Please turn in your Bibles this evening to I John chapter 1 as we continue our study through the Word of God and we begin this letter.  John, at this point in time, was probably the last surviving apostle.  The others were martyred for their faith in Jesus but not John.  They tried to boil him in oil and when that didn’t work they banished him to the island of Patmos where he received the Revelation.

            John does not mention himself as being the author but as you read this letter it obviously has to be someone who was close to Jesus, who walked with Him and saw the risen Lord. Also, from the external evidence we see the early church fathers, like Polycarp who knew John, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian all speak of the apostle John being the author of this letter.

            Also, John does not say who this letter is to, which church or churches he was writing to.  Again, we can infer that John was writing to the churches in Asia Minor, the churches mentioned in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 and he probably wrote this from Ephesus where tradition tells us John was at.  The time frame of this letter seems to be anywhere from 80 to 95 AD, prior to his banishment on the island of Patmos.

            One of the problems John is dealing with is Gnosticism or those who knew.  This group supposedly had some kind of special spiritual insight that went far beyond the Word of God.  And please understand that there were various views within Gnosticism but one of their ideas was that the flesh is evil and the spirit is good. Thus, a divine being could never inhabit a body of flesh.

            Thus, in regards to Jesus, some said He was a spirit and just hovered over the ground, He never left footprints.  You see, Jesus could never inhabit a body of flesh, that was evil in their thinking, so He must be spirit.  Others said that when Jesus was baptized the Spirit of God came upon Him and left before He went to the cross.  And so John will be hitting these things hard and heavy because they were just beginning to enter the church. Gnosticism was only going to spread more and more and John did not want these believers to become confused by these false teachings!

            John lists four reasons why he wrote this letter and they are as follows:

1.  YOUR JOY MAY BE FULL – I JOHN 1:4, “And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.”  John wants them to be full, overflowing with the joy of the Lord. Thus, as you read this letter, may your joy be full!

2.  YOU MAY NOT SIN – I JOHN 2:1, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”  John wants them to grow in holiness, to walk in the truth as any father desires of his children!

3.  THAT YOU MAY NOT BE DECEIVED – I JOHN 2:26, “These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.”  John wants them to know the truth because the truths of God will set them free from the lies of these false teachers. It is a warning to beware of false teachers!

4.  THAT YOU MAY BELIEVE – I JOHN 5:13, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”  John wants them to not only believe in Jesus, to receive that free gift of eternal life that is only found in Him, but to know that our salvation is secure in Jesus and we can know that we are saved!

            Notice how this plays out.  John is writing these things so that your JOY MAY BE FULL and that is accomplished as we focus on Jesus.  John is writing these things so that you MAY NOT SIN and that is accomplished as we are led by the Spirit striving against sin.  John is writing these things so that YOU MAY NOT BE DECEIVED by the false teachers with their doctrines of demons and that is accomplished as we are in the Word of God and apply it to our lives.  And John wrote these things so that YOU MAY BELIEVE or you will not only come to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, but you would know that your salvation is secure in him and that is the heart of the Father.  You see, Jesus brings us joy, the Spirit keeps us from sinning, the Word keeps us from the lies of the Devil, and we are secure in Christ, it is the heart of the Father!

            So as we go through this letter we will pick up on these things because that is what John is trying to instill in these believers who may have been complacent at this time.  It’s been some 60 years since the Lord was crucified and we are into second and third generation Christians. And John, a first generation Christian, an elder, wants to stir them up, awaken them and keep them from the errors that were creeping into the church.

            Now, for a quick outline of this letter:

            1.  THE LIGHT OF GOD – I JOHN 1-2

            2.  THE LOVE OF GOD – I JOHN 3-4

            3.  THE LIFE OF GOD – I JOHN 5

            To sum up this letter, listen to how “Living Letters” from the Life Application Bible puts it. We are told:

            John wrote about the most vital aspects of faith so readers would know Christian truth from error.  He emphasizes the basics of faith so we can be confident in our faith.  In our dark world, God is light.  In our cold world, God brings the warmth of love. In our dying world, God brings life. When we feel a lack of confidence, these truths bring us certainty.

- Living Letters, The Life Application Bible, p. 260

            With that as our background, let’s begin reading in I John chapter 1, starting in verse 1 and see what this elder of the church has for us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

VERSE 1

            John opens up with a bang as he speaks of Jesus being eternal. It is as Micah 5:2 says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.”  In other words, from beyond the vanishing point, as far back as you can go, God the Son existed.  John tells us the same thing in John 1:1-2, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.”  In other words, the Word, which became Jesus in the incarnation, has always existed. He is equal with the Father and is eternal.  Now the Bible never tells us how God came into being, it just tells us He has always existed, that He is eternal. I don’t understand that with my finite mind but I believe it by faith because I trust in God’s Word!

            Now the eternal God, Jesus, became flesh and dwelt among us and John can attest to that with 100% confidence.  How can he be so sure?  Because John was there, he heard Jesus talk, he saw Jesus with his own eyes, he looked steadfastly at Jesus examining Him, he touched Jesus. Thus, Jesus is not some ghost or spirit but He was flesh and blood in the incarnation and He was fully God!  In spite of what the Gnostics were saying, John was there and thus, these things are true concerning the Word of life!

You see, they were eyewitnesses of the Lord, and thus, the Gnostics were not and we can trust the accounts of John and the other disciples because they saw what transpired. It is as one writer put it, “I am so glad my knowledge of eternal life is not built upon the speculations of the philosophers or even theologians but on the unimpeachable testimony of those who heard, saw, gazed at, and handled Him in whom it was incarnate.  It is not merely a lovely dream, but solid fact, carefully observed and an accurately recorded fact.”

            People are looking for life, abundant life, everlasting life but apart from Jesus, the Word of life, you will never find it!  It is as Paul tells us in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the [free] gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Apart from Christ is death but in Christ is life, abundant life!

VERSES 2-3

            John is speaking of the incarnation or as he put it in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”  And what John has seen he is declaring to others. He was a witness of all that Jesus did in His earthly ministry. Now here’s the thing.  Sin has separated us from God, the Father had that eternal life to give to us, but our sin kept Him from doing that as Isaiah 59:1-2 tells us, “Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.  But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.”

The price for our sin had to be paid and it was, as God became flesh, He dwelt among us and went to the cross of Calvary to pay in full the penalty for our sins.  Now we can have fellowship with the Father because our Mediator or bridge builder, Jesus Christ has done that for us. That is Peter’s point in I Peter 3:18, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.”  That word “fellowship” here in I John is the Greek word, KOINONIA and it is a deep rich fellowship.  Jesus came to bring us back to koinonia or fellowship with the Father because our sin had separated us from Him but now, in Christ, we can have fellowship with the Father and with others!

            Morgan tells us, “The Greek word koinonia is derived from the word koinos, which very literally means common, in the sense of being shared by all. . . . Those who have fellowship one with another, are those who share the same resources, and are bound by the same responsibilities. The idea becomes almost overwhelming when it is thus applied to the relationship which believing souls bear to the Father, and to His Son Jesus Christ. . . . The Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and all believers have all things in common.   All the resource of each in the wondrous relationship are at the disposal of others. Such is the grace of our God, and of His Son.”

VERSE 4

            Can we as Christians lose our joy?  Of course we can or John would not have written this letter to help their joy be full.  External circumstances, sin, moods, emotions can take our joy away.  Christian joy is based in Jesus, others and then yourself.  I think that joy is lost many times because we take our eyes off of Jesus and focus on the external circumstances. We take our eyes off of helping otters and we focus on self more than we should.  And we become moody, emotionally unstable, we fall into sin.  Thus, John’s desire is that our joy would be full and that is the desire of Jesus for us as He said in John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”

VERSE 5

            As you hear people talk about God, there is a myriad of ideas out there.  The problem is that these are their ideas, their opinions, their views about God and they are worthless.  John tells us the message that he is going to share with them is not his personal views or opinions, but what the Lord Himself shared with him and now he is declaring to us!  That is an important lesson for us today, that what we speak forth about God, the message we are declaring is coming from the Word of God and not our own personal views or opinions!

            This is the basic principle we need to understand about God, that He is light, that there is absolutely no darkness in Him at all!  There are times when Christians may feel that, “God doesn’t love me!” or “How can God do that to me?” or “God is not being fair!” and the list can go on. Out of this we break fellowship with God because like the Sun, we see a dark spot in God.  Here’s the thing, God is light, there is no darkness in Him at all and thus, the problem is not with God but your perception of God based upon the situation or circumstances you are facing.

            What does light do? It exposes things, it is pure, it speaks of holiness, it guides us, helps us to see while darkness speaks of sin, it speaks of evil, it speaks of being lost, not able to see where you are going.  Thus, God is light as James tells us, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”  James 1:16-17.  Thus, there is no fear of God having a dark side or doing something that is evil. That needs to be a foundational truth of God because if it isn’t, as you look at this world your concept of God can be skewed.  You won’t understand how a loving God can allow these things to happen and you will lose sight of God being holy, that He is light!

VERSE 6

            Is John speaking of salvation here, that we can lose it?  Not at all, he is speaking of fellowship with the Father, that is what he has been talking about.  You see, our sin can break that fellowship.  John is not speaking of an occasional slip, but a lifestyle, a pattern of walking in darkness, of unrepentant sin.  You can claim you have fellowship with God but that is just a lie because your sin has broken that relationship!  God is light, there is no darkness in Him at all and yet some were living in darkness and claiming to have fellowship with God and John says it is a lie because light and darkness don’t mix!

            Paul, in I Corinthians 5:9-13 tells us, “I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.  Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.  But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner — not even to eat with such a person.  For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?  But those who are outside God judges. Therefore ‘put away from yourselves the evil person.’”

            He is warning us to stay away from unrepentant believers who were living in sin, but why? So they may repent and come back to the Lord.  Also, their sin may bring us into their darkness, so avoid them.  Don’t have koinonia with them.  But before you do, confront them in love, if they refuse to repent then bring another with you and if they still refuse to repent, bring them before the church leaders and if they still refuse to repent, they are to then be disfellowshipped until they do repent!

VERSE 7

            If we as Christians walk in the light, walk where God is, if we are obedient to Him, we not only have fellowship with God but with each other. You see, first your relationship with God needs to be in line, and then and only then will our fellowship with our fellow man be in line.  That is how it is laid out in the 10 Commandments. The first four deal with our relationship with God and then the last 6 deal with our relationship with our fellow man.  It is like this:

1.  THE UNIQUENESS OF GOD: Exodus 20:3

            “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

            2.  THE WORSHIP OF GOD: Exodus 20:4-5a.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image — any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.” 

            3.  THE HONOR OF GOD: Exodus 20:7.

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”

4.  THE BLESSING OF GOD: Exodus 20:8, 11b.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. . . . Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

            Now, if you reject God then your relationship with man will be off, you won’t have your roots of morality based in God but in secular humanism, which is constantly changing and in opposition with God. But if you follow God then this is what you will see:

            5.  PROTECTION OF THE FAMILY: Exodus 20:12.

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”

6.  PROTECTION OF HUMAN LIFE: Exodus 20:13.

“You shall not murder.”

7.  PROTECTION OF MARRIAGE: Exodus 20:14.

“You shall not commit adultery.”

8.  PROTECTION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY: Exodus 20:15.

“You shall not steal.”

9.  PROTECTION OF TRUTH AND INTEGRITY: Exodus 20:16.

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

10.  PROTECTION OF INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS: Exodus 20:17.

“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”

            John tells us that “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” and in the Greek it speaks of a continual cleansing.  We need that because we do sin, but understand that John is not speaking of our salvation here, but our fellowship. You see, the blood of Christ has cleansed us from all our sins in a positional sense. But if we ignore our sins it can hinder our relationship with God.  You see, the more we ignore our sin the more we become accustomed to it and instead of walking in the light where God is, we are walking in the darkness and we don’t have that fellowship with God as we once did.  Now please understand that God is gracious and patient with us. He desires a relationship with us so He will work with us to try and keep that relationship going, chastening us if it is needed because He loves us that much!

VERSE 8

            Keep in mind that the Gnostics believed that the body is evil and the spirit is good.  Thus, they believed they were not sinning, just their body was!  Thus, they would sin without any concern, they could party hearty and not even care because it is the flesh and that is evil!  I know, it sounds crazy but when you reject the truth, that is all there is left!  Today people say things about their sin like this, “Well, I’m not perfect!” or “I’m only human!” or “I got my temper from my parents!” and there are all kinds of excuses for our sin, but they are just that, excuses.  God does not want you to justify your sin but to repent of it, to agree with Him regarding it.  John makes it clear, if you think you are sinless, if you think you are perfect, then the truth is not in you, you are not saved!

VERSE 9

            Before we can receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior we must confess before Him that we are sinners, that is our nature, and ask Him to cleanse us from all our sins, to be our Lord and Savior, to give us a new nature in Christ. When we do, at that moment, all of our sins are forgiven, cast as far as the east is from the west to be remembered no more. That is where we are at positionally speaking, cleansed as white as snow, our salvation is secure in Him because He has paid in full the penalty for our sins, the work is finished, salvation wise!

            Once again though, I believe that John is speaking of our fellowship with God, the sanctification process.  You see, practically speaking we still sin and sin can break our fellowship with God, it can keep us away from Him.  It is as Proverbs 28:13-14 tells us, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.  Happy is the man who is always reverent, But he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.”  Look at the kings of Judah and Israel and see what happens as they harden their hearts to God. They ignored their sin.  They moved farther away from God. Why?  Because the light exposes their darkness and thus, for them to continue in their sin, to ignore their sin, they walk in darkness.  But our God is so gracious, He is so merciful that if we will confess our sin before Him, those sins we committed today, He will forgive, that fellowship won’t be hindered!

            The Greek word for “confess” is HOMOLOGEO, (hom-ol-og-eh’-o) and it is literally telling us that we are to say the same thing or we are to agree with God regarding sin, to hate sin and not to just hate it, but to avoid it, forsaking sin.  The problem comes when we don’t agree with God and then we don’t forsake the sin, and we break fellowship with God because of it.  But notice what we need to do. We need to confess or agree with God regarding sin, forsake it.  And God is faithful and just, He will forgive us of our sins. Not only that He will also cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  It is speaking of the sanctification process as God is molding and shaping our lives to be like Him!

VERSE 10

            Yes, Paul tells us in II Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”  Yes, the flesh has been crucified with Christ, the old man has been put to death, but in these bodies of flesh we still do battle. We have a new nature, we are no longer controlled by the flesh, but by the Spirit but, like I said, that flesh tries to resurrect itself with all of its passions and desires.  Thus, don’t play with it, but crucify it, don’t feed it, but feed the spirit!  And thus, as Paul said in Galatians 5:16-18, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

            Thus, John’s point is simple. If you think you no longer sin, you are wrong and in saying that you make God out to be a liar because He has told us we are going to do battle with the flesh nature because it will war against our spirit that wants to live for God.  If you truly believe you are perfect, without sin in a practical sense, John is saying you are not saved because Jesus, the Word, is not in you.  It is as Trapp said, “No man was ever kept out of God’s kingdom for his confessed badness; many are for their supposed goodness.”

            In I Corinthians 9:24-27 Paul tells us of this battle we face. He says, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.  And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.  Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.  But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”

            May we take this battle seriously and may we also remember, “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.  In a positional sense, we are saved, cleansed from all our sins. In a practical sense, we still sin and our confessing isn’t to make God aware, but to make us aware of where we are at, to keep our heart sensitive to God!

As I close this evening, let me leave you with these words from Paul in I Corinthians 1:4-9 as he thanks God for all He has done in their lives.  He said, “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

            Yes, He is faithful and all He asks us to do is to walk in the light, to dwell in His presence, to be where He is at and we can enjoy fellowship with Him.  John said, “And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.”  I John 1:4.  Don’t you just want to shout for joy because of all that God has done for you?  I hope so!  I pray that you leave here this evening full of the joy of the Lord, you have a passion to serve others, and you walk in the light as He is in the light!