NOTES for Jo1 2:18-21
“I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it”... Why write about something to someone who already knows it? The Apostle John is essentially saying that his epistle is not informative: the information is already there and, moreover, it was given not by human means but by the Holy Spirit. Why, then, does he write? Could it be that a message or letter does not always have to convey new information? If everything were a matter of information, there would be no point in rereading the Bible: we have read it and know how it all ends... Perhaps words about what is already known are sometimes necessary too. Why? To become established in faith. To remind ourselves by hearing it once more. Simply so that the communion of saints may continue through conversation about what has already been discussed... and suddenly what one hears is not new information, but a new intonation.