Needing Jesus More

Today, we are starting a 4-week series on Walking with Jesus from the book of 1 John. John was the last of the 12 surviving apostles who wrote the gospel of John which chronicled Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. He wrote the gospel 30 years after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. In his 90’s he wrote 1, 2, and 3 John which teaches believers how to walk with Jesus in the present. And the last book he wrote is the book of Revelation which points to future events.

It’s a fascinating thing to think about this Apostle of love who experienced the love of Jesus first hand, who walked with the Savior of the world, and was called by God to write about it for all people to read. The purpose for John’s three epistles were to encourage believers to love God and one another and to reassure them that they were in Christ.

1 John 1:1-2:2

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world (ESV).

In 1 John, John reveals the reasons for why he wrote this epistle to these second and third generation believers. In chapter 1, v. 4 he wrote, “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” Obviously, something was lacking in the believers’ joy that John felt needed to be addressed. What was the thing that was lacking? What was happening at that time? Well, we know that Christians were experiencing persecution. For some, it could be that the initial excitement of being a follower of Jesus was gone and the flame of devotion to Christ was being extinguished. False teachers were infiltrating some of the churches, and there were Christians who were becoming lax in their Christian standards and commitment. John was dealing with the beginnings of Gnosticism, also known as dualism, a separating of the spirit and flesh. In Gnosticism, the flesh was seen as being evil or inferior to spiritual realities and the spirit was seen as good or pure. Human sinfulness was denied, and thus the need for redemption became moot. We will talk more about that later.

Just like the Christians in past ages, we also have to deal with so many distortions and inaccuracies about the Word that cause confusion over the reality of who Jesus really is and how we were meant to live. There is so much competing against our loyalty to the Lord, so much that can subtly come between our relationship with Him which definitely affects our love for Him and for each other.

John discerned this and brought to light the attitude of indifference and complacency toward sin and even the denial that sin exists. (Is it any different today?) He also addressed the necessity of love amongst Christians in the family of God. John’s heart beats for the health of the church, for the strengthening of brothers and sisters in the faith, and desired that our fellowship with Jesus and with other believers would be genuine. For all of this to take place - people need to walk with the real Jesus, not a theoretical spiritualized Jesus.