Through most of my 27 years being a Christian I have preferred a method of discipleship based upon gathering small groups of people (6-18) weekly in my home to eat, discuss scripture and pray together. This has included at various times youth, college students, graduate students, adults, and intergenerational groups spanning high school students to octogenarians. We have continued to host a small group bible study through Covid, but it has been a real challenge. We cannot meet indoors safely, and very often we cannot meet outside due to weather or someone from the group needing to quarantine, so inevitably we set up video conferencing. Frankly video conferencing works well for 2-3 people but is problematic for larger groups. I am thankful for it, but it is just not as engaging. It is particularly challenging for many in the group who spend all day in front of a computer to get excited about another virtual meeting.
So I decided to try something new, as they say, “Necessity is the mother of invention”[1]. I invited a college age friend, Mic to start a 1-1 bible study of 1 John with me. Each day we read a verse from 1 John and then text the verse and a short devotional thought about it. I typically read and compare the NIV translation to the Greek in preparation. Once a week we call and read and discuss the passage. On Saturday morning typically we meet outside, read a psalm and discuss it, read a single proverb and discuss it, and then read the entire book of 1 John up to the passage in question and then discuss that. I think it has been a really successful experiment trying to find a Covid-friendly way to interact. Three times, over the course of 3 months we have had to quarantine for two weeks, but I have found that phone and video chat have worked well one on one.
Here are my daily devotional thoughts from 1 John 2:1-11 that I sent to Mic over an 11 day period:
1 John 2:1 My dear children I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the righteous one.
It is a great thing to have an advocate, not a judge in Jesus. He has every right to judge, but instead he defends us. Just like I defend my children, he defends me.
1 John 2:2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
It is sad that Jesus paid the price to redeem the whole world and yet still so many people will take the broad road to destruction instead of the narrow road to life. I wonder how many don’t even realize the high price that Jesus paid for them.
1 John 2:3 We know we have come to know him if we keep his commands.
When I first read this I got nervous, asking questions like: Which commands? Do I really know him? Then I remember how simple Jesus made it … Love God, Love people. Then I feel better because those are commands I want to keep. Even when I fail, at least my heart desires the right thing, so I figure I do know Him.
1 John 2:4 Whoever says “I know him” and does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in that person.
In Greek the perfect tense of the verb “to know” means that we claim to have known him in the past, with continuing effect on the future. Keeping his commandments is to be the evidence of that lasting impact.
1 John 2:5 If anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them.
This is a rich verse. Here is my amplified translation: If anyone should obey/guard/keep his word, truly in him God’s sacrificial love that itself has been paid in full or made complete/perfected/finished in the past is now applied to their future.
1 John 2:6 This is how we know we are in him: whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
I can’t help feeling jealousy toward John. To have lived life with Jesus and experienced his approach to living life in your era makes imitation much easier. For us there is a huge gulf of 2000 years. How would Jesus treat a cell phone? The internet? YouTube? Twitter? Facebook? Open homosexuality? Often I feel we are forced to create a “Jesus response” rather than imitate it. Truly one must be immersed in his word to have a chance of understanding how he would live life in our culture.
1 John 2:7 Dear Friends (Beloved), I am not writing you a new command, but an old command(ment) which you have had from the beginning. The old command is the message (word) that you have heard.
The word command could also be translated “commandment”. The translation “message” falls short when the “word” is logos. Jesus is the ancient word, the “logos”, who was with us from the beginning, whom we have heard (See John 1). “Dear friends” also falls short of “Agapetoi”. We are truly the object of God’s sacrificial agape love, his Beloved.
1 John 2:8 Yet I am writing you a new command; it’s truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
The “new” commandment, we find in the next verse, is to love your fellow man. I detect a certain irony to this verse in Greek. John says “again I give you a novel commandment”. He wants this ancient message to have fresh impact. Each day we get to decide whether to truly love people like Jesus or not.
1 John 2:9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.
Hypocrisy and spiritual blindness go hand in hand. Sobering how much depends on us learning to love and appreciate people. Without that fundamental heart change we are lost. Only the Holy Spirit can bring about that miracle. Certainly reason for serious prayer!
1 John 2:10 Whoever loves his brother lives in the light and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.
My Greek translation: “The one loving his brother abides in/with/by (en) the light and in/with/by (en) him there is no lure for entrapment (skandalon).” A skandalov is the bait stick of a trap that lures the unsuspecting animal in. Our internal distaste for other people is what ultimately tempts us to sin against them, whether in unkind thoughts, careless words or malicious deeds. Notice that the Greek preposition en is broader than simply “in” and suggests the the light is both “in” us and “with” us and “by” it we see. I think this verse points us to the spiritual reality that having the Holy Spirit “in” us means that he is with us and he changes the way we see the world (by his light, which is love).
John 2:11 But one hating his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and he does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
I perceive that this hatred brings a loss of purpose in life. To walk and not know where you are going is a sad existence.
Teaser: Mic gave me permission to post both of our reflections on verses together, so in a future post you will get to to see both sides of our dialogue.
Please let me know if you try this method and how it goes!
[1] According to dictionary.com: “A need or problem encourages creative efforts to meet the need or solve the problem. This saying appears in the dialogue Republic, by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato.” https://www.dictionary.com/browse/necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention#:~:text=A%20need%20or%20problem%20encourages,the%20ancient%20Greek%20philosopher%20Plato.
Atheist to Elder 
Excellent, Dave!
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