CHAPTER ONE

Contents: Fellowship with God made possible through the incarnation. Conditions of perpetual fellowship walking in the light and confessing sins.

Characters: God, Christ, John.

Conclusion: Fellowship with the Father, which has been made possible through the incarnation of Christ, the eternal Word, can be maintained only by walking in the light, which signifies the recognizing of our sins with frank confession of them and forsaking of them as they are revealed to us, and belief in Christ crucified as the remedy for sin.

Key Word: Fellowship, v. 6.

Strong Verses: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Striking Facts: v. 9. Our sins were judicially dealt with at the cross (1 Pet. 2:24) which results in eternal life, but unconfessed and unforsaken sin in the believer brings the loss of fellowship with God and chastisement. (1 Cor. 11:31-33) Confession of sin would not bring fellowship with God, unless the sinner had accepted the finished work of Christ on the cross.

CHAPTER TWO

Contents: Christ's advocacy for the believer. Tests of fellowship, obedience and love. Warning against worldliness and apostates.

Characters: God, Christ, John, Satan, anti-christ.

Conclusion: To know God and the power of His love is impossible without practical observance of His Word, which means that we must seek to walk as Christ walked, in love toward our fellowmen and in separation from the things of the world. To profess to know God and yet deny Jesus as the Christ is to brand oneself as given up to the delusions of the devil.

Key Word: Knowing Him, v. 3.

Strong Verses: 1, 2, 6, 15, 17, 22, 23.

Striking Facts: v. 1. Even the most advanced believers have their sins, but there is a distinction between them and the sinners of the world, for the former have an Advocate in heaven. As they have had Christ's blood applied to them upon their acceptance of Him, so they have an Advocate to procure their continued forgiveness as they confess their sins.

CHAPTER THREE

Contents: God's love magnified and the believer exhorted to holiness. Brotherly love urged. How our hearts may be assured before God.

Characters: God, Christ, Satan, Cain, John.

Conclusion: It is a wonderful and condescending love of the Father that we, who by nature are heirs of sin, guilt and the curse, should be called the sons of God and given such hopes in Christ. It is a contradiction to such love and hope to live in sin and impurity. Purity, love and a clear conscience toward God are marks of our transition into this state of life.

Key Word: Purity, v. 3. Love, v. 14.

Strong Verses: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 14, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24.

Striking Facts: vv. 2-3. The time of the revelation of the sons of God in their proper state and in bodies like unto His glorious body, awaits the second coming of Christ. This is the purifying hope of the church which engages all believers to the prosecution of holy living that they might be in readiness to meet Him unashamed at His coming.

CHAPTER FOUR

Contents: Christians warned of false doctrines concerning Christ's person and work. Tests of the true.

Characters: God, Christ, Holy Spirit, anti-christ, John.

Conclusion: God's people must be ever cautious concerning false teachers that may arise to deny the incarnation, deity and atonement of the Lord Jesus, and must accept none of their claims without testing them by God's Truth in the light of the Holy Spirit's teaching. The spirit of truth is known not only by doctrine but by love which is the natural fruit of the Spirit. The manifestation of divine love through the life argues a true and just apprehension of the divine nature, and such love can never deny the Lord Jesus.

Key Word: Truth and error, v. 6. Love, v. 7.

Strong Verses: 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 19, 20.

Striking Facts: Seven tests of true doctrine are given here. Does it confess Christ's true humanity? vv. 9, 15. His vicarious atonement? vv. 10, 14. Does it tend to worldliness? vv. 4, 5. Do spiritually minded people agree with it? v. 6. Does it witness to the spirit of divine love? vv. 7, 8. Does it accord with the teaching of the Holy Spirit? v. 13.

CHAPTER FIVE

Contents: Faith the overcoming principle. The advantages of faith in salvation, prayer, preservation from sin.

Characters: God, Christ, Holy Spirit, Satan, John.

Conclusion: He who has been born again through Jesus Christ will manifest the effect of regeneration, which is a spiritual conquest of the world. Faith is the means, the instrument and spiritual armor and artillery by which the believer may overcome the world, Satan and sin, and ask and receive of God all that is needful in this life.

Key Word: Overcoming faith, v. 4.

Strong Verses: 1, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

Striking Facts: v. 6. Jesus in His death had a double purpose, not only to save us from hell but to cleanse us. We are denied inwardly by the pollution of sin. Through Him we have "the washing of regeneration." We are denied outwardly by the guilt of sin, and by His blood we are separated from sin's condemnation. (Heb. 9:22. See Jn. 19:34-35.)