If the Gospel of John is the most enigmatic among the four gospels, then the Johannine letters certainly do not let the side down. Issues of context such as who was the recipient of the letters, and what were their purpose remain tantalizingly unclear.

Furthermore, alongside wonderful favourite verses about the work of Christ, we also have such gems as, “Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God” (1 John 3.9).

Colin Kruse tackles head on all the issues of the three letters of John. After a 50-page introduction, which proposes a concrete situation into which the letters were written, and defending authorship by the Apostle John, Kruse treats the texts in sequential order.

One feature of the commentary, is the 22 ‘notes’, which are really extended comments on some of the many issues which the ‘hard sayings’ raise.

In this way, the commentary is able to work both verse-by-verse, as well as thematically. Although it is not a breakthrough work, solidly conservative conclusions are drawn.

This non-technical (no Greek required), but technically excellent, commentary is well worth having on the shelf, giving good guidance to these challenging epistles.

My only regret is that there is no over arching structure to the epistles given, but then, perhaps none was intended by that most profound of Christian theologians, John the Apostle.