Tom Lowe
AUTHOR
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Text-1 John, Chapter 1 (KJV)
The Word of Life
(Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-23)
1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) 3That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
Walking in the Light
(John 8:12-30)
5This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
INTRODUCTION TO 1 JOHN
Author
The author is John, son of Zebedee—the apostle and the author of the Gospel of John and Revelation. He was a fisherman, one of Jesus’ inner circle (together with James and Peter), and “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (Jn 13:23). He may have been a first cousin of Jesus (his mother may have been Salome, possibly a sister of Mary.
Unlike most NT letters, 1 John does not tell us who its author is. The earliest identification of him comes from the church fathers: Irenaeus (a.d. 140–203), Clement of Alexandria (a.d. 150–215), Tertullian (a.d. 155–222), and Origen (a.d. 185–253), and all designated the writer as the apostle John. As far as we know, no one else was suggested by the early Church.
Date
The letter is difficult to date with precision, but indications of the advanced age of John suggest the end of the first century. Since the author of 1 John seems to build on concepts and themes found in the Fourth Gospel (see 1 Jn 2:7–11), it is reasonable to date the letter somewhere between a.d. 85 and 95, after the writing of the Gospel, which may have been written in a.d. 85.
Recipients
1Jn 2:12–14,19; 3:1; 5:13 make it clear that this letter was addressed to believers. However, the letter itself does not indicate who they were or where they lived. It mentions that no one by name suggests a circular letter sent to Christians in several places.
Gnosticism
One of the most dangerous heresies of the first two centuries of the Church was Gnosticism. Its central teaching was that spirit is entirely good, and matter is entirely evil. From this unbiblical polarity flowed five critical errors:
1. The human body, which is matter, is therefore evil. It is to be contrasted with God, who is wholly spirit and therefore good.
2. Salvation is the escape from the body, achieved not by faith in Christ but by special knowledge.
3. Christ’s true humanity was denied in two ways: (1) Some said that Christ only seemed to have a body, and (2) others said that the divine Christ joined the man Jesus at baptism and left him before he died.
4. Since the body was considered evil, it was to be treated harshly. This grim form of Gnosticism is the background of part of the letter to the Colossians (see Col 2:21,23).
5. Illogically, this dualism also led to decadence. The reasoning was that since matter—and not the breaking of God’s law (1Jn 3:4)—was considered evil, breaking his law was of no moral consequence.
Occasion and Purpose
John’s readers were confronted with an early form of Gnostic teaching of the Cerinthian variety (A Christian heretic whose errors led the apostle John to write his New Testament Gospel.). This heresy was also degrading, throwing off all moral restraints.
Consequently, John wrote this letter with two primary purposes in mind: (1) to expose false teachers (see 2:26 and (2) to give believers assurance of salvation (see 5:13).
COMMENTARY
1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life1;
“That which was from the beginning,” by which is intended the Lord Jesus Christ who in his divine nature existed as a divine person, as the everlasting Jehovah, the eternal I AM, which is, and was, and is to come, and existed “from the beginning”; before John the Baptist was; yea, before the prophets, before Abraham, and before Adam, and before all creatures, from the beginning of time, and of the creation of the world, is the Maker of all things, even from everlasting; or God’s elect chosen in him before the foundation of the world, and they have grace and blessings given them in him before the world began.
“which we have heard”; This, with what follows, proves him to be truly and man; for when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among men, the apostles heard, and saw, and handled him; they not only heard a voice from heaven, declaring him to be the Son of God, but they often heard him speak, both in private conversation with them, and in his public ministry; they heard his many excellent discourses on the mount, and elsewhere, and those that were primarily delivered to them a little before his death; and blessed were they on this account, Matthew 13:16.
“which we have seen with our eyes:” with the eyes of the body, with their own, and not another’s; and they saw him in human nature, and performing the everyday actions of life, such as eating, drinking, walking. Furthermore, his many miracles; they saw him raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, restore sight to the blind, cause the lame to walk, the dumb to speak, and the deaf to hear; and they saw him transfigured on the mount. John was present at that time and saw his glory, as he also was when he hung upon the cross, and saw him bleeding, gasping, and dying. They saw him after his resurrection from the dead, he showed himself to them alive, and was seen by them forty days; they saw him go up to heaven, and a cloud receiving Him out of their sight:
“which we have looked upon;” wisely and intently, once and again, and a thousand times, and with the utmost pleasure and delight; and knew him perfectly.
“and our hands have handled of the Word of life ; as Peter did when Jesus caught him by the hand on the water when he was just ready to sink; and as this apostle did, when he leaned on his bosom; and as Thomas did, even after his resurrection, when he thrust his hand into his side; and as all the apostles were called upon to see and handle him, that it was he, and not a spirit, which has not flesh and bones as he had. Now as this is said of Christ, the Word of life, who is so-called, because he has life in himself, as God, as the Mediator, and as man, and is the author of life, natural, spiritual, and eternal, it must be understood as he, the Word, is made manifest in the flesh; for he, as the Word, or as a divine person, or as considered in his divine nature, is not
to be seen nor handled: this, therefore, is spoken of the Word, or the person of Christ, God-man, with respect to his human nature, as united to the Logos, or Word of God; and so is a proof of the truth and reality of his human nature, by several of the senses.
Notice: John starts from the very “beginning,” referring to Jesus (1 John 1:3). Jesus is God and was in the beginning with God (John 1:1). Similar to the opening passages of Genesis and the Gospel of John, 1 John starts with a clear connection between Jesus and God the Father as the beginning of all things. John also refers to the idea of Jesus coming to earth as a flesh-and-blood man (1 John 1:2), which is a critical part of the Gospel.
John was closely connected with Jesus. He was a personal witness to Jesus’ earthly ministry. John was one of the closest followers of Jesus. He heard Him teach, saw Him before and after the resurrection, and touched Him with his own hands. John was the last surviving apostle, and so he spoke with an authority few could match. John further calls Jesus the,” a phrase used elsewhere only in Philippians 2:16. “word of life.”
The “Word of life” is the Lord Jesus. Moreover, the ‘Word of life’ also means the message of the Gospel. John wrote about the Lord Jesus. Furthermore, he wrote about the life that Jesus gives. This life is for those who believe. The Word produces life. This is about the good news of Jesus Christ, who is the life.
The Word that is the Lord Jesus always existed. He was alive before time and before the world began. Christ and the message of life came from God. This was God’s purpose from before creation. The Lord Jesus came into the world to achieve this purpose.
John and those who were with him knew the Lord Jesus. They had heard what he said. They had listened to what he taught. They were with him. They saw him. They watched him. They saw all that he did. They lived with him for three years. They knew that Jesus was a real human person.
Some people denied that God came as a human person. Nevertheless, he did come. He is Jesus Christ. John says that they have had an authentic experience of him. Jesus Christ was God with them here on earth.
2. (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
The expression “Word of life1” is the climax of v. 1 and this following verse is a parenthesis explaining this expression. V 1 is about the humanity of Christ; v.2 is a statement about His deity. He is the Word of life, and life was manifested.
Compare the facts stated here with John’s Gospel:
John 1 1 John 1
In the beginning, was the Word Word of life
In Him was life The eternal life
The life was the light of men God is light
The light shineth in the darkness Some walk in darkness
The darkness comprehended it not Others walk in the light
John 3:16 1 John 4:8, 16
God so loved the world God is love
It is interesting to note that divine revelation is first of all “God is light” (See above with Gen. 1:3) and afterward, “God is love.” Men try to reverse the order to their eternal undoing.
The verse reaffirms the statement of v. 1 and intimates John’s desire to communicate these facts to the saints. The manifestation of life was a consequence of the incarnation of the Word but did not coexist with it.
That which was manifested was the eternal life (“the life, the eternal, the life of eternity, the life of the ages”). One thinks back into the eternal past (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:2), and He is there, gazes forward to the eternal future (1 Cor. 15:22; Rev. 21:3-6), and He is there: “from everlasting to everlasting thou art God” (Ps. 90:2; “They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail” (Heb. 1:11-12). The Spirit of God addresses these lovely words to the Son of God-the life of eternity.
3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Eternal life means divine and human fellowship. The life of eternity is to abide in love (3:11-18; 4:7-5:2), and it can be lived only in community. Thus fellowship is both the goal and the source of the proclaiming of the Christian message. Human nature is made for fellowship. Man seeks fellowship on various levels of self-interest, hobbies, cultural tastes, intellectual interests, political affiliation, patriotic loyalty, causes of social goodwill. However, the fellowship of men with God and with one another through Christ is the richest fellowship and alone fulfills the purpose of life as fellowship: “so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Mat. 5:45). Individual religion is a contradiction in terms. Our spiritual life is inevitably mutual. Mysticism has its place in Christian life, but the most mystical of Christians-the author of this epistle-does not err when he habitually uses the plural “we,” which together with “us” and “ours” appears twelve times in these four verses alone). Divine human fellowship of believers with one another in Christ constitutes the true fellowship of the Church and exposes, by contrast, cheap forms of so-called fellowship in which churches “specialize.” Too often, churches are little more than religious clubs whose fellowship consists of entertainments, friendly smiles, and diffused geniality. The true nature of the Churches fellowship is portrayed in Jesus’ metaphor of the vine and the branches (John 15:1-6) and Paul’s figure of the body (Ro. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12). The true mark of the Churches fellowship is self-sacrificing love manifest in mutual service, prayer, labor, helpfulness (3:16-18; 5:15-16).
4. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
Just as the proclamation of the Good News was for others to join the fellowship (1:3), John was writing these things to encourage the readers’ participation in both the fellowship and the joy that he (John) and the other believers were experiencing. Proclamation produces fellowship. Fellowship produces joy. John’s joy would be full {complete) if his readers remained in the fellowship and did not wander off into false teaching. John, caretaker of the churches and spiritual Father to many of those in and around Ephesus, would only be able to experience “a complete joy” if his children were experiencing the blessing of fellowship with one another and with God.
In Gal. 5:22, joy is a fruit or bi-product of the Holy Spirit’s work in believers’ lives. Joy also comes from harmonious relationships among believers (Acts 13:52; Phil. 2:2).
(1 John 1:5, 6) Light represents what is good, pure, true, holy, and reliable. Darkness represents sin and evil. To say “God is light” means that God is perfectly holy and true and that He is the only one that can guide us out of the darkness of sin. God is also related to sin. Light is also related to truth in that it exposes whatever exists, whether it is good or bad. In the dark, good and evil look alike; in the light, they can be distinguished. Just as darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, sin cannot exist in the presence of a holy God. If we want to have a relationship with God, we must put aside our sinful ways of living. To claim that relationship but live for ourselves is hypocrisy. God will expose and judge every deed.
5. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
Here is a link back to v. 1, “we heard.” They had heard such an abundance of teaching from the person of Christ, and they had seen in Him and in His life the living exposition of all He taught. The central impression that gripped their souls was “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” What the apostles taught they heard directly from the Lord Jesus; they did not receive it from others. One would have thought that from an apostle commonly called the “apostle of love,” the message would have been “God is love,” but one has to wait until 4:8, 16 before John uses this expression. There he does not call it “the message.” Indeed, “God is light” (1:5), “God is love” (4:8, 16), “God is Spirit” (John 4:24). Is this not in harmony with the whole body of divine revelation? In Gen. 1, God said: “Let there be light” (v. 3), and the remainder of the chapter reveals God in Souverinty. Ch. 2 shows the kindness of the Lord God in His care for man but in ch. 3; in God’s attitude toward the sinful pair, we learn that God is love. Again in John’s Gospel, we read, “In Him was life and the life was the light of men (v. 4). Shall we not say that we have to wait until the great gospel text of 3:16 to learn that “God so loved,” that “God is love”? After that, the order is life, light, love in both Gospel and epistle.
Moreover, we are saved, brought near Him, where we are taken into fellowship with the God who loves us. This is the message associated with the fellowship into which we have been brought. It is a fellowship with the God who is light and in whom there is no darkness at all. Every child of God, every born-again person, is in this fellowship: no one is excluded. We are in a living, dynamic relationship and communion with Himself, the God who is light. How awe-inspiring this is, how awful that each of us, saved by grace, stands exposed to the blaze of light of the divine being (See Isa 6:1; Luke 5:8). This all-seeing, all-piercing eye of God, who is the center of our fellowship, searches and exposes every sin, every stain, every shortcoming. I am not referring to unsaved men and women, but believers, to those in the fellowship and, therefore, in the light. They are saved, forgiven (judicially), justified, and sure of heaven, but they will still have sin within and sins in their lives; positionally, they are right for eternity; alas, they sin so often. If the seraphim cover their faces and their feet, as they cry “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” before the revelation of such a God, how much more should we, before the God to whom we have been brought nearer by far than they. The light of the divine being shines upon us. In the light of such extreme holiness, we are completely exposed. Doesn’t this remind us of the words of Jacob, “And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; I knew it not. Moreover, he was afraid and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:16, 17)?
6. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
False teachers who thought the body was evil or worthless had one of two approaches to behavior; either they insisted on denying bodily desires through rigid discipline, or they approved of gratifying every physical lust because the body was going to be destroyed anyway. The second approach was more popular! Here John exposes the error in both these approaches. Faith is not real unless it results in changed lives and good works, and people are not true believers if they continue to live in sin. Furthermore, the body itself is not evil, for Jesus, Himself had a human body.
7. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Our sincerity rather than our works brings us toward the light and into fellowship with God and with one another. This candid view of things leads us to recognize our insufficiency and welcome the assurance of cleansing. These traditional formulas bearing upon Christ’s expiation of sin (2:2, 4:9-10, 5:6, 11) were more than formulas. It is evident when we see how the ideas of washing and purging evoke gratitude and emotion in the Gospel of John, particularly 13:10 and 15:23. This same feeling of value appears in 3:1 of this epistle. “See what love the Father has given us.” In 1:7, the work of Christ is brought into relation with the continuing sin of Christians (5:16a), and the word “all” is to be understood in this context.
The way to bring men into fellowship with God is to proclaim-as John proclaims (“This is the message”)-the blessedness of walking in the light. Such blessedness includes fellowship with one another. Men enjoy the deepest levels of friendship only when they live without deception and are willing to be known to one another as they are in their faults and sins as in their virtues and goodness. Only in God’s light revealed in Christ can men be delivered from the curse of racial pride and national self-righteousness. Christian fellowship above all is possible only among those who believe in a God of pure goodness and who accept the obligation-despite their failures-to be good like Him.
8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
John attacked the second claim of the false teachers (also see 1:6 and 1:10): that people could have no sin. The false teachers refused to take sin seriously. In saying that they have no sin, they may have said that they did not need Jesus’ death on the cross. They may have considered that Jesus’ death abolished all sin, including the ability to sin, or they may have been teaching the false notion that the spirit and body are entirely separate and that whatever a person does in the body does not affect the spirit.
John explained that those who believe the possibility of human sinlessness are fooling themselves and refusing to accept the truth as expressed in God’s word. The truth of God’s word does not change: people are sinful. Though Jesus condemned sin once for all, Christians still sin.
9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just2 to forgive3 us our sins, and to cleanse3 us from all unrighteousness.
In contrast, in the light, exposed to the light recognizes both the principle and the practice of sin in life and recognizes that while nothing can break the fellowship, sin and sins can, and do, mar the enjoyment of it. Sin is always grievous to God and brings a cloud between God and us. The exercised heart will not be content to know only that blood cleanses from all sin but will want to know how troubling the conscience may be removed. The person mentioned in v. 8 denies the presence of sin; the person of v. 10 denies the practice of sin, but the person described in v. 10 denies the practice of sin; but the believer who is before us in this verse recognizes the existence of both and desires the restoration of the joy of fellowship, to know again the smile of the Father against Whom he has sinned. In Ps. 32, David has sinned and for a while has sought to hide his sin, with the unhappy results described in Vv. 3, 4; however, when convicted by the Holy Spirit through the words of the prophet, he says, “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou “ forgavest the iniquity of my sin” (v. 5). The entire psalm should be meditated upon prayerfully along with Ps. 51. In these, we may learn what true confession is. “If we confess . . . he is faithful” implies that the confessing is to God. The acknowledgment of specific sins gives evidence of sincerity.” Generalizations will not do.
The Forgiver is described as “faithful and just.” Righteousness is the state of being right; in His faithfulness, He is consistent with His character; in acting righteously, he is faithful to His name. He does not look lightly upon sin, does not gloss over our transgressions.
Our sins (i.e., believer’s sins) are already forgiven judicially (see 2:12, “because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake”); we already have redemption, “through His blood,’ the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7). We received this blessing the moment we believed. Forgiveness is total and entire; it embraces past, present, and future sins; it is absolute, complete, and eternal-make no mistake about it. God is now our Judge and our Father and, as such, delights in forgiving His children.
Having been forgiven by our Father, we need His help to not fall again in the future. Therefore, the One who forgives us will cleanse us from all unrighteous, preventing us from committing again those things which are inconsistent with His character and causes grieving to His heart. Therefore, the One who forgives us henceforth will cleanse us from unrighteousness into righteousness: “He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Ps. 23:3). While remission has to do with sinful acts, cleansing from unrightness has to do with the personal character of the saint. In v. 7, cleansing is by the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son. Here the cleansing is by the washing of water by the Word of God (Eph, 5:26; John 13:10, 15:1-3).
10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
The false teachers not only denied that sin breaks people’s fellowship with God (1:6) and that they had a sinful nature (1:8), but some had even the audacity to make a third claim that they had not sinned. These false teachers thought that their superior knowledge had placed them out of the realm of sin, rendering them out of the realm of sinning. This claim went beyond telling a lie (1:6) or merely fooling themselves (1:8); this claim was calling God a liar. God says that all had sinned-otherwise He would not have needed to send His Son. To claim sinlessness treats the cross with contempt and Christ’s suffering as worthless. To do this, said John, shows God’s Word has no place in our hearts.
God wanted His readers to understand that people who make such a denial of sinful acts do not have the Word of God permeating and changing their lives because the Word of God clearly states throughout that people sin and all need a Savior (1 Ki. 8:4; Ps. 14:3; Isa. 53:6, 64:6; Ro. 3:23; 6:23). People can not be forgiven if they do not recognize their sins.
