of the New Testament since the Council of Laodicea in 372 A.D.,
and there is certainly no such decisive evidence against it as to
warrant our omitting it from the New Testament.

It would appear that the writer, whoever he was, had seen
the Letter from Jude, and bore it in mind in this his plea for
such character and conduct on the part of believers as were
worthy of their faith and would prepare them for the Coming of
the Lord. The whole Letter constitutes an earnest appeal for
practical holiness.

John's First Letter

That this Letter was the actual work of the Apostle John,
the son of Zabdi, has been abundantly testified from the very
earliest times.

Some modern critics have doubted it, on the ground of
internal evidence. But a calm survey of the whole case does not
bear out their objections. Dr. Salmon well says that no
explanation of the origin of the Epistle fits the facts so well
as the one which has always prevailed. It seems to have been
addressed to the Church at large, with perhaps special reference
to the Churches in Roman Asia.

The connexion between this Letter and the fourth Gospel
is "intimate and organic. The Gospel is objective and the Epistle
subjective. The Gospel suggests principles of conduct which the
Epistle lays down explicitly. The Epistle implies facts which the
Gospel states as historically true."