F I R S T E P I S T L E O F J O H N - CHAPTER 1
INTRO:
Scofield says that this First Epistle of John is a family letter from the Father to His "little children" who are in the world. A tender word is used for "children" (from Gk, teknia), a diminutive meaning "little children, born-ones" as e.g. the Scottish "bairns". It is the most intimate of the inspired writings. Johns Gospel leads us across the threshold of the Father’s house; his First Epistle makes us at home there.
Sin, which alienated us from the Father, has been dealt with at the Cross, now sins resulting from the Christians walk in the world must be addressed. The difference is in our relationship to the Father. We are now His "little children" whom He is teaching and training. We need our feet washed, because we have been running in the dirt and the mud of this world. So we are told: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" I John 1:9
The event which created the need for this letter was the secession of people from the apostolic fellowship. The purpose of this letter is immediately announced "That you may have fellowship with us". On the principle that the seceders doctrine must have been opposite to the aged Apostle, we can gather the general nature of their doctrine from the epistle itself:
1. From the immense stress laid, in some fifteen different ways, upon the peril of tolerating sin in the Christian life, it is clear that the seceders treated sin lightly.
2. A similar concentration of emphasis falls upon the need for loyalty and love for one another (twelve times).
3. On no less than twenty-three occasions John refers to Jesus as the Christ the Son of God, come in the flesh, by water and blood. The issue, plainly, is the identification of the man Jesus as the Son of God, or God in the flesh.
4. In the epistle’s 105 verses, the two words for "knowing" occur forty times. This indicates that the ethical and doctrinal errors which had divided the Churches had intellectual, philosophical roots. To John, it is not WHAT you know it is WHO you know. Our safety and security do not lie in "what" we know, but in that we "know" Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
As the Church moved out of its Judaist homeland into the gentile world, she came face to face with a strange amalgam of high thinking, unbridled imagination, and a philosophy known to us as "Gnosticism". Gnosticism contrived to combine superstition, philosophical analysis, fantasy, some eastern mysticism and a considerable power of speculation to produce it’s wild, fanatical, and sometimes obscene cult.
1. The term "Gnostic" indicates the emphasis is laid upon knowledge (gnosis) of the universe, God, or the soul. To the Gnostic salvation comes by knowledge, which is more important than virtue.
2. The fundamental Gnostic insight is dualistic. Everything material is naturally and essentially evil; everything spiritual is naturally and essentially good. That is why the Gnostic could not connect Jesus the man with Christ the Son of God.
3. Intellectual pride made Gnosticism intensely individualistic, possessing little sense of social obligation, they were "loveless to the core" (Robert Law). They gave no heed to love, caring not for the widow, the orphan, or the afflicted, neither for those who are in bonds nor for those who are released from bonds, neither for the hungry nor for the thirsty. John’s reply to this attitude is brusque: "He that loveth not knoweth not"
4. Morally, one reaction to dualism was to discipline and abuse the evil body to save the soul (compare Col 2:20 and I Tim 4:3); the other was to treat all deeds done in and with the body as irrelevant to spiritual welfare. Some Gnostics argued that the enlightened must know all things, even "the depths of Satan" Rev 2:24).
The close relation of Gnosticism to modern day Christian Science is obvious.
CHAPTER ONE - VERSES 1 THRU 3:
I/ Life’s Source - Vs 1 "That which was from the beginning"
It is a large part of the Bible’s message that life originates in God. In Genesis, God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. God said to Moses "I AM" indicating that He is a living God, in contrast to the dumb and lifeless idols of the heathen. Jesus said in John 5:26 "For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself". John said "God gave us eternal life and this life is in his Son, He who has the Son has life" I John 5:11,12.
"which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have
handled, of the Word of life".
The source of eternal life for the Christian is not a creed, or an action taken, or a membership held, it is the Word of life, the "Logos of life", it is a person, Jesus Christ the Son of God (see John 1:1). QUESTION: In what way have modern Christians seen, heard and handled the "Logos of life". Notice that the Word (Logos)is not just the printed word, for it tells of Him, but it is the
Living Word. The Christian’s new life must be rich and full, victorious and everlasting, because it flows from the everlasting fountains in the changeless self-existence of the living God!. This is why the Resurrection is so important. We serve a living God.
II/ Life’s Quality - Vs 2 "eternal life, which was with the Father, and
was manifested unto us"
The Gospel was written "that men might have life", this epistle was written " that they might know" that they possessed it. Jesus promised us that we might have "abundant life" a fullness not limited by human resources and strength. Life imperishable, so that they "never die"; life eternal "timeless", of a quality not belonging to time and earth at all.
This is the gospel, what has God given us if we can "lose it"? What comfort is there to Salvation if it is not eternal? How can we ask others to die to selfish desires, and plans, if it will not last?
Essentially, John says, eternal life consists in knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent: but "knowing" here is not to be limited to intellectual comprehension. Knowing the Lord, involves personal acquaintance, companionship, obedience, and trust. It means being engrafted in the Vine through which divine life flows to the furthest tip of every branch.
III/ Life’s Manifestation - Vs 3 "That which we have seen and heard"
John’s four separate statements "we heard", "we have seen", "we have Looked (steadily) upon", and "we touched" express a developing certainty, a growing intimacy, culminating perhaps in the invitation of the Upper Room after Easter "handle me, and see". Divine life was experienced by these early Christians as it became audible, visible, and tangible. "That which we have seen and heard" as though the visual images were paramount in recollection, and the sayings and commandments paramount in authority, in apostolic memories. We "have seen" Him through the eyes of faith, and "have heard" Him through His Word.
IV/ Life’s Witnesses - Vs 3 "declare we unto you"
The historic manifestation of the divine life in Jesus must remain confined to one generation unless those who saw Him bear witness and their witness is believed. The idea of "witness", or of confessing or denying Christ, occurs seventeen times in these five chapters, in the Fourth Gospel in the final commission it says "Ye are my witnesses".
Though the authority for our witness lies in experience, our witness is far from being the assertion of individual opinion. More than one man’s personal memories lay behind the apostolic message and their conviction has been inherited now by a second generation and we know through many further generations the fact of Christ and His saving power. The process of authority is threefold: we hear, see, ponder, handle the fundamental historic facts about Jesus so making DISCOVERY;
we have known Him, been forgiven, overcome the world, have been made strong, have come to love the brethren, and thus we "know", so reaching the conviction bred of personnel EXPERIENCE; so we proclaim, and the word kindles life, the message we heard from Him, authenticates itself in those who BELIEVE.
V/ Life’s Fellowship - Vs 3 "that ye may have fellowship with us"
The most desperate of all modern man’s individual needs is the rediscovery of community (Fellowship). Something much safer, more lasting, more immune to accidental tensions and blunders than the mere balancing of self-interest is essential if human society is not to be destroyed. Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son in a community of life that must embrace everyone else within that fellowship. Divine life is indivisible, to possess life, is to be brother, sister, to all who possess it. Schism spells spiritual decay, and division reveals death.
The Greek word for fellowship "koinonia" was originally a commercial term, signifying joint-partnership in business (as in a fishing vessel)or co-ownership, the word retains this shade of meaning when Christians are called "fellowheirs" with Christ.
But the more usual use of it in the New Testament are with organic metaphors - Vine and branches, the Body and its members, the Communion of the Lord’s Supper, and the Father and brethren in the family of God. It is used of the Christians partnership in the Son, in the body and blood of Christ, in the sufferings of Christ, in the Spirit, in faith, and in eternal life.
Such is the rich and many-sided "fellow-ship" of the communion of saints, a life in community at wholly new depths which finds new and unexpected avenues of expression in succeeding generations. Christ came to reconcile, to reunite the family of God’s prodigals, to bring us together to God, in one body by His cross.
It is wrong, or at least superficial to represent the fellowship of Christians as a duty: it is a necessary fact. "None of us lives to himself", says Paul, implying as clearly, that the soul that is "to itself" is dead. For the same reason Paul and the whole New Testament strongly condemns sins against Christian fellowship (Lies, bitterness, the unforgiving spirit, rivalry and the like) because denial of fellowship is the denial of the one life that binds all in the family of God. Our human fellowship as Christians is nourished, sustained, protected and enlarged only as each Christian remains in the secret, inward company of the Father and the Son.
I JOHN 1:4 - THE RESULT OF FELLOWSHIP
"And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full"
In vs 3, John’s purpose of fellowship was indicated. Here in vs 4 the felt experience of "koinonia" or Christian fellowship is Joy. The glimpses which Luke affords of the inner life of the early Church are always characterized by gladness and song, thanksgiving and joy. Of the New Testament’s hundred references to Christian joy, thirty-seven concern the gladness to be found in the fellowship of the saints. The comradeship and loyalty that binds believers together is different from anything else on earth precisely because it takes its nature, color, and durability from the deeper, unseen relationship of believers to their Lord, "and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ".
vs 5 - GOD IS LIGHT
"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all"
It is because of light that men can see to walk without stumbling, and to perceive where they are going. In the "New Jerusalem" in Revelation 21:23 the bible says "the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof". Many near-death experiences today tell of a tunnel of light which people saw just before being revived. In heaven, we don’t need the light of the sun to "see". In this life, God gives us the eyes of faith to see "things hoped for" (Heb 11:1).
In this verse, John states categorically "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all". God is the source of light and experience tells us that light overcomes darkness, but darkness cannot overcome light. In Genesis 1:2,3 the bible says: "the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light". Notice that first there was God’s Spirit, then there was God’s Light and as the bible unfolds, there is God’s Love.
vs 6 - THOSE WHO ARE NOT EXPOSED TO THE LIGHT
"If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth"
In contrast to God’s light, Paul says "the God of this world(Satan) has blinded the minds of them which believe not". Morally, only men who are "in the light" see the real nature of their sins, while other men choose darkness to avoid this self-exposure.
Regarding fellowship with other Christians, alienation from God always underlies alienation from one another. John states that he who hates his brother is in darkness, but he who loves, lives in the light.
In that great 3rd chapter of the Gospel of John it says; "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. (John 3:19-20).
Whereas for Gnostics, "God is light" is merely a mystical notion to get lost in, for John it immediately spells God’s absolute ethical demand "If we--walk in darkness, we lie". When Adam and Eve sinned their first step was to begin to "hide" from the "light".
So we see God in the Garden crying "Adam, where art thou ?" It is sin that has hidden men from the truth and the light of God. John says, that it is quite impossible to have fellowship with the Light and walk, deliberately or carelessly, in darkness.
To profess to "know" Jesus and to continually walk in darkness is a moral lie. It is not enough to say this inconsistency ought not to be, John declares it cannot be. Only the pure in heart see God; without holiness no man can see the Lord, and only they whose faces are toward the light can know the fellowship of the Father.
To fall occasionally and painfully into sin is not the same as to walk deliberately and persistently in self-chosen and self-justifying darkness.
vs 7 - THOSE WHO ARE EXPOSED TO THE LIGHT
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin".
From the agreed axiom "God is light" and the less readily agreed corollary, that to claim fellowship with God and walk in darkness is falsehood, John proceeds at once to describe upon what basis fellowship with God becomes possible, for sinning men.
First it takes the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son, then it takes the individual application of that blood for cleansing us from "all" sin. In the Gospel of John chapter 3 verse 21 it says; "But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God".
To walk in the light, we must first come to the light and allow our sinful deeds to be exposed.
vs 8 - THE DECEIT-FULLNESS OF SIN
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us"
First, our attitude toward sin: The initial reaction of a man conscious of wrong is to accuse others and excuse himself: if he cannot deny it altogether, he will minimize his sin, multiply extenuating circumstances, appeal to the accommodating opinion of the majority, and finally declare he could not help it.
The art of hiding sin is well known to men. Read of Adam & Eve in Gen 3:6-8, David & Bathsheba in II Sam 11, Achan in Josh 7:21, and Rachel in Gen 31:19 & 34. A careful study of the scripture concerning sin shows us that the steps of sin are to see, to want, to take, and to hide. Only when our hideous sins are exposed, can we confess them and seek God’s grace in forgiveness.
In the story about Achan in Joshua 7, Joshua was praying about Israel’s defeat at Ai when "the Lord said unto Joshua get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned"
Here God told Joshua that all the praying he could do would not help Israel until they remedied the wrong that had been done. "Neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you".
Remember how the Savior said in Math 5:23,24 "Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the alter, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift
before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift".
In verse 11 of Joshua the 7th chapter God said "ISRAEL hath sinned, and THEY have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for THEY have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and THEY have put it even among their own stuff".
Although ONE man sinned, the whole nation was held quilty, until they uncovered that sin and punished it! A whole army was defeated. Some thirty-six men were killed. A nation was in distress, because of one man’s sin. Is it possible that the sins we hide affect our whole family?
vs 9 - HOW TO DEAL WITH EXPOSED SINS
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"
Until we see our action in the light of God’s judgement, it is impossible to confess or repent. To walk in the light is, simply the opposite of Adam’s hiding away from God.
It is the submission of our daily behavior, deliberately and persistently, to the light of God’s holiness and the truth of his word. What is needed is a daily honest self-examination in God’s presence, in which the heart consciously bows before the judgement of the most High and dares to expose the soul to his divine X-ray. Keep short accounts with God.
Do not let your sins pile up sin upon sin, day after day. Each day we should from the heart sing: "Search me, O God, and know my heart! try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting"
Jesus said, "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loved me" There are both positive and negative sins, Thou shalt and Thou shalt not. The plural use of the word "sins" in this verse is significant. Confession must descend upon particulars, conscience does not deal with abstractions.
In I Cor 11, we are told that men of Corinth had partaken of the Lord’s Supper unworthy and that "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world"
Many people at Corinth had already died, and many were weak and sickly, all as God’s judgement on their sins. In James 5:16 those who want healing for the body are plainly told, "Confess your faults one to another, that ye may be healed".
We cannot always judge by financial failure or success, by physical health or sickness whether one is really prospering with God. But it is always God’s will that Christians should prosper spiritually. God always wants His people to have their prayers answered and their hearts full of joy "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full" (John 16:24)
"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy". Prov 28:13
In the story of Achan in Joshua, Israel stoned Achan and his family to death, "the penalty of sin is death", but Achan need not have died! Remember the last part of Proverbs 28:13 "but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them (his sins) shall have mercy". Achan covered his sin. He hid his stolen treasures.
He did not confess his sins until they were already discovered. He never seemed willing to admit, even then, the terrible nature of his guilt. I believe it will be so at the Great White Throne of Judgement, God will reveal men’s sins and they will not want to admit to them or take the blame for them. Notice, it was not sin alone that led Achan to his terrible doom. It was holding onto his sin, covering up his sin.
Only heaven will reveal what we have given up in blessings just to keep our sin hidden. Some of them are so small as to seem insignificant to our self-justifying minds. As I prepare this lesson, God has reminded me of a 3-ring notebook someone borrowed me years ago and I never returned it. Now I don’t even know how to get in touch with the person that borrowed it to me.
What shall I do? There are some sins we commit that we cannot make restitution for.
Do you know that when we tell a lie about someone else, we hurt them, and we can never completely take it back because a lie spreads like wildfire and we don’t even know to whom the lie was told.
Christian friends, our failure is not simply that we have sinned. Every child of God sins. Jesus Himself taught us to pray every day "Our Father which are in heaven...forgive us our sins". Failure comes upon us when we hide our sins. We do not hate them. We do not weep over them. We do not try to make restitution for them. There is only one way for daily cleansing and daily victory for a Christian, and that is by daily confessing and daily turning from our sins.
All these things teach us that there is no use to pray, no use to read the Bible, no use to try to serve God, unless we will honestly set out to uncover the accursed things in our life which grieve the Holy Spirit and keep our lives from being a blessing to our loved ones and our friends.
vs 10 - GOD CANNOT BE DECEIVED
"If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us"
We have our choice, we can cover our sins, make alibis for them, hide them from the face of men, but we cannot hide them from the face of God. We cannot deceive God. "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" Heb 4:13 When John refers to "we" he is talking about himself and us!
God’s word everywhere declares men sinners and for this reason Jesus came to pay the price for sin and to lead the way for the ministry of the Holy Spirit whose job it is to "reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and judgement" John 16:8 The Holy Spirit often uses God’s Word to convict us of hidden sins, that is why if we deceive ourselves, John says God’s "word is not in us".
HOW CAN WE TAKE SIN SERIOUSLY AND COME TO THE LIGHT?
1. Take a good concordance and look up all references to SIN in the Bible
2. Write down a brief word or words to describe the sin referred to in each reference
3. Pray over the list and search your own heart - then apply I John 1:9
4. Keep your list - the things written there are the enemies which block your fellowship with God
