Our First Impressions -- 1 John

Let's begin our study in the table of contents in your Bible.
In which testament do you find 1 John?
What book comes before it? after it?
What is the same about these three books?

They're all letters, written by the apostles to new churches and believers to encourage and grow them in their faith. All the books from Romans through Jude are letters, or epistles. "Epistle" is a Greek word meaning "message" or "letter."

Before this section of epistles in the New Testament, we have the book of Acts. It gives us the history of the beginnings of the Christian church. After the epistles, we have Revelation, the only prophetic book in the New Testament. Of course, the New Testament begins with the four gospels. presenting the good news of Christ and His salvation.

Gospels + Acts + Epistles + Revelation = New Testament

So, why does it matter that 1 John is a letter?
It helps us study it in an appropriate way. How do you read a letter? Do you read one section today and the next a week from now and the last in two weeks, or do you read it all in one sitting? Probably the latter.

Therefore, we will begin by reading 1 John all at once. Hopefully you'll find time to read it more than once and in more than one translation. I would recommend that your first reading be in a translation that uses modern English and idioms, such as the TEV (Today's English Version), NLT (New Living Translation), or The Message. Then read it in the NIV (New International Version), NASB (New American Standard Bible), KJV (King James Version), RSV (Revised Standard Version), or one of the other versions. If you have time, read it in several versions.

To read 1 John in Eugene H. Peterson's The Message, go to http://biblegateway.com/versions/Message-MSG-Bible. Scroll down the Bible book list to 1 John near the bottom. Click on its chapters to read. To read 1 John in other versions, see
http://bible.logos.com. Type 1 John into the white space under Bible.Logos.com. You can change translations by clicking on the abbreviations on the right of the blue band.

When possible, read 1 John aloud or have someone read it aloud to you. Remember that letters in that day were more often heard than read.

As you read, observe the text by asking these questions:
Who wrote the letter? What do we learn about that person or persons?
Who received the letter? What do we learn about this person or persons?
What is the relationship between the writer and the recipient(s)? Do they know each other? If so, what has been their relationship in the past?
Why do you think the writer wrote the letter?

Remember that we aren't looking for detailed answers to these questions--just your first impressions.