowship would make God’s joy complete! Lets dive into the beginning of that “fellowship” message now with our lesson this week!
Lets review! John told us in chapter one: He is a competent witness;He has testimony for us that will allow us to enter into fellowship with Jesus and the Father.This testimony reveals we have two paths we can take in life: One trail is in the light (which will lead to fellowship);The other trail is in darkness.Then he gave us five “reality checks” for us to determine whether we are walking on the “light” path or the “dark” path. Let’s continue by jumping into chapter 2!
Let’s review for just a minute. John says, “Want to have fellowship with God?” If you do, you need to walk on the path of light, and not the path of darkness. How do we know we are on the right path? You are on the right path if you obey. How do you know you are obeying? Obedience means loving your brother. How can you “decide” to love your brother? You can learn to love your brother by getting to know God. This week we find out how to “know God.”
Let’s review for just a minute what we have learned so far in 1 John: John tells us we are on the road to fellowship with God if we walk on the path of light, and not the path of darkness. How do we know we are on the right path? You are on the right path if you obey. How do you know you are obeying? Obedience means loving your brother. Loving our brother is made possible by knowing God and allowing His love to fill us.Last week we discussed knowing and loving the world versus knowing and loving God. One argument John makes (2:17) against loving the world is that it is going to burn (“pass away”), while loving God is forever.This week we turn our attention to when and why the world is going
to burn.
You remember John tells us that the righteous are on the path of light? The Pastor’s sermon last week discussed Nicodemus and his midnight talk with Jesus about “being born
again.” The last verse of our lesson study last week (1 John 2:29) also spoke of us being “born of him.” Our study this week speaks of the results of being born of God as we travel on the path of light.Let’s dive in!
Last week we learned that we are on the path of light if we do what is right and we love one another. (1 John 3:10) This week John delves more deeply into the question of what it means to love one another. So let’s delve with him!
Our lesson this week continues the thoughts we discussed in the last few verses of last week’s lesson. Let’s review 1 John 3:18-24. John tells us that “God is greater than our hearts;” meaning that we need to have a proper understanding of God’s will in order to have a right-formed conscience. He then says we know that we live “in Him” by the Spirit He gave us. Thus, we
need to have this triad working for us: 1) Study of the Bible to understand God’s will; 2) This study to be guided by the HolySpirit; and, 3) Thus formed, our conscience will be an “indicator” of whether we are on the path of light. Let’s press on with this
week’s additional light!
In 1 John 3:10 John tells us that we should not be surprised if the world hates us. However, he tells us that we know that we “passed from death to life” if we love our brothers. Our lesson this week further explores this idea of loving our brothers.So lets dig in!
Last week we learned that the self-sacrificing love of Jesus towards us is what we should show towards fellow church members. This week John continues to describe what this means and ties this with his oft-repeated theme about the two paths: the path of light which leads to eternal life; and the path of darkness which leads to eternal death. Let’s dig in!
I hate to see 1 John come to an end! This week our study is the last 9 verses of 1 John 5. The good news is that we will move on to 2nd and 3rd John in the next two weeks.
This week our study is the second book of John. It is only 13 verses long, and the writer says that he has a lot more to say, he just wants to deliver the message in person instead of writing it down. Let’s explore those important things which he decided he should write down in this letter.
This week our study is the third book of John. We come to the end of a wonderful quarter. Next quarter I regret that we will not be studying a book again. However, we will be studying the parables of Jesus and I think that will be fun.