John, the apostle of Jesus who also wrote the fourth gospel, wrote 1, 2, and 3 John as late as 90 A.D. False teachers had  arisen in several early Christian communities, and they were undermining basic teachings of the apostles concerning the identity of Jesus and his death on the cross.  These teachers had moved on, having taken some of the believers with them.  John wrote these three letters to assure the remaining church members of the certainty of their faith and to refute the claims of these early false teachers.

Some questions you might consider:

1. See his purpose in 1:4 and 2:1, 12-14, 21, 26. Where do you see an additional summary of his purpose in chapter 5?
2. One major heresy was gnosticism. Find out what it was. See 2:22.
3. John uses contrasts effectively. Children of God are contrasted with children of the devil. What other contrasts do you see?
4. One key theme is love. See 4:8. If this is true, how does the rest of the letter deal with this statement?
5. A good way to see if a book is by the same author as another book is to check wording and style. Compare the following from the gospel of John with 1 John. The first passage will be from John while the second one will be from 1 John—1:1,14/1:1, 16:24/1:4, 3:19-21/1:6-7, 13:34-35/2:7, 8:44/3:8, 5:24/3:14, 8:47/4:6, 5:32,37/5:9, 3:36/5:12.

How would you characterize John’s approach to arguing in 2:18, 2:22, 3:10?