Life in the Light (1 John 1:1–10)

I delivered this message at Spring Creek Bible Church on February 9, 2020, as part of the 1 John series.

Prefer what I actually said? Read the transcript (lightly edited for readability).

Introduction

John’s first epistle occupies a special place among the books of the New Testament. It’s one of the most referenced books in the Bible, relative to its size.

It’s well loved by many Christians for its simplicity, clarity, and practicality—characteristics it shares with James, the Proverbs of the New Testament.

It has many well-known and loved verses that deal with forgiveness and love and assurance:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1:9)

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (2:15)

See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! (3:1)

We love because he first loved us. (4:19)

I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (5:13)

And many others. I’m sure most of us have multiple verses from 1 John memorized.

1 John has been a personal favorite of mine since college. We translated through 1 John in second semester Elementary Greek, and it was my first taste of what has become a lifelong love for the Greek New Testament.

God used that experience to open my eyes more fully to what it means to be a child of God. I had grown up under teaching that leaned toward the easy-believism, “once-prayed-always-saved” view of being a Christian. It was through reading 1 John in the beauty and simplicity of the Greek that my heart was awakened to the essential role of sanctification in the life of the true believer.

1 John is arguably the most straightforward and most important book of the Bible on the doctrine of assurance of salvation.

And yet, as one author says,

The simple, straightforward style throughout masks a profundity of thought that is not always easy to interpret. (Sweeney, LBD)

There’s an irony that while John’s Greek is among the simplest in the NT and what he says on the surface seems very simple to understand, yet behind those simple expressions are often apparent contradictions and obscure references that can be challenging to grapple with.

It’s at the same time a simple and complex book.

Yet I hope and pray that after spending five weeks together considering its message that we’ll all grow in our understanding of and love for this special NT letter.

Transition: With that in mind, let’s pray together.

Prayer

Father, thank you for this precious, inspired book and the privilege of studying it together. Meet with us as we read it, study it, and consider its message these next five weeks. Teach, convict, comfort, and encourage us in the ways we need. We long to hear from you, and our time is in vain if we don’t. So help us, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

——

Transition: Before we dig into chapter 1 tonight, I’d like to lay some groundwork for our series and discuss some of the broader issues related to the book as a whole. Since chapter 1 is the shortest chapter by more than 50%, we should have time for both an introduction to the book and an exposition of chapter 1.

Context of 1 John

There are definitely many general, universal truths in 1 John. However, it is important that we read these truths contextually first and understand them as John intended them to be understood by their original audience before we jump immediately to their application for us today.

It’s helpful at the start to ask and answer some of the basic questions you’d want to know to properly interpret any piece of writing or communication.

The Bible is a divine book, but it’s also a human book. Since it’s a literary work—and a collection of literary works—we should apply normal principles of interpretation to understanding its meaning.

Imagine you were going through old boxes of stuff in your parents’ or grandparents’ basement or attic and you came across an interesting envelope with a written message in it. If you wanted to understand it, the first steps you’d take would be to answer a number of fundamental questions:

1. Genre: What kind of writing is it? Is it a letter?
2. Author: Who wrote it?
3. Date: When did they write it?
4. Recipients: To whom did they write it?
5. Occasion: What situation occasioned the letter?
6. Purpose: What was the goal of the letter?
7. Message: What is the message of the letter? What were its major themes?
8. Outline: How is its message organized?

Most of us use many of these principles of interpretation instinctively on a regular basis when we have a conversation or read a piece of snail mail, email, or other digital communication. And yet somehow we often forget to pause and do this when we read the Bible.

Each of these questions sheds light on how we understand the individual parts of the letter and is worth careful consideration.

Let’s quickly walk through these eight questions to make sure we have the right context in which to understand the meaning of 1 John for its original audience and for us today.

Genre

What kind of writing is 1 John?

1 John is included in what we call the epistles or letters of the New Testament in the category we generally refer to as the General or Catholic Epistles, which includes the non-Pauline letters, with Hebrews being sometimes included in the Pauline letters and sometimes in the General Letters.

Catholic means universal not Roman Catholic. Paul’s letters were generally thought to be written to specific people or churches, where the Catholic letters were generally regarded as being written to the church more broadly. There are exceptions, but it’s a decent rule of thumb.

But some people have questioned whether we should consider 1 John a letter, since it lacks the standard greeting, self-identification, introduction, and conclusion found in other letters. Some suggest that we should instead consider it a more generic tract or sermon.

Some have speculated that 2 John might have been a sort of cover letter for 1 John, since it’s so short and covers the same themes as 1 John in a very abbreviated way. So this would explain why 1 John itself doesn’t have a normal introduction and conclusion, because 2 John does. And while that’s an interesting idea, it’s just speculative.

While we don’t know why exactly the author doesn’t identify himself or his audience directly, it’s clear from the letter itself that he has a very particular audience in mind. He knows them and their situation and is writing to help them. Even if 1 John doesn’t perfectly conform to the 1st c. standards of a letter, thinking of it as a letter will help us understand its meaning.

Authorship

Who wrote 1 John?

Even though the author of 1 John doesn’t identify himself in the customary way, as the name of the letter suggests the church has held that John wrote 1 John since at least the second century.

I. Howard Marshall summarizes the early support for John’s authorship:

When we come to Irenaeus [130–202], toward the end of the second century, we find that he accepted the Epistle as the work of John the disciple of the Lord, and this view was shared by such authorities as Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and the Muratorian Canon. Indeed Eusebius states that its authenticity was never questioned (HE 3:24:17; 25:2). (The Epistles of John, NIC, 48)

Evangelical scholars today agree that John, the brother of James, one of the sons of thunder, one of three in his inner circle, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the author of John’s Gospel wrote 1 John.

This is consistent with the author’s claim to be an eyewitness and intimate friend of Jesus (1:1–4).

Even those who question whether John wrote 1 John agree that John’s Gospel and letters were written by the same author, because they overlap so significantly in vocabulary, grammar, and style.

Date/Location

When did John write 1 John? And where did he write from?

John’s writings are generally regarded as the last of the New Testament in the 80–90s. That would mean that John was writing some 60–70 years after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension.

Thus, a period in the late first century, following the composition of the Gospel and prior to the writing of Revelation is most likely. . . . For the Gospel, a date between A.D. 80 and A.D. 90 seems plausible, while the Revelation was likely written around A.D. 95. Thus, the first epistle of John most likely was written around A.D. 90, a few years before the writing of the Revelation. A date around A.D. 90 seems to work best for the writing of this epistle. (Derickson, EEC)

John was likely 80–90 years old. So he’s an elderly man, as he describes himself in the introduction to 2 John and 3 John: “The elder.” He writes to his audience with maturity and fatherly and pastoral care and affections.

Eusebius records that John lived in Ephesus for many years before being exiled on the Island of Patmos where he writes Revelation and then returning to Ephesus where he dies. If this is true, John would have written 1 John from Ephesus around AD 90.

Recipients/Destination

Who did John write to? Where did John’s audience live?

While there’s no standard greeting where John identifies his audience, he does address them in several places in the letter, particularly in chapter 2 where he calls out the various groups of people he’s writing to:

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. (2:1)

I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. (2:12)

I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. (2:13a)

I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. (2:13b)

I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father. (2:14a)

I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. (2:14b)

I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. (2:14c)

More generally John tells us he was writing to those who believe in the name of the Son of God.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (5:13)

Throughout the letter he addresses them most commonly as

• Beloved or dear friends (agapetoi; ἀγαπητοί): 2:7; 3:2, 21; 4:1, 7, 11
• Children
  • (teknia; τεκνία): 2:1, 12, 28; 3:7, 18; 4:4; 5:21
  • (paidia; παιδία): 2:14, 18
• Brothers (adelphoi; ἀδελφοί): 3:13

These are terms of affection and intimacy. John knew and loved these brothers and sisters in Christ and was deeply concerned to protect them.

Most interpreters think John is writing to a mixed Jew-Gentile audience, perhaps with a larger Gentile population.

1 John 2:2 stresses the universality of Christ’s atoning work with John’s typical emphasis on the inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s saving work.

According to early tradition, these churches were located in and around Ephesus, the same location from which John wrote.

Occasion/Situation

What events led John to write this letter?

In order to understand 1 John properly, it’s essential to understand what John’s audience was facing that led him to write what he wrote.

Some New Testament letters such as 1 Corinthians were written to address problems inside the church. Others such as Galatians were written to address problems from outside the church. Such was the case with 1 John, where a group had rejected the truth and left the church and were trying to deceive the true believers and pressure them to join them in leaving the true church for something better.

The Secessionists

This group is often referred to by commentators as secessionists: those who seceded or went out from the church—not to be confused with cessationists: those who believe the miraculous gifts of the Spirit ceased with the end of the age of the apostles.

This is the same term we use when we talk about the South wanting to secede from the Union and the resulting Civil War, or the movements that would like to see Texas or California secede from the United States and form their own countries.

This name is drawn from 1 John 2:19:

They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.

What we know about this group we have to figure out by piecing together all the things John says about them directly and indirectly.

Mirror Reading

When reading a NT letter, the practice of trying to piece together the story behind the letter is called mirror reading. While it can be and often is abused, it can be a useful way of interpreting the Bible contextually—so long as you clearly differentiate between what the Bible actually says and where you’re reading between the lines and inferring what the Bible may suggest or where we get clues from extra-biblical sources.

While this isn’t a perfect analogy, to some degree reading a NT letter is like listening to one end of a phone call. If you listen carefully, you can piece together what the other person is saying by reading between the lines. You don’t have all the details, but you have enough to understand the essence of the conversation.

That’s what mirror reading attempts to do, and we should cautiously make use of it.

John’s Description

So how does John describe his opponents?

It’s worth taking a few moments to create an understanding of these secessionists, which will allow us to properly interpret what John says to these churches in and around Ephesus.

Let’s take a look at the other clues throughout the book to learn more about John’s opponents and how to interpret much of what he says throughout the book.

It’s possible that the three “if we say” statements in 1:6, 8, and 10 and the three “the one who says” statements in 2:4, 6, and 9 were things the secessionists were saying:

If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. (1:6)

If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1:8)

If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1:10)

The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (2:4)

The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked. (2:6)

The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother or sister is in the darkness until now. (2:9)

It seems like John is responding to some false ideas that were circulating among his audience, and as we read on in the letter it seems likely that these false ideas were originating from those who had gone out from the church, from the secessionists.

If true, the secessionists were denying their sinfulness and still affirming to know God, be in him, and be in the light with him.

Later in 2:18–23 we get a clear identification of these secessionists:

Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. By this we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.

22 Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.

A little further in 2:26–27 we learn that they’re trying to deceive God’s people and positioning themselves as teachers who have new insights and truth that goes beyond what John and the other apostles had taught them:

I have written these things to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need anyone to teach you. Instead, his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie; just as it has taught you, remain in him.

In 2 John 9 John describes them as those who are going beyond Christ’s teaching:

Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.

Again, in 1 John 3:7 John refers to those who are trying to deceive them:

Children, let no one deceive you. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

We see more mentions of these secessionists in 1 John 4:1–6, where John puts them outside the church and in the world:

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.

4 You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

John seems to equate the secessionists with the world (4:5), the domain of darkness. So we should probably read the many references to the world in 1 John as referring to these secessionists, what they believed, what they were teaching, how they were living, etc.

Docetism/Proto-Gnosticism

Because 1 John was written toward the end of the first century, it’s likely that Docetism, an early form of Gnosticism, had crept in through these secessionists.

Docetism was the belief that

Jesus did not take on a physical body, and thus only appeared to live a bodily existence and to die on the cross. (Brown, LBD)

Docetism was rooted in Hellenistic dualism, which viewed the physical as inferior to the spiritual. Consequently, God couldn’t have taken on human flesh without becoming tainted by it.

And Gnosticism was the belief that

people could only be saved through revealed knowledge, or γνῶσις (gnōsis). (Smith, LBD)

Here’s how one commentator describes it:

We know from church history that near the end of the first century, and in the early second century, proto-Gnosticism, specifically Docetism, arose within the church . . . . In later years this developed into a theological system known as Gnosticism.

He goes on,

Its teachings blended Greek dualism with Eastern mysticism. It adopted the dualistic view that only the nonmaterial, or “spirit,” was good while anything material was evil. Along with this came Eastern mysticism’s focus on secret knowledge reserved only for the chosen few. Though present in seminal form in the late first century, it blossomed into full expression in the middle and latter second century. (Derickson, EEC, 10)

Rejecting Jesus’ Humanity

That’s why there is such a strong emphasis on affirming Jesus’ full and true humanity.

John opens his letter as we’ll see in a moment by appealing to his personal eyewitness and “hand -witness” testimony along with the other apostles to affirm the full humanity of Jesus both before and after his resurrection.

And this theme comes up elsewhere in 1 and 2 John:

1 John 4:1–3

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.

2 John 7

Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

1 John 2:18–23

Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. By this we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us. 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.

John emphasized the fully humanity in his Gospel as well:

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Hating Others

As you read through 1 John, you see repeated mentions of loving vs. hating others. John seems to have the secessionists in view here. What’s not clear is how exactly these people were hating others in the church. But I think there are clues if you’re looking carefully for them.

One such clue is in 1 John 3:13–18:

Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. 16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has this world’s goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from him—how does God’s love reside in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.

It seems like we should associate hating with not meeting the physical needs of brothers and sisters. Perhaps the secessionists tended to be more financially well off than others but were selfishly keeping their money for themselves. There may be other ways we secessionists were expressing hatred, but this seems to be a key one.

Summary

So we can summarize the situation this way:

• False teachers with a heretical Christology that denied Jesus’ true humanity, that he came in the flesh and was fully man, had infiltrated the church but recently gone out from the church to form separate sects (2:18–19).
• These secessionists had called Jesus’ identity and teaching into question among true believers and had left many not knowing who to believe, whether they or the secessionists were the true believers, and whether they were really saved.
• John identifies these false teachers and false believers by calling out their aberrant teaching and their aberrant lifestyle throughout the book.
• John writes to correct this false doctrine and help the true believers see who Jesus really was, what those who believe in him look like, and how only those who believe in this Jesus and follow his teachings are believers who can know they have eternal life.

Purpose

Why did John write 1 John?

Unlike many writings where the purpose has to be inferred from various statements throughout, John says why he wrote the letter or particular portions of it on several occasions.

We’re probably all familiar with 5:13:

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (5:13)

Many consider it to be the purpose statement for the whole book, and I tend to agree with that.

But there are many other states about why John wrote:

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. . . . (1:3)

We write this to make our joy complete. (1:4)

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. (2:1)

I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. (2:12)

I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. (2:13a)

I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. (2:13b)

I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father. (2:14a)

I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. (2:14b)

I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. (2:14c)

I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. (2:21)

If we piece these statements and others together, we can see what John was trying to accomplish. He wrote 1 John so these Ephesian Christians

1. would continue to have fellowship with the apostles and God
2. would experience the joy that goes along with that fellowship
3. wouldn’t fall into the false teaching or sinful ways of the secessionists
4. would be confident that they know the truth and have eternal life

If I were to bring these into a single statement, I’d say

John wrote 1 John to stabilize these Christians in their joyful fellowship in truth and assure them of eternal life.

It’s easy to read 1 John and walk away questioning your salvation. But John’s goal was the opposite. 1 John isn’t a letter designed to get Christians to question their salvation. It’s a letter designed to build up their confidence in it. We’ll come back to this in more detail at the end.

Message/Themes

What did John write about?

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. (2:7)

Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. (2:8)

I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. (2:26)

If the purpose is about why John wrote, the message is about what John wrote.

Moore Casement captures the message this way:

You can know you are Christians because you believe Jesus is the Christ, you recognize your sin, and you love fellow Christians.

The verse that probably sums it up best is 1 John 3:23:

Now this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us.

It captures the dual emphasis of John on doctrine/truth and the application of that doctrine lived out through a life of love for others. John brings these two themes together in a powerful way, demonstrating that departing from a biblical Christology will result in a lifestyle lived in the darkness.

Light, as we’ll see in a moment, is the domain of both truth and holiness, while darkness is the domain of falsehood and evil.

There are many important themes, but perhaps these three els sum it up best:

• Life (1:1, 2; 2:25; 3:14, 15; 4:9; 5:11, 12, 13, 16, 20) vs. death (3:14; 5:16, 17)
• Light (1:5, 7; 2:8, 9, 10) vs. darkness (1:5; 2:8, 9, 11)
• Love (2:5, 10, 15; 3:1, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18, 23; 4:7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21; 5:1, 2, 3; cf. 2 Jn 1, 3, 5, 6; 3 Jn 1, 6) vs. hate (2:9, 11; 3:13, 15; 4:20)

Most of what John teaches comes from the recorded teaching of Jesus in John’s Gospel. John is reminding them of the truth they already know by the Spirit and calling them to remain in it, a key theme of both John and 1 John, and not depart from or go beyond it to new false ideas—an ever presentation temptation for the church in all ages!

• Truth (1:6, 8; 2:4, 5, 8, 21, 27; 3:18, 19; 4:6; 5:6, 20; cf. 2 Jn 1, 2, 3, 4; 3 Jn 1, 3, 4, 8, 12) vs. lie (1:6, 10; 2:4, 21, 22, 27; 4:1, 20; 5:10)
  • Command (2:3, 4, 7, 8; 3:22, 23, 24; 4:21; 5:2, 3; 2 Jn 4, 5, 6)
  • Testify/testimony (1:2; 4:14; 5:6, 7, 9, 10, 11; cf. 3 Jn 3, 6, 12)
  • Message/announce (1:2, 3, 5; 3:11)
• Know [ginosko] (2:3, 4, 5, 13, 14, 18, 29; 3:1, 6, 16, 19, 20, 21, 24; 4:2, 6, 7, 8, 13, 16; 5:2, 20; cf. 2 Jn 1) and know [oida] (1 Jn 2:11, 20, 21, 29; 3:2, 5, 14, 15; 5:13, 15, 18, 19, 20; cf. 3 Jn 12)
• Spirit (3:24; 4:1, 2, 3, 6, 13; 5:6, 8)

• Remain (2:6, 10, 14, 17, 19, 24, 27, 28; 3:6, 9, 14, 15, 17, 24; 4:12, 13, 15, 16; cf. 2 Jn 2, 9) vs. go out (2:19; 4:1; cf. 2 Jn 7, 3 Jn 7) or go beyond (2 Jn 9)
  • Do (1:6, 10; 2:17, 29; 3:4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 22; 5:2, 10; cf. 3 Jn 5, 6, 10, 11)
  • Believe (1:9; 3:23; 4:1, 16; 5:1, 4, 5, 10, 13; cf. 3 Jn 5)
  • Walk (1:6, 7; 2:6, 11; 2 Jn 4, 6; 3 Jn 3, 4)
  • Keep (2:3, 4, 5; 3:22, 24; 5:3, 18)

1 John also has a lot to say about the world and sin.

• World (2:2, 15, 16, 17; 3:1, 13, 17; 4:1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 14, 17; 5:4, 5, 19; cf. 2 Jn 7)
• Sin (1:7, 8, 9, 10; 2:1, 2, 12; 3:4, 5, 6, 8, 9; 4:10; 5:16, 17, 18)
  • Unrighteousness (5:17) vs. righteousness (1:9; 2:1, 29; 3:7, 10, 12)
  • Lawlessness (3:4)

It’s one of the most important books in the New Testament for understanding how Christians relate to sin.

It also stresses the fellowship, the familial relationship, that exists between true believers and each other and God.

• Children [teknon] (2:1, 12, 28; 3:1, 2, 7, 10, 18; 4:4; 5:2, 21; cf. 2 Jn 1, 4, 13; 2 Jn 4) and [paidia] (2:14, 18)
• Brother (2:9, 10, 11; 3:10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17; 4:20, 21; 5:16; cf. 2 Jn 13; 3 Jn 3, 5, 10)
• Father (1:2, 3; 2:1, 13, 14, 15, 16, 22, 23, 24; 3:1; 4:14; cf. 2 Jn 3, 4, 9)
• Son (1:3, 7; 2:22, 23, 24; 3:8, 23; 4:9, 10, 14, 15; 5:5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 20; cf. 2 Jn 3, 9)
• Beget (2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18)
• Fellowship (1:3, 6, 7; cf. 2 Jn 11)

And it continues to use sense words like appearing, seeing, beholding, and hearing to reinforce the physicality of a biblical Christology and its historical reality from the beginning.

• Hear (1:1, 3, 5; 2:7, 18, 24; 3:11; 4:3, 5, 6; 5:14, 15; cf. 2 Jn 6; 3 Jn 4)
• Beginning (1:1; 2:7, 13, 14, 24; 3:8, 11; cf. 2 Jn 5, 6)
• See (1:1, 2, 3; 3:1; 3:2, 6; 4:20; 5:16; cf. 3 Jn 11, 14)
• Appear (1:2; 2:8, 19, 28; 3:2, 5, 8, 10; 4:9)
• Behold (1:1; 3:17; 4:12, 14)

There’s so much more we could say about the message of 1 John, but we’ll save that for the expositions of each chapter.

Outline

How is John’s letter structured?

Outlining 1 John is challenging. It’s not a tightly argued linear letter like those written by Paul but more of a meandering repetitive plea.

It’s less a logical argument of a theologian and more a passionate appeal of a pastor.

Some have argued for a sort of cyclical structure, where John repeats himself in three cycles and covers the themes of righteousness, love, and belief:

1. First cycle (1:5–2:28): The Christian Life as fellowship with God (walking in the Light), tested by righteousness (1:8–2:6), love (2:7–17), and belief (2:18–28).
2. Second cycle (2:29–4:6): Divine sonship tested by righteousness (2:29–3:10a), love (3:10b–24a), and belief (3:24b–4:6).
3. Third cycle (4:7–5:21): Closer correlation of righteousness, love, and belief.

The most satisfying approach I’ve seen is to take the two “this is the message” statements as the two major sections of the book:

1. Prologue: Jesus is eternal life (1:1–4)
2. Part 1: God is light: “This is the message . . . God is light” (1:5–3:10)
3. Part 2: God is love: “This is the message . . . love one another” (3:11–5:12)
4. Epilogue: Jesus is eternal life (5:13–21)

The first one focuses on God as light, the second on God as love. The prologue and the epilogue bookend 1 John with the topic of eternal life in Jesus, who is eternal life.

Outlining the book more deeply than that is challenging. Instead, focusing on John’s purpose, message, and themes will be more fruitful than getting hung up on the right way of outlining the book.

Transition: Now that we’ve covered some of the contextual matters necessary to understand the letter as a whole, let’s turn our attention to chapter 1.

Introduction to 1 John 1

Similarities with John’s Gospel

When you start reading chapter 1, it’s hard to miss the similarities with the opening of John’s Gospel.

John 1	1 John 1
In the beginning	What was from the beginning
was the Word	concerning the word of life
In him was life	the word of life / the eternal life
the Word was with God / He was with God	the eternal life that was with the Father
The true light that gives light to everyone	God is light
was coming into the world	that life was revealed / was revealed to us
The Word became flesh	what we have seen / what we have observed and have touched with our hands / we have seen it / what we have seen and heard
He came as a witness to testify / John testified concerning	we testify and declare to you / we also declare to you
light shines in the darkness	God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him
full of grace and truth / grace and truth came through Jesus Christ	not practicing the truth / the truth is not in us

If you read them side by side, you’ll see they both have the same subject and similar burdens.

• They both talk about “the Word.”
• They both talk about “the beginning.”
• They both mention his preincarnate existence with the Father
• They both emphasize his incarnation.
• They both emphasize his deity.
• They both emphasize his humanity.
• They both talk about life.
• They both talk about light.

The similarities go beyond chapter 1. There are deep similarities throughout the books in the words and phrases they use and the themes they cover. But that’s beyond the scope of our message for tonight.

The Gospel

These short ten verses are dense with gospel truth, but it’s easy to miss it if you’re not careful.

1 John 1:1–4

The first four verses focus on Jesus and who he is—on the historical events of the gospel: the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the eternal Son of God who became the God-man—and how we can have life, fellowship, and joy through him.

1 John 1:5–10

The next six verses focus on what it looks like for sinners to enter into and live in ongoing fellowship with God, his Son, and other Christians. How does God’s holiness and sinlessness fit with our sinfulness and ongoing battle with the evil within and without?

Outline

I know good sermons have three points, but I decided to stick with what I perceive to be John’s structure and divide the chapter into two parts.

There are lots of ways to put it, but they all say basically the same thing:

1. The Person of the Gospel (1–4)
2. The Practice of the Gospel (5–10)

Or

1. Faith in the Word of Life (1–4)
2. Repentance in the Way of Light (5–10)

Or

1. Gospel Events (1–4)
2. Gospel Experience (5–10)

Or

1. Christological Truth (1–4)
2. Soteriological Experience (5–10)

I ended up going with

1. Eternal life is (in) the Word of Life. (1:1–4).
2. You must walk in the light (1:5–10).

The big idea of chapter 1 is that eternal life and joyful fellowship with God, his Son, and his people come through embracing the Word of Life by faith and walking in repentance in the light of God’s presence through the atoning work of his Son.

Let’s take a deeper look at the first point in verses 1–4, where we see that . . .

1. Eternal life is (in) the Word of Life. (1:1–4).

Let’s read verses 1–4 together, and then we’ll unpack them.

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—2 that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

1.1. John’s Cryptic Style

I’ve always found it interesting how John opens his letter. It’s a bit cryptic and mysterious. He doesn’t start out with a clearly identifiable reference to Jesus. He doesn’t even use the masculine personal pronoun.

Instead, he uses a series of neuter pronouns and introduces his topic with a bit of intrigue.

It reminds me of how Paul Tripp opens most devotional readings in New Morning Mercies: he leaves what he’s talking about unidentified until later to pique our curiosity.

Here’s an example:

We all do it in our own way. Seldom does a day go by without our doing it again. We even do it in the middle of worship services. But it is a dangerous thing to do. It doesn’t lead us anywhere good. We don’t like it when other people do it, but we fail to recognize how much we do it ourselves. We all work to convince ourselves that we are better off than we are. (Tripp, NMM, 48)

I think that’s what John’s doing here.

Starting with an Abstract Pronoun

Most of the time, a pronoun is used to refer to a noun—person, place, or thing—that was already mentioned to avoid repeating it over and over again. We call the noun that’s replaced by the pronoun the antecedent and the pronoun the proform. In this case there is no antecedent, nothing that comes before the pronoun. But there is a postcedent, post- meaning after, where the word that the pronoun stands for follows rather than proceeds.

When you see a pronoun in the Bible, you should always pause to ask yourself who or what it stands for. It’s too easy to gloss right over pronouns and get mixed up and misunderstand and misapply God’s word.

In this case, the pronouns in v. 1 point forward to the end of v. 1 and the beginning of v. 2. John is talking about “the word of life” and “the life.” But that naturally raises another question about what (or who?) this life is. John hints that he might be talking about a person when he refers to “the word of life,” but he could be talking about the message of life. However, that wouldn’t make as much sense with the verbs John uses to describe how he and the other disciples interacted with this word of life.

In v. 2 he further identifies it as “eternal life,” which might push us back in the non-personal direction. But then he identifies this life as a person who was “with the Father” which clearly parallels the way he describes the Word in his Gospel. It becomes clear that John is talking about Jesus and referring to him as “the word of life” and “the life” and “eternal life.” These are all designations for Jesus, God’s Son.

While in his Gospel he focuses on the word concept, here in his first letter he focuses more on the life concept. Jesus is both the Word—the revelation of God to man—and the Life—the source of restored everlasting fellowship with God.

Emphasizing the Humanity of Jesus

John is very careful in his word choices here about seeing. He says, “see with our eyes,” which you might think is unnecessarily redundant. How else can you see?

That reminds me of an expression we’ve used with our children—and still do—when we don’t want them to touch something that they really want to touch. We tell them to look with their eyes. Others have heard us say this and have chuckled. What other way is there to look at something? I’m not sure about your kids, but for our kids seeing something almost always involves touching it and perhaps even throwing it (and when they’re younger may even involve tasting it!). So we want to be explicit about the way they can look at something: using only their eyes.

John seems to want to make a similar point of precision. In the Bible seeing and hearing are often used spiritually to refer to understanding something. John wants to be very clear here that they literally saw Jesus, this word, this eternal life, with their very eyes and touched him with their very hands.

As we already noted, there were already in John’s day false ideas circulating concerning who Jesus was. So John is making an effort to stress the full humanity of Jesus. He really was a man. He wasn’t an apparition, having only the appearance of being a man. He wasn’t a divine soul dwelling in a human body: fully God and half man. He was fully God and fully man.

1.2. Tracing the Flow of Thought

Let’s reorder a few things to see a little bit better how they hang together.

1.2.1. In order

The word of life (v. 1).

I am writing to you about the Word of Life.

He is

• the one from the beginning,
• the one we have heard,
• the one we have seen with our eyes,
• the one
  • we beheld and
  • our hands touched.

This life came (v. 2).

And

• this life appeared, and
• we have beheld and
• are testifying and
• are proclaiming
  • to you
  • the eternal life,
    • which was with the Father and
    • has appeared to us.

Why we’re proclaiming and writing about him (vs. 3–4).

We are proclaiming the one

• we have seen and
• have heard
• even to you
• in order that you also might have fellowship with us.

and our fellowship is

• with the Father and
• with his son Jesus Christ.

And we are writing these things

• in order that our joy might be full.

1.2.2. Logically

To unpack it a bit more logically organized in a question and answer format, we might organize it this way:

Who is John writing, testifying, and proclaiming about?

• the Word of Life
• the life
• the eternal life
• the Son, Jesus Christ

What does John tell us about him?

• He is God: He was
  • from the beginning
  • with the Father
  • appeared (implying preexistence)
• He is man:
  • they heard him
  • saw him
  • observed him
  • touched him
  • appeared (implying real physical existence)

Why is John telling us these things about him?

• Fellowship: In order that you also might have fellowship with us and with the Father and the Son
• Joy: In order that your joy might be full
• Life: Implicit in fellowship and joy with this Life is possessing eternal life.

1.3. Fellowship and Eternal Life

Before we move on to the next section, I want to talk briefly about fellowship and eternal life.

1.3.1. What is fellowship?

I think we often have wrong or shallow ideas of what fellowship is. We tend to think of it as hanging out and chatting together or getting together to watch the Super Bowl. And while fellowship can happen in these settings, it’s much deeper.

Fellowship is first and foremost a noun: a deep, objective theological reality. It’s who we are and what we have in common. That’s the root word behind fellowship: common [κοινός]. We have been united to God in Christ. We have been invited into God’s family. We’re sharers, participants, members of this holy fellowship and family. Peter says we “share [κοινωνός, the adjective form of κοινωνία] in the divine nature” (2 Pe 1:4).

Fellowship is also a verb, a subjective outworking of living life as members together with God and other believers. Fellowship as an activity is enjoying this objective reality together. It’s being together, delighting in, and relishing in who we are and what we have in Christ.

Those John was writing to were already in fellowship with God, Jesus, and the apostles. John wasn’t writing to invite them into that fellowship. He was writing to make clear the boundaries of that fellowship and let them know that if they crossed those boundaries they’d be forfeiting the fellowship, like the secessionists had done.

John makes this clear in 2 John 8–9:

Watch yourselves so you don’t lose what we have worked for, but that you may receive a full reward. 9 Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.

The next two verses, 2 John 10–11, provides a clue as to what fellowship in practice looks like.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home, and don’t greet him; 11 for the one who greets him shares [κοινωνέω] in his evil works.

This is the verbal form of fellowship: κοινωνέω. It means to share, participate, or partake of something with someone else. Showing hospitality is one way we subjectively manifest the objective κοινωνία that exists as we share in the divine life of God. In John’s day opening up one’s home for hospitality and fellowship was a spiritual sharing that was impossible between light and darkness.

So fellowship is

• less about what you do and more about what you are our have.
• first and foremost an objective reality and then from that a subjective outworking of that reality.
• closely tied with the doctrines of unity and union with Christ.
• about what we have in common: common doctrine, faith, hope, privileges, possessions, way of thinking, etc.

Fellowship is our subjectively or experientially sharing and delighting together in the objective realities of our membership in God’s own divine life and love through union with Christ.

Transition: Next, let us consider what eternal life is?

1.3.2. What is eternal life?

John starts out the letter with a discussion of the word of life, life, and the eternal life—not as some abstract concept, but as who Jesus is. Eternal life is more than just the length of our existence. Eternal life is first and foremost a person. It’s who Jesus is, and he invites us into this divine life that the Father and the Son share [κοινωνία] together.

The concept of fellowship is closely tied with life. We have fellowship in this same divine life because we have the Son who is the life of God.

John closes his letter with this same focus on eternal life in the Son.

1 John 5:11–13

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (cf. v. 16)

1 John 5:20

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one. We are in the true one—that is, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

It’s easy for Christians to think about eternal life as a thing. Let me challenge you to think of eternal life as a person. When we do, eternal life becomes an even richer treasure—and one we get to experience even now as we fellowship together in this κοινωνία.

1.4. Summary

You could summarize these verses this way:

Jesus of Nazareth is the eternal Son of God come in real human flesh as the God-man who by his life, death, and resurrection brings life, fellowship, and joy to all who embrace by faith this good news of God’s plan to save sinners.

Transition: Now that we’ve seen the person of the gospel, this Word of Life, let’s consider our practice in the gospel, what it looks like for saved sinners to walk in fellowship with God.

2. You must walk in the light (1:5–10).

If the first section (vv. 1–4) was mainly about orthodox Christology and gospel events, this next section is about orthodox soteriology or gospel ethics (or experience)—in particular, it’s about how saved sinners walk in fellowship with the sinless God.

Let’s read verses 5–10 together:

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. 6 If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. 7 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. 8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

2.1. God is light (v. 5).

This second section of chapter 1 opens with the message that John and the other apostles heard from Jesus and are passing on to these Christians: that

God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him.

2.1.1. The origin of this statement

By the way John says this, you might expect this to be a quote from Jesus you’d find in the gospels. However, it’s not there. Typically, we think that all the teaching of Jesus we have is recorded in the Gospels, but here’s an example of a direct teaching of Jesus that we first get in 1 John.

In John’s gospel you find numerous connections between Jesus and light, but nothing like this that connects directly with God the Father.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. (John 1:4)

He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. 9 The true light that gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. (John 1:8–9)

Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5)

Jesus answered, “The light will be with you only a little longer. Walk while you have the light so that darkness doesn’t overtake you. The one who walks in darkness doesn’t know where he’s going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light so that you may become children of light.” Jesus said this, then went away and hid from them. (John 12:35–36)

I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me would not remain in darkness. (John 12:46)

So John makes repeated use of light in his Gospel, but always in connection with Jesus.

However, as we’ll see at the end of the letter in 5:20, John doesn’t always make clean distinctions between the Father and the Son.

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one. We are in the true one—that is, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Of all New Testament writers, John is the one most comfortable using God to refer to Jesus (Jn 1:1, 18; 20:28; 1 Jn 5:20).

So it wouldn’t be surprising if John was using God to refer to—or at least include—Jesus. It’s possible that he’s using God in a similarly broad and ambiguous way here, but he does refer to “his Son” in v. 7, which makes that uncertain.

I think it’s safest to take it as a reference to the Father and to treat this as the first time this direct teaching from Jesus is revealed in Scripture. Either way, John clearly intends to make a connection between Jesus as light in his Gospel and the Father as light here in his first letter.

2.1.2. The meaning of light.

Just as eternal life is first and foremost a person, so light is first and foremost a person.

While he goes on in v. 7 to tell us that God is in the light, he starts out by telling us that God is light.

Why does John start his first discourse with this statement?

It’s possible that the secessionists were teaching something different, that God wasn’t light, and John needed to correct them. But more likely as Docetists they affirmed that God was light and used that to argue against the humanity of Jesus. John counters that idea by saying that this fully human Jesus is the one who taught this doctrine to John and the other apostles; therefore, it can’t be incompatible with the humanity of Jesus as the secessionists may have been claiming.

Light and darkness are common metaphors in the Bible. Light has a good connotation, while darkness has a bad connotation.

Light often refers to moral purity, to sinlessness, while darkness refers to moral impurity, to sinfulness. But they can also refer to truth and falsehood, to mental clarity and understanding and mental confusion and misunderstanding. Light and darkness can also refer to God’s blessing or judgment.

In 1 John light is just as much about truth as it is about moral purity, while darkness is the place of falsehood and moral impurity.

Light	Darkness
God’s domain/kingdom	Satan’s domain/kingdom
Moral purity	Moral impurity
Truth	Falsehood
Mental clarity and understanding	Mental confusion and misunderstanding
God’s blessing	God’s judgment
Good	Evil
Righteousness	Unrighteousness
God	Satan
Fruitfulness	Unfruitfulness
Life	Death

If we peek ahead to chapter 2, we see in v. 8 that darkness refers to the rule of sin that characterized the era before Christ and that at the coming of Christ light has broken in and a new day is dawning.

This is the already-but-not-yet tension we see so often in the New Testament.

Elsewhere the Bible talks about this as a new creation.

Though 2 Corinthians 5:17 is usually used in an individualistic sense, that each believer becomes an individual new creation in Christ, Paul has in view a bigger corporate and redemptive historical reality, that in Christ, the last Adam, the promised new creation of Isaiah 65 has already begun. Individual Jews and Gentiles who embrace Christ by faith become a part of this new creation. Paul talks about this new creation in Galatians 6:15. (Elsewhere Paul talks about the new man, new humanity, or new self [Eph 2:15; 4:24; Col 3:10], which is a closely related idea.)

These two metaphors of new creation and light breaking into darkness come together in 2 Cor 4:6:

For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

They conjure up images of the light breaking into the darkness that existed when God created the first heavens and earth.

Light and Darkness in the New Testament

I’d like to read a handful of key Scripture passages to whet your appetite for digging into this theme further.

Acts 26:17–18

I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

Romans 13:12

The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

2 Corinthians 4:4–6

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

2 Corinthians 6:14

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

Ephesians 5:8–13

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.

Colossians 1:12–14

and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

1 Thessalonians 5:4–5

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

2 Peter 1:19

We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

One of the main things you pick up in these passages is that light and darkness are two different kingdoms or domains: one where God lives and rules, the other were Satan rules.

Transition: Let’s move on now to vv. 6–10 where John shows us what it looks like to walk in the light.

2.2. Walk in the light (vv. 6–10).

This next section is highly structured. John makes six conditional statements, one false statement likely from false teaching from the secessionists followed by a true statement. So there are three pairs of statements, one incorrect and one correct.

These six statements flesh out what it looks like for saved sinners to walk in the light with the God who is light.

2.2.1. Six conditional statements

A condition is something that must happen for something else to happen.

The dictionary defines it as

a state of affairs that must exist or be brought about before something else is possible or permitted.

Conditional statements are made up of two parts: the if part (called by grammarians the protasis), and the then part (called the apodosis).

If this, then that.

The way conditional statements work, if the if clause happens, then the then clause will happen.

Parents may tell their children,

If you get out of bed again, then I will spank you.

Or an employer may tell an employee,

If you hit your target for the month, then you’ll earn that $500 bonus.

If the condition is met, then the result happens.

The Bible is full of conditional statements, with 1 John being the third-most dense with them relative to its size (with 1 Corinthians being first and James being second).

If you forgive others their offenses, then your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. (Mt 6:14)

If anyone eats of this bread, then he will live forever. (Jn 6:51)

If you continue in my word, then you are really my disciples. (Jn 8:31)

If you love me, then you will keep my commands. (Jn 14:15)

Let’s look at these three as pairs:

2.2.1. First Pair of Statements (vv. 6–7)

This first pair of statements deals with fellowship with God in the light and walking in darkness.

2.2.1.1. First False Statement (v. 6)

If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness
Then we lie and
Do not practice the truth

The false statement is that we can walk in darkness and have fellowship with God.

John says this is impossible. To say such a contradictory thing is to lie.

2.2.1.2. First Counter Statement (v. 7)

If we walk in the light as he is in the light,
Then we have fellowship with each other
The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from every sin

The truth is that we fellowship with God happens in the light, where the blood of Jesus keeps on cleansing us from our sin.

We’ll come back to this shortly, but what’s fascinating here is that John isn’t saying that there’s no sin in the light. He’s saying there’s only cleansed sin in the light.

2.2.2. Second Pair of Statements (vv. 8–9)

This second pair of statements deals with the reality of sin in the life of the believer.

2.2.2.1. Second False Statement (v. 8)

If we say that we have no sin,
We deceive ourselves
The truth is not in us

The false statement is their claim to be without guilt (which is what the expression probably means), perhaps because they thought their lesser physical existence didn’t matter.

2.2.2.2. Second Counter Statement (v. 9)

If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and righteous
to forgive us our sins
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness

The truth is that we do sin and do have real guilt, but that we can be forgiven and cleansed of our sin and guilt as we confess it to God and agree with him on it (rather than hiding it or pretending it’s not real).

Confession means to agree with God: to say what God says about our sin and to feel how God feels about our sin. Confession here is a condition to experiencing forgiveness and cleansing.

Righteous to forgive. It’s worth commenting here on the fact that John describes God’s forgiving us as righteous or just. Normally, when we think of forgiveness we think of grace and mercy. Certainly forgiveness is an act of God’s mercy and grace, but there’s also a sense in which it’s an act of his righteousness and justice. It’s right for God to forgive us, because we’re in Christ, the one who satisfied God’s wrath for our sins. In fact, it would be unjust for God to punish us for sins already forgiven in Christ.

2.2.3. Third Pair of Statements (1:10–2:1)

2.2.3.1. Third False Statement (v. 10)

If we say we have not sinned,
We make him a liar and
His word is not in us

The third false statement seems like a restatement of the second. But it’s probably slightly different. The second was the present tense “have no sin,” likely meaning not being guilty. This statement is the perfect tense “have not sinned,” may mean never having sinned. Or the former could focus on sin as an inward principle and the latter could focus on sin in its outward expression in sinful acts.

Either way, those who make this claim aren’t just liars themselves, but they’re accusing God of being a liar.

2.2.3.2. Third Counter Statement (2:1)

But if anyone does sin (and I know we will),
we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one.

It’s unclear whether John intends this to be a direct counterclaim to v. 10, because John seems to transition in the first half of v. 1. But it follows the same structure and topic, so it seems likely that John is both responding to the final false statement and transitioning into his next section.

The truth is that we will sin, but when we do we have an advocate who will represent us before the Father, ensuring our forgiveness for the sins we commit and confess.

Transition: As we bring our time to a close, I want to ask and answer a series of questions that may come up as you work through this passage.

2.2.2. What does it mean to walk in the light?

As most of us know, walking is a metaphorical picture for living. John’s talking about living our lives in the light.

Light, as we saw above, is metaphorical for truth and righteousness.

So when we put both of those metaphors together, we’re talking about living in the truth and in righteousness.

But we’re also talking about living in the presence of the source of light: God.

Walking in the light is also living in God’s presence, or as R. C. Sproul loved to put it: living our lives coram Deo.

We live in God’s presence through the Word and in prayer, by gathering with God’s people in whom he dwells, in private worship, in corporate worship, while we sit under the preaching and teaching of the Word.

Walking in the light (1:7) and walking in darkness (1:6; 2:11) are mutually exclusive. They seem to stand for two different domains, two different kingdoms. Christians have been rescued from the domain of darkness and made members of the domain of light.

John uses a few related expressions in 2 John and 3 John that may shed further light on this (no pun intended):

• “walking in truth” (2 Jn 4; 3 Jn 3, 4)
• “walk[ing] in love” (2 Jn 6)
• “walking according to his commands” (2 Jn 6)

Truth, love, and obedience to God’s commands all characterize living in God’s kingdom.

The connection between light and truth is again worth calling attention to: to walk in the light, you must be anchored in the truth.

Walking in the light, then, is living in God’s kingdom, in God’s presence, affirming God’s truth and striving to obey God’s commands.

2.2.3. Is there sin in the light?

But that raises a critically important question. What’s the relationship between walking in the light and sinning?

You might initially be inclined to associate walking in the light with not having sin and walking in the darkness with having sin. But that’s not what John says.

We might think that when we sin we leave the light and take a temporary detour over in the darkness. But that’s not how John seems to think about it.

What’s interesting is that John links walking in the light with the presence of sin, not its absence. In the light there is the acknowledging and confessing of sin; in the darkness there is the denial of sin. In both there is the presence of sin.

It’s sin-deniers who are in the darkness, and it’s sin-admitters who are in the light.

This table outlines the differences between light and darkness in our passage:

Light	Darkness
God is light (5)	[God is not darkness]
God is in the light (7)	[God is not in the darkness]
[Light is in God]	Darkness is not in God (5)
Believers are in the light (7)	Believers are not in the darkness (7)
Those who walk in the light have fellowship with other believers (7)	Those who fellowship with God cannot walk in darkness (6)
Those who walk in the light have fellowship with the Father and the Son (3)	Those who walk in darkness cannot have fellowship with God (6)
The blood of Jesus purifies from all sin those who walk in the light (7)	[The blood of Jesus doesn’t purify from all sin those who walk in darkness]
Those in the light do not claim to be without sin. (8)	Those in the darkness may claim to be without sin.
Those in the light confess their sins. (9)	Those in the darkness do not confess their sins.
Those in the light have their sins forgiven. (9)	Those in the darkness do not have their sins forgiven.
Those in the light are purified from all unrighteousness. (9)	Those in the darkness are not purified from all unrighteousness.
Those in the light do not claim to have never sinned. (10)	Those in the darkness may claim to have never sinned.

The difference between those in the light and those in the darkness isn’t the presence of sin. Sin exists in both the light and the darkness.

But what happens when we sin? Do we leave the light for the darkness and need to repent to be welcomed back into the light? That’s not the way John presents it.

To live in the light doesn’t mean we have no sin. Rather, to live in the light means to let the light expose our sin rather than to run and hide our sin or deny our sin.

It means to embrace the truth and agree with God about our sin, to let it be exposed and forgiven in the light of his presence.

Is there sin in the light? Yes, but it’s exposed, confessed, repented of, grieved over, hated, forgiven, and purified.

It’s really important that we keep this teaching about sin, confession, forgiveness, and cleansing with us as we move into the rest of the book. What John outlines here in this first chapter is the gospel at work in the normal Christian experience. As he moves into the rest of the book, he’s going to focus more on the ideal Christian experience. And it can be easy to read John as saying Christians don’t sin, and if you do sin you’re not a Christian. But this directly contradicts chapter 1, the beginning of chapter 2, and other places throughout the letter and can’t be what John means.

Transition: Our time is gone. Let’s finish with some concluding applications.

Concluding Applications

We could make many applications here, but for sake of time I’ll briefly make just four.

1. Assurance of eternal life belongs to those who believe in the Life and repent in the Light.

• Believe: Do you believe, love, and embrace the biblical doctrines of Christ, God, and salvation?
• Repent: Are you acknowledging your sin and walking in repentance by agreeing with God about your sin and experiencing the cleansing and forgiveness made possible by Christ our propitiation and advocate?

It’s not about achieving a certain level of sanctification in your spiritual life, as much as we should always be striving for greater heights of holiness. It’s about embracing the apostolic message of the person and work of Jesus and walking in presence of God and in the cleansing blood of Jesus.

If that’s you tonight, take comfort and may God wash over your soul with a deep and abiding assurance that empowers you to live for him. If that’s not you, then may God open your eyes and cause you to know this one who is Eternal Life.

2. We must study, know, love, and walk in the truth.

Doctrine matters. Truth matters. What you believe about God and Christ matters. It’s the difference between light and darkness, life and death, love and hate, heaven and hell.

Some of us are wired to doctrinal thinking. Others of us are wired to practical living. All of us are required to pursue both. Don’t underestimate the power of doctrine to fuel your living. Don’t deceive yourself that you have the right doctrine if it has no impact on your living.

Yet one must come before the other. To walk in the light, you must first be anchored in the truth.

Study the truth, know the truth, believe the truth, love the truth, so you can live in the truth.

Closely related to the last point . . .

3. Doctrinal deviation and moral downfall are inextricably linked.

Don’t think you can love Jesus without knowing and affirming who he is. But at the same time, don’t know Jesus only in your head. Love him with your heart.

Walking in the light or walking in the darkness is just as much about what you believe as how you behave. Faith in the truth and repentance toward holiness go hand in hand in the light. Falsehood and wickedness go hand in hand in the darkness.

1 John powerful connects belief and behavior, and so must we.

4. We mustn’t move beyond the teaching of Jesus and the apostles.

The last 2,000 years of church history are full of new clever ideas that distort the truth and lead to darkness and death. Some people are wired to be innovative and come up with new ideas. Most of the Christian academy depends on this kind of novelty. While there’s a place for talking about the living Word in new and fresh ways, we must guard from anything that instead of maintaining and clarifying the central truths of the faith goes beyond them to something new and supposedly “better.”

Beware of those who claim the church has got it wrong and needs some new revelation or new insight that wasn’t passed from Jesus to the apostles to the church.

Beware of letting your heart and mind be enamored with the clever and the cute. Anchor your soul to the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

Let’s pray.

Prayer

Father, thank you for the rich and glorious message about Jesus, the eternal life, and the gift of κοινωνία with you, of living in your presence forgiven and cleansed and assured of your love and our eternal home in your family. What amazing and undeserved grace. Please apply these truths deep into our hearts and minds and use them to encourage, convict, assure, and save for your glory and our good. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.