The Children of God

John’s first epistle is written to a church under attack from false teaching of those he calls “anti-Christs” – who deny that the gospel is sufficient for salvation, that you must have special spiritual knowledge, and that you don’t need to be concerned about your behavior. John focuses this part of his first letter on reinforcing the teaching (the gospel) he delivered to them at the very beginning, encouraging them to remain in it and not to follow these false teachers.