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Before you read on make sure you've read 1 John 5:1-5.
IV. Structure: Is John just talking from the hip? Is there any rhyme or reason to any of this passage, or any of these passages?
-You might think not by just having heard me read it that once. I want to take a minute to use this passage as an example to show you how subtle and finely tuned the structure of John's writing is. We've talked about how John writes more like a poet than a closely reasoned arguer, how this book flows in and out like a symphony. And so I thought it would be prudent before we finish our study of the book to do something we don't usually do here, and make a special effort to highlight a few things about the structure of this passage.
-I freely admit that this has no clear point, no tidbit of application to it. But partly because I was an English major at Wheaton, and partly because I think its an aspect of Scripture that we play down, I want to take a moment to express to the you the beauty of this passage.
-You might think not by just having heard me read it that once. I want to take a minute to use this passage as an example to show you how subtle and finely tuned the structure of John's writing is. We've talked about how John writes more like a poet than a closely reasoned arguer, how this book flows in and out like a symphony. And so I thought it would be prudent before we finish our study of the book to do something we don't usually do here, and make a special effort to highlight a few things about the structure of this passage.
-I freely admit that this has no clear point, no tidbit of application to it. But partly because I was an English major at Wheaton, and partly because I think its an aspect of Scripture that we play down, I want to take a moment to express to the you the beauty of this passage.
1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,
2. and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
*By this we know that we love the children of God,
when we love God and obey his commandments.
*For this is the love of God,
that we keep his commandments.
And his commandments are not burdensome.
3. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.
*And this is the victory that has overcome the world-- our faith.
Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
2 'Everyone' statements
2 'This' statements
1 'Everyone' statement
1 'This' statement
Final Question
-This passage is beautifully poetic. I think you could make a good argument that John is implicitly writing in Hebrew parallelism. Parallelism is a type of poetry that is made not by meter or rhyme but by the same idea being expressed in parallel ways. You can see that the first two 'Everyone' statements are parallel. The 'This' statements make up themselves a couplet and a triplet that are parallel to each other in the first two lines. The 'Everyone' and 'This' statements at the end are parallel ideas said different ways. And the Rhetorical Question stands off on its own as a fitting close to this little poem.
-You can see that all three 'Everyone' statements feature the idea of the one who is "born of God" (in blue) and connect it in order to belief, love, and overcoming. The 'This' statements in the middle link the idea of "loving God" (in red) with "obeying his commandments" (in green). The final three statements all include "overcoming the world" (in yellow), and identify the reason for overcoming variously as being "born of God", "faith" and "believing that Jesus is the Son of God". John's thoughts are very naturally flowing into one another in a well constructed and well thought-out way.
-So I can't tell you how you should live differently in light of all that, but I am hopeful that it gives you an appreciation for the beauty and order of John's writing specifically and of the Scriptures as a whole. One thing about the word of God is that it seems to have an outward simplicity, such that even a young child can understand its meaning, but that its majesty is such that scholars can spend a lifetime studying it and not have plumbed its depths. If I had to give you an application point for that, I would say that I highly suggest two ways of reading Scripture throughout your life. First, is to read for breadth. Read a lot and read quickly, without much questioning all of the details. Enjoy reading a whole book in a sitting often. Second, to read for depth. Do what I did here. Take a small passage and ask all sorts of questions of it, paying close attention to all the details. I think if you do both of those types of reading you will find you really profit in your understanding of Scripture. Some just do one or the other, or somewhere in the middle, but I would highly recommend camping out in both extremes at the same time.
-This passage is beautifully poetic. I think you could make a good argument that John is implicitly writing in Hebrew parallelism. Parallelism is a type of poetry that is made not by meter or rhyme but by the same idea being expressed in parallel ways. You can see that the first two 'Everyone' statements are parallel. The 'This' statements make up themselves a couplet and a triplet that are parallel to each other in the first two lines. The 'Everyone' and 'This' statements at the end are parallel ideas said different ways. And the Rhetorical Question stands off on its own as a fitting close to this little poem.
-You can see that all three 'Everyone' statements feature the idea of the one who is "born of God" (in blue) and connect it in order to belief, love, and overcoming. The 'This' statements in the middle link the idea of "loving God" (in red) with "obeying his commandments" (in green). The final three statements all include "overcoming the world" (in yellow), and identify the reason for overcoming variously as being "born of God", "faith" and "believing that Jesus is the Son of God". John's thoughts are very naturally flowing into one another in a well constructed and well thought-out way.
-So I can't tell you how you should live differently in light of all that, but I am hopeful that it gives you an appreciation for the beauty and order of John's writing specifically and of the Scriptures as a whole. One thing about the word of God is that it seems to have an outward simplicity, such that even a young child can understand its meaning, but that its majesty is such that scholars can spend a lifetime studying it and not have plumbed its depths. If I had to give you an application point for that, I would say that I highly suggest two ways of reading Scripture throughout your life. First, is to read for breadth. Read a lot and read quickly, without much questioning all of the details. Enjoy reading a whole book in a sitting often. Second, to read for depth. Do what I did here. Take a small passage and ask all sorts of questions of it, paying close attention to all the details. I think if you do both of those types of reading you will find you really profit in your understanding of Scripture. Some just do one or the other, or somewhere in the middle, but I would highly recommend camping out in both extremes at the same time.
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