First reactions. It's not a very long letter at all, and has many features from the Gospel of Saint John, such as the theology of light and dark, good and evil and attachment to Christ. It is marvellously black and white, the constant theme being that if you love God, you keep His commandments (also a feature of his Gospel), and that if you don't keep those commandments and claim to love God, you're a bit of a liar. The whole letter is a warning against idolatry and apostasy, big problems at the time of its writing, because of the increasing vehemence of the persecuting Roman authorities as they attacked the early Christians in various places for 'impiety' - that is, the abandonment of the state religion and particularly the worship of Caesar. Appropriately, John ends with the stern warning:
"Beware, little children, of false gods." - I John 5: 7
This has been a very good introduction, as intended by the reading plan, for the reading of the whole Bible.
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