Page "First Epistle of John" Paragraph 5

The author wrote the epistle so that the joy of his audience would " be full " ( 1. 4 ) and that they would " not practice sin " ( 2. 1 ) and that " you who believe in the name of the Son of God ... may know that you have eternal life " ( 5. 13 ).

We can therefore distinguish in the epistle both a general purpose ( to increase mutual joy ) and a specific purpose ( to provide readers with test by which they might assure themselves of their salvation ).

It appears as though the author was concerned about heretical teachers that had been influencing churches under his care.

Such teachers were considered Antichrists ( 2. 18 – 19 ) who had once been church leaders but whose teaching became heterodox.

It appears that these teachers taught a form of docetism in which Jesus came to earth as a spirit without a real body of flesh ( 4. 2 ) that his death on the cross was not as a true atonement for sins ( 1. 7 ).

It appears that John might have also been rebuking a proto-Gnostic named Cerinthus, who also denied the true humanity of Christ.