What a marvelous and sublime Epistle that we are studying! First John was probably written during the last decade of the first century. The author of I John was the Apostle John, a member of the inner circle of Jesus Christ. John, the beloved, was the author of I, II, and III John, along with the Gospel of John and the book of Revelation. In the Gospel of John, the Apostle gave unto us a historical account of Jesus’ signs that was intended to promote faith (St. John 20:31). However, the first epistle of John is doctrinal and personal. The mere atmosphere of I John differed from the atmosphere of earlier New Testament epistles.
The trend of severe persecution of Christians had calmed down. However, a more subtle enemy had crept within the church. False teaching about the Person of Christ had produced harm to the church’s doctrinal foundations, thus producing moral laxity that undermined the church’s witness. In view of the prevalence of false teaching, the Apostle John will draw a great distinction between truth and error, light and darkness, love and hate, and life and death. I John 1:1-10 may be outlined as follows: I. The Foundation of True Fellowship – I John 1:1-7; II. The Condition for True Fellowship – I John 1:8-10.
I. The Foundation of True Fellowship – I John 1:1-7
The grand Apostle John begins this epistle by drawing our attention to “that which was from the beginning, the Word of life” (v. 1). John is speaking explicitly about the “Word of Life” who is Jesus Christ. He is informing us that Christ existed further back than our minds can fathom. The Word, the incarnate expression of God (St. John 1:14, 18) is the same “Word of Life” in I John 1:1. This “Word of Life” is presented in St. John 1:1 as having had a pre-existence with the Father, for St. John 1:1-2 says – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.”
In verse 1 of I John 1, John and the other apostles had personally experienced the incarnate presence of Christ. They had “heard” His wonderful teaching and “seen” Him with clear perception and understanding. They had “looked upon” Him with an intense inspection, and had “handled” Him, that is, touched His body before and after His resurrection.
In verse 2, the Apostle John portrayed Christ as the personification of life, who had been with the Father. Christ who had been with the Father, was manifested to mankind visibly. What a blessing – the incarnate Son became visible to mankind! (St. John 1:14). Both John and the other apostles had seen the incarnate Christ and they were bearing witness of it as they proclaimed it to others. John spoke of the life in Jesus as “eternal life.”
In verses 3 and 4, John presented a two-fold purpose for proclaiming Jesus as the “Word of Life” – to produce fellowship in verse 3, and “that your joy may be full” (v. 4). The fellowship that we experience as children of God is based on a higher fellowship that is “with the Father, and with Jesus Christ” (v. 3). Also in verse 4, John informed us that we can experience the fullness of joy. As children of God yielded to the Holy Spirit, we can experience the fullness of joy in our earthly experience! An unbeliever may have superficial happiness, but a yielded saint of God can experience unspeakable joy!
The Apostle John, the writer of this grand epistle, had asserted that he was writing about things he had heard, seen and touched. Now in verse 5, he conveyed unto us a message that he had heard, stating emphatically that “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.” This statement brings to bear the truth that “God is Holy.” As Light, God reveals mankind’s sin and condemns it! A believer cannot truly claim communion or fellowship with Him while living in abject darkness.
In verse 6, a Christian who says that he is in fellowship with God (who is “Light”) but who is walking contrary to Him (walking “in the darkness”) is lying, for he is not practicing the truth! His life contradicts what he professes! Verse 7 unfolds that there are two things said of believers who walk in the light: (a) they are in fellowship with God and (b) they are under the cleansing blood of Christ.
II. The Condition for True Fellowship – I John 1:8-10
In verse 8, because fellowship with God can be broken for a child of God, there are provisions for the continuation of fellowship. The provision for the fellowship is confession. In verse 8, there were false teachers who were asserting that they did not have an innate tendency to sin. However, the Apostle John stated – If we claim that the principle of sin was absent from our lives, the “truth is not in us.”
As believers, when we confess our sins in verse 9, we have God’s promise that He will “forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The word “confess” means to agree with. When we come to God this way, He is faithful and just to forgive. God forgives when we genuinely confess our sin and cleanses us of the stain it left in our life!
In verse 10, some may scorn confession, claiming “We have not sinned.” However, if some assert this claim, “we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (v. 10). We are implying that God lied when He told us that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 2:23; I Kings 8:46).
May God Bless!
Dr. Johnny Calvin Smith
