Quasimodogeniti - The First Sunday After Easter. 1 John 5:4-10.

The fact that the First Epistle of John was written by the Apostle John and by no one else is beyond serious question. This letter is an encyclical that is intended for the congregations that were under John’s special care; it was occasioned by the antichristian teachings of Cerinthus and of his following. It is usually supposed that this letter was written only to the congregations in the province of Asia; but when Peter wrote in the year 64 he addressed all those in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, and we think that now, about twenty-five or thirty years later, John would address even a greater number in this extensive territory.

The same pen that wrote this letter wrote the Fourth Gospel. Before the year 66 John and other apostles were forced to leave Jerusalem because of the war that ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation. John made Ephesus his headquarters and worked from this as a center until he died at an advanced age about the year 100. He was buried at Ephesus. He writes as an old man. He does not indicate that he is the founder of the congregations addressed in his letter but that he has been known to them for many years and that a tender bond of affection exists between him and all his many readers. Seven times he calls them τεκνία, “little children,” twice he addresses them as παιδία, six times as “beloved.” This is the voice of a father.

Cerinthus was active in Ephesus during this time. He taught that Jesus was the physical son of Joseph; that the “eon Christ” was united with Jesus at his baptism but left Jesus before his passion and his death. He rejected all the Gospels, all of Paul’s letters, and accepted only parts of Matthew and of Mark. He was a former Jew from Egypt and combined Jewish ideas with what we may call the beginnings of Gnosticism and sought to produce a spiritualized Mosaism, which was to be a universal religion. He retained circumcision and the Sabbath. The Jewish conception of the millennium was attributed to him by the Alogi; hence those church fathers who opposed chiliasm and thought that Revelation taught this doctrine ascribed Revelation to Cerinthus and thus rejected this writing. This heretic left no writings, but Irenæus (Adv. Haer. 1, 26; 3, 3, 4; etc.) and others supply a reliable account of him and of his teaching.

According to Eusebius, Irenæus quotes Polycarp, his teacher and a pupil of the Apostle John: “That John, the disciple of the Lord, having gone to take a bath in Ephesus and having seen Cerinthus inside, left the baths, refusing to bathe, and said: ‘Let us flee lest also the baths fall in since Cerinthus is inside, the enemy of the truth.”

It is safe to date the composition of John’s letter at Ephesus some time after the year 80. It should not be called “catholic,” for it is not addressed to all churches that were then in existence but only to all those whom John can call “my little children.”

This letter is plainly polemical. Dangerous heresy called it forth. In this letter the writer emphasizes the deity of Christ and pronounces a severe verdict on those who deny the deity. Three times John uses the frank word “liar.” He also refers to “the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (1:7; 5:5, 6), which is directed at Cerinthus.

A second denunciation, resting on the first, deals with the hatred against those who are born of God as his sons and children, who are repeatedly urged to love God. This thought is likewise stressed throughout the letter and is directed at Cerinthus and his separatist following. Other points of a similar nature are mentioned, these two stand out as supreme.

The question is discussed as to whether this letter was written before or after John’s Gospel. It is immaterial what answer is given to this question. We think that the letter was written before the Gospel.

Since there were copies of this letter in so many churches late in the first century, the authorship and the authority of this letter were at the very beginning placed beyond question. Quotations and allusions to passages go back to the earliest times; tradition on this point is unanimously in favor of Johannine authorship. There is a direct line of evidence from John through his pupils Polycarp and Papias to Irenæus. Zahn, Introduction, III, 180, 184, 191. This letter was thus at once and without hesitation placed into the New Testament canon. Modern efforts to cast a doubt on its canonicity are unavailing.

A curious circumstance regarding the letter is the fact that it seems to have no divisions. Commentators divide it in one way or in another and state their reasons for such a division; but when one reads the letter, the proposed divisions do not satisfy. They are upset by the series of repetitions and reiterations that occur throughout the letter. That fact leads some interpreters to complain about the lack of logic; but this letter has no formal parts such as we commonly use and expect. It is constructed according to a different and a higher method.

Observe that “light” and “darkness” (1:5, 6) are repeated, also “truth” as light. Forgiveness of sin is mentioned several times. The truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is the golden thread of the entire pattern. Connected with him is his blood (1:7; 4:6), the propitiation for our sins and for the world’s sins (2:4). “Liar” is used three times. “His commandments” (plural and singular) is found in 2:3–8; 3:23; 4:2, 3. Pivotal is “love.” As the letter moves along, new threads are woven into it, some that disappear, others that reappear. Yet the whole is but one pattern. The heretics are introduced at 2:18 and reappear in 4:1, etc., and in 5:18, 19. Sons of God, children of God, being born of God begin at 2:29 and continue throughout the letter. Believing on the name of his Son Jesus Christ is introduced at 3:25 and is found also in 4:16; 5:1, 5, 13. Bearing witness appears toward the end (5:6–11). At the very end we have “idols,” which seems strange to many. This inventory is not exhaustive.

What do these data mean? John rises above formal divisions and parts. This letter is built like an inverted pyramid or cone. The basic apex is laid down in 1:1–4; then the upward broadening begins. Starting with 1:5–10, the base rises and expands and continues in ever-widening circles as one new pertinent thought joins the preceding thought. One block is not laid beside the other so that joints are made. There are really no joints, not even where the new thoughts are introduced. The line of thought simply spirals in rising, widening circles until all is complete. Keeping from idols (5:21) is only the brief, final touch.

This is an unusual structure in writing but for that very reason is superior to the common types of composition. There are others in Scripture that are equally unusual. One is Isa. 40 to 66 which is built of triads within greater triads, these again being within still greater triads, and each of the little triads is a block, a little individual poem by itself.

I have never found the like in all literature. No poetical composition approaches this in structure. Ecclesiastes and parts of Proverbs are also unique in structure. In the latter each little piece is a perfect verbal and thought gem by itself; it is like a diamond in which not one facet could be changed. Each gem, perfect in itself, can be admired by itself yet is set into a perfect pattern with a few others and with them forms a unit that is to be admired as such. Then these patterns are combined into still greater designs.

In the Biblical books there are grander buildings of thought than even our best secular writers have conceived. Inspiration has produced some marvelous, incomparable results. Let some competent student display them for us as they deserve to be displayed. John’s First Epistle is built like this: [drawing of inverted spiral]

Lenski, R. C. H.: The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John and St. Jude. Minneapolis, MN. : Augsburg Publishing House, 1966, S. 361.

4) In 4:14 “we are testifying” recalls the beginning of the epistle: “we are testifying and are declaring to you” (1:2). John now weaves in the facts regarding this testimony. He does so at this point where he has connected believing with love. We have these two together in 3:23, and believing continues in the development in 4:1; 4:16; 5:1. John now joins testimony and believing. All testimony wants to be believed, it is offered for that purpose only. All true testimony ought to be believed; not to believe it is to make him who testifies a liar. John adds what this means for the liar.

Lenski, R. C. H.: The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John and St. Jude. Minneapolis, MN. : Augsburg Publishing House, 1966, S. 522.