John and Paul are writing to people who lived in the Roman world. And in Paul’s day it was Bloody Nero, and in John’s day—for he saw one emperor after another rise that persecuted Christians, beginning with Titus. And the persecution was severe. And yet here are men and women in that Roman world—a brutal world, a cruel world pagan to the core—and yet here are men and women, and they are doing what? They’re walking after His commandments. They’re translating the gospel into life. That is the thing that is desperately needed today.