Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

If you're doing our New Testament plan, we finished book number 24, and if you're doing the whole Bible, we finished book 63.

This letter is anonymous, but the author's writing style

and content is super similar to what we see in the Gospel of John and the books of second and

third John, so the general consensus is that they're all written by the same guy, though there is

some debate. It doesn't really matter, though, least of all to him. He's less concerned with us

knowing who he is, and more concerned that we know

who Jesus is. That's one of the major themes of this book. The identity of Jesus as both fully God

and fully man. 100% and 100%, not 50-50. You may recall that the gospel of John had the same lens,

Jesus as God. These people, like a lot of churches, have been exposed to false teachers. They're

causing division and spreading lies about Jesus. John doesn't waste time with greetings. He just gets

straight to the point. Jesus has always existed. He is truly God. Plus, we saw him and touched him.

He was truly human. And this God man told us that God is light, completely devoid of darkness.

So to walk with this God means we walk in the light.

And that makes it easy to build community with others who are walking in the light.

We can even confess our sins in the light and it actually serves to enrich our unity.

Whereas darkness and hiding and lying thwarts healthy community.

That's not to say sinning isn't a big deal, it is.

But Christ advocates for us to the Father, because He has already made atonement for our sins.

He's already paid for them.

Our relationship with Jesus changes our relationship with sin.

He didn't just set us free from the penalty of our sins. He also

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