Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Why are the elder's letters letters?
- Why do the letters sometimes refer to "we" and sometimes to "I"? Is the elder having a split personality crisis?
- Is "light" a good metaphor to describe God? Does darkness fit with evil, too? Can good things ever be dark and bad things light?
- Do you think the elder's advice about loving others should mean that we're expected to love everyone we meet? Or is it enough of a hassle to love the people we hang out with every day?
- Why can't the elder just agree to disagree with his opponents?
- How can a Christian decide whom to believe: the elder or his opponents? Is it all just a crapshoot or does the argument naturally lean one way?
- What do you think of when you imagine the "antichrist"? What in the elder's letters makes you think that?
- Why does the elder think the world is such a bad place?
- The elder goes back and forth about sin: first, true believers can sin; then they can't. Which is it?
- What do these letters say about authority? What gives the elder the right to speak for the community? Or for God, for that matter?