Characterization of God in the 1st Epistle of John

Introduction

John the evangelist presents God in different yet complementary images and characters. He seems to have done this in order to convey the very being of God and his/her attributes to his first readers. This paper will discuss some of the images and characterization of God in the Gospel and John and his epistles.

1. Images and Characterization of God in the Gospel of John.

1.1 Creator God

1.1.1 Sources of Influence:

In the Hebrew story of creation, each successive stage is introduced by [translate:And God said…] (Gen 1). The Psalmist personifies in poetical fashion of this creative word: [translate:By the word of the Lord the heavens were made] (Psalm 33:6). In later Judaism, this doctrine was consolidated into prose; [translate:…who have made all things by your word.] (Wisdom 9:1). This was a Jewish belief which [translate:Philo] developed in his own way and with much variety of application, sometimes inclining to the view that the [translate:logos] was a mere passive instrument employed by God, at other times, under Greek influence, regarding it as the cosmic principle, the formative thought of God.¹

1.1.2 The Gospel of John:

In John 1:

• v.2 The Word as the agent of creation is indicated here. Paul also had a similar view of the Creatorship of Jesus (Col. 1:16; Rom. 11:36).
• v.3 [translate:All things came into being] (for creation is a becoming, as contrasted with essential being of the Word) [translate:through Him.]
• vs. 2-3 God who came in the form of Jesus is the Creator of all creatures.
• v. 4 Christ is the author and center of life.²
• vs. 10-11, we meet for the first time in this Gospel the term [translate:kosmos, “world.”] The kosmos/world in John has different meanings:
• • a. In 10a it denotes the world inhabited by humankind.
  • b. In 10b the world includes human beings.
  • c. In 10c humanity, fallen in darkness, yet remaining the object of the love of God (3:16). [translate:Jesus/Logos], though a creator, was rejected by the creation or his own. The term ‘his own’ in this verse (John 1:11) literally means [translate:to his own (property)] = the world of human beings. It also means humankind in its entirety; therefore human beings, not Israel, are in view. The emphasis here is, Christ for the whole human beings. According to this, the world here means the inhabited world along with all human beings.³

1.2 Self-giving God: Johannine reinterpretation of Patriarchy

1.2.1 Patriarchy in context:

As the Gospels were written in the patriarchal society and as the early churches interpreted the Gospels in patriarchal society, the patriarchal language of God in the Gospels, as well as in the other books were not questioned. In that context, God was presented as the Father, the ruler of every other living being, along with Jesus, the Son. In that society, the father plays leading and ruling role over the others. Every other is subjugated under the father. God is also understood in that way. As a result, father has become synonym for God in much of the church. But the sensitivity of exclusive language, knowing God exclusively as the Father, hurts the sentiment of womanist theologians today.⁴

1.2.2 Significance of [translate:“Father”] in John:

The predominant characterization of God in the Gospel of John is that of the Father; more specifically, God is the Father of Jesus, the Son. John uses [translate:“Father”] about 120 times, more often than all the other Gospels combined. But the pattern of the references is even more revealing of the significance of [translate:“Father”] in John. God is specifically depicted as the Father of the only ([translate:monogenes, “unique”]) Son, Jesus (John 1:14, 18).⁵
Father language in John is essentially relational: God is Father because Jesus is God’s Son. This language, then, is not primarily the language of patriarchy but is instead the language of intimacy, relationship, and family. From the very beginning of the Gospel, the explicit purpose of Jesus’ ministry has been to create new family of God:

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13).

The promise in these verses is that a new family will be born, a family that is determined by faith, not by flesh and blood relationship.⁶

1.2.3 Re-interpretation of patriarchy:

In John’s new interpretation of patriarchy, God is the God who gave him/herself to human beings in the form of giving his/her only begotten Son, Jesus.⁷ True love is selfless. It is not a mere response. It gives itself. The sending of God’s Son was not the answer of God to something in humans. It was the outcome of the very nature of God.⁸
John speaks of God as Father not in order to reinforce patriarchy but in order to evoke a new world in which intimate relations with God and one another is possible. God is not interpreted as the Father who rules and judges others but self-giving God. John does not intend to say that God is the oppressing God but the sacrificial God. Patriarchy, according to John is intimacy and familial relation.⁹

2. Characterization of God in the 1st Epistle of John

2.1 God is Light

2.1.1 Setting of the 1st Epistle of John:

The setting of I John 1:5-7, with its basic theme of [translate:“light versus darkness,”] may appear at first glance to be Hellenistic, and indeed Gnostic. But the ideas of [translate:“light”] and [translate:“darkness”] are also common in Judaism (both in OT and in the Qumran documents). If we assume the primary background of the Johannine tradition was Jewish-Palestinian. It is not unreasonable to identify the initial background to which the writer was indebted here as similarly Judaistic in character. But the very fact that the [translate:“light/darkness”] theme could be appreciated by readers who had emerged from both a Jewish and Greek environment supports the suggestion that John was writing the needs of both in mind.¹⁰

2.1.2 [translate:phos estin (is light)]:

[translate:Anarthrous]¹¹ to express quality. God’s nature is best described as [translate:“light.”] [translate:to phos (the light)] would have suggested light in some particular relation in I John 1:5-9. [translate:phos] describes His nature as He is, the description being true so far as it goes, though not complete. The primary idea suggested by the word in this context is [translate:“illumination.”] It is of the nature of light that it is and makes visible. God’s nature is such that He must make himself known, and that knowledge reveals everything else in its nature. God can be [translate:“known,”] and by those to whom the author is writing, is one of the leading ideas on which he lays special stress.¹²

2.1.3 [translate:kai skotia (and darkness)]:

This is not a mere repetition of the sentence in negative form, in accordance with writer’s love of double expression by parallel clauses, positive and negative. And it probably does not merely emphasize the [translate:“perfect realization in God of the idea of light.”] It emphasizes rather the completeness of revelation. Though complete knowledge of God is impossible, He can be truly [translate:“known”] here and now under the condition and limitations of human life. His nature is [translate:“light”] which communicates itself to men made in his image, till they are transformed into his likeness.¹³

2.1.4 The Nature and Being of God- light:

The declaration, [translate:“God is light”], is a penetrating description of the being and nature of God: it means that he is absolute in his glory (the physical connotation of light), in his truth (the intellectual) and in his holiness (the moral). The [translate:logos] of God is [translate:“the light”] (John 1:7-9); but him/herself is [translate:“light”], just as he/she is love (I John 4:8, 16) and spirit (John 4:24). As such God is infinite, transcendent and [translate:“wholly other”]; the source of all life and renewal.¹⁴
But this does not mean that John is speculative in his thinking at this point. To say that God is [translate:“light”] is not a purely conceptual representation of his nature, detaching the being of God from his historical activity in creation. There are more practical implications in this description. To describe God as absolute [translate:“light”] presupposes that God and darkness (or evil) are mutually exclusive. Indeed, as the writer says here, in God there is [translate:“no darkness at all”]. This amounts to claim that God as light (truth and righteousness) reveals darkness (evil) for what it is (I John 1:1-2, John 1:4).¹⁵

2.2 God is Love

2.2.1 Love for one another:

In I John 4:7b-8, before the writer explains the nature of the love that comes from God, he draws an important conclusion from the fact of love: Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. His point is that is evidence that a person [translate:‘has been born of God and knows God, because such love comes from God.’] The converse is also true: Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. The point here is that the absence of love for one another is evidence that a person does not know God, because God is love, and there can be no real knowledge of God which is not expressed in love for fellow believers.¹⁶

2.2.2 Nature of God- love:

When the author says that [translate:‘God is love’], he is not making an ontological statement describing what God is in his essence; rather, he is, as the following verses (I John 4:9-10) reveal, speaking about the loving nature of God revealed in saving action on behalf of humankind. I John 4:9 speaks of God showing his love by sending his Son so that people might have life through him, and verse 10 explains that this involved sending his Son as an atoning sacrifice for people’s sins.¹⁷ The true nature of God’s love has now been shown, in a way humans can understand and appreciate, in the fact and the purpose of the Incarnation. God gave His best, that humans might be enabled to live the life of God.¹⁸ John demonstrates that the character of God as love is determined and understood by his self-disclosure in Jesus, the Son.¹⁹

2.2.3 [translate:o[ti o` qeo.j avga,ph evsti,n] (For God is love)- I John 4:16:

Love is not merely an attribute of God, it is His very Nature and Being; or rather, the word expresses the highest conception which we can form of that Nature. Holtzmann’s note is worth quoting:

[translate:“Even the false gnosis realized that God is light and spirit. But here in verse 16 love is put forward as the truest presentation of God, this is the highest expression of the conception of God. It passes entirely beyond the limitation of natural religion. It does not come within the category of Substance, but only those of Power and Activity. It opens the way for an altogether new presentation of religion based on facts of moral life.”]²⁰

2.2.4 John’s description of God as [translate:“love”] in his first epistle can be understood in the following points:²¹

2.2.4.1 Its background:

is the Jewish (OT) understanding of God as living, personal and active, rather than a Greek concept of deity which was abstract in character. God, as [translate:love], expresses his being in dynamic and practical ways. The presentation of God’s being in a practical, rather than a speculative, mode may in addition include an anti-gnostic thrust. Those in John’s community who were influenced by gnosticizing tendencies, and disposed to intellectualize the faith, could perhaps believe that God was immaterial [translate:“spirit”] and [translate:“light”]; but they would have not thought of Him in terms of active love, as manifested above all in the earthly Jesus. Nor would they have valued love itself. Against such attitude John insists on the loving activity of the Father, incarnate in His Son (4:14).

2.2.4.2 In Relation to God’s other essential nature:

To assert comprehensively that [translate:“God is love”] does not ignore or exclude the other attributes of his being to which the Bible as a whole bears witness: notably his justice and his truth. God’s judgment, for example, is just as much as a reality as his love (Is. 54:8, Rev. 6:12-17). But theologically these cannot be opposed to each other. Such characteristics of God as his justice and his truth must ultimately be related to his essential nature as [translate:love], and may in the end be perceived in terms of his loving nature. Such teaching belongs, indeed, to I John itself, where we read of God’s holiness (1:5), justice (1:9) and truth (5:20).

2.2.4.3 Source of all love:

There is a tendency in some modern theologies (especially [translate:“process”] thought) to transpose the equation [translate:“God is love”] into the reverse [translate:“Love is God.”] But this is not a Johannine (or a Biblical) idea. As John makes absolutely clear in this passage, the controlling principle of the universe is not an abstract quality of [translate:“love”], but a sovereign, living God who is the source of all love, and who (as [translate:love]) himself loves.

Conclusion

The presentation in the images and characterization of God as Creator, Father, light and love by John in his Gospel and epistle, all points to the fact that God is known in and through Jesus. God is the Creator of all things through/by [translate:logos]- which became flesh and lived among us. God is seen as the Father of Jesus so as to build the same loving relationship with humans. God is the source of all light, just as Jesus says, [translate:“I am the light of the world (John 8:12).”] God is the source of all love which was made perfect in the self-giving act of sacrificing his/her only Son, Jesus.

Bibliography

• Bernard, J. H. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. John. Vol. 1. Edinburg: T. & T. Clark Ltd., 1985.
• Brooke,Canon A. E. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Johannine Eplistles. Scotland: T. & T. Clark Ltd., 1980.
• Kruse, Colin G. The Letters of John. Leiscester: Apollos, 2000.
• Lalfakmawia, H. Joseph. Re-Reading the Gospel of John from Indian Perspective. Kolkotta: Sceptre, 2013.
• Rao,O.M. The Fourth Gospel. Bangalore: Theological Book Trust: 1998.
• Smalley, Stephen S. Word Biblical Commentary. Vol 51. Waco, Texas: Word Books Publisher, 1984.
• Thompson, M.M. “God.” Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. Edited by Joel B. Green. Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2013, 315-328.

Footnotes

1. J. H. Bernard, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. John, vol. 1 (Edinburg: T. & T. Clark Ltd., 1985), 3.
2. O.M. Rao, The Fourth Gospel (Bangalore: Theological Book Trust: 1998), 176.
3. H. Joseph Lalfakmawia, Re-Reading the Gospel of John from Indian Perspective (Kolkotta: Sceptre, 2013), 24. Hereafter cited as Lalfakmawia, Re-Reading.
4. Lalfakmawia, Re-Reading, 20.
5. M.M. Thompson, “God,” Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, edited by Joel B. Green (Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2013), 326.
6. Lalfakmawia, Re-Reading, 21.
7. Lalfakmawia, Re-Reading, 21.
8. Canon A. E. Brooke, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Johannine Eplistles (Scotland: T. & T. Clark Ltd., 1980), 119. Hereafter cited as Brooke, Johnnine Epistles.
9. Lalfakmawia, Re-Reading, 21.
10. Stephen S. Smalley, Word Biblical Commentary, vol 51 (Waco, Texas: Word Books Publisher, 1984), 18. Hereafter cited as Smalley, Word Biblical.
11. Anarthrous: adjective; not having an article (especially of Greek nouns).
12. Brooke, Johnnine Epistles, 11.
13. Brooke, Johnnine Epistles, 12.
14. Smalley, Word Biblical, 20.
15. Smalley, Word Biblical, 20.
16. Colin G. Kruse, The Letters of John (Leiscester: Apollos, 2000), 157. Hereafter cited as Kruse, Letters.
17. Kruse, Letters, 157.
18. Brooke, Johnnine Epistles, 119.
19. Smalley, Word Biblical, 239-240.
20. Brooke, Johnnine Epistles, 118.
21. Smalley, Word Biblical, 239-240.

Friendly Note

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! We are deeply thankful for your visit to BD Materials. It is our mission and joy to serve Bible students, pastors, and believers with high-quality theological resources that strengthen faith and understanding of God’s Word.

At BD Materials, you’ll find study notes, articles, question papers, and valuable academic content designed to support your biblical and theological education. We are dedicated to helping you grow in knowledge, ministry, and devotion to Christ.

We also invite you to explore our partner sites: Telugu Gospel Lyrics, featuring inspiring gospel song lyrics in Telugu, and Theological Library, a hub for Christian book summaries and devotionals.

Your encouragement means a lot to us! We invite you to share your study materials, articles, or insights with our community. Thank you for being part of this mission—may God bless your studies and ministry abundantly!