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Holy Trinity Anglican Church
5333 N. Tamiami Trail
Sarasota, FL 34234
(941) 355-7510
5333 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34234
(941) 355-7510
Anglican Province
of America
Bible Studies
Below is a sample of a typical Bible Study taught by Fr. Dan.
Updates of this and other past studies will be posted weekly.
For more information, please contact Fr. Dan at frdaniel818@yahoo.com
Fr. Dan’s Bible Study Archive Includes:
I John 2 Peter The Parables of Jesus
Christ in Old Testament Prophecy The Farewell Discourse
A Study of Great Lent
Current Lesson for Sunday, May 9th
A Study of I John
Teacher: Daniel S. Trout
Chapter II
(vss. 1-6): The Imitation of Christ
[vss. 1-2] …if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father…and he
himself is the propitiation for our sins….
1.
John is urging his audience to pursue a life of moral perfection. He is
well aware of the difficulties, but surely he remembered Jesus’ admonition:
“Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). However, he
reminds them that sinners always have an advocate in Christ, the Great High
Priest. John recognized that after his ascension, Jesus entered the heavenly
tabernacle to intercede for the Church (Heb. 8; Rev. 5).
2.
Christ’s continual intercession in heaven reminds us that the process of
forgiveness and purification is ongoing, corresponding to the sacrifice of the
Mass
which is the sacramental manifestation of Christ’s priestly efforts.
Contra Calvinism, Christ does not simply bring our cases forward to appease the Father (as Judge),
but speaks as a friend on our behalf to preserve the bond of love.
3.
That Christ is a propitiation means that not only does he absorb God’s wrath through his atonement,
but most importantly restores communion. Christ’s continual expiation should not just arouse terror
and awe but joy and gratitude.
4.
John also notes that the atonement is not limited to the scope of the elect, but sufficient for the sins of
all.
[vss. 3-6] …keep his commandments…keeps his word…love of God is perfected in him…abides in
him…walk just as he walked.
1.
John explains that righteous living is the Christian’s best assurance that he is a child of God; those
who live immorally should best consider their sincerity!
2.
Keeping the commandments, in the New Testament sense, does not involve strict adherence to a
legal code. Law-keeping is bound up in a perfect knowledge of Christ and participation in his life.
Only those who know Christ can live properly, so one should not be fooled by the “morality” of
pagans.
3.
God’s love is made perfect when we obey. This probably refers both to God’s love working in us
and this love returned to him—a complete reciprocity.
4.
Imitating or “walking as” Christ involves more than just mirroring behavior. Imitation requires
sacrifice—in this case—the offering of the Eucharist to be enjoined with Jesus. Partaking of his true
Body and Blood should incite us to be like him who his worthy to be sacrificed. The OT sacrifices
anticipated this in the lives of the Jews when they offered an animal, but are transformed in the
Christian’s personal share with the God-man at the altar of his living memorial.
(vss. 7-11): The Old/New Commandment of Love
[vss. 7-8] …I write no new commandment, but an old commandment…again, a new commandment I
write to you.
The second paradox of I John is that the imitation of Christ is both old and new. John implies that
the commandment was in the law of Moses, but could not be seen because of blindness. Christ’s
command to love does not render Moses obsolete, but gives it a new significance/infuses new life
into it.
[vss. 9-11] …he that loves his brother abides in the light…he that hates his brother walks in
darkness….
1.
John’s contrast between darkness and light finds one of its clearest eschatological undertones in
verse 8: the one is passing away, the other is already shining. The Advent of Christ and the present
age that follows is a period of transition—the “already and the not yet.” John is certainly insinuating
that the character of the new age should be evident in the life of the Church.
2.
John again reminds of the love/hate dichotomy, in this case, following the journey motif begun in
verse 6. One blinded cannot walk if he is in the darkness of hate.
(vss. 12-14): A Poem of Comfort
I write to you…
John’s poem of encouragement is probably designed to address those at different
stages of spiritual development:
1.
Children are those that experience that new-found joy of sins forgiven and
a knowledge of God.
2.
Young men are those who might otherwise fall prey to the Devil and the
temptations of the world, but have instead done battle with him and have triumphed,
acquiring increased spiritual vitality.
3.
Fathers are those who have grown into an intimate knowledge of Christ.
(vss. 15-17): The World and Its Fate
Do not love the world…for all that is in the world…is passing away.
1.
John highlights what Augustine would later develop as the problem of “misdirected love.” The
greatest threat to a Christian is to replace love of God for something else. God is jealous and will not
permit rivals.
2.
The “world” does not refer to physical reality, but to the fallen system that is under the dominion of
Satan. This wicked realm is dominated by sensual pleasures, passions, pride and all-out rebellion.
All these are distortions of what God made good and must actively be overcome by Christ-like
living.
3.
Again, John indicates that this old system is doomed to catastrophe. The instant gratifications of the
world are ephemeral and will soon pass, taking also those who practice them. John contrasts this
with the obedient Christian who transcends the world into immorality. The idea is that the life we
begin now will lead us into eternity.
(vss. 18-27) Warning of Apostates
[vss. 18-19] …it is the last hour…Antichrist is coming, even many antichrists have come…they went
out from us, but they were not of us….
1.
In the milieu of the world’s final days (called here the “last hour”) John reminds his audience of the
threat of apostasy—the Antichrist and his minions of antichrists. Some previous teaching is
evidently taken for granted, which leaves the nature of Antichrist a mystery (any connection with
Paul’s “man of sin” or the “Beast” of the Apocalypse?), but—whether governed by a zeitgeist or an
actual person—the apostasy is a sure sign of the end times.
2.
John does not reveal a time-frame for this last hour, but only the realities faced by the Church: the
era before Christ’s return will be fraught with heresy and betrayal. Contra Dispensationalism’s
contemporary paranoia, specific end-of-the-world predictions are not in view here, but the deceptions
that Christians of all times and places must be wary.
3.
John makes the important distinction between being in the Church and being of the Church. There
are Christians that participate in the sacramental life of the Church, but either lack true faith or do not
persevere in it. These apostates are reminiscent of Judas: they have an appearance of membership
but act with ulterior, even sinister motivations; their departure exposes their true character (cf. Heb.
6:4-6). This valuable warning teaches us not to take saving faith for granted, but to test ourselves
and others for trustworthiness and fruit-bearing.
[vss. 20-21] …you have an anointing…because you know it…. But the anointing which you have
received from him abides in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you.
1.
The anointing of which John speaks literally means a “chrism.”
Christians are anointed with the Holy Spirit in the dual action of baptism and
chrismation (confirmation) and brought into union with God. John indicates
that the evidence of a truly anointed life can be recognized in illuminated
knowledge. True Christians have a supernatural understanding of divine
truths.
2.
John also implies that true Christians will be able to discern truth from
error. The Holy Spirit’s enlightening gifts help us to see the lies of false
teachers and recognize their source—the previously mentioned Antichrist.
[vss. 22-23] Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is
antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.
1.
John stresses that the axis of Christianity is that Jesus alone is the true Christ. The Jews still looked
for another Messiah and the Gnostics separated Jesus the man from Christ the Savior—a docetic
division of flesh and spirit. The Incarnation is not the temporary dwelling of God in a man, but the
union of a divine and a human nature in one person.
2.
Recalling Jesus’ own emphasis in the Gospel that “anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”
(John 14:9), John stresses the inseparability of the Father and the Son. The Son came to reveal the
Father, so a rejection of the revealer is likewise of the one revealed.
(vss. 24-27) An Admonition to Persevere in the Truth
[vss. 24-26] …let that abide in you…you also will abide in the Son and in the Father…and this is the
promise that he was promised us—eternal life.
1.
John urges his readers that fidelity means persisting in what was originally taught, and not being
distracted by some new-fangled belief.
2.
Abiding does not mean merely giving mental assent to the mystery of Christ, but participating in it
sacramentally. Cognitive belief is a must, but belief that is more than mental—to the interior of
one’s being—involves the activity of the Holy Spirit within to foster communion with the Holy
Trinity, nourished especially by the Eucharist. Faith is always supernatural, unitive and
transforming.
3.
The reward for perseverance is immortality, but only for the faithful. John may well be recalling the
promise Jesus prayed for, which he in turn communicated to the disciples to be passed on (John 17:2-
3).
[vs. 27] But the anointing which you have received from him abides in you, and you do not need
anyone to teach you.
1.
The persistence of the anointing reminds us that our perseverance is really a living out of our
baptism. We are “continuously anointed” by growing in grace and following the mission God has
for us, always strengthened through the sacraments and reminded of our first anointing through
liturgical actions like the asperges and baptismal fonts.
2.
Contrary to those who deny the need for magisterial authority, John is not implying that Christians
do not need teachers, but that the interior enlightenment of the Holy Spirit—first received in the
anointing of baptism—gives the fledgling churches a certain autonomous ability to receive things
supernatural and distinguish truth from falsehood. John foresees that the apostolic message will
continue even in the absence of the apostles themselves.
