John Bible Study

2026 Pre-Winter SWO Bible Study

John the Apostle’s first letter is so simple and so encouraging. Ten times, John tells his readers why he is writing to them, but the most important of these comes at the end of John’s letter when he says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). 

All of 1 John builds to this idea—we can know we have eternal life because of the finished work of Christ. The assurance John gives us has nothing to do with our worth, our knowledge, or our ability. We can trust in the promise of salvation because Jesus is the one who promised it, and Jesus is the one who provides it.

So much of what John writes is to encourage and convince believers to trust in the promises that have already been made available to them in Christ. In fact, John records the words of Jesus to his followers in chapters 15-17 of the Gospel he authored. In John 15-17 Jesus admonished his disciples to abide in him and live by the Spirit—commands echoed throughout 1 John.

Before we look at John’s writing, we should mention a few things that we will continue to see in both his Gospel and his letter. First, John is repetitive; he clearly adheres to that rule about having to hear something multiple times for it to sink in. In reading John, you might even find yourself thinking that you have read something before, but you haven’t; that is just how John writes.

Second, John loves “love,” and he also loves the concept of “abiding.” Again, this language is very common in everything he writes. These two things are what make John’s writing so practical and important for believers. The fact is, John is repetitive because we are prone to wander; our sinful inclinations cause us to drift away from Christ, not towards him, so we need constant reminding.

Similarly, loving Jesus and abiding in him are things we are bad at. It is much easier for us to love ourselves than to love Christ; it is much easier to abide in this world than in Christ. So, John may use the same words over and over again, but that is how we should pattern our lives—constantly and consistently believing and living out the truths of Scripture.

To prepare for our study in 1 John at WinterSWO, this study is going to work through John 15-17. We will examine the overarching themes, see how John’s teaching is directly related to Jesus’ teaching, and better understand Jesus’ promises to us and about us.