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Abide: A Study of 1, 2, 3 John
How can we hold onto assurance of our faith? How can we discern the truth from a lie? How can we know God loves us?
In three short letters, the apostle John reminds an early church facing division, deception, and doubt to hold fast to what they know and to live like they believe it. And he reminds us, as well. In this 10-session Bible study on the letters of 1, 2, and 3, John, helps you see how two thousand years later, his words call to Christians in similar challenges to recall a great salvation and to abide in the truth.
Features: Benefits:
Video Sessions:
For more studies by visit the in the
In three short letters, the apostle John reminds an early church facing division, deception, and doubt to hold fast to what they know and to live like they believe it. And he reminds us, as well. In this 10-session Bible study on the letters of 1, 2, and 3, John, helps you see how two thousand years later, his words call to Christians in similar challenges to recall a great salvation and to abide in the truth.
Features: Benefits:
Video Sessions:
For more studies by visit the in the
98 pages, ebook
157 people are currently reading
1262 people want to read
About the author
Jen Wilkin
70 books1,500 followersJen Wilkin is a speaker, writer, and teacher of women’s Bible studies. During her thirteen years of teaching, she has organized and led studies for women in home, church, and parachurch contexts. Jen and her family are members of the Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas. She is the author of Women of the Word.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
December 19, 2024
This is my second Jen Wilkin Bible study and I'm already wanting to do another! Her studies really take a deep dive into the text and I just loved it! When I was reading through the Bible in 2019 there were a couple books that caught my eye and 1 John was one of them so being able to do this study was great. These epistles don't seem to see a lot of sunlight in the church but I think it's about time they're brought into the light and studied more in the church.
June 27, 2019
Thank you Jen Wilkin! 🔥✊🏻
December 6, 2023
I always walk away from a Jen Wilkin study so in awe of how good our Creator is and how intricate and wonderful His word is. I’m blown away by the connections she made. I learned so much and feel closer to God because of studying these books. Highly recommend.
March 21, 2024
Jen Wilkin has the best Bible study material!!! This was a good one 🙌🏼🙌🏼 great to do with a small group. I loved the practicality of the small group discussion questions and how she had us studying the text for ourselves asking good questions
April 11, 2025
I've enjoyed every Jen Wilkin study I've done and this is no exception.
August 18, 2023
I loved this in depth study of 1,2,3 John! Jen Wilkin does a great job at explaining context and helping connect dots throughout these books and the entire Bible.
November 24, 2023
Overall good, but some was too surface level. Good for someone new to Bible! Always good to be reminded to love god and others, walk in the truth, and have confidence that Jesus is real.
December 13, 2024
After reading and learning from several other Bible studies by Jen Wilkin, I decided to read and listen to the teaching videos she did of I, II, and III John, called “Abide.”
There is an emphasis in these books on obedience to God’s commands. “Our personal sin always results in collateral damage”–there is no sin that affects only us. But also: “personal obedience always results in collateral benefits”– our obedience helps others as well as just us. In this study, my own personal Bible reading, and our sermon series at church, there’s been an emphasis lately on the importance to God of our holiness and our obedience to his commands. It’s made me (hopefully) more attentive to that: I don’t always need to understand why; I just need to obey, whether that’s with my actions, thinking, or attitude.
Agape love–the love God has for us–is “an intelligent purposeful attitude of esteem and devotion; a selfless purposeful outgoing attitude that desires to do good to the one loved–a love that the mind analyzes/considers and the will chooses.” Love is an act of the will.
We know the Bible frequents exhorts us to love. This can be a challenge because, if you’re like me, you don’t always necessarily feel “loving.” So I found this insight in II John 6 helpful: “And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments.” In contrast to our typical definition of love, the Bible defines it as obedience to God. (I John 2:5 “whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected”). That was kind of mind-bending to me! And again, it’s another allusion to the importance of obedience.
This study was a little different from the other Wilkin ones I’ve done, mainly because the books covered are pretty short and I felt the study suffered a little due to that. Some of the videos deteriorated into what seemed like self-help/psychology rather than pure Bible study. I wasn’t the biggest fan of that, but still, it was good to take a closer look at I, II, and III John.
There is an emphasis in these books on obedience to God’s commands. “Our personal sin always results in collateral damage”–there is no sin that affects only us. But also: “personal obedience always results in collateral benefits”– our obedience helps others as well as just us. In this study, my own personal Bible reading, and our sermon series at church, there’s been an emphasis lately on the importance to God of our holiness and our obedience to his commands. It’s made me (hopefully) more attentive to that: I don’t always need to understand why; I just need to obey, whether that’s with my actions, thinking, or attitude.
Agape love–the love God has for us–is “an intelligent purposeful attitude of esteem and devotion; a selfless purposeful outgoing attitude that desires to do good to the one loved–a love that the mind analyzes/considers and the will chooses.” Love is an act of the will.
We know the Bible frequents exhorts us to love. This can be a challenge because, if you’re like me, you don’t always necessarily feel “loving.” So I found this insight in II John 6 helpful: “And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments.” In contrast to our typical definition of love, the Bible defines it as obedience to God. (I John 2:5 “whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected”). That was kind of mind-bending to me! And again, it’s another allusion to the importance of obedience.
This study was a little different from the other Wilkin ones I’ve done, mainly because the books covered are pretty short and I felt the study suffered a little due to that. Some of the videos deteriorated into what seemed like self-help/psychology rather than pure Bible study. I wasn’t the biggest fan of that, but still, it was good to take a closer look at I, II, and III John.
December 29, 2023
I highly recommend taking the time to watch the videos for this study. Jen Wilkins teaching is a gift, in some ways she reminds me of Tim Keller. Found this a helpful and encouraging study.
January 1, 2019
An excellent study digging into three of the shortest books in the Bible, Abide was enlightening and convicting. Jen Wilkin's method of Bible study remains one of my favorites, with repetitive reading and worksheets that guide through the passage being studied, letting you do most of the work for yourself and come to your own conclusions, before the formal discussion and teaching times.
Looking forward to doing more of these studies in the future.
Looking forward to doing more of these studies in the future.
May 15, 2024
How can we hold onto assurance of our faith? How can we discern the truth from a lie? How can we know God loves us?
In three short letters, the apostle John reminds an early church facing division, deception, and doubt to hold fast to what they know and to live like they believe it. And he reminds us, as well. In this 10-session Bible study on the letters of 1, 2, and 3, John, helps you see how two thousand years later, his words call to Christians in similar challenges to recall a great salvation and to abide in the truth.
This was challenging but I learned so much.
In three short letters, the apostle John reminds an early church facing division, deception, and doubt to hold fast to what they know and to live like they believe it. And he reminds us, as well. In this 10-session Bible study on the letters of 1, 2, and 3, John, helps you see how two thousand years later, his words call to Christians in similar challenges to recall a great salvation and to abide in the truth.
This was challenging but I learned so much.
July 2, 2023
Jen Wilkin, thank you SO much for this study! I loved how connected it was, how deep it dove, and how I gained so much understanding of our Father’s love in a completely new way! This study was so powerful and filled my heart with so much love and joy! Highly recommend-even without the audio or group support, I loved doing this study independently!
May 23, 2024
Great Bible study. I believe I will remember well the themes I learned from 1,2,3 John going forward. Would definitely be most beneficial if used with a small group, but I did it independently and it was good, too. I really liked that there were teaching videos to watch at the end of each week’s study.
June 19, 2024
Excellent Bible study and teaching. I appreciate the thoroughness, emphasis on (historical) context and comprehension of the text as well as application. Looking forward to doing more of Jen Wilkin’s studies.
April 7, 2023
Such an amazing Bible study. These letters are addressed to someone else but they are so intended for us today as well. So so good
September 20, 2023
Loved this other than the highlighting/marking of the pages!!!
July 30, 2024
Such a great study! Highly recommend this to deeply study His Word.
May 1, 2025
First Jen study I have done and it was incredible- 10/10. Can’t wait to do more!
October 14, 2023
I love Bible studies like this. The videos supplement greatly. I will now view the Good Samaritan story so much more deeply.
August 11, 2023
I loved this study! It was true to Scripture, convicting, and accessible for any level of biblical literacy. Jen’s video teaching that accompanies each week (and is included with the book!) is so rich. The homework can typically be done in about 15-20 minutes (some longer days may take longer, but I did not find it difficult to complete each week in the stated timeframe).
June 5, 2024
Not as good as sermon on the mount or God of Creation with their mind blowing insights, but still a great, encouraging and thorough study I really enjoyed going through with a group of women at church.
May 6, 2024
A great 10-week Bible study of 1, 2, & 3 John, including video teaching series. The author is an excellent teacher. I probably have never studied these books of the New Testament in such depth.
January 18, 2023
A very good study that helps you walk through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John. It explores in depth key words and phrases that John used. It also digs into God’s character and what we can learn about ourselves as a reflection of that. It is a lot of work, researching, writing, reading, pondering. So you need to have a lot of time to dedicate. One plus is that you can access videos online for free. That is not always the case with Bible studies. Overall, a good study that will help you grow in your Christian walk.
April 18, 2024
A worthwhile study! Jen goes in depth into every verse of 1,2,3 John. I love the inductive study approach she has. It really helped me see repeated words, phrases, and themes. She really challenged me to sit with scripture and ask God to help me with understanding before diving into other study helps and interpretations. I would definitely do another study of hers.
November 15, 2023
I absolutely loved this study.
April 10, 2024
Great study. Highly recommend.
February 18, 2024
3 stars for the workbook, 4 for the attached sermon series, 5 for the actual letters studied.
First of all, I highly recommend studying the letters 1, 2, and 3 John. I was really encouraged, convicted, and moved to reflect on my understanding of the gospel through the study of these epistles along with sisters from my church. Jen Wilkins does a good job of encouraging repeated readings of the same short passages to deepen our understanding of how everything John says connects across the letters. She also delivers a wonderful sermon series to which this workbook provides video access.
However, I’ve decided that I’m not a fan of workbook style Bible studies, for the reason that many of the books I’ve gone through tend to focus too much on aesthetics and formatting rather than providing truly rich content or critical discussion questions. This particular workbook has a similar issue where many of the pages could have been cut out or condensed, as many of the questions were too basic (e.g. what 2 words does John use in this verse? Fill in the blanks), or asked for mere comprehension rather than deeper analysis or application. There were some quality application questions and cross references, but the simplest questions often took up the most unnecessary space on the page. There were also pages at the end of each week/chapter that were meant to be group discussion questions, but they simply repeated the same questions from the individual section, and we never used these pages. I wish that Jen Wilkins had instead given a summary of her sermon on these pages, since I didn’t always find time to watch the 40min videos every week.
The author’s instructions for annotating were also lacking in depth, as she basically tells you to circle or underline repeated words and draw little symbols next to them, then consider why they are repeated. Repetition of words/phrases is one of the most basic literary elements of a text that we can observe; it bothered me that she never took the annotation further to encourage questioning or making associations or interpretations. After the first few weeks, the pattern of the workbook became somewhat lazy on “Day One” of each week, as it basically had the same instructions to summarize the passage and then mark all the repeated words. I didn’t gain much from that latter exercise, except frustration that I was obscuring so much of the text with these relatively meaningless markings, so I eventually stopped following her instructions and simply annotated the text on my own to develop deeper engagement with it.
This might be a good place to start if one is preparing to lead a small group discussion on 1, 2, and 3 John, and could pick and choose questions and cross references and sermon tidbits they want to use with their small group. But I would not recommend requiring everyone to go through the entire workbook page by page, as there was too much busywork for too little return in depth of understanding. Better to spend your time directly asking questions and making observations of the scripture itself.
First of all, I highly recommend studying the letters 1, 2, and 3 John. I was really encouraged, convicted, and moved to reflect on my understanding of the gospel through the study of these epistles along with sisters from my church. Jen Wilkins does a good job of encouraging repeated readings of the same short passages to deepen our understanding of how everything John says connects across the letters. She also delivers a wonderful sermon series to which this workbook provides video access.
However, I’ve decided that I’m not a fan of workbook style Bible studies, for the reason that many of the books I’ve gone through tend to focus too much on aesthetics and formatting rather than providing truly rich content or critical discussion questions. This particular workbook has a similar issue where many of the pages could have been cut out or condensed, as many of the questions were too basic (e.g. what 2 words does John use in this verse? Fill in the blanks), or asked for mere comprehension rather than deeper analysis or application. There were some quality application questions and cross references, but the simplest questions often took up the most unnecessary space on the page. There were also pages at the end of each week/chapter that were meant to be group discussion questions, but they simply repeated the same questions from the individual section, and we never used these pages. I wish that Jen Wilkins had instead given a summary of her sermon on these pages, since I didn’t always find time to watch the 40min videos every week.
The author’s instructions for annotating were also lacking in depth, as she basically tells you to circle or underline repeated words and draw little symbols next to them, then consider why they are repeated. Repetition of words/phrases is one of the most basic literary elements of a text that we can observe; it bothered me that she never took the annotation further to encourage questioning or making associations or interpretations. After the first few weeks, the pattern of the workbook became somewhat lazy on “Day One” of each week, as it basically had the same instructions to summarize the passage and then mark all the repeated words. I didn’t gain much from that latter exercise, except frustration that I was obscuring so much of the text with these relatively meaningless markings, so I eventually stopped following her instructions and simply annotated the text on my own to develop deeper engagement with it.
This might be a good place to start if one is preparing to lead a small group discussion on 1, 2, and 3 John, and could pick and choose questions and cross references and sermon tidbits they want to use with their small group. But I would not recommend requiring everyone to go through the entire workbook page by page, as there was too much busywork for too little return in depth of understanding. Better to spend your time directly asking questions and making observations of the scripture itself.
April 26, 2025
I love Jen Wilkin, and I have done all of her Bible studies. I did Kelly Minter’s 123 John study a few years ago, and I loved that one so much, that I didn’t want to do this one right away. I think that each author’s style is so different that you really get just as much out of each, but in different, complementary ways.
1) The homework is not too overwhelming, and there are a lot of open-ended questions as well as guided exegesis of the text. Jen asks you to read through the whole text every week, and there is a lot of value to this task, although there is also an aspect of taking the text in smaller chunks each day.
2) The teaching times are always informative, detailed, researched, and funny. Jen is a fantastic teacher, and she confidently gives very careful and accurate instructions, often including specific examples and anecdotes to assist application…
3) …which leads me to really mu only critique. Her videos can be incredibly long (some exceeding 45 minutes). While I do not have any qualms about hearing the Bible taught for an extended period of time, one of the main reasons they are so long is because of her many personal stories and examples—not necessarily due to biblical instruction. I wish that she would pair down her examples and leave her focus on the text itself, as I find the extra information to be distracting and sometimes overkill.
Other than that, this is a wonderful study of John’s letters, and I would strongly recommend it!!
1) The homework is not too overwhelming, and there are a lot of open-ended questions as well as guided exegesis of the text. Jen asks you to read through the whole text every week, and there is a lot of value to this task, although there is also an aspect of taking the text in smaller chunks each day.
2) The teaching times are always informative, detailed, researched, and funny. Jen is a fantastic teacher, and she confidently gives very careful and accurate instructions, often including specific examples and anecdotes to assist application…
3) …which leads me to really mu only critique. Her videos can be incredibly long (some exceeding 45 minutes). While I do not have any qualms about hearing the Bible taught for an extended period of time, one of the main reasons they are so long is because of her many personal stories and examples—not necessarily due to biblical instruction. I wish that she would pair down her examples and leave her focus on the text itself, as I find the extra information to be distracting and sometimes overkill.
Other than that, this is a wonderful study of John’s letters, and I would strongly recommend it!!
December 2, 2023
While I’m probably not the target audience, I appreciate that Jen provides tools for women to study the Bible, especially if it’s one of their first times. I still have a beef with devotions written for women which then proceed to address every human as “man” in scripture and throughout the book. That doesn’t make you sound more theological. And it’s definitely not how you translate the Hebrew or the Greek. I’m not a “man” and it’s not necessary to write like it’s 1540 King James English.
At times Jen uses resources that are outdated and myopic (commentaries written from the 60’s and 70’s? Really? Biblical scholarship has written and grown so much more since then, including discovering the Dead Sea Scrolls.) Overall, it’s one of the better books in the women’s Bible study genre, but I’m still waiting for serious scholarship written specifically to and for women. (Not the least of which because 2 John was written to—you guessed it—a woman.)
At times Jen uses resources that are outdated and myopic (commentaries written from the 60’s and 70’s? Really? Biblical scholarship has written and grown so much more since then, including discovering the Dead Sea Scrolls.) Overall, it’s one of the better books in the women’s Bible study genre, but I’m still waiting for serious scholarship written specifically to and for women. (Not the least of which because 2 John was written to—you guessed it—a woman.)
December 17, 2025
A good deep dive into 1, 2, 3 John. This is my second Bible study written by Jen. I did appreciate how she was able to go in depth with the history and context of what was going on during the time. However, I enjoyed the other Bible study that I did of hers more (The Sermon on the Mount).
I know that I shouldn’t have, but I skipped all of the highlighting and annotation parts of this book. It just kind of felt like busy work to me as compared to the other Bible study I did where it felt imperative. Maybe that’s why this one didn’t “stick” as much as the last.
It was still a good bible study because I don’t think I really would have read 1, 2 and 3 John like this all at once. I appreciated her input, applications to the Word and the videos surely tied everything together. 3.5/5
Doing this with a group of women in my Women’s Bible Study really did make the conversation worthwhile though 💕🙏🏻 I’d say it’s a must to do it in a group if you are to do it!
I know that I shouldn’t have, but I skipped all of the highlighting and annotation parts of this book. It just kind of felt like busy work to me as compared to the other Bible study I did where it felt imperative. Maybe that’s why this one didn’t “stick” as much as the last.
It was still a good bible study because I don’t think I really would have read 1, 2 and 3 John like this all at once. I appreciated her input, applications to the Word and the videos surely tied everything together. 3.5/5
Doing this with a group of women in my Women’s Bible Study really did make the conversation worthwhile though 💕🙏🏻 I’d say it’s a must to do it in a group if you are to do it!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews