1–3 John

The letters from John written to churches at the end of the first century CE possess meaningful theological insight for Christians today—in a sense, they were written for us.

True to this sense, Thomas Andrew Bennett keeps historical speculation to a minimum and delves into the theological depths of 1–3 John in this commentary. He begins by providing a new translation of the text from the Greek, along with verse-by-verse exegesis, and then moves into an extended reflection on a litany of relevant theological topics, including questions of trinitarianism, creation, faith, atonement, eschatology, salvation, the nature of divine and human love, and the composition of the church. In these pages, readers challenged by Johannine metaphors (“walking in the light,” “children of God,” etc.) will find clarity, and pastors will find detailed guidance for teaching and preaching.

Bennett’s scholarship is critical but confessional, academic but accessible, and, above all, rooted in a faithful reverence that seeks not to read 1–3 John as a detached outsider to the text, but as the author’s fellow believer, so that the text’s theological concerns can be spoken to once again in a fresh and compelling way.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Two Horizons of the Letters of John

Interpretation: Theological Interpretation of 1–3 John

Theological Horizons of 1–3 John

• The Trinity
  • Theological Epistemology: Knowing God
  • Trinitarianism in 1–3 John: Ambiguity in Speech about the Persons of the Godhead
  • From God Is Love to Nicaea: Incipient Trinitarianism in 1 John
• Christology
  • Christ the Co-priest: The Fulfillment of the Temple
  • Soteriology in 1–3 John: In Jesus’s Name
  • In the Flesh: Incarnation and Christology in 1–3 John
  • Novel but Never New: Orthodox Theology in 1–3 John
• God and Creation
  • A Redeemable Creation
  • Time in 1–3 John
  • The Unseen World: Spirit and Spirits in 1–3 John
  • On the Importance of the Physical in 1–3 John
• God’s Character
  • God Beyond, God In: Transcendence and Immanence in 1 John
  • Divine Pathos in 1–3 John: God’s Joy
  • Theological Aesthetics in 1–3 John
  • The Love of God and the Death of God
  • God Listens: Divine Passibility in 1–3 John
• Election and Eschatology
  • Transformation: Soteriology and Purgatory in 1–3 John
  • Eternal Security and Purgatory in 1–3 John
  • Eternity and Election: The Economy of Election in 1–3 John
  • Being Rewarded: Eschatology and Divine and Human Economics in 1–3 John
• Scripture
  • Apostolic Authority and Truth
  • Theological Epistemology: Community and Discernment
  • What a Canon! The Theological Import of 2–3 John
• The Church
  • The Spirit of Anointing: Church as Spirit-Temple in 1–3 John
  • Ecclesiology in 1–3 John: The Family of God
  • Gender and Leadership: The Role of Women in 1–3 John
  • Intolerance and the Power of Speech in 1–3 John
  • True Church and Excommunication in 2–3 John
• Ethics
  • Ethics in 1–3 John: In Him
  • Open and Closed Doors: Christian Hospitality in 1–3 John
  • Money in 1–3 John
  • Power and Authority in 1–3 John