My Month with John

This February, I made a goal for myself to read 1 John thirty times. I also made plans to read John, 2 John, 3 John, and Revelation each week in February. I was inspired by John MacArthur's system. You can read a little bit about that at Grace To You. Here is what he says in part,

It is my conviction that the Bible is not difficult for the believing heart to understand. And the more I understand, the more unshakable is my conviction that the Bible is the living, authoritative, inerrant Word of God. It has this remarkable effect on me: the more I study it, the more I hunger to know. So God's Word not only satisfies my appetite, but also arouses an even deeper hunger for more. I want you to experience that hunger too. I want you to live in the joy of a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ that comes only through knowing the meaning of Scripture. Here's a simple process to get you started.
Begin by developing a plan on how you will approach reading through the Bible. Just by reading the Bible you become familiar with its themes, history, and contexts. There is simply no replacement for Bible reading.

He says:

Read through the Old Testament at least once a year...

but

Follow a different plan for reading the New Testament. Read one book at a time repetitiously for a month or more. That will help you retain the New Testament so you will not always have to depend on a concordance to find things. If you want to try that, begin with a short book, such as 1 John, and read it through in one sitting every day for thirty days. At the end of that time, you will know the book. 

He then goes on with tips for interpreting, evaluating, applying, and correlating.

  
Week one I read 1 John eight times: NKJV (5), ESV(1), NASB (1), ASV (1)
I read John, 2 John, 3 John, and Revelation in the ESV.

Week two I read 1 John eight times: NKJV (6) Living (1), New Living (1).
I read John, 2 John, 3 John, and Revelation in the NKJV.

Week three I read 1 John ten times: NKJV (5), KJ21 (1), NIV (1), RSV (1), Message (1), NASB (1)
I read John, 2 John, 3 John, and Revelation in the NASB.

Week four I read 1 John eight times: NKJV (2), ESV (3), NASB (1), RSV (1), HCSB (1).
I read John, 2 John, 3 John, and Revelation in the RSV.

So in total, here's what my month looked like: NKJV (18), ESV (4), NASB (3), RSV (2), ASV (1), Living (1), New Living (1), KJ21 (1), NIV (1), Message (1), HCSB (1). Most of these readings were done in a text-only Bible, but I read it in two student study Bibles. One, the MacArthur Student Study Bible. Two, the ESV Student Study Bible.

John, 2 John, 3 John, and Revelation were read in the ESV, NKJV, NASB, and RSV translations.

Key Verses:

1 John 1:9  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (NKJV)

Most translations read similarly except for the Holman Christian Standard Study Bible and the New American Standard Bible. They both read:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Other variations I found refreshing to a certain degree:

If we confess our sins, he is just, and may be trusted to forgive our sins and cleanse us from every kind of wrong. (NEB)

If we confess our sins, he is just and may be trusted to forgive our sins and cleanse us from every kind of wrongdoing. (REB)

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. (NLT)

But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from everything we've done wrong. (CEB)

1 John 2:1-2 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. (NKJV)

The key word for me--well, one of them, at any rate, is propitiation. I was curious to see which translations kept this word, and which ones changed it up a bit.

Propitiation: NKJV, ESV, NASB, HCSB, KJV, KJ21, ASV,

CEB: My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you don't sin. But if you do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. He is God's way of dealing with our sins, not only for ours but the sins of the whole world.

NIV: My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 

NLT: My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins--and not only our sins but the sins of all the world. 

NEB: My children, in writing thus to you my purpose is that you should not commit sin. But should anyone commit a sin, we have one to plead our cause with the Father, Jesus Christ, and he is just. He is himself the remedy for the defilement of our sins, not our sins only but the sins of all the world. 

REB: My children, I am writing this to you so that you should not commit sin. But if anybody does, we have in Jesus Christ one who is acceptable to God and will plead our cause with the Father. He is himself a sacrifice to atone for our sins, and not ours only but the sins of the whole world.

RSV: My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 

And, yes, because I do care about the differences--subtle or not--between propitiation and expiation I'll include a link to this article from the Holman Bible Dictionary.

1 John 4:7-11 

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (NKJV)

And some interesting (at least interesting to me) variations on 1 John 4:19

• We love Him because He first loved us (NKJV, KJV)
• We love because God first loved us (CEB)
• We love because he first loved us (NIV, ESV, NEB, REB)
• We love each other because he loved us first (NLT)
• We love because He first loved us (NASB, HCSB, RSV)
• We, though, are going to love--love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first. (Message)

1 John 5:5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

1 John 5:12-13 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. (NKJV)

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible