The apostle John is really a man for our times.

He wrote his three New Testament letters in a bold, direct, even dogmatic manner - more so perhaps than any other New Testament writer.

Although John was renowned traditionally as the apostle of love (and he was), he was an authoritative, uncompromising teacher - an exclusive-style instructor with a crucial message of truth versus error, which the church much needs to hear in the twenty-first century.

This commentary considers John's clear, simple, unambiguous words from his three brief but profound letters. His themes, some of them reiterated more than once, emerge powerfully - such as the first letter's stress on doctrinal certainty, moral clarity, and the pre-eminence of biblical love, along with the second letter's emphasis on living the truth and the third's on discerning friends and foes in the local church.