Conservative Friends Bible Study of 1 John #01 Chapter 1 Verses 1-4

The epistles in the Holy Scriptures are often letters from an author to someoneelse. However, In the case of the epistle 1 John, it is more of an essay, atreatise, a sermon or message that was sent out to early Christian believers. Thename, “John” was common in the years of the early church, and it is possible thatthese three epistles (1 John, 2 John and 3 John) were not necessarily written bythe apostle John, but by another prominent figure in the early church, John theelder, whose name was also John. However, it is clear that all three epistles(First, Second, and Third John) are all related in terms of how they perceiveChrist and the language that is used in them, which is very similar to thelanguage in which the Gospel according to John was written.  The epistlesappear to have been written in the 90’s A.D., at about the same time as the finalversion of the Gospel of John. For the first 1,400 years or so, the Holy Scriptures were not broken down intochapters and verses. When one examines 1 John, it is possible, however, toidentify the main themes as they appear in the order in the epistle.One of those divisions is Walking in the LightLiving as God’s children The Source of love and faithConclusionSupplements to the epistle (a kind of post script)A prayer for sinnersSummary of the letter.After his introduction to the epistle, Henry then goes on, with a focus on theoriginal Greek, to examine the first four verses of Chapter 1 of First John. Inthose verses, John emphasizes the complete divinity of Jesus as the “Word”,(who in all ways was divine). John also proclaims the complete humanity ofJesus (who in all ways was completely human). This was an effort by John tocombat the heretical attacks of those making Jesus mostly God, with only asuperficial, outward covering of humanity, instead of recognizing the completedivinity and complete humanity of Jesus.  A complete list of our podcasts,  organized into topics, is available on our website.We will be publishing video interviews with Conservative Friends on YouTube.  See our YouTube channel.  The first interview is with Susan Smith. To learn more about Ohio Yearly Meeting (Conservative) of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), please visit  ohioyearlymeeting.org. Those interested in exploring the distinctives of Conservative Friends waiting worship should consider checking out our many Zoom Online Worship opportunities during the week here. All are welcome! We also have several Zoom study groups.  Check out the Online Study and Discussion Groups on our website.   Advices read in these podcasts can be found on page 29 in our Book Of Discipline.We welcome feedback on this and any of our other podcast episodes.   Contact us through our website.