1 John 1 Footnotes

1:1-3 John affirmed both Jesus’s humanity and his deity. His defense is empirical. John was an eyewitness of Jesus of Nazareth. He had heard, seen, and touched him. This latter idea of touching may seem somewhat strange, but not when considered against the backdrop of the heresy about Jesus that John was countering. Docetism (from the Gk word dokein, meaning “to appear”) denied the incarnation of the Son of God. John countered this with an apologetic rooted in the fact that he had carefully observed the life and ministry of Jesus.

1:5 John claimed his teaching came from Jesus himself. The message affirms that the God who is morally pure and holy has revealed himself to humanity. It is possible to know the true God (5:20).

1:6–2:17 John here addressed what could be called a lifestyle apologetic (see 1Pt 3:16). He recognized that the credibility of the message cannot be separated from the lives of those who proclaim it. This lifestyle includes walking in the light (1:7), confessing sin (1:9), growing in holiness (2:1), keeping God’s commandments (2:3-6), loving one another (2:7-11), and hating the things of the world and the flesh (2:15-17).