1 John 2021

1 John 5:11 And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Yeshua testified that whosoever believes in Him will have eternal life. He also reminds us that the term "believe" requires obedience. John 3:34-36 “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. 35“The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. 36“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 6:40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” In this letter, John emphasizes that the love of Elohim is to keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome. Actually, that is one of the foundations of Scripture. John gives us some very solid facts about the Father's Word and the importance of obedience by His people. We also have an added passage in this letter (in the KJV) that needs to be addressed.

1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Once again, we see that John is teaching Torah. How do we test "the spirits" or "false prophets?" We are told in Torah that we will be tested by false prophets who perform signs and wonders. We are to test them by their own words. We are to test to see if they tell us to follow Torah or not. Deut. 13:1-5 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ 3you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4“You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him. 5“But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the LORD your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from among you. Keep in mind that in this letter, John is teaching the people Torah. We have an excellent example of this in 1 John 3:15-22. 1 John 3:15-22 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. 19We shall know by this that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before Him, 20in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. This is a plain teaching of Deut. 15:7-11. Deut 15:7-11 “If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; 8but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks. 9“Beware, lest there is a base thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the LORD against you, and it will be a sin in you. 10“You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings. 11“For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’ We make a huge mistake when we try to take this letter, or any of the letters written in The Brit Hadashah, and isolate the words, phrases, and principles therein. They all need to be interpreted according to the rest of Scripture, especially the Torah.

1 John 3:1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. John just told us that if we practice righteousness, we know we are born of Him and we are His children. This is how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us. Being a child of the Father is not something that someone chooses or earns. It is a gift of Elohim. Eph. 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, that no one should boast. 10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Those that are not His do not know Him or His ways. By the same token the world will not know those that practice His righteousness. John 15:18-19 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19“If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. SIN IS LAWLESSNESS! Got it???

1 John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; John says he writes these things so that we may not sin. He writes that if we have fellowship with Him and still sin, we lie and do not walk in the truth 1 John 1:5-6). John then says that if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Yeshua Messiah the righteous. The Greek word for "Advocate" is paraklaytos:G3875. That word is only used four other times in Scripture and is used as a descriptor of the Spirit of the Father John 14:16). John is saying that we have "Helpers" in the Breath and Word of the Father. 1 John 2:2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. The Greek term for "propitiation" is hilasmos and it means "appeasement." It is only used one other time and John uses it again in John 4:10. John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” Yeshua Messiah is the appeasement to the Father for our sins. Why is He the appeasement of the Father for our sins? Because there is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood. Lev. 17:11 ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’ John says that Yeshua is the appeasement for the sins of the whole world. The term does not mean that all mens sins are appeased. He is speaking of those who trust (believe) the Father in obedience. John 5:21-25 “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. 22“For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, 23in order that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. 24“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. 25“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live. 1 John 2 - John says he writes these things so that we may not sin. He writes that if we have fellowship with Him and still sin, we lie and do not walk in the truth. 1 John 1:5-6 And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;

1 John 1:1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life-- John calls Yeshua the Word of Life. He calls Him this because He is the Word of Elohim made flesh and His Word is life. Lev. 18:5 ‘So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the LORD. 1 John 1:2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us-- That Word of Elohim was made flesh and dwelled among us. John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 1 John 1:3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. John is proclaiming to them what he has witnessed personally. He does this so that those who read this can have fellowship with others of His people and with the Father and with Messiah. We have fellowship with His people and with Elohim by being obedient to His Torah, which is the main theme of John's letter. Lev. 19:5-6 ‘Now when you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted. 6‘It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, and the next day; but what remains until the third day shall be burned with fire. Paul said this same thing also. Titus 2:14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. We do not for certain know the author of this letter. However, the writing style and content is very similar to John's Gospel. Also, the writer makes it very apparent that he knew Yeshua personally. Please join us on this study of this fascinating letter that John wrote for our encouragement!