| Author | Message | ||
| Jrt Registered user Username: Jrt Post Number: 1269 Registered: 10-2008 |
My apologies for not posting for awhile. I started a new job and have been consumed learning it and exhausted when I get home. I hope to start up the study again. I know I appreciated all of your participation.
Here are some questions we can tackle together. 1.) John says I am not writing you a new commandment - Yet, then he says, "at the same time it is a new commandment. How can it be "not" a new commandment and also a "new commandment"? What is John talking about? 2.) What commandment is John talking about in this group of texts? Does it relate to the 10 commandments? (You might want to read around the texts that are given. 3.) In verses 12 - 14; Why is John writing these things to young men, fathers, children,? From this can you determine if John is writing to believers or non-believers. We won't spend a great deal of time on this section. Thanks for being so patient with me ... I will try to keep up with the study better. Blessings, Carolyn | ||
| Dalvarenga Registered user Username: Dalvarenga Post Number: 64 Registered: 3-2012 |
Hi Carolyn, This sermon by John Piper might help you on this study: http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/the-one-who-loves-lives-in-light The context of John's epistle is LOVE, so check out this quote from the sermon I just mentioned: "In the first half verses 7 and 8 tell us what specific commandment John thinks we should use in testing the reality of our new birth. And in the second half verses 9–11 describe the way that test would be carried out in two cases. One case (verses 9 and 11) amounts to a warning—professing Christians who hate are doomed in the dark! The other case (verse 10) amounts to a promise—people who love live in the light, that is, they are truly born again. So the overall point of the passage (verses 7–11) is that we should keep the commandment of love and so confirm our standing in the light of God" In the section "1. What is the commandment referred to in both verses?", you can find this: John 13:34 where Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." God bless. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 14008 Registered: 12-2003  |
Hi, Carolyn! Good to see you here again! My answers to your questions: 1 and 2. The "Old-New" commandment: the command to love. Leviticus 19:18 commands that Israel love their neighbors as themselves. James 2:8 calls this Levitical command the "royal law of Scripture". John himself quoted Jesus re-defining this oldest command in John 13:34 and 15:12:
2. John is writing to believers. Jesus said His mother, brothers, and sisters were those who did the will of His Father (Matt. 12:49). In verse 13 John states that the "little children" to whom he is writing know the Father. Only believers know the Father, and it is from our Father that all families derive their name (Eph. 2:14-18). We are adopted children of God when we believe, and we become part of the family of God when we believe. Moreover, this passage identifies the church as multi-generational. It is biblical to have the local bodies of Christ be filled with people from all generations with the older ones teaching the younger ones, and the younger ones growing into mature believers. Colleen | ||
| Jrt Registered user Username: Jrt Post Number: 1274 Registered: 10-2008 |
Hi Colleen and Dalvarenga, Your answers are very helpful as we look at this "Old", "New" command. Especially, as this command was given in Lev. 19:18. Carolyn |
