The Book of 1 John

Introduction

When we moved into our house last year, our friend Amanda gave us this print. As a graphic artist she had been thinking about the idea of the ampersand as a symbol of fellowship. At the bottom of the print she wrote...

Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 ESV

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

That silly little symbol is a representation of two things that may or may not be similar, being joined into a union - into something new.

That is something profound that we have with close friends, with your spouse, with one another - and ultimately and most profoundly, with God. Our ampersand with God is more closely represented by the cross.

That closeness, that intimacy, that fellowship that we have with God is a lot of what the book of 1 John discusses.

Background

Commentators generally agree that even though the book of 1 John is anonymous, its language, grammar, and style seem to indicate that it was written by the same person who wrote the gospel of John and the other two epistles of John - most likely, the Apostle John, one of the sons of Zebedee.

It is believed that during the last few decades of the first century that John served in and around Ephesus, acting as a sort of regional overseer. Some have suggested that this first letter seems to read more like a “poetic sermon” than it does a letter (the Bible Project). It doesn’t have the normal conventions of a letter (the greeting, blessing, or closing).

One of the interesting and challenging things about this first letter or sermon, is that it is not linear in its flow. John seems to cycle through several topics in a pseudo-cyclical way, addressing issues pertaining to “life, truth [and] love” as he helps his readers/hearers understand more about our relationship with God and two of His qualities, providing them insights into assurance of their salvation - how to know they are saved.

John begins this letter or sermon with language that is reminiscent of the opening to his gospel (John 1). Here he begins by stating:

1 John 1:1–4 ESV

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— 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— 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. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

He is basically communicating that the things that he, along with the other apostles, saw with his own eyes, heard with his own ears, and touched with his own hands he is proclaiming so that others might have true fellowship with him - and more fully - with God.

This word translated “fellowship” could also be rendered partnership or communion. It is the Greek word koinonia. Part of the importance and significance of this is that if we are to have true fellowship with John and the other apostles and ultimately with God through Jesus Christ, then there will be indications of that in how we live - individually and corporately. This communion is a profound privilege.

We’ll get more into the details of this as we consider the contents of the book, but I think it might be helpful to understand it in a human way as an entry way into understanding this spiritually.

Several years ago, when we were in college, we went on a choir tour through the northern midwest - mostly. At one of our stops, our bus driver noticed the ring of what one the hosts was wearing. That ring indicated that they were part of an exclusive society together. They immediately had a bond of fellowship, common knowledge, and background. For them, there was an immediate camaraderie that was only known to them. I could observe it from the outside, but could not understand it in the way that they did because I did not have fellowship or communion with them in that society.

For John, he’s doing more than promoting a club, he is proclaiming eternal life and fellowship with God. Admission into this fellowship is not marked by a ring or a lapel pin, but by a transformed life because of the communion that we have with God.

With that in mind, as John proclaims what he has seen in order to instruct about life in communion with God, he seems to divide his book into two big sections, each marked by the phrase “This is the message.”

In the first section, he says that...

God is light (1 John 1:5-3:10)

1 John 1:5 ESV

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.

Light is so often paralleled with truth and with purity. In its purest form, it has no flaw.

Using the metaphor of light as a means of describing God, helps us to have a tangible way of grasping (sort of) the intangible.

At Christmas time, we talked briefly about light and its properties and how it works. Light can truly only be seen when it shines through something or on something. Unless there is fog, or smoke, or dust, we can’t really see a light beam.

Because God is light, if we are to have fellowship with Him, I believe this means that we will “walk in the light.” We will walk in purity and holiness.

This doesn’t mean that we will be perfect or holy, but it means that we will allow the purity and holiness of God’s light to shine on us, to shine in the dark and secret places, to allow him to heal, forgive, and transform us.

John goes on to say:

1 John 1:6–9 ESV

If we say we have fellowship with him while we 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 his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Light reveals flaws that need to be addressed. It reveals those inconsistencies between the life we say that we live in God through Jesus Christ and the life that we actually live.

The other day, Danielle and I were doing some work on one of our bathrooms. At one point in time, she asked me to get my flashlight in order to look for flaws in the paint - so that the paint could be fixed and can reveal the true color that it was supposed to reveal.

I believe that’s how it is in our fellowship with God. God’s light does reveal flaws - it’s natural for his presence to do that, but it’s not for our shame but for our sanctification. You see, the beauty of our fellowship with God is that he is doing something to address our sin, our flaw, our shortcomings. Just as the paint can’t fix itself, so too, we need help.

1 John 2:1–2 ESV

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. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Jesus Christ is that fixer.

Jesus Christ is that healer.

Jesus Christ is that forgiver.

He does that so that we can be made right with God but also so that we can begin to walk in the light, to walk in perfect fellowship with him, to obey him.

1 John 2:3 ESV

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.

Beloved, we all have those things in our lives that we don’t want others to see. We don’t want the light of God to reveal it. That may be because we don’t want to feel that shame. It may be because we don’t want to admit our fallenness.

Friend, if you are not yet a follower of Christ, if you’ve not yet confessed your sin to God, then let me encourage you to come into the light. Come to the light of Christ, allow him to shine on you, knowing that

Romans 10:9–10 ESV

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

John writes…

1 John 4:15 ESV

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

The light of God, just like any light, takes some getting used to. It will take time for your old habits, thoughts, ways of thinking and speaking to adjust - but it will be worth it. Confess your sin to the Lord. God wants to walk in fellowship with you!

But you see, as we learn to walk more in the light, we’ll find that it impacts our lives with each other.

It is so easy for us to begin to be judgmental about the actions and decisions of others. Sure, we want to be holy and we want others to be holy as well - but judging them, condemning them, will not bring about the desired result.

When you think back over Jesus’ earthly ministry, he did have some harsh words to say - but that was most often toward the overly religious. He talked with compassion for the sinful - wanting them to come out of the darkness of their sin and into the light of his love.

John urges us to have that same attitude toward each other - the attitude of love and compassion that Jesus had toward those who were lost in their sin.

1 John 2:9–11 ESV

Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

A couple of weeks ago when Andrew, Zoe, and I were at the SBC convention, there were a few groups of people standing outside with big signs and megaphones. There were others even driving around in a van that was plastered with pictures of aborted babies, yelling through megaphones for people to repent of their sin and turn to God. While their message was well intentioned, I don’t think their method was given in the most effective or loving way. I too want people to come to Christ. I too want people to repent of their sin. I too want to get rid of the scourge of abortion. I just don’t think that yelling at people and calling them murderers is the most effective way to accomplish that goal. I don’t think that’s what John is trying to encourage for people who walk in the light.

Beloved, how will you respond when someone, a brother or sister in Christ, reveals that they are stuck in sin? Will you respond with condemnation or compassion? Will you respond with judgment or love? Will you help them out of their sin or ostracize them?

There is a difference when Christians willfully walk in unrepentant sin. There is a time for loving confrontation. There is also a time for discipline. But even those who are disciplined need to be pursued - loved back into a right relationship with God.

For those who do confess their sin and seek help - just getting over that hurdle is difficult enough. They need love and encouragement from other members of the body of Christ - not judgment and condemnation.

John not only says that God is light, but in the second half of the book, John talks about the message that...

God is love (1 John 3:11-5:17)

Because God is love, we should love one another.

1 John 3:11 ESV

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

In some ways this sounds a bit like a repeat of what we have just heard, but as I said early on, John seems to address the themes of “life, truth [and] love” in a cyclical and repetitive manner.

Just as we thought about qualities of light, let’s consider briefly some qualities of love.

Love is a deep sense of affection and care for another. Love is sacrificial - it gives of itself for the blessing or benefit of someone else. Love, like light, does not act to bring attention to itself, but rather acts to nurture and care for the object upon which it is acting.

For example, parents don’t love so that their children will love them back, parents love because it is the right thing to do. Parents show love to help their children grow and mature. They lose sleep, money, energy and more for the sake of their children. Do parents receive love, respect, honor in return - I hope so, but that’s not why they love.

When we think about God being love - he acts in that same sort of selfless and sacrificial way.

Consider what John writes here...

1 John 4:7–10 ESV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

God is love and is the source of love. I believe the we truly don’t understand love until we understand love from God.

Because God is love, when we truly fellowship with God, we get to walk in and exhibit that same sort of love - that sacrificial, selfless love...

1 John 3:16–18 ESV

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Love is more than sentiment. Love acts. God did not simply leave us in our sin, but out of love sent his son as the propitiation or the full payment for our sin. God, in love, acted for our benefit.

Because he did that, we get to do the same as people who walk in fellowship with Him.

But, there is another element of love that John points out - namely that love and fear cannot coexist - there is no fear in love. Because Jesus has taken the punishment for our sin on himself - we have no reason to fear judgment - Jesus paid it all.

1 John 4:18–21 ESV

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

When it comes to how we exhibit that same sort of love, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we should be able to confidently love one another and confess our sin to one another. We have been forgiven so much from God. We should have no reason to fear judgment from one another - if we are truly loving one another.

Where John communicates that God is love, some people have turned that around to say… “Love is god.” - In turning the phrase this way, I think people mean that because love is the pinnacle, we should love in such a way that others will be able to do whatever they want.

Back when I was in high school, people would sometimes say, “if you love me you’ll let me.” Essentially, they meant that in a dating relationship, if you love me you’ll let me sleep with you. But now, because some people see love as god, then it becomes:

if you love me, you’ll let me do what I want

if you love me, you’ll accept me for who I am and endorse all of my behaviors

if you love me, you’ll celebrate....

That is not love.

Think back to a parent’s love for their children, in love, a parent would not allow a child to do something that would be so destructive that it could endanger them to a severe degree - i.e. riding a bike on a highway, treating people with disrespect, taking something that is not theirs, etc.

And yet, so many folks today in our society want to say that out of love, we should allow our children to decide their own gender, rather than having them explore the uniquenesses of being the boy or girl that God made them to be.

Because God is love and gave of himself so that we could be the people that He made us to be, we get to do the same - giving of ourselves for one another, so that we can lead each other to be who God made us to be. We get to do this in fellowship with Him!

In the final chapter of his letter, John writes...

1 John 5:16–19 ESV

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

All of this is in the section that generally deals with this attribute of the Love of God. As we exhibit God’s love in our lives, we don’t endorse people’s actions but in love pray for them and seek their holiness.

Conclusion

As we close, John finishes his letter or his sermon in an interesting way. He simply writes:

1 John 5:21 ESV

Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

It seems odd that he would finish this way. There is no benediction. He hasn’t talked about idols up to this point.

But when you think about it, when we succumb to idol worship, we essentially make God into our image. We think God would want us to be happy, so we assume that God will endorse all of our sinful behaviors. We think that a god in our image would change with the shifting changes in the world, that he would be okay with all that is going on - morally, spiritually, politically, etc.

But, in keeping ourselves from idols - we get to worship God as the God that he is. He is the true standard. He is the perfect example of holiness.

God is light - we are not. We need to allow his light to shine on us, rather than our dimmed and tainted light to distort the true image of who he is.

As we walk in his light, we get to reflect his light into the world.

God is love - He is the standard of love. He loves sacrificially, not endorsing all of our sinful behaviors, but loving us to lead us into a right relationship with himself.

As we walk in his love, we get to demonstrate his love to the world and to each other.

Let’s walk in his light and in his love so that we might lead each other and people who are far from God into a relationship with him.

Let’s pray.

Memory Verse: 1 John 1:7

1 John 1:7 ESV

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.

References:

https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/1-3-john/

Crossway Bibles. The ESV Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008.

Dever, Mark the Message of the New Testament: Promises Kept, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005

Gromacki, Robert G. New Testament Survey. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1974.

Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. 1 John. The Pulpit Commentary. London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909