Arthur W. Pink (1886–1952) wrote this exposition as monthly articles in his magazine Studies in the Scriptures, beginning in 1950. He died at Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis, in July 1952. The magazine continued until December 1953 from material he left, and the exposition stops at 1 John 3:1. What remains is an introduction and thirty-nine chapters on the first two and a half chapters of the epistle.
Pink’s method throughout is exegetical and doctrinal: each chapter takes a single verse or phrase, examines it in its immediate and wider biblical context, draws out its doctrinal weight, and applies it to the conscience of the reader. The reader who works through these chapters will receive a thorough grounding in the themes of assurance, love, sin, fellowship, and the nature of saving faith as John develops them.
Why read it today? John wrote so that believers might know they have eternal life (1 John 5:13), and Pink presses John’s tests home: walking in the light, keeping His commandments, loving the brethren, refusing the world, and holding fast the truth against those who deny the Son. He is tender toward true saints and searching toward empty profession, which is exactly the balance John strikes. Begin with the Introduction, where Pink sets out the epistle’s theme, and read the chapters in order, since each builds on the last. Each chapter opens with a short editor’s note, and unfamiliar words and names are explained in notes at the end.