PT-2 "Intro to 1 John"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/31/2024 5:57 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:  PT-2 “Intro to 1 John”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                  Reference:  1 John

 

            It is my desire to look at some of the things that John MacArthur has written in his commentary on the preface and introduction to his commentary on First John this evening.

 

            I like what he says in the Preface of his commentary on First John and so I will quote some of the things that he has written in it.

 

            “It continues to be a rewarding, divine communion for me to preach expositionally through the New Testament.  My goal is always to have deep fellowship with the Lord in the understanding of His Word and out of that experience to explain to His people what a passage means.  In the words of Nehemiah 8:8i, I strive ‘to give the sense’ of it so they may truly hear God speak and, in so doing, may respond to Him.

 

            “Obviously, God’s people need to understand Him, which demands knowing His Word of Truth (2 Tim. 2:15) and allowing that Word to dwell in them richly (Col. 3:16).  The dominant thrust of my ministry, therefore, is to help make God’s living Word alive to His people.  It is a refreshing adventure.

 

            “This New Testament commentary series reflects this objective of explaining and applying Scripture.  Some commentaries are primarily linguistic, others are mostly theological, and some are mainly homiletical.  This one is basically explanatory, or expository.  It is not linguistically technical but deals with linguistics when that seems helpful to proper doctrines in each text and how they relate to the whole of Scriptures.  It is not primarily homiletical, although each unit of thought is generally treated as one chapter, with a clear outline and logical flow of thought.  Most truths are illustrated and applied with other Scripture.  After establishing the context of a passage, I have tried to follow closely the writer’s development and reasoning.

 

            “My prayer is that each reader will fully understand what the Holy Spirit is saying through this part of His Word, so that His revelation may lodge in the mind of believers and bring greater obedience and faithfulness—to the glory of our great God.”

 

            One of the things that comes through the preaching and teaching of John MacArthur is his love for the Word of God and that is why I read his commentaries and listen to his preaching, and that is what I want to do as I go through this letter of 1 John. 

 

            I have read through his introduction and it is long and so I think that it best if I just begin in my next SD to jump right into the first four verses of this letter.  One of the things that I did learn from reading over his introduction is that in the first century it was not clear that John, the apostle of Jesus Christ was the one who wrote this letter and the chief reason was that like the gospel of John his name is not found anywhere in it.

 

            From looking back at my study of the gospel of John I remember that many believe that this gospel by John was written very late in his life.  John wrote the gospel of John, first, second, and third John and also the book of Revelation.  Some actually believe that he wrote his gospel of Jesus Christ after he wrote the book of Revelation, and possibly all three of his letters too.  All I know is that I believe that he wrote all of what we find in the Bible late in his life as to exactly when I cannot not be sure.  I look forward in studying this letter that we call “1 John.”

 

7/31/2024 6:18 PM