How exactly can we know who was in the crowd and exactly what John was thinking when he wrote that? The words he used clearly relay to me he was talking to fellow believers, yet you seem to suggest you know who was there and what John was thinking when he wrote it. How do you pull all that from the words he wrote? Or is it just how YOU would feel, or just what supports your personal view? All we have is the text, and I read it as he was addressing fellow believers, how do we know what percentage of the crowd was unbelievers to the believers, and how is this clear from the words used?
Willie T writes "I suspect there were at least several people in that audience that WERE leaning highly toward the Gnostics. He WAS preaching to them."
"I suspect"? Do we build doctrine on you suspicions, or anyone else's? Not a very solid case in my opinion.