Editing First Epistle of John (section)

==Purpose==
"The Fourth Gospel addresses itself to the challenges posed by Judaism and others outside Johannine circles who have rejected the community's vision of Jesus as preexistent Son, sent by the Father." The [[New Jerome Biblical Commentary]] suggests that the three Johannine epistles "describe the fracturing of the Johannine community itself".<ref>The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Edited by Raymond E. Brown, S.S., Union Theological Seminary, New York; NY, William J. Dalton, S. J.; Roland E. Murphy, O. Carm. (emeritus) The Divinity School, Duke University, Durham, NC; [The Johannine Epistles, Pheme Perkins], with a foreword by His Eminence Carlo Maria Cardinal Martini, S.J.; Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1990</ref>

The author wrote the epistle so that the joy of his audience would "be full" (1:4); that they would "not practice sin" (2:1); that they would not be deceived by false teachers (2:26); and that "you who believe in the name of the [[Son of God]]... may continue to know that you have [[Eternal life (Christianity)|eternal life]]" (5:13). There are two main approaches to understanding the overall purpose of the letter, tests of life (popularized by Robert Law) and tests of fellowship (popularized by John Mitchell and [[Zane C. Hodges|Zane Hodges]]). Whereas the Gospel of John was written for unbelievers ([[John 20:31]]), this epistle was written to those who were already believers (5:13).<ref name="Barbour341">Barbour, p. 341</ref> Ernest DeWitt Burton found it likely that its audience was largely [[gentile]] rather than Jewish, since it contains few Old Testament quotations or distinctly Jewish forms of expression.<ref name="Burton367"/>

The epistle also partakes of the debate over Jesus's nature: the debate over "flesh" or the [[Incarnation (Christianity)|incarnation]].  In [[early Christianity]], some advocated for [[docetism]], a view that Christ had been a purely divine being.  Most notably, the group that would eventually become the [[Gnostic]]s were docetic.  1 John fiercely denounces this belief in favor of the view that Jesus had a real appearance "in the flesh" on Earth.  Chapter 4 writes that "every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God" (NRSV),<ref>{{bibleverse|1|John|4:2}}</ref> and other passages say that Jesus shed blood, and if he could not shed blood then his death was meaningless.  Chapter 2 also includes a passage that refers to a group of proto-Gnostics: a group that was once with the church but have since left it and deny that the human Jesus was also the spiritual Christ.  The author denounces these secessionists as "antichrists".  The introduction possibly also addresses the issue, especially if the identification of the author as John, or a pseudepigraphic claim to have been a disciple, is assumed: Chapter 1 writes of having evidence of the truth via eyes and touch.  The author may thus be claiming to have known the physical Jesus personally and is emphasizing his physicality as a flesh-and-blood person rather than a spirit or phantasm.<ref name="ehrman">{{cite book |last=Ehrman |first=Bart |author-link=Bart Ehrman |date=2012 |title=Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics |publisher= Oxford University Press |page=431&ndash;437 |isbn=9780199928033 }}.</ref>