Sermons on 1 John 2:28

1 John 2:28 Interpretation:

Abiding in Christ: Transformation, Righteousness, and Confidence(WoodlandParkOnline) reads 1 John 2:28 as an urgency-driven summons to persistent union with Christ so that believers will “stand with confidence and not shrink in shame” at his return, arguing that John’s repeated use of “abide” makes it the controlling idea of his theology; the preacher treats the verse as assurance of present status (you are a child of God, not losing salvation) while simultaneously making it a summons to moral direction and distinctiveness—abiding produces a confident life and visible direction (he uses workplace/coach/line metaphors to show what it looks like practically), contrasts practicing righteousness with practicing lawlessness (sin as lawlessness and the devil’s work), emphasizes the “last hour” immediacy (it could be any time), and repeatedly links abiding to both present confidence and progressive transformation toward being “like him.”

Reflecting Christ: Living in His Love and Light(Colton Community Church) interprets 1 John 2:28 by unpacking the verb translated “remain” (abide) as drawn life, loyalty and dependence, seeing John’s short admonition as a hyperlink to Jesus’ teaching in John 15: remain in Christ so that at his appearing Christians will be filled with courage rather than shame; the preacher frames the verse as both a relational imperative (draw life from the Vine) and an ethical consequence (remaining produces likeness and fruit), and ties the confidence at Christ’s coming directly to Christ’s righteousness and the believer’s increasing conformity to it, stressing that abiding is the context that produces purity, joy, and readiness for the appearing.

Prioritizing Our Relationship with God for Spiritual Vitality(SermonIndex.net) reads 1 John 2:28 as the practical why for Jesus’ command to “abide in me”: abiding is the single most vital discipline that produces confidence at Christ’s appearance and is the necessary condition for victory over sin; the preacher treats the verse not as abstract assurance but as motivation for a disciplined “quiet time” and daily communion—abiding is obligatory, formative, and the non-negotiable ground from which holiness, fruitfulness, and the ability to face Christ without shame emerge.

Embracing Our Identity as God's Beloved Children(Manahawkin Baptist Church) reads 1 John 2:28 as a hinge between sonship (relationship) and sanctification (duty), urging believers to "abide in him" so that at Christ’s appearing they will stand with confidence rather than shame, and he develops this by contrasting affection-motivated obedience (pleasing a beloved grandmother) with duty-motivated obedience, arguing that genuine abiding produces the affection that fuels the duty of holy living; he also brings brief linguistic notes (calling attention to the Greek pattern behind phrases elsewhere in 1 John and noting imperatives like "behold") to show the text’s urgency and links abiding directly to the process of progressive glorification (we are children now, not yet what we shall be), so the verse functions as both present ethical demand and future hope anchor.

Destroying the Works of the Devil: Jesus’ Victory(Phoenix Bible Church) interprets 1 John 2:28 practically: "abide in him" is living-in-the-presence of Jesus so that when he appears Christians have confidence instead of shrinking in shame, and Tim frames that abiding as the central defense in a cosmic conflict—abiding enables purification and breaks the cycle of sin/shame the devil uses; his interpretation pivots the verse into a pastoral program (abide → purify → practice) showing how continued union with Christ neutralizes the accuser’s work so believers can face Christ without shame.

Who You Really Are: Living as a Child of God(Fellowship Church) treats 1 John 2:28 as an identity-and-posture text: remaining/abiding in Christ grounds a childlike dependence that produces confidence at Christ’s appearing, and Eddie ties the verse tightly to the twin motifs of present positional status (“we are God’s children now”) and future consummation (“what we will be has not yet appeared”), arguing that the proper response to that revealed identity is trustful, hopeful living (childlike wonder, dependence) rather than cynicism or performance.

The Four Marks of Christian Sonship: Love, Hope, War, Confidence(Forest Community Church) reads 1 John 2:28 as a summons to "continue/abide in him" grounded in the twin privileges of adoption—name and nature—and treats the verse as the hinge from present sonship to future glorification, arguing that John's "abide" implies a present, relational perseverance that produces holiness now so we may stand "confident and unashamed" at Christ's appearing; the sermon brings lexical attention to Greek potapos (translated in KJV as "what manner"), using Matthew 8:27's astonishment to say the Father's love is of a different category, and it treats the Greek paresia (confidence) as the civic "freedom to speak" in Greco‑Roman contexts, so 2:28's promise is both relational and public — the assured boldness of a legitimate, adopted heir at Christ's return.

Abiding in Christ: Confidence and Hope at His Return(Hyland Heights Baptist Church) interprets 1 John 2:28 by pressing the Johannine vine-and-branches paradigm (John 15) so that "abide in him" is not moral bootstrapping but relational rooting: abiding produces righteousness (the fruit), and that fruit is evidence of new birth which grounds confident, unashamed reception of Christ at his coming; the sermon insists that righteousness is evidence of union with Christ (not the cause of it) and that the verse promises a hope that purifies present life because beholding Christ (future) will complete the transformation begun by abiding now.

Abiding in Christ: Understanding Sin, Salvation, and Love(Abundant Life Church) takes 1 John 2:28 as the pivot between being born (belief) and living as disciples (abiding), offering a linguistic reinterpretation that John’s "abide" functions as a discipleship command ("focus your life on him") distinct from Paul's forensic "in Christ"; the sermon further reframes "has neither seen him nor known him" by unpacking the Greek hora (to see) as spiritual perception/understanding rather than mere visual sight, so the claim "does not sin" (for those who abide) is read as: when you truly perceive and remain in Christ (spiritually), the reign of the old sinful nature will not govern you in practice.

1 John 2:28 Theological Themes:

Abiding in Christ: Transformation, Righteousness, and Confidence(WoodlandParkOnline) develops a theological emphasis that 1 John 2:28 distinguishes status (positional adoption as God’s child) from trajectory (the moral direction of one’s life), arguing that abiding secures both confident standing before Christ and an increasing conformity to righteousness rather than an erosion of assurance—thus highlighting a twofold theology of assurance-plus-sanctification rather than either/or.

Reflecting Christ: Living in His Love and Light(Colton Community Church) presents the distinctive theme that “likeness is proof of relationship,” pressing the unusual application that 1 John 2:28’s call to remain is not merely about belief but about evidencing God’s righteousness in daily character (the preacher frames likeness to Christ as the decisive theological marker that produces confidence at his coming).

Prioritizing Our Relationship with God for Spiritual Vitality(SermonIndex.net) foregrounds the theological theme that abiding is the foundational spiritual discipline from which all victorious Christianity flows—an unusual pastoral stress that treats 1 John 2:28 as the existential rationale for relentless, daily communion (quiet time) and insists that failure to abide is the root cause of public and private moral collapse.

Embracing Our Identity as God's Beloved Children(Manahawkin Baptist Church) emphasizes a twofold theological framework centered on (1) adoption as a present supernatural gift (choice/foreknowledge/election language, miracle of new birth) and (2) the attendant duty of holy living that flows from familial affection—he insists the Christian life is a battleground of progressive sanctification and frames 1 John 2:28 as the pivot that prevents either pietistic duty without affection or cheap grace without obedience.

Destroying the Works of the Devil: Jesus’ Victory(Phoenix Bible Church) presents a Christus Victor reading as a central theological theme connected to 1 John 2:28: abiding in Christ is the means by which the Son’s victory over the devil’s works becomes experiential for believers (so confidence at the appearing is not abstract but the fruit of Christ’s active destruction of the devil’s schemes), and he foregrounds the devil not merely as tempter but as accuser—thus salvation involves both rescue (justification) and ongoing deliverance (sanctification) from accusation.

Who You Really Are: Living as a Child of God(Fellowship Church) advances a theological focus on "passive righteousness" (the imputed righteousness of Christ as the believer’s status) combined with the call to progressive righteousness: because believers are already children of God (positional, passive righteousness), they should live in confident hope and pursue holiness out of identity rather than to earn acceptance, thereby reframing 1 John 2:28 as an invitation to live out already‑granted status.

The Four Marks of Christian Sonship: Love, Hope, War, Confidence(Forest Community Church) emphasizes a twofold theological theme rarely foregrounded together: (1) sonship as legitimation (name) modeled on Roman adoption—being "called children" is a public, legal-status gift with attendant rights; and (2) sonship as destiny (nature) culminating in the beatific transformation when we "see him as he is," so hope is not passive but the engine for present purification and spiritual warfare, and confidence (paresia) is the social‑legal posture of an adopted heir before his lord.

Abiding in Christ: Confidence and Hope at His Return(Hyland Heights Baptist Church) develops a diagnostic theme that reframes assurance: genuine Christian confidence at Christ’s return flows not from self-generated moral performance but from the objective sequence abiding → Spirit-produced righteousness → evidence of new birth → assured transformation at Christ’s appearing; uniquely, the sermon emphasizes hope's practical function as a sanctifying present power (hope-as-purifier) rather than merely futuristic consolation.

Abiding in Christ: Understanding Sin, Salvation, and Love(Abundant Life Church) proposes a theological distinction that functions as hermeneutic key for the whole passage: the ontological separation between the new born-again spirit (incapable of sin as the indwelt, sealed reality) and the lingering old/fleshly nature (which commits acts of sin), so John's "does not sin" language is read as categorical about the new nature's identity and descriptive of habit/practice when one truly abides (spirit-led living), not as a promise of sinless perfection in the flesh.

1 John 2:28 Historical and Contextual Insights:

Abiding in Christ: Transformation, Righteousness, and Confidence(WoodlandParkOnline) supplies Johannine-contextual detail by noting how central the verb “abide” is to John’s corpus (the preacher cites its frequent occurrence in John’s writings and traces the concept back to Jesus’ question “Where are you staying?” and to the Farewell Discourses in John 14–15), using that Johannine habit to show that John’s exhortation in 1 John 2:28 is rooted in the Gospel’s relational language and the early disciples’ longing to remain with Jesus.

Reflecting Christ: Living in His Love and Light(Colton Community Church) offers a linguistic/contextual observation about the opening of chapter 3—he critiques common English translations for missing the force of the Greek idea translated “see” or “behold,” urging the congregation to “stop and pay attention” to God’s lavish love (he frames v.1’s verb as an imperative to behold), and explicitly points readers back to the Gospel of John (esp. John 15) as the intertextual background that shapes how “remain” functions in 1 John.

Embracing Our Identity as God's Beloved Children(Manahawkin Baptist Church) supplies brief linguistic and contextual observations from the letter: the preacher points to recurring pattern language in 1 John (the "once walked" construction in Greek that marks habitual past life) and flags imperatives (for example the imperative sense of "behold" in 1 John 3:1), using those small lexical/contextual cues to show John’s pastoral rhythm—present adoption, the ongoing battle, and future glorification—so 2:28 sits within a sustained pastoral strategy to produce holy living in a believing community.

Destroying the Works of the Devil: Jesus’ Victory(Phoenix Bible Church) situates John’s letter in the early post‑apostolic context (noting roughly sixty years after the ascension and the spread to places like Ephesus) and treats the situation John addresses as a community under spiritual pressure, explaining why John uses urgent, dichotomous language (children of God vs children of the devil); Tim also contrasts New Testament practice (Jesus casting out demons) with the Old Testament (no explicit demon‑casting accounts) to highlight the inaugurated kingdom and Christ’s unique authority over the powers.

Who You Really Are: Living as a Child of God(Fellowship Church) notes genre and rhetorical context—John’s letter reads like a pastoral sermon to Ephesus and repeatedly uses endearments ("little children")—and emphasizes John’s rhetorical strategy of repetition and hyperbole (use of the term "children" 15 times in the letter, heavily concentrated in the verses under study) to reinforce identity formation in a church wrestling with practical holiness and false teaching.

The Four Marks of Christian Sonship: Love, Hope, War, Confidence(Forest Community Church) supplies concrete historical detail from the Greco-Roman world: adoption in ancient Rome signified voluntary selection and legitimation of an heir (so "called children" implies public, legal recognition), and the Greek term paresia carries civic overtones of a citizen's right to speak freely in Greco-Roman city-states, both cultural notes used to show how John’s language would resonate as both social status and legal confidence in antiquity.

Abiding in Christ: Understanding Sin, Salvation, and Love(Abundant Life Church) gives contextual framing by dating 1 John to around 90 AD and asserting John's primary audience was Jewish, then argues from intratextual usage that John and Paul use key terms differently (e.g., "abide" as discipleship/remaining vs. forensic union), and it conducts a lexical-historical unpacking of hora ("seen") to mean inward spiritual comprehension in Johannine usage, thereby reframing "has neither seen him" as lack of spiritual perception rather than mere absence of visual encounter.

1 John 2:28 Cross-References in the Bible:

Abiding in Christ: Transformation, Righteousness, and Confidence(WoodlandParkOnline) weaves multiple Johannine and Johannine‑adjacent texts into his exposition—he appeals to John 14 and John 15 to demonstrate Jesus’ own teaching on abiding and the Vine/branches imagery, cites 1 John 3:2–3 to show the eschatological hope of becoming like Christ and the purifying effect of that hope, points to 1 John 3:4 and 3:8 to define sin as lawlessness and to recall that Jesus came to defeat sin, and uses the broader flow of 1 John 2–3 to argue that abiding produces confident standing at Christ’s coming rather than legalistic anxiety.

Reflecting Christ: Living in His Love and Light(Colton Community Church) explicitly reads 1 John 2:28 in the immediate context of 1 John 2–3 and ties it back to John 15’s “remain in me” language; he also brings in Romans 8:14–15 and Galatians 3:26 to develop the theme of adoption and the believer’s filial status, cites Ephesians 2 on being raised and seated with Christ to explain new position, and references John 1:12 in order to underscore the right to become God’s children—each passage is used to show that remaining in Christ is both positional (adoption) and practical (likeness/fruit).

Prioritizing Our Relationship with God for Spiritual Vitality(SermonIndex.net) centers his argument on the strong cross‑reference to John 15 (“I am the vine…remain in me”) and then links that directly to 1 John 2:28 as the practical imperative that when Christ appears we may have confidence; he also invokes 1 John 3:6 (“whoever abides in him does not sin”) to guard against misunderstandings (not teaching sinless perfection but showing the connection between abiding and moral victory).

Embracing Our Identity as God's Beloved Children(Manahawkin Baptist Church) weaves numerous cross‑references to illuminate 2:28: Ephesians 2:1–3 and 2:4–7 are used to explain the condition (dead in trespasses) and the divine miracle (made alive, raised and seated with Christ) that grounds adoption; John 15:16 and John 6:37 are cited to underline God’s choosing and Jesus’ promise not to cast out those the Father gives; John 10:24–30 (the sheep/hearing the Shepherd’s voice) and Luke 23 (criminal’s repentance) and Matthew 9 (paralytic brought to Jesus) are employed to illustrate the nature of conversion, assurance, and helplessness before God that makes 2:28’s abiding and confidence intelligible.

Destroying the Works of the Devil: Jesus’ Victory(Phoenix Bible Church) clusters 1 John 2–3 with supporting New Testament texts: he reads 2:28 alongside 3:1–10 (sonship, practice of righteousness vs practice of sin) and draws on John 8 (father of lies), 1 Peter 5:8 (adversary), and 2 Corinthians 4:4 (the god of this world) to sketch the devil’s character; Hebrews 2:14 is used to show that in Christ’s death he destroyed the power of the devil (the one who has the power of death), and Revelation 20 is cited for the final overthrow of Satan—these cross‑references support his thesis that abiding in Christ participates in the Son’s victory.

Who You Really Are: Living as a Child of God(Fellowship Church) frames 1 John 2:28 with gospel and Gospel‑narrative texts: Matthew 18 and Mark 10 (Jesus’ call to become like children) supply the model of childlike receptivity that underlies “abide in him”; the Nicodemus/Jesus conversation about being born again is invoked to explain “born of God” language; 2 Corinthians 5:21 (the great exchange) and Romans 10 (warning about seeking righteousness apart from God) are used to explain passive/imputed righteousness versus self‑established righteousness and to show why abiding in Christ produces confidence rather than shame.

The Four Marks of Christian Sonship: Love, Hope, War, Confidence(Forest Community Church) weaves multiple texts to support 2:28: Matthew 8:27 (disciples' exclamation using potapos) is used to illustrate the astonishment language John borrows about the Father's extraordinary love; Isaiah 14:12 is invoked to narrate the origin of the devil and so to ground John's account of "children of the devil" and lawlessness; 2 Corinthians 11:14 is brought in to warn that the devil can appear as an "angel of light," supporting the sermon’s pastoral caution about deceptive religiosity; Romans 8:15 (spirit of adoption) and John 8:44 (Jesus' charge that some are of the devil) are cited to tie sonship, freedom to speak (paresia), and the contrast between children of God and children of the devil into John’s argument about identity and confidence at Christ's coming.

Abiding in Christ: Confidence and Hope at His Return(Hyland Heights Baptist Church) links 1 John 2:28 to other New Testament passages to explicate "abide": John 15:4–5 (vine and branches) is the primary cross-reference used to define "abide" as relational union that produces fruit and to justify "apart from me you can do nothing," and Philippians 2:5–8 (Christ's humility and self-emptying) is appealed to when describing the gospel’s generosity that undergirds holy living and motivates the believer’s response—both passages are used to show that abiding is receptive union, not moral self‑manufacture.

Abiding in Christ: Understanding Sin, Salvation, and Love(Abundant Life Church) deploys an array of biblical cross-references to explicate 2:28 and its surrounding verses: John 8:31 is cited to show John’s own use of "abide" as a discipleship‑term (“if you abide in my word…you are my disciples”), Romans 7:15–20 is quoted at length to explain the inner conflict between flesh and new spirit and to distinguish acts of sin from the sealed new nature, 1 John 1:7 and 1 Peter 1:23 are used to ground the language of purification and incorruptible seed (word/Spirit), and Ephesians 1:13 is brought in for the idea of being sealed by the Spirit—together these references are marshaled to argue that abiding produces spiritual perception, righteous practice, and assurance of future likeness to Christ.

1 John 2:28 Historical and Contextual Insights:

Destroying the Works of the Devil: Jesus’ Victory(Phoenix Bible Church) explicitly cites C.S. Lewis—quoting or paraphrasing his image of living in "enemy‑occupied territory"—to characterize Satan’s pervasive activity, and Tim also invokes John Owen’s well‑known maxim ("be killing sin or it will be killing you") to press the necessity of active sanctification as the fruit of abiding in Christ, using both authors to sharpen the pastoral urgency of 1 John 2:28.

Who You Really Are: Living as a Child of God(Fellowship Church) explicitly appeals to contemporary Christian writer Paul Miller (A Praying Life) when diagnosing cynicism and its effect on prayer and hope; Miller’s line that "cynicism kills hope" is used to frame the pastoral cure (return to childlike wonder and dependence) as a direct implication of abiding in Christ per 1 John 2:28.

The Four Marks of Christian Sonship: Love, Hope, War, Confidence(Forest Community Church) explicitly invokes medieval Christian figures to illuminate 2:28’s hope: the preacher retells Thomas Aquinas’s reported vision on December 6, 1273—quoting the testimony that Aquinas declared his theological work like "straw" after seeing God—and uses Aquinas’s cessation of writing as a concrete illustration of the overwhelming, soul‑consuming nature of the beatific vision John promises; Dante’s Paradiso is also mentioned as the literary expression of the "beatific vision" (seeing God face to face) to help the congregation imagine the nature of the future transformation described in the passage.

Abiding in Christ: Understanding Sin, Salvation, and Love(Abundant Life Church) cites devotional/exegetical commentary explicitly—Benson’s commentary is named when defining "abide in him" (Benson’s gloss: maintain your union/interest in him by faith, love, prayer, watchfulness, self‑denial), and the sermon uses that traditional commentary to support the reading of "abide" as active, persevering discipleship rather than a mere forensic status.

1 John 2:28 Illustrations from Secular Sources:

Abiding in Christ: Transformation, Righteousness, and Confidence(WoodlandParkOnline) peppers his exposition with contemporary and cultural illustrations—he opens by cataloguing “words of the year” and recent cultural flashpoints (examples named aloud include Y2K/millennium bug, “worldwide web,” Pluto’s demotion, “bailout,” “fake news,” and “COVID”) and uses those familiar cultural markers to contrast ephemeral public preoccupations with John’s perennial imperative to “abide”; he also uses everyday workplace and athletic examples (boss walking by a desk, a coach observing practice) and an extended personal dating anecdote to make visceral the question, “What do you want to be doing when the boss/Coach/Christ shows up?”—these secular snapshots are used concretely to make the urgency and practical shape of abiding intelligible to a modern congregation.

Reflecting Christ: Living in His Love and Light(Colton Community Church) employs vivid secular and experiential images to illumine 1 John 2:28 and its neighbor verses—he uses a recurring dog/owner internet-picture motif (people who “look like their dogs”) to illustrate degrees of attachment and how some people merely keep Jesus “in a kennel” while others “look like Jesus,” invokes the astronomical event of the summer solstice and the microscopic change in daylight to dramatize certainty about recurring cycles (and analogically the certainty of Christ’s return), and relates awe‑inducing travel/nature experiences—the Sagrada Família cathedral (detailed description of towers, light streaming into orbs labeled with the Gospel writers) and the Redwoods—plus the birth of his children as secular/natural experiences that “take your breath away,” all of which he uses to teach the congregation how to “behold” God’s love and live so that when Christ returns they reflect him rather than shrink in shame.

Embracing Our Identity as God's Beloved Children(Manahawkin Baptist Church) uses a vivid personal family vignette—the pastor’s memory of wanting to please his grandmother as a child—to illustrate how affection (relationship) motivates obedience (duty), applying that domestic, secular image to explain how abiding in Christ makes holy living natural and heartfelt rather than legalistic, and he repeatedly employs everyday images (battlefield of the Christian life, "mirror darkly" glimpse of Christ) to make the future‑hope dimension of 2:28 accessible.

Destroying the Works of the Devil: Jesus’ Victory(Phoenix Bible Church) supplies multiple secular and pop‑culture analogies: a personal scorpion encounter (wife steps on scorpion, he smashes with systematic theology book) to illustrate loving destruction of what harms; a Mike Tyson boxing analogy to portray the decisive, non‑even contest between Christ and Satan (Jesus “knocks out” the devil); gym/LA Fitness locker‑room anecdotes and an image of Black Friday/Amazon shopping to depict the "satanic lullaby" of distraction and the practical rhythms of training (abiding/purifying/practicing) necessary to resist temptation—each secular story is detailed and used to draw a practical bridge from 2:28 to everyday spiritual disciplines.

Who You Really Are: Living as a Child of God(Fellowship Church) peppers the exposition with secular, relatable imagery to embody childlike identity: childhood dreams (race‑car bed, becoming Batman), a personal detail about driving a manual transmission (as a quirky “speed racer” image), sports fandom (being a disappointed Dolphins fan) and a youth baseball anecdote about a grandfather’s hyper‑performance pressure to illustrate how shame, cynicism, or performance orientation warps identity; he then contrasts those commonplace secular experiences with the gospel’s parenting image—God entering the sinner’s “room” to forgive and restore—so readers can see how 1 John 2:28 calls them to confidence rooted in divine fatherly love rather than worldly measures.

The Four Marks of Christian Sonship: Love, Hope, War, Confidence(Forest Community Church) uses a variety of secular and popular-culture examples: the royal publicity around William and Harry is used to illustrate how being publicly named as a child confers status and attention (analogous to divine adoption); Christoph Waltz’s portrayal of Colonel Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds is recounted as an example of evil that does not self-identify as evil—used to illustrate how people can commit horrific acts while thinking they are morally justified (linking to John’s warning that children of the devil may appear respectable); the sermon also references Nazi war criminals and the Nuremberg trial rhetoric ("we were following orders") to show how people can deny evil and thus be of the devil; these stories are all deployed to make the passage’s contrast between children of God and children of the devil concrete and culturally recognizable.

Abiding in Christ: Confidence and Hope at His Return(Hyland Heights Baptist Church) centers a long, detailed secular-personal illustration: the pastor’s dog ("Poppy") story—he described returning home locked out while the dog frantically signaled through windows, his ladder-and-crowbar entry, neighbors watching, and the dog’s mixed excitement-and-guilt behavior—using this vivid household anecdote to model the congregation’s likely mixed emotions about Christ’s return (longing plus fear/shame) and to make palpable the pastoral claim that abiding turns fearful shrinking-back into confident greeting.

Abiding in Christ: Understanding Sin, Salvation, and Love(Abundant Life Church) employs quotidian, secular anecdotes to illuminate sonship and confidence: a retail checkout exchange at Meijer where the pastor jokingly claims "my daddy owns this place" (then quotes "the earth is the Lord’s") is used to illustrate a child's audacious confidence before a father and to normalize the boldness believers may have before God; the sermon also alludes to popular cultural touchstones (e.g., a Ginsu‑knife commercial reference) and contemporary social examples of persecution and murder to ground warnings about "a murdering spirit" that attacks the righteous, but its primary secular illustrations are brief, everyday stories to make Johannine claims feel immediate to listeners.