1 John Chapter 1
1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—
2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—
The source of eternal life is God.
God was the source of eternal life from the beginning.
Jesus came to earth from the Father and told His disciples, including John who writes this letter, how to get eternal life (in that sense He was the Word of Life).
But more than that, Jesus showed (i.e. manifested to) John and His other disciples what eternal life is. They saw, they heard, they touched – it was all a firsthand experience.
John is now going to tell us all about this eternal life.
3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
John’s primary goal for us is eternal life – the way Jesus lived when He was on the earth.
John’s primary purpose in writing this letter is that we may have fellowship with one another and with God.
What is fellowship? Fellowship is spiritual connection and communication. That is, it is the impartation of spiritual life from God to man, and the sharing of spiritual truth between Christians.
Think of fellowship as a telephone line through which the knowledge of what is spiritual, and the ability to be spiritual, can flow.
A few verses later John will tell us how fellowship can happen.
Eternal life is the nature, or character, of God. It is the ability to love - sacrifically.
God is the only source of eternal life. To get eternal life you have to come in contact with God. That is, you have to have fellowship with God.
In this epistle John tells us how to determine if we have that eternal life.
John wrote this epistle because he saw that many people were claiming to have eternal life but it was obvious to him that these people did not have eternal life.
4 These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.
It gave John no joy to see these people being deceived. So he wrote to them to help them see their deception. His hope was that they would stop being deceived and then get the real eternal life. That would add to his joy because John loved these people and wanted to see them have eternal life.
5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
To have fellowship with God the first thing that we need to realize is that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
Light has the property of showing something as it really is. If you enter a dark room you can’t see what is in it. But as soon as you switch on the light you can see what is in the room. So when John says that God is light he means that God is able to see our spiritual condition exactly as it is.
Think of a flashlight that has a small part of its bulb covered by a dark patch. For that flashlight, a part of the area that it shines on will be darkness. As a result, wherever it shines, there will be some part that not clearly viewable. When John says that there is no darkness at all in God he means that there is no area that is hidden from God. God knows and understands everything about us – our thoughts, actions, motives, desires, goals, aspirations, dreams – clearly.
When you come in contact with God, His light shines on you and shows you areas where you are sinning. So if you are not getting revelation from God about your sin then you should understand that you are not walking in the Light, and therefore not in fellowship with God.
When Isaiah came in God’s presence, God’s light shone on him, and he said, "Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips". He was convicted of his sin.
Is 6:5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
The same thing happened when Peter realized that he was in the presence of Jesus, the Light of the world (Jn 1:4).
Jn 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
That is, Jesus lived such a godly life that when people came in contact with Him they became aware of their sin.
Lk 5:8 But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord !"
When Zaccheus met Jesus he immediately felt his conscience prick him.
Lk 19:8 Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much."
That is what the Light does – it exposes sin! Therefore, those who want to continue in sin hate the Light.
Jn 3:19-21 19 "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."
How do you react when someone points out a fault in you? Do you get defensive? Do you go on the attack and point out their fault?
Many people don’t like to listen to preachers who speak openly about sin. If you are one of them then you know that it is because your deeds are evil.
The people who desire to do what is right (i.e. those who practice the truth) welcome the light because they have a clear conscience.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and {yet} walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
To walk in darkness is to not know and accept your true moral condition; it is to not get an increasing understanding about the sin in your life as time goes by.
So here is the first test of whether you have eternal life: as time goes by, are you getting more insight into where you are not like God? That is, have you heard God recently pointing out, to you, some thought, attitude, behavior or action of yours, as sin?
If you haven’t then you are walking in darkness and you have no connection with God, and hence no eternal life!
It is only when we get revelation on our sin that we know that we have a working spiritual connection with God and with our brothers. And only when that connection is working that we be sure that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin i.e. that our sins are forgiven.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
One category of people walking is darkness is concerning those who think they are presently morally good and have totally stopped doing wrong. They say, "We have no sin". John says that such people are deceiving themselves.
Another category is concerning those who think they have never sinned. They are liars too.
Now it is easy to think that we don’t belong to either of these categories. I mean, we all think we are sinners, right? But ask yourself how you behave when someone, like your spouse or teenage child or boss or coworker, points out your fault. Do you always have a ‘good’ reason for why it really isn’t your fault? Do you realize that what you are really saying in that situation is that you have no sin! Now may be sometimes it really is not your fault, but if it is never your fault then maybe you should ponder on what the apostle John is saying here.
Some people get really upset with themselves when they sin. Why do they get upset? Perhaps it is because they think that they had achieved perfection and are disappointed to learn that they haven’t. The attitude of ‘having no sin’ is not as uncommon as one might think and surfaces in subtle ways.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The people who are sensible get revelation from God about their sin and they confess it. When they confess it to God then God forgives them. God forgives them, not only of the sin that they are aware of and confess, but also of the sin that they are unaware of i.e. all unrighteousness. Then they can remain in fellowship with God and get eternal life.
Some people think that once they are born again they don’t need to confess their sin anymore. But John is writing to believers and he is telling us that when God reveals our sins to us we need to confess them.
When you sense that God is far away from you, examine yourself and see if you have sinned. It is so easy to judge others or to have a bad thought towards others. These things separate you from God and need to be confessed.
It is good to keep a clean conscience by confessing our sins as soon as we are aware that we have sinned. No matter how often you sin in a day, confess your sin and keep your connection with God solid.
When we confess the sins that we are aware of, God is faithful (i.e. He does what He said He would) and righteous (i.e. He does the right thing) – God forgives us not just the sins we are aware of but also the sins that we are not aware of (i.e. all unrighteousness).
Our responsibility is only to confess what the Holy Spirit makes us aware of. God takes care of the rest. Isn’t that wonderful? Therefore, there is no need to be anxious about not having confessed something that we don’t even know about.
Some people get depressed about their sin. That is a trap of the devil and not a sign of spirituality. If you get depressed may be you think more highly of yourself than you ought to. If you realize that you are just as bad as everyone else then there is nothing to be depressed about. We should mourn over our sin but we don’t need to get depressed. Remember that when we confess our sin God forgives us.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
The Gnostics tried to push a doctrine saying that they had no ability to sin (and thus never sinned at all). John says that people who believe thus are deceiving themselves (which is the same thing as saying that the truth is not in them) and is trying to point out the implications of the deception. The implication is that you cannot have fellowship with God if you believe that you do not have the ability to sin because it is simply not true. That is, saying that you cannot sin is the same as walking in darkness – you are not able to clearly see your true moral condition.
The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin (Jn 16:8) and if we disagree with the Holy Spirit when He says that what we have done is sin then we are effectively calling Him a Liar and His Word is not in us (i.e. we do not take His word as truth).
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