I John, 1:3-4

John chapter 1. But let's go ahead and look at the immediate context, verses 1 and 2. What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life. And the life was manifested, and we have seen and testified and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us. What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you, Also, so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. These things we write so that our joy may be complete."

So, that's sort of the background of what we'll look at today. And one thing I noticed here is that John repeats a lot of words, nouns, verbs, and I just want to note those real quick. So, what we have heard, he mentions that twice. What we have seen with our eyes, He uses that three times here in just these four verses. And then He uses the pronoun, what or which, and then what it refers to, which is the Lord Jesus Christ or the eternal life. He uses that multiple times in just these four verses. He uses the verb manifested twice, proclaim twice, the Father twice, Fellowship, twice. Okay, so, just for what it's worth. And then, we went over verses 1 and 2 last week, but what does what refer to?

Roger, shouldn't have given that clue. Roger said last week that the answer to every question is Jesus. In this case it is. So, okay. And then also, just before we get started, in verses 3 and 4, which we'll go over today, we have two purpose statements. So, in light of, and we'll mention them at the beginning because John has given us these things that he's received from the Lord, heard from the Lord, and the purpose of it is so that you would have fellowship with us, and then verse 4, the purpose of writing it is so that our joy may be made complete. So, hey man, good to see you. You're still alive. Alright, so let's go through this phrase by phrase and even word by word. Alright, not quite yet.

Why is John repeating himself? What we've seen, he's used that three times in just the first three verses. What do you think? Why is John repeating himself? We're looking at the first phrase there, what we have seen. Why does he have to repeat that? What are your thoughts? He would like to just really want them to know. Okay.

Well, that's true, but if we look at the first four verses there, we see that verse 2 is actually parenthetical, and it's sort of a parenthetical verse between verses 1 and 3. So, and there you can see it, verse 2 is in parentheses. So what he does then, is in verse 3, he kind of gets himself back on track.

So he kind of just restates where he was. Because in verse 2, he had just been elaborating on that life. He's telling them about the life, what he had seen from the life, what the life had told him. So then in verse 2, he elaborates a little bit more on the life. And now in verse 3, he's going to get himself back on track.

So he says, what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you, and then tells us why. saying seen three times, that also be, you know, a lot of stuff. A lot of things are, you know, I heard this from someone else, or this was written, so I'm passing it on to you. This he actually saw. So it's more of an impact. For emphasis, right. Yup, that's there as well. Okay. Alright. So now, what?

What is just a relative pronoun used six times in chapter one, and as we mentioned earlier, it refers to Jesus Christ, the Word of Life, the Life, the Eternal Life. We have seen, and Roger looked at this, taught on this last week, hara'o is to stare at, And then it's in the perfect tense here as well. In Rogers, the occurrence of it in verses 1 and 2, or verse 1, was also in the perfect tense. And remember, perfect tense is a completed past action with ongoing present results. And then we looked at this little chart, and this is in your notes from last week. But here, the perfect tense, this line represents the present. And so the dot represents a completed action.

So it's a completed action in the past, but its results are ongoing even in the present. So what we have seen, we saw it in the past, but yet it has effects into the present. And John's going to use this six times in this book. And I go ahead and I mention throughout the presentation how many times the word is used in the Gospel of John as well, just because they're written by the same author and they're very similar. I won't always mention it, but it's in your notes.

In John 19.35, look at this. One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

And now this is John again writing this. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. So, seen here is Harao again, and it's John. He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe." So, very similar to what we're seeing in 1 John, verses 1 and 3 here.

And like Brian said, he saw it. He knows it's true. Okay, heard. This is a kuo, and Roger also taught on this last week. It showed up in verse 1. And it is also perfect tense. Completed past action with ongoing results. They heard it in the past, but it's affecting them today, when he's writing it, or at the time he wrote the letter. To hear is one of the key words of the book. He's 14 times.

Okay, so what we have seen and heard, he's back on track, These things we proclaim to you also. And proclaim is apangelo, which is to announce, to declare, to report. And this also showed up in verse 1. Now this is in the present tense because John's writing the letter. So right now I'm proclaiming to you, is what he's saying. present tense, just happening at the time he's writing it, in this context. It's only used twice here, in the book of John, and only twice in the Gospel of John. But look at this verse, this is worth mentioning.

John 20, verse 18, Mary Magdalene came announcing, or proclaiming, that's our verb, to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her. So both of our our words in this verse pop up in this chapter and verse in John. Again, by the same author. What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us.

So that Hina... Nope, not that. in order that, to the end that, to the intent that. So it's used when someone wants to make a purpose statement. And John uses it 19 times in this book, and then he uses it 137 times in his Gospel. So he's making a lot of points in his writing. And hena, plus a subjunctive verb, That's the mood of the verb, the relationship of the verb to reality.

Make up, I'm sorry, hena plus a subjunctive verb occurs 1,858 times in the New Testament, and a third of those show up in John's writings. I'm sorry, I said that wrong. Okay, sorry, I said that wrong. Hena plus the subjunctive, for what it's worth. Hena plus the subjunctive is used out of all the occurrences of the subjunctive verb in the New Testament, about a third. So, hena is used with the subjunctive out of one third of all the occurrences of the subjunctive. Sorry, there we go. Alright, so, why do we need to know that? Well, Hena, with his subjunctive, answers the question, why?

So, why is John proclaiming the Word of Life? What do you guys think? That he has. That's right. And so, why is he telling them about it? He saw it, and now why is he telling them about it? Yeah, these are easy. in order that his readers would have fellowship. So, it's a purpose statement. Now, John uses this same construction, Hina with the subjunctive, in the next verse, verse 4, but it also shows up here in chapter 2, verse 1, My little children, I am writing these things to you, so that you may not sin. Why is he writing to them? So that they may not sin. Pretty clear. John is very clear. He uses simple Greek. And simple English too. Simple English, yeah. What's that?

Okay, so you too may have fellowship with us. the verb is to have or to possess, and this is what's in the subjunctive mood, but it's present tense, right now and continuing. And that's, let me show this as well, the Greek tense, you know in English when we use present tense, we mean right now, like I'm drinking coffee right now, but in Greek, when they use the present tense, it has more significance. It means right now and continuing on. So, I'm right now drinking coffee and I will continue to drink coffee for the next hour and then go to the hospital. But in Greek, that's what they could do with the present tense.

And this verb, echo, is used 28 times in 1 John. OK, now I have a question. And this one's a little more difficult. When does John say the believers are to have this fellowship with himself, the Father, and Jesus Christ? Based on the verb we're looking at, echo. Present tense right now, okay? So, I have some options. This is multiple guess. In the future, after years of spiritual growth, A, or B, right now, or C, right now and continuing into the future.

C. See, I still make these easy.

So, that's right, C. John is proclaiming the Lord Jesus Christ. Specifically, what Christ taught him, what they saw Christ do, what they heard from him, what they saw. He's proclaiming the Lord Jesus Christ to them through the letter so that they may have fellowship right now and continue on in the future. Fellowship with John, with the Father and with the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, it's pretty cool. Okay, now fellowship. Koinonia means contact, fellowship, or intimacy. And it's only used four times in 1 John, and look, it doesn't show up at all in the Gospel of John. So I wonder why. Why do you think fellowship doesn't occur in the Gospel of John? I'd like to hear what you guys have to think. I mean, fellowship's a pretty important part of Christian walk. But why wouldn't it show up in the Gospel of John?

I have an answer, but I was wondering what you guys thought. Easier or harder? This is a little harder. What do you think? Because in the Gospel of John, I mean, the Holy Spirit wasn't involved just yet. Okay. Yeah, I would say that. I don't want to say it was a transition time, but it sort of was, because you have the account of the cross and all the things that were happening at that time. Okay. Yeah, you guys are on track with where I was going. And I'm looking at different purposes were written for the books, which is similar to what you guys are saying.

But why did John write the Gospel? And he tells us, therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in the book, in this book, but these things have been written, similar construction to what we're reading in 1 John, this is the Gospel of John, but these have been written, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. So John's purpose in writing his Gospel, which was written before 1 John, but probably not too many years before 1 John, but it was written so that one could believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Whereas 1 John is written to those who already know the Father, they already know the truth, they already have or possess eternal life, and remember the Gnostics were probably telling them the opposite, that we know the Father and you don't, that kind of thing. So John's written to these, and for the purpose that these believers, who already know the Father, already know the truth, already possess eternal life, would have fellowship, and then not sin.

That's in 2.1, which we'll look at next month. So, that's why I don't think fellowship shows up in John, because it's written mainly to unbelievers, but believers sure like it too. Although fellowship only occurs four times in 1 John, it is one of the themes of the letter. It has a prominent place in John's message here. And we will actually in the next few weeks come back to fellowship and talk a lot more about fellowship when Brad and Roger teach next. Here's one we'll look at though real quick.

1 Corinthians 1.9, God is faithful. through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." So God has called us into this fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Into this intimacy, this fellowship with the Lord. And then John says, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

So it wasn't enough for him just to mention fellowship, but he's going to be more specific. Idea, when those two particles are put together, means yea and or moreover also. So he elaborates and further describes his fellowship. The fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

So it's not just merely two people getting together and having a good time. but it's two people getting together and independence upon the Lord, maybe having a good time too, there's nothing wrong with that, but they have a relationship with the Lord and they are fellowshipping with Him and trusting Him while they interact with each other. But then also, it would be referring to a believer who isn't around another Christian, but he is fellowshipping with the Lord by himself, or walking with the Lord and trusting the Lord by himself. So this is the type of fellowship that John's talking about. Could it also be that a lot of these new believers were Jew and their only relationship was with God as the Father and they didn't know Jesus as the Son until they came to faith?

Sure. Yeah, definitely there were people who are now Christians and who used to be Jews, who were raised Jews, no doubt about that. Jews were spread all over that Asia region. In fact, there were probably more Jews in Asia than there were in Jerusalem because at different times the Jews were expelled from Jerusalem. The Romans had just conquered Jerusalem maybe 20 years before in AD 70.

Pater, Father, is a title for God and it's a title that combines aspects of His supernatural authority and care for His people. That's pretty general. It's used 15 times in 1 John and also is one of the key words. 15 times. And at the end of your notes today I put an updated slide of key words because I've added some, changed some. The reason is I took this list from a from an author, and then now that I'm studying through it, I'm making some changes and adding some things to it, so be aware of that.

Okay, now God is called, in Scripture, not in 1 John, but in Scripture, God is called the Father of the stars, the lights, because He created them. He's called the Father of all intelligent beings, men or angels, again, because of His role as their Creator. He's called the Father of Jesus Christ, by both Christ Himself and by the Apostles. And then, God is called the Father of Christians, because of our positioning Christ as adult sons. And there's many passages, I put a few, that teach that the moment a person gets saved, they're placed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they have the same position as He does to the Father.

They're adult sons. They're heirs in Christ, with Christ. And so there's some verses there that you can look up. His son, Huyas, is used 23 times in 1 John and is also one of the key words. 58 times in the Gospel. Now, son is significant because to say that Cyrus is my son could mean that he's my offspring, but in Hebrew, if you would say, the son of Adam, or you could use the same phrase, son of, and mean equality or identity or sameness of nature. So, when Christ claimed Himself to be the Son of God, He was claiming equality with God. He wasn't just saying that He was the offspring of the Father. He was claiming oneness with the Father.

Look at this, John 5.18. For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but he was calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. And there's one more here, John 10, 36.

Do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, you are blaspheming? So the Jews were telling Christ, you are blaspheming. And Jesus is saying, do you say this because I said I am the Son of God? If I do not do the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am the Father.

Ah, there you go. James and John, were they the brothers called the Sons of Thunder? Those are the two? There's another example for you. Sons of Thunder, I mean, there was a reason they were called Sons of Thunder. They must have been very loud and obnoxious.

So anyway, the term son shows up here again. And although it doesn't say Son of God here, certainly if you reorganize, or just reword the phrase, the Father with His Son, it's the Son of the Father, the same idea is found here. Now, Jesus, Hiēsūs, is a transliteration of Joshua, which is Hebrew for Jehovah Saved. Another one of the key words, It's used 12 times, and of course it's used hundreds of times in the whole New Testament. I won't mention those. Now, it's the personal name of the Son of God, Jesus, and it refers to or denotes His work on the cross as Saviour.

In fact, in Matthew 1.21, the angel says, Mary will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. So that's why he was called Jesus, which means Jehovah Saved, or Saves.

Now Christ is the Greek word for Messiah, and literally means the Anointed. Also, a Greek word shows up in the New Testament, Messias, which is a transliteration of the Hebrew word Messiah. So, Christ and Messias are synonyms when you see them in Scripture. It's used ten times in John. And it denotes Christ's work as Savior from sin, but also His work as the Deliverer for the nation of Israel. because in the Old Testament, the Jews were promised that the Messiah would come and He would save them from their sins, but also He would save them from the nations around them and He would be their King, He would be their Priest, and much of the Old Testament relates to Christ as the Messiah.

John 4.25, let's look at this one. When Jesus is meeting with a Samaritan woman, The woman says, you know, after, oh no, this is early on in their conversation, she says, I know that the Messiah is coming, He who is called Christ. So they're both words, Messiah and Christos show up. When that one comes, He will declare all things to us. And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He. So this woman was a Samaritan.

Now the Samaritans were a mix of the Jews with the Assyrians because, you know, several hundred years before, like in the 700 B.C., the Assyrians had come in and taken out the northern kingdom of Israel because they didn't have any faithful kings of Jehovah, and so they were judged first.

Well, what the Assyrians did in northern Israel, and they would do this to all of their captives, even non-Jews, they would mix up the population. So they took Jews, moved them out of northern Israel, and then they moved in other captives from other lands and even other Assyrians. They moved them in and they just intermarried with northern Israel. And the result was the Samaritans, which is why the Jews didn't want anything to do with them because they weren't pure Jews, right? Well, the Samaritans continued to use the Old Testament, but they changed some of the content of the Old Testament. But they did still know that the Messiah would come. He would just come to Samaria, not to Jerusalem.

So they changed that little detail. But here the woman knows, from the Old Testament Scriptures, slightly modified, that the Messiah is coming. So she was looking for the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, again, there are many verses that talk about the promise of the One who would come. But here's one in Daniel. It talks about the Messiah coming. Verse 26 in the middle here. After 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. So, again, this is talking about the Israel's judgment that they have to go through before the Messiah returns to rule as king on earth. But I just wanted to show you that as one place it shows up in the Old Testament. And then together we have Jesus Christ, these two words. And this combination occurs eight times in John.

Maybe I'm the only one, but I don't know Greek. Yes. If you put that on the English alphabet. Yeah. Transliteration. Transliteration. Sure. We can do that, sure. Yeah. I'll put it right beside it or something. Yeah. Yeah. I can't read that. No problem. Can I add something else to it? Yeah. Cool illustration. No problem. Okay.

So then verse 4, these things we write, and this phrase is pretty similar to the first part of verse 3 there, what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, but now he's specifically talking about the letter form of this book. These things we write, and these things, tauta, by the way, similar to the English letters, And it's another pronoun. Four times in 1 John. And it refers to this letter that John's writing, you know, these things, which would include all the truths about the Lord Jesus Christ.

We write, it's Graffo, and of course it's right now, he's writing the letter right now, present tense. So these things we write, So that, and again, so that is hena with a subjunctive verb, so it's a purpose statement. In order that, these things we write in order that. Okay, and hena with a subjunctive answers the question why. So why is John writing these things? So, I'm writing these things. Another easy question. Why is John writing these things to these believers?

So that our joy may be complete. Real quick. So that our joy may be complete, the word are there, in some text it shows up as our joy, in other texts it shows up as your joy. So the King James uses your joy, the New American Standard and NIV use our joy. I didn't have time to try to figure out why. Obviously there's a small variation there in one of the original texts, but it's not a significant thing. Now, joy is kara, a state of joy and gladness, only used once in 1st John.

May be is eimi, an essence verb, to be, and it's present tense, so that our joy may be right now complete and continuing in the future complete. And this is the verb that's connected up with Hina. Now, Eimi is one of the key words in 1 John and it's used the most, 99 times. Made complete, plerao, to make something total or complete. And now here it's a participle. And it's in the perfect tense. It's also passive voice. Let's look at this bullet.

The subject, in this case, John's joy, receives the action of the verb, being made complete. So, John's writing, so that his joy would be made complete. Something's going to make his joy complete. Okay, now this is interesting. The phrase, our joy be made complete, or your joy be made complete, is used six times by John in his writings. So it's a phrase that, the whole phrase, John uses repeatedly. And I put the passages there if you want to look those up. John 15-11 is one we'll look at.

These things I, Jesus, have spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." So, full there is the same word for complete. And the other places that this phrase shows up It is actually translated, your joy, so most likely in First John it should be your joy as well, but I haven't looked at that too closely. But you know what's interesting?

Is that around John 15 and 11, Jesus states a lot of the same truths and phrases that show up in 1 John as we go. So, we'll be referring back to John 15 quite a bit in this class. But anyway, look at the similarity of this verse with verse 4 that we're looking at. Jesus says, these things, same word, I have spoken unto you, now Jesus spoke it, now John's writing it. And why is John writing it? Because he heard Jesus say it.

That my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. Joy. A state of joy and gladness. So both John and Jesus want believers to be joyful. And joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit, isn't it? Love, joy, peace. So Christians have reason to be joyful. And God intends for us to be joyful. Of course, it's because of our relationship with Him, and because the Lord Jesus lives out His life in us, that we can be joyful.

Worth mentioning. Both Christ and John make a point to teach that. Isn't it interesting that His joy is complete when He can write it down. He proclaims it. it's a completion of him interacting with the Lord, and then that carries on. It's complete when others hear about it, his fellow believers.

Could you say that joy is also happiness? I think joy is more of a state of being happy where it's happy, I think. temporary individual type. It makes sense. It would be interesting to look at the word happy in scripture and joy and do a kind of parallel study. Does happy come up in scripture? I wonder about that. I'm not actually sure. I may not even be in there.

But joy, you know, defines the relationship that we have with our Savior. I think when you experience joy in the Lord, no matter what trial or situation you find yourself in, it can't be taken for me because that joy is complete. I think that's a hard place for me that I personally have to endure understanding. Once I realized no matter what happens in life, that can't ever be removed from my salvation, the joy I have in the Lord, it's there, it's implanted.

Happiness is an emotion that comes and goes. Sadness is an emotion that comes and goes. Grief comes and goes. Joy is complete. Yeah. Yeah, it's not an emotional thing here. Emotions are not bad, but we're not driven by emotions. Contentment? Yeah, and that's the definition I found was a state of being, a state of joy, or contentment. Yeah. I think our pop thing, you know, joy, joy, joy, joy. Yeah, that's... It's not quite that. Yeah. lose somebody and be grieving, and you can still have joy, but you're not going to be happy. I didn't do much with this, but I wonder if John isn't... John's a Jew. and certain Hebrew styles do show up in his writings. So I wonder if John isn't sort of making parallel statements here, that sort of rhyme with meaning.

I didn't study that a lot, but here in verse 3, and verse 1 as well, he elaborately describes what he's proclaiming to them, and then he tells why, so that you may have fellowship with us, and describes the fellowship. But then in verse 4, he says, these things we write, so he's referring to the exact same things he just stated. so that our joy may be complete." And I wonder if they're not parallel in meaning, and he's referring to the same thing there, in the purpose statement, so that our joy may be complete. His joy will be made complete when they're fellowshipping with Him and with the Father and the Son, but I didn't look at that too closely.

That's all I had on the the text. Do you guys have anything to add to that? You know, another thing that comes out of this, I think, and we'll see more of it later on, is the focus of fellowship. Oh yeah. I mean, the focus of fellowship is the Lord Jesus and our relationship to Him. You know, in the in the church sense, I mean, you know, popular Christian, we get we get fellowship kind of smeared out across 100 different activities. And so, you know, we're going to have a fellowship time. Well, it's usually a company. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And I didn't have to gather.

There wasn't food didn't show up in the definition. Actually, it's there in the Greek. It's there in the Greek. I think that the Lord spent a lot of time having meals with them. I think it's cool. He kind of nails it down. He says, in our fellowship, he says, here's where our fellowship's at. He just nails it right there. He says, in our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son. He doesn't like, you know, keep you guessing. That's what's so wonderful about 1 John. It's just so direct and the statements are so clear and straightforward, you know. that we may have fellowship. He could have left that out conceivably, it seems like, but it's so much more clear and to the point where he defines what our fellowship is. It's what the Father and the Son are. Who is true. I mean, would you want to have fellowship with people who are not true? Absolutely. Absolutely. The truth is right there written all over those verses to me.

Remember as well that these believers were being affected by the Gnostics, and the Gnostics had fellowship. In fact, there are still Gnostic groups today, and they're all over the internet, and they have fellowship. They have these weird, nasty rituals and ceremonies that certainly f***, but it's not the type of fellowship that glorifies the Lord. And so I'm sure that they were spreading that idea and fellowship around in the first century, but John, like you guys are saying, is specific. This is the type of fellowship that I'm talking about.

It's with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Because one more thing that Roger and Brad and I will talk about later is that this fellowship isn't constant. In other words, it can be broken. And we'll see why. And there's a difference between relationship with the Lord and of course fellowship with the Lord.

Relationship can never be broken. It's secure for the believer. Once saved, always saved type thing. But the fellowship relates to our moment-by-moment walk with Him. And we'll get into that more as well. Real quick, that's all I have on the text. Let me just point this out, since I have about five more minutes. This is the extra handout, and I'm just going to read the first paragraph just to further describe why I handed this out.

Remember in the introduction two weeks ago, I taught that 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and the Gospel of John and Revelation were all written by the same author, the Apostle John. But I said there are critics who say that, no, they weren't written by the same guy. Even though Revelation claims to be written by John, and 2nd and 3rd John claim to be written by the Elder, whom most people say is John, we look at the text and say 1st John is written by John, the Gospel of John is written by John. Even though we've come to that conclusion, there are critics who say, no. So that's why I pass this out.

Let me read just the first paragraph, and then if you're interested, you can read it this week. During the last hundred years or so, a small but persistent minority of scholars have held that the evident similarity between the letter, 1 John, and gospel is due rather to conscious or unconscious imitation than to identity of authorship. So that's what the critics are saying. that somebody was pretending to be John and was just imitating him.

These scholars point mainly to three phenomena. First, to words and concepts in the letter which do not appear in the Gospel. Secondly, to peculiarities in the Gospel without parallel in the letter. And thirdly, to subtle but significant differences in doctrines which are common to both Gospel and letter. So then what these three pages do is he looks at each one of those three and shows how the critics are wrong. So, it's pretty cool. Do you think so? Why is that?

These things we are writing are very much to you, to that you enjoy. I mean, he's certainly talking about himself and whoever else is with him also, but I think it's more of a, I'm writing this to you. Right, and if my idea is right, that somehow this is sort of a Hebraistic parallel, these are parallel verses, kind of a restatement of the previous verse, that would make sense. But then also, but the other is true, of course, as well, because in John 15, he says, Jesus does talk about his joy, but then it's written, so he spoke these things to them, so that your joy would be fulfilled. But I kind of am leaning that way, too.

Alright, let's pray. Dear Lord, thanks for letting us go over a couple of verses here in 1 John. And I pray that we would be able to remember these things and apply Your Word to our lives and have fellowship with You now and continuing on into the future. And please continue to teach us as we study these words over the next few weeks. In Jesus' name, Amen.