I treat this verse as a single sentence paragraph. The vocative case of address, “My little children,” also marks this verse off as a paragraph. The point of the verse is to present something of a summary exhortation based generally on the entire letter an... Read More »

You will need to decide whether to treat v. 21 as a part of this paragraph or whether to treat it as a separate sermon. I opted for the latter in my preaching through 1 John, based on linguistic reasons. If you go with the former approach, v. 21 functions as t... Read More »

This paragraph is closely connected to the previous paragraph. One option would be to preach the two paragraphs together in one sermon on 1 John 5:1-12. The sub-structure of this paragraph is as follows: 6-8       (Justification for the claim that believe... Read More »

John identifies three spiritual birthmarks every Christian has in these verses: Love Obedience Faith I. Our Love and Obedience to God Insure Our Love for Christians – (vv. 1–3). A. Love to God Insures our Love for Christians (1) The first birthmark of ... Read More »

Dr. Paige Patterson’s How to Preach a Text that is not There lecture at the 2014 Expository Preaching Workshop. Read More »