John wrote his first epistle from the city of Ephesus. It helps to understand this epistle if you know something about the city of Ephesus at the beginning of the second century. There were four important factors that were in play in Ephesus and throughout the Roman world when John wrote this letter.
1) The Christian faith had become tarnished.
Many of the believers were children and grandchildren of the first Christians. The new and bright sheen of the Christian faith had become tarnished. Like a new car or home, the newness had worn off. The thrill and glory of the first days had faded.
2) There was a breakdown of the Judeo-Christian ethics and a disregard of Bible standards.
The high standards of Christianity called for Christians to be different. The children and grandchildren of the first Christians did not want to be different. The new generation of Ephesians had become "cookie-cutter" Christians--Christians in name only. They were ignoring the rule of God in their lives.
3) Persecution was no longer the enemy of Christianity (ref. Stephen - Acts 7:59; James - Acts 12:2).
The Ephesian church was not in danger from outside persecution but inside seduction. Both Jesus and Paul warned this would happen:
(Acts 20:29 NKJV) "For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
(Acts 20:30 NKJV) "Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.
Christianity was not in danger of being destroyed; it was in danger of being changed. The attempt was being made to improve it, to make it respectable.
Today this is happening before our very eyes.
* Christians are refraining from preaching repentance from sin, faith in Christ and separation from the world. Instead preachers are content with teaching about
How to be successful in life, as in Joel Osteen’s bestseller, “Your Best Life Now.”
* Pastors and teachers are drifting away from teaching the Bible as the supreme standard for living and rule of faith for one's life. Instead they are espousing their own opinions.
* Church folk are no longer learning about the holiness of God but are having their ears tickled with doctrines concerning the dominion and godhood of man.
* Church music no longer has a common theme of exalting the saving and redemptive work of Christ on the Cross but focuses on the writer's superficial experiences in life.
At the time of the writing of 1st John,, the Christian faith had become tarnished. There was a disregard of Bible standards. Persecution was no longer the enemy of Christianity.
4) A false teaching called Gnosticism was the real enemy of Christianity.
Last time we learned that the term gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, meaning "knowledge." Gnosticism is a philosophy which centers on a search for higher knowledge.
The Gnostics taught that this knowledge was not intellectual knowledge but a knowledge which the ordinary Christian was incapable of attaining.
Gnostics believed that locked within the material shell of the human race is the divine spark of this highest spiritual reality which the unskillful creator accidentally infused into humanity at the creation — on the order of a drunken jeweler who accidentally mixes gold dust into junk metal.
The only hope for humanity is to acquire the information it needs to perfect itself and evolve out of its current physical state.
These doctrines of course impacted their view of God and Christ. When it came to Christianity, the Gnostics split into factions on the subject of Christ being God in the flesh:
The Docetic Gnostics
Denied the humanity of Jesus. The word docetic comes from the Greek word dokeo, "to seem." They believed that it was impossible for God, who was spirit and good to become flesh, which was matter and evil, in the person of Jesus Christ. They taught that Jesus seemed to have a body.
The Cerinthian Gnostics
Followers of Cerinthus, they separated the man Jesus from the aeon, the power of Christ. They believed that when the dove came down on Jesus at His baptism, the power of Christ came and rested on the man Jesus. This power then departed before His death on the Cross. So it was simply the "man" Jesus who died, not Jesus Christ, God in the flesh.
These Gnostic heresies denied that God became man and walked this earth in the person of Jesus Christ to bring redemption and salvation to mankind. Having eliminated Jesus Christ as the only way to God, the Gnostics believed they could make their own way to God through the pursuit of knowledge. Thus John writes to combat this error.
There are forms of Gnosticism prevalent in our society today.
The movie The Matrix attempts to portray life from a Gnostic point of view. The movie's characters find a kind of salvation in discovering secret knowledge and in realizing that the world is not what it appears to be. Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, becomes a Gnostic messiah, one chosen to be a guide out of the illusion of the matrix.
There are cults like the Jehovah's Witnesses who do not believe that Jesus was God manifested in the flesh. They do not believe that Jesus experienced a bodily resurrection from the dead. They believe His was just a "spirit" resurrection.
Even among those who refer to themselves as evangelical Christians, there are those who teach that one can come into a special knowledge or "revelation" of the truth that the average Christian may not ever obtain.
In 1st John the writer sets the record straight about who Jesus is and how one might have fellowship with Him.
Last time we learned that John and the other disciples were rejoicing that they had come to experience fellowship with the almighty, formally unapproachable God. His first letter was written so that we could know that God has now come in the flesh and that we now can have fellowship with Jesus, the God-man! (1:4)
After John explains his reason for writing his letter he writes:
(1 John 1:5 NKJV) This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
Heard - (present tense) - completed in time past, having present results. John is in essence saying, "What we heard in the past… is presently ringing in our ears."
From Him -they heard this message from Jesus Christ.
That God is light - When John uses the imagery of God as "light" he is communicating several things about God.
John is letting his readers know of God's self-revelation. God has revealed Himself! (cf. John 8:12; 9:5; 12:35, 36).
The truth of the matter is that if God hadn't revealed Himself to us, we would still be groping about in the darkness. However, Jesus said in John 8:12, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."
The Bible says that we did not reach out for God; He first reached out to us. 1 John 4:19, "We love Him because He first loved us." Because man is not inclined to seek after God, God had to take the first step towards a relationship with man by disclosing or revealing Himself to us.
When John writes “God is light” not only is he letting us know that God has revealed Himself, he is telling us something about God's holiness.
The word "light" (phos) in the Greek text is without the article. The rule of Greek grammar is that the absence of the definite article shows quality, nature, or essence. John is saying here that “God is the light;” he is saying that God is light. He is letting us know that "God as to His nature, essence and character is light." (Wuest)
The context in which we are reading these things concerns spiritual things. So we know that John is not writing about physical light. The light John is referring to is ethical, spiritual and moral.
John writes that God is light. He is saying that God is ethically, spiritually and morally pure. He is without sin; He is holy.
Why is it today that so many people have a problem with God and His ways? It is because God is light; He is holy. If you are someone who is practicing sin you do not like to be around anything that represents the light that God is.
In his Gospel narrative John writes, “And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” (John 3:19-20 NKJV)
This reminds me of my teenage days in the world--going to the parties that were held in the basement of someone’s house.
* The lights were turned down low or turned off altogether.
* A black light was hung up, where you can see the lint on your clothes.
* The slow-dragging music would be played and we would be doing our “thang.”
“Always and forever, Each moment with you, Is just like a dream to me, That somehow came true, yeah
And I know tomorrow, Will still be the same, Cuz we got a life of love, That won't ever change and…”
That is, until someone turned on the lights.
* The girls would push themselves away from the boys while straightening their clothes.
* People would be embarrassed when they realized how the person they were dancing with really looked in the light.
* Everyone would be yelling, “Turn off the light!!!”
John writes, "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” This is so true today.
You see, the Word of God is light and it brings conviction to those practicing evil because the light exposes the darkness of their lives.
The light of the Word exposes the evilness of the human heart. Hebrews 4:12-13 says, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”
When John writes, "God is light" he is making a statement concerning the absolute nature of God.
God is not a light nor the light. John is not saying here as in other places about Jesus that He is the light of men or the light of the world, but simply and absolutely, God is light, in His very nature.
The expression, God is light, is not a metaphor, such as God is like light. The expression, God is light is describing His very nature.
In the Old Testament, light was often the way that God visibly revealed Himself to men.
It was the first manifestation of God in creation. Genesis 1:1-3 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.”
When Moses returned from receiving the Law of God the people noticed that he had been with God who is light. Moses’ face radiated after he spent time with God (Exodus 34:29-30)
When God delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, He led them with a pillar of fire by night and a radiant pillar of cloud by day. (Exodus 13:21)
John says that "God is light." Light is the absolute nature of God.
Why is John teaching all of this?
Remember the Gnostics? They were the false teachers who believed matter to be evil, the spirit good, and salvation to come by secret knowledge (gnosis) granted to those who were part of their clique.
John is teaching all of this to combat a heresy circulated by the Gnostics called Antinomianism.
"What is antinomianism?" Antinomianism comes from the Greek words "anti" against, and "nomos"--"against law".
Antinomians believed in freedom from the obligation to obey the Moral Law to be saved. They took the words of Paul in the book of Romans, "You are not under the Law, but under Grace" (Romans 6:14) and twisted it to mean if you are a Christian, you can live anyway you want, because of God's grace.
They believed, "The more you sin, the more you have God's grace; so abstaining from sin is not all that important because God's grace is sufficient."
There are Christians who have been taught that they are not under the Law but under grace—and this is true. But there are those who go further and teach that the Law no longer has relevance.
Because they have a low regard for the commandments of God they live licentiously. They recklessly trample over the moral and righteous boundaries the commandments of God erect for our protection.
They forget that while the law cannot save it is still holy. Paul writes in Romans 7:12, "Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good."
They sin presumptuously and have forgotten that Jude warned of "ungodly men, (who were) turning the grace of our God into unbridled lust" (Jude 4).
In Romans chapter six Paul writes, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (vs. 1-2)
Even today there are those who would use the grace of God as a pretext for careless behavior.
There is a song that has these words:
Don't look at me if you're looking for perfection
Don't look at me I will only let you down
I'll do my best to point you in the right direction
Don't look at me, look at Him
How many times have you heard someone dissing a Christian for not acting “Christianly” and you in defense say, “Keep your eyes on Jesus, He won’t disappoint you.”? Related to this is the bumper sticker that says something like: Christians aren't perfect; they're just forgiven.
We don't want people getting the wrong idea about Jesus by looking at our lives. The only problem with this view is that it attempts to absolve or release us of the responsibility to live holy.
The truth of the matter is that people are looking at us; they are watching us. And rather than making excuses for our sinful behavior we need to be apologizing to the world for it because this one of the primary ways God has ordained that they are introduced to Jesus Christ.
(Mat 5:16 NKJV) "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
(2 Cor 5:20 NKJV) Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us…
(Phil 2:14-15 NKJV) Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
Could this be why some Christians do not let people know that they are a Christian? If people knew you and I were Christians—they would begin to take notice of how we live our lives.
The Antinomians believed, "The more you sin the more you have God's grace; so don’t worry about trying to stop sinning because God's grace is sufficient."
In our text John combats the Gnostics who teach antinomianism by making two points:
God is Light, and darkness in Him does not exist, not even one bit (vs.5)
In the Bible, the prophet Habakkuk knew something about the holiness of God. Under Habakkuk's ministry, Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon attacked Jerusalem and took hostages, including Daniel.
God would use Babylon to punish His people. This confused Habakkuk who asked God, "How can You withhold Your judgment upon wicked Babylon?" The perplexed Habakkuk would write:
“Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You cannot look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor on those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they?” (Hab 1:13 NASB)
God would tell Habakkuk later on in his book, "I know what I am doing":
“For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.” (Hab 2:3-4 NKJV)
In other words God is telling Habakkuk that He doesn't wink His eye at sin. He is saying in effect, “I am going to judge all sin. Don’t you worry, the Babylonians will one day be judged for their sin.”
This was the truth the Apostle John was communicating to those who were tempted to believe the Gnostic doctrine of antinomianism --God's nature demands that He judge sin. "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all." God must deal with sin.
This leads us to the second reason John writes that “God is light.”
If we say that we fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we are liars and don’t practice the truth. (vs. 6)
John includes himself with his readers and states a hypothetical case. He is in essence saying, "Let's say, for example, there is a person who says that he can live anyway he wants and still have fellowship with God."
Remember the word fellowship here is the Greek word, koinonia, meaning, "a joint participation with someone else in things held common by both."
John wants his readers to consider the impossibility of anyone who disregards the commandments of God having fellowship with God who is Light and whose nature is manifested physically in His glory
Is it impossible for one who lives in a constant state of immorality to have fellowship with God who is Light and whose nature is manifested morally by His holiness.
Is it not possible for one who lives in a constant state of immorality to have fellowship with God who is Light and whose nature is manifested intellectually in His truth.
This is why John writes in verse 6, If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
There is no koinonia between the one who walks in darkness and God who is Light.
There is nothing shared with God and this person because there are no things held common by both.
By the way, this truth is applied on a horizontal plane with it comes to the Christian’s fellowship with other people:
2 Cor 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?
2 Cor 6:15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial ? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
2 Cor 6:16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."
2 Cor 6:17 "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."
2 Cor 6:18 "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."
One cannot have fellowship with God and at the same time walk in darkness. Why? Because one cannot walk in darkness and have fellowship with God who is light; there is not one hint of darkness in God.
The word “walk” in verse 6 is peripateo, per-ee-pat-eh'-o and means to tread all around, i.e. walk at large. This person orders his behavior, conducts himself in the sphere of the darkness of sin while at the same time claiming to have fellowship with God.
The verb "walks" speaks of habitual action in the Greek. Thus this person is sinning habitually and continuously which shows that he is an unsaved person.
We see these kinds of people all the time. They do not practice the kinds of things that Christians are called in the Bible to practice; yet they call themselves a Christians.
They do not regularly go to church to worship God along with other believers.
They do not give their time to God.
They do not offer their money to God.
They do not use their talents toward building up God’s kingdom.
They live in sin.
Their homes do not honor God.
They are not training up their children in the things of the Lord
Their behaviors consist of sexual immorality, impurity and dishonesty; idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy and drunkenness and yet they say they are a Christian.
Chapter two addresses this in more detail:
(1 John 2:4 NKJV) He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
(1 John 2:5 NKJV) But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
(1 John 2:6 NKJV) He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
There was the story of a woman who was invited to a Bible conference and got saved. Within a week she got baptized, joined a church and started serving.
One day one of her "old flames" called and invited her out to a fashion show. At the show she noticed that people were drinking, dancing to sensual music and scantily dressed. She also noticed that her friend was ok with what was going on that evening.
Before she got saved, her evening at the fashion show would have been "business as usual.” But now she was different; she had trusted Jesus as her Lord and Savior and was attempting to live for Him.
But her friend was not changed. He is the kind of person that the Apostle John in his epistle was writing about. This man walks at large in the arena of sin. He orders his behavior, conducts himself according to the darkness of sin.
The difference between the genuine Christian and the man described in 1 John 1:6 is that he is walking in the darkness of sin while at the same time professing to have fellowship with God and I dare go past this place without asking, "Are there any among us who are like this man?"
John wants us to know that "if we say that we have fellowship with Him (God) and yet order our behavior and conduct ourselves in the sphere of darkness, we are liars and do not practice the truth."
If we say that we have koinonia with Him or "a joint participation God in things held common" and yet walk in darkness we are liars.
One day as I was studying I was drinking some grape juice and noticed that it tasted funny. I looked at the bottle and found that it was not grape juice at all. The label said, "Tropicana Grape" on it in bold letters but the fine print said, "Flavored juice beverage from concentrate." It wasn't grape juice at all but a counterfeit—it was sweetened water, flavored and colored to look and taste like grape juice.
Like this beverage, much of what is called “Christianity” is a water-down version of the Gospel truth.
Many have been conditioned into thinking that all they have to do is say a prayer and then they're in.
All they have to do is get baptized and then they are in.
If your name is on the church membership roll you are in.
We are teaching a "gospel" that is high on grace but low on holiness. It stresses the love and forgiveness of God but fizzles out when it comes to the Lordship or authority of Jesus Christ over our lives.
How does one prove they are a Christian? John says this person consistently walks in the light. This has nothing to do with sinless perfection like the Gnostics were claiming.
In Luke 15 Jesus relates the parable of the Prodigal Son. This son asked for an early inheritance from his father. He spent all his money in riotous living and ended up in a pigpen eating pig food.
Now tell me, what is the difference between a Christian and a pig (Don’t say lipstick!)
A Christian doesn’t stay in the pigpen. This “son” humbled himself and returned to his father who threw a party and celebrated his son’s return home.
Are you living in the pig pen today?
In Galatians chapter 5 Paul leaves us with a description of the one who lives the pig pen life:
Gal 5:19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
Gal 5:20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
Gal 5:21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But Paul goes on to describe the life of the one who walks in the light. This fruit of God’s Spirit is evident in this person’s life:
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gal 5:23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Gal 5:24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
There may be one among us who has come to the conclusion as a result of hearing God’s Word that they have been living in a pig pen. They’ve been walking in the darkness of sin. They’ve been missing out on the sweet fellowship with God who is light.
In 1 John 1:8-9 John writes, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Biblical confession is “saying the same thing.” It is saying the same thing that God says about your sin. It is admitting that you have done something that God has condemned.
When you and I confess our sins before God, the Bible says that “He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
What is keeping you from receiving God’s forgiveness and cleansing from sin right now?
