2018/07/10 by Andrew Lincoln · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Biblical Studies and Interpretation #Religion, Society, and Development #Christian Theology and Mission #Gospel #Worship #Messiah #Judgement #Philosophy #Theology #Identity (music) #Narrative #Verdict #Religious studies #Aesthetics #Law #Epistemology #Political science
paper · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199645831.013.23
openalex publication_date 2018/07/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract This chapter focuses on how the Johannine writings envisage the identity and life of the believing community. In the Gospel’s narrative the primary function of Jesus’ followers is the continuation of God’s mission of salvific judgement for the world that has been decisively inaugurated through Jesus. Accompanied by the divine Spirit, they are to be witnesses to the truth of God’s verdict of life for the world established in the mission, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This witnessing community is to be identified by its distinctive belief in Jesus as the Messiah who is the Son of God, its following him in discipleship, and its experience of the Spirit who mediates the presence of God and Christ. The Spirit also shapes the community’s worship and mediates eternal life in the present. Such life has the quality of love, which is to be manifested in the community members’ unity and their willingness to lay down their lives for one another.