1 JOHN CHAPTER ONE

1 JOHN CHAPTER ONE

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of Life, (for the Life was revealed, and we have seen it and bear witness, and show to you the everlasting Life, who was with the Father and was revealed to us), that which we have seen and heard we declare unto you, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.  And we write these things to you so that your joy may be full.”  1John 1:1-10

This is a personal letter to us today.  The Apostle knows the truth and wants to share with you what he has seen - what he has experienced.

John the Apostle is an elder brother in Christ. Jesus named him son of thunder – commotion (Matthew 3:17) possibly because in Luke 9:54 we read, “And when his disciples James and John saw [this], they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?”

There are other incidences in his life that reveal a fiery zeal for truth.

But this fiery man, through trials and the tribulations which every Christian faces in life became the elder statesman of the early Church – all his writings have a unique quality of reverence for Christ and love for God’s people.

And it is this love that drives him to “…write these things so that our joy may be full.” 

“And this is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

This is the crux - the basis - the very heart of John’s ministry

If we walk (or live our lives) in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin

What is it to walk in light? Simply put, it is NOT TO WALK IN DARKNESS.

It is obvious from Scripture and in life that IGNORANCE is darkness.  To go through life ignorant of truth is to walk in darkness. 

Therefore to walk in the light is to walk in truth; but what is truth?  

Pontius Pilate asked that question of Jesus after Jesus had told him he had come into the world to “…bear witness unto the truth, and that, “every one that is of the truth hears my voice” (John 18:37-38).  If we do not hear (believe and abide by) Biblical truth we will not hear Christ’s words.  If we reject the Bible we have no claim to the name Christian.

It is unsure whether Pilate ever came to know the truth but there is argument both ways.  The fact that he found ‘no fault’ in this one who claimed, ‘Every one that wants the truth will hear my voice’, could suggest a positive response in Pilate.

Truth is what Jesus had come to reveal to the world.  His thoughts were revealed in his words, and his words and his actions are the truth:  In the real LORD’S PRAYER (John chapter 17) Jesus, in this prayer to the Father tells us, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17).

We know from John’s gospel John 1:1 that Jesus is the living word, for as we go on through to 1:14  we read that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth”.

This is the one John speaks of when he says “which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled” and which “we declare unto you,

What is truth?  Pilate may never have known, but we are without excuse, for Jesus tells us with absolute clarity

“I am the way the truth and the life” and also, God’s word is truth.  So Jesus, in coming to bear witness to the truth by means of his words and actions, lived the truth and showed himself to be the word of God incarnate.

But not only did Jesus say he was the truth he also said, “I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12) 

Now! John in the passage under consideration tells us If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

We can conclude then that to walk in the light is to live according to Christ’s words and to the written word of God.

If we wish to have fellowship with our Lord and with each other, we must walk in the light of God’s word.

What is fellowship?   

It is from the Greek koinonia and means interaction, intimacy and has the richer meaning of being one.  I have often said that Christian fellowship depends very strongly on mutual agreement in the doctrines of God’s words.  Limited agreement will ensure limited fellowship.

If you were to go into rhapsodies over imputation, propitiation, sanctification without me knowing what you were talking about, where would be the fellowship. 

If we do not know the truth then we will not have fellowship and will remain in spiritual darkness no matter how long we pray or how loud we sing.  We must read, study, meditate on God’s word if we are to know the truth.  As in the secular field of learning so also in the spiritual; one does not become skilled or qualified by a ‘once in a while’ perusal of a subject; it must be studied and understood.

We as individuals and as a group need to know the truth, and then in oneness of truth we will have oneness in praise and worship of God.

 

Notwithstanding the importance of fellowship one with the other, in reality it is secondary consideration.  It is your individual fellowship with God that must have priority in your life; all else will follow; love joy peace patience… fellowship.

It is in our individual fellowship with God that we enter into the foundational depths of spiritual life; it has nothing to do with the flesh; nothing to do with what we do or even how we feel, but everything to do with how we think, and more specifically how we think and apply the words of God.

“If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in ignorance and unbelief, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light (of Biblical truth), 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.”

If we walk in the light of truth, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin; but if we in our ignorance and unbelief “say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us”.

And herein rests the secret of fellowship with God: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

In the scriptures we are told the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to convict of sin, of (a need for) righteousness, and of certain judgement.  If the ungodly refuse to recognise their sin and their need of righteousness, if they close their ears against judgement to come, they will not hear or heed the voice of God’s Spirit and cannot be saved.

The same principle applies to the believer.  The believer is a saved person and can never lose their salvation, but they can and do miss out on fellowship with God, a fellowship in love, joy and peace that is above and beyond understanding.  The ignorant believer and the ungodly may experience stimulation but can never experience these things from God.  We must be in tune with God’s Spirit if we are to experience fellowship with God.

It is the Holy Spirit’s ministry to convict, it is our responsibility to respond to him, and God has given us a great and precious promise as motivation for us to respond.  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Such confession of sin requires a number of things:

It requires recognition of sin, an honest self-appraisal of corrupt words (or actions), and if we need to search more deeply, also of motivation.  Sin is not just in things we do but also in things we think. A good thing to remember is that temptation is not sin, but when we give way to temptation and we lust in our minds, we do sin. 

Confession also requires acknowledgement of responsibility: I am to blame, no one else.  Adam blamed God and his wife, Eve blamed the serpent but they were individually at fault.

And in context of this promise, confession requires faith. 

If we take hold of this promise we do so by faith; faith in the finished work of Christ our Saviour when he paid the ‘wages’ of our sin.  “The wages of sin is death”; Christ died for us and we acknowledge this when we come to God confessing our sin. 

Abraham was justified because of faith (Genesis 15:6; Galatians 3:6-8; James 2:23); we are justified by faith (Romans 3:26-28, Romans 5:1), and we live by faith (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38) and when we utilise this promise we fulfil the principle of ‘living by faith’.

But why is it stated that God is faithful and is just to forgive us our sins?  Is he faithful to our faith; is he just because of our faith?  No.

Faith is merely a channel by which God’s grace is able to affect our lives.  Faith is a channel free from human works; the moment human works enters the system it ceases to be faith and becomes works.  Think of a viaduct, it is designed for the free flow of life giving water, but one that will fail if debris blocks the system (the water can’t get to its destination). 

Our works can be likened to debris.  If we expect perfect God to accept our imperfect works we are demanding that he compromise his holiness.  God cannot lower his standards; it is not a matter of ungraciousness but of fact, God cannot be anything other than perfect.  He would not be God if he accepted our imperfections.

Faith (without works) connects us to God and at the same time allows God’s holiness to remain uncompromised when he forgives.  Our sinfulness does not compromise his justice or obstruct his grace when we come to him in faith.  

God is not faithful to us but is faithful to the sacrifice Christ Jesus made for sin; it was a perfect, a complete sacrifice that fulfilled all the demands of holiness.  Perfect justice was met in that all sin was paid for by Christ’s death; perfect love was fulfilled in that Christ Jesus laid down his life, even for his enemies.  This is the truth behind the doctrine of propitiation.

And why is God just in forgiving us our sins?  The answer is found in this very same truth; Christ fully paid for our sins and God is now justified in forgiving us our sins because of that perfect and complete sacrifice.

Our faith in taking hold of this promise allows God to freely pour out his blessings to us, and what greater blessing can there be than to be forgiven and cleansed from our sin.

The passage ends with a word of warning however; to the proud and the self-righteous it says, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” 1John 1:6-10

When God says that upon our confession he will forgive and cleanse us, he means what he says and says what he means.  It is not some pie in the sky, but a promise for the here and now, a promise founded upon the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.