1 John 1:1-2:2

Translation

That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we gazed at and our hands handled concerning the word of life. And the life was revealed, and we have seen it, and we witness and we announce to you the life of the age, which was before the Father and was shown to us. That which we have seen and have heard we are announcing also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us. Yes, that fellowship which is ours with the father and his son Jesus Christ. So this we write to you, in order that our joy may be complete.

And this is the announcement which we have heard from him and we are announcing to you: God is light and darkness is not in him at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, We are telling lies and do not do the truth. 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. If we say that we don’t have sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just, so that he will pardon us from sin and cleanse us from all injustice. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him to be a liar and his word is not in us.

My Children, this I write to you so that you may not sin. And if someone were to sin, we have an advocate before the Father, Jesus the righteous Christ, he is atonement for our sin. Not only for ours, but also for the whole world.

Intro to I John

I John is hard to categorize

Not letter

Not sermon

Who wrote it?

John the apostle?

John the “elder”?

A community?

The author does not make themselves known. Why?

To focus on the message of the witness

If I John can be categorized as “witness” over “sermon” or “letter”, then I John’s anonymity is understandable. The author(s) are more concerned that we see the one to whom they witness than the one who witnesses.

The Witness

So what is the witness? And what makes the witness contained in I John so special?

Firstly, I John has witnessed something or someone unlike any other

From the beginning: eternality of the Trinity

Hearing: the word of God pronounced audibly; witness comes from hearing (i.e. lit. or fig., from visions, dreams, or even from scripture)

Seeing: the word of God seen manifested in our lives (from visions, dreams, spiritual encounters, etc.)

Then, however, John specifies. This was no vision or dream. This was seen with our eyes

This thing was handled with our hands!

What is it? The life of the age

Eternal life vs. life of the age

The life was “manifested” or “revealed” in a way that John could touch it with his hands and see it with his eyes

Later, John says “this is the message we heard from him”

Jesus is both messenger and message

The word of God we witness to became flesh. The life we hope for became a physical human we could touch and see

The message Christians witness to is Jesus: our message took the form of a physical human who could be heard, seen, and even touched

Against Docetism

Light & Dark

The person of Jesus reveals who God is, because the person of Jesus is God in human form. The son of God became flesh and dwelled among us.

The life Jesus lived revealed many truths about God. Of importance for John, however, is this: God is light

What is light (φως)?

Knowledge/Wisdom paradigm: Truth

Moral paradigm: goodness, mercy, love

In God there is no darkness

What is darkness (σκοτια)?

Knowledge/Wisdom paradigm: deceit, falsehood

Moral Paradigm: evil, hatred

The message of Jesus is not only that God is light, but that this Light desires to have fellowship with us!

What is fellowship (κοινονια)?

Sharing of resources (business partnership)

Solidarity and commonality (i.e. friendship)

God speaking “face to face” with Moses

God walking with Adam and Eve in the garden

Jesus eating, sleeping, walking, and talking with the disciples

Problem: Light and dark cannot co-exist

The tension of I John is that, as children of God, we should have no sin. But we do have sin.

Can those who claim to have fellowship with God fail to reflect God’s nature?

Sin cuts us off from the life of God. Darkness carries us away from the light, and thus we cannot have fellowship with God while we yet sin.

John writes against one group in the Church that has been making some radical claims. In short, this group was deceived that they could have fellowship with God while they sinned, and deceived in thinking that what they thought was fellowship really was fellowship

John challenges them strongly on this. We have to walk in the light to have fellowship with the light.

Sin cuts us off from God.

If we practice lies, deceit, or deny the truth, we cannot have fellowship with God

Fellowship without Jesus, then, is not possible. To deny Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, means that we cannot have access to God who is Truth and Life. (We’ll come back to why in a moment!)

If we are morally in the dark, we cannot have fellowship with God

This of course, concerns all manner of evil and injustice.

Interestingly, John is more concerned with what is going on in the community than what happens outside it.

Fellowship with God is predicated on Fellowship with other Christians

Problem: We cannot say that we don’t sin

To say we don’t sin is itself a sin, because it is deceitful and false!

So what can we do? To have fellowship with God, we must not sin. But we do sin, and to think we don’t sin is itself a sin, since it ignores the truth and is deceiving either others or ourselves.

Cathartic Savior

The answer is in the blood of Jesus

If we confess our sins he is faithful and just, so that he will pardon us from sin and cleanse us from all injustice.

To walk in the light is to walk in Wisdom and Truth, and we can take the first step by acknowledging the truth that we have all sinned and fallen short of the goal God has set before us.

Confession of sins is a necessary first step in being cleansed from sins

Thus Jesus proves to be the Way: his blood is the means by which we can be brought from darkness to light, and thus to have true fellowship with God

Christ not only pardons (αφιημι) but also cleanses (καθαριζω).

Not only the removal of guilt of sin, but also removal of its power over our hearts

The blood of Christ does this communally

The Holy Spirit sanctifies us in community (i.e. “fellowship”) with other Christians. This is why fellowship with other Christians is necessary to have fellowship with God: the cleansing power of Christ’s blood comes through our fellowship with Christ’s body.

The blood of Jesus gives us not only freedom from the guilt of sin, but freedom from the power of sin.

When Jesus says “Go and sin no more”, we should expect that such a thing really is possible

The Christian life and true fellowship with God is marked not only by the removal of guilt, but the removal of sin. We can tell whether or not we have fellowship with God by the presence or absence of sin in our lives.

But what if we do sin? Does this mean that Christians can never sin? Or that if we do sin, we completely lose fellowship with God?

Jesus is advocate

The Epistles of John Walking in the Light (1:5–2:2)

The second thing is that the language of advocacy and sacrifice appears to place Jesus over against God as if God had to be persuaded by a third party to forgive us. It is an inherent weakness in the picture which is employed here that it is in danger of presenting God as an unwilling judge from whom forgiveness has to be wrested by the advocate for sinners. But this would be a false conclusion to draw. Already in 1:9 John has emphasized that it is God himself who is faithful and just and forgives our sins, and in 4:9f. he adds his powerful voice to the New Testament chorus which declares that it was God the Father who gave Jesus his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. It is God himself who provides the means of our forgiveness and pays the cost of it. The language of advocacy is thus ultimately inadequate to express the paradox of the offended God who himself pardons our offenses by giving his own Son to be our Savior.