1 John

The Light test: Walking in the light (1:5–2:11) — ethical consistency between confession and conduct. Not perfectionism; the passage includes ‘if we confess our sins’ (1:9) and the advocacy of Jesus Christ the righteous (2:1).

The Love test: Loving one another (2:7–11, 3:11–18, 4:7–21) — the horizontal test for the vertical claim. ‘If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar’ (4:20).

The Life / Truth test: Confessing Jesus Christ come in the flesh (2:22–23, 4:2–3, 5:1–13). The doctrinal test against docetic teaching: if you deny the incarnation, you have neither the Father nor the Son.

Assurance: The book's explicit purpose (5:13) — ‘that ye may know that ye have eternal life.’ John writes so that assurance may be solid, not precarious; grounded in objective confession, ethical fruit, and love.

Antichrists now: 1 John introduces ‘antichrist’ vocabulary (2:18, 2:22, 4:3, cf. 2 John 1:7). The docetic teachers already present are already antichrists; the eschatological figure 2 Thess 2 develops has proto-forms in every age.

God is…: The book's three great predications — ‘God is light’ (1:5), ‘God is love’ (4:8, 4:16), ‘he is faithful and just’ (1:9). Each predication grounds a pastoral confidence.