A Letter to the Family of God
May 31, 2025
Dr. J. Vernon McGee
THRU the BIBLE Founder
In the last decade of the first century, the apostle John moved to Ephesus to pastor the church founded by Paul. It was near the end of his life when he wrote three important parts of the New Testament—first, the gospel of John (around 90 a.d.), the book of Revelation, while he was imprisoned on the island of Patmos, and then, back in Ephesus, he wrote three final letters to the Christian community made up of house-churches in and around Ephesus. He died soon after, around 100 a.d. and was buried there.
Ephesus was a fascinating place at the time—a complex, Roman world with strong, prevailing attitudes and beliefs from Roman culture. This thinking shapes the message of John’s first letter.
Many followers of Jesus in Ephesus were children of the first Christians. They had heard the stories of what it was like for their parents when Acts 19 took place in their city. But the newness of their faith in Jesus had worn off; the thrill and glory of those first days had faded. Revelation 2:4 records John’s observation that the Ephesians had left their “first love.” The Ephesians’ devotion to Jesus Christ was at low ebb.
This second generation of Christians had also lost their high moral standards. Believers are called saints—from the Greek word hagios, meaning “set aside for God’s sole use, belonging to God.” The temple was hagios; the Sabbath was hagios. Christians were also to be hagios. But the children and grandchildren of the first Christians did not want to be different. They wanted to fit in with the world, rather than be set apart.
In Ephesus, persecution was not the enemy of Christianity. The danger to this group of believers was not harassment from the outside but seduction from the inside. Christianity was not in danger of being destroyed; it was in danger of being compromised. There was an attempt to “improve it,” give it intellectual respectability, and let it reflect popular philosophy. It may sound as familiar as attitudes we face today; Christians then wanted to point out the good in everyone’s heart and deny the need to deal with sin. “Make the Bible relevant and accessible.” But be on your guard when you hear false teaching like this, and fortify your thinking with the Bible’s truth.
Finally, a real threat to this second-generation church was the heresy of Gnosticism that had crept in. This false teaching boasted “super knowledge.” They said they knew things normal Christians couldn’t.
Gnostics taught that Jesus was fully God—but not fully man. Various forms of Gnosticism taught the body was evil, so God could not unite Himself with it. Jesus only seemed to have a body, but actually did not—that when He walked, He left no footprints. Others taught that divinity came upon Jesus at His baptism and left Him at the cross. John was one of the last people to have actually known Jesus Christ personally and was uniquely qualified to combat this false teaching.
So this first letter from John, 1 John, reads like a sermon for believers in the Ephesus community to teach them how to stand firm against heresy and encourage them to walk in the light. It’s a family epistle—a letter to the family of God. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ brings us into the family and into the fellowship of the Father’s house. John referred to God as our Father 13 times and to the believers as “little children” 11 times. This epistle reads like a sermon from a devoted pastor who loves and is concerned for the family of God.
Some have called 1 John “the holy of holies” of the New Testament—how God invites the believer into a sacred, deeply personal relationship with Him. We read it to know how to cultivate that intimate fellowship with God.
The church is a body of believers God blesses “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). God gives us that position when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ—this brings us into the family of God. In the family we have a relationship which can be broken when we sin, but then restored when “we confess our sins.” Then “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
As our fellowship grows deeper, the better we know God experientially, the closer we abide in Him (John 14:21-24), and the more we will experience the life He intends for us. First John instructs and motivates the family of God to grow closer to God and each other (how to “walk in the light”), and how to restore our relationship with God and others when it is broken by sin. This is an intimate, practical family letter that helps us continue to believe in the name of Jesus Christ.
My Turn
- Does it surprise you that the second generation of Christians had already drifted from their first love?
- Do you see any places in your life where, like the recipients of this letter, you don’t want to be set apart to God?
- In what areas do you think believers today struggle with wanting to improve the Christian faith?
- Family can mean different things to different people, but what does it mean to you to be a part of God’s family?
- What are some specific ways you could follow John’s command to “walk in the light?”
This excerpt is from our 1 John Bible Companion. Get yours at TTB.org.