First, like the epistle, John does not view wealth and affluence as a feature of the present age for the Christian community. Rather, he presupposes a postponement of the Deuteronomic promise of material blessing to the coming age. John envisions the world in the present age as irretrievably evil and ruled temporarily by Satan. This follows the same pattern developed in the Second Temple period in which external evil forces deceive humankind (1QS 3:20–21; 1QM 14:9) and lure them into a life of affluence and away from worshiping God (CD 4:13–17).
