| 1. The one eternal God became incarnate in his Son, Jesus the Christ, who is “the true God and eternal life.” | 1:1–3; 4:2; 5:20 |
| 2. All humans are sinful, but Christians have joyful fellowship with the Father, with the Son, and with each other through repentance and faith in Christ. | 1:3–10 |
| 3. Christ is our advocate with the Father and the propitiation for our sins. | 2:1–2; 4:10 |
| 4. Those who know Christ forsake sin and keep God’s commandments—in particular the love commandment. | 2:3–11; 3:4–24; 4:7–21 |
| 5. Denial of Jesus Christ as God’s Son in the flesh is denial of God the Father. | 2:22–23; 4:2–3; 5:10–12 |
| 6. Faith in Christ results in forgiveness of sins, eternal life, confidence in prayer, protection from the evil one, and understanding and knowing the true God. | 5:12–21 |
Theological Themes of 1 John
As noted in Style and Substance, the letter’s themes are presented, moved away from, then resumed. Though a linear progression is not presented in 1 John, many of the themes that are repeated may be set forth as follows.
God is light and love. Those who are now Christians have passed out of death into life. Christians did not do this on their own ability; God loved them and sent Jesus to be the propitiation for their sins. God then caused those who were dead to be born again, giving them life. With life, God gave the Spirit and spiritual understanding, with the result that believers are no longer “of the world” or “of the devil” but are “from/of God” and “of the truth.” God now abides in his people, his Word abides in them, and they abide in God; thus they abide in the light, for God is light. Another way of describing this relationship is to say that Christians know and love God. Being made alive, receiving the Spirit, and knowing God naturally results in transformed behavior, which John describes in terms of loving God, obeying God, and loving one another.
| God is light (1:5; 2:8) | God is love (4:8, 16, 19) | |
| Christians were spiritually dead: they have “passed out of death into life” (3:14) | ||
| God loved his people and sent Jesus to die for them (3:16; 4:10, 14, 19; 5:11) | ||
| Christians have been born of God (2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18) | ||
| God gave them life (3:14; 4:9; 5:11, 16) | ||
| God gave Christians the Spirit (2:20, 27; 3:24; 4:13) along with understanding (5:20) | ||
| Christians are of/from God/the truth (3:10, 19; 4:4, 6; 5:19) | ||
| God abides in Christians, and his Word abides in them (2:14, 24, 27; 3:9, 24; 4:12, 13, 15, 16) | Christians abide in God, and thus abide in the light (2:5, 6, 27, 28; 3:6, 24; 4:13, 16) | |
| Christians know God (2:13, 14; 4:6, 7), they know the Father (2:13; 5:20), they know Jesus (1:3; 2:3), and they know the Spirit (4:2, 6) | Christians love God (2:5; 4:21; 5:2, 3) | |
Being born again, having received the Spirit, abiding in God and God abiding in them, and knowing and loving God, Christians bear observable fruit:
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