Everyone seeks to belong. Everyone wants to be liked. Everyone likes to feel special. Everyone seeks to find love. And most often we believe that we will find true happiness and love from a relationship.
Most people understand that the important things in life are not things at all – they are the relationships we have. God created us not to be loners, but to be a part of a community. For example, in 1 Corinthians 12:12 He told us that we are part of one body. (A part of one church body)
God has put a desire for relationship in every one of us, a desire He intended to be met with relationships with other people, but most of all, to be met by a relationship with Him.
In this remarkable letter, John tells us the truth about relationships – and shows us how to have relationships that are real, for both now and eternity.
A. The purpose of the letter: to bring you into relationship with God.
1. (1-2) John begins with the center of relationship: Jesus Christ.
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, concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us.
From the beginning God was and He sent his son to the earth, and John (among others) personally experienced this eternal One.
John said listen we come to you with the truth.
We deliver nothing by hearsay,
nothing by tradition,
nothing from conjecture;
And we can tell you such things, because we physically have seen, intently studied (have looked upon), and tangibly touched (hands have handled) Jesus Christ.
This idea would have enormous implications for his readers.
Our eternal God became accessible to man in the most basic way, a way that anyone could relate to. This eternal One can be known, and He has revealed Himself to us.
John wrote all of this to prove that He did not speak of a fable or of a matter of clever story-telling. He carefully studied this eternal One and he knew whom he spoke about.
(3) An invitation to relationship.
Verse 3: “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
The idea of fellowship is one of the most important ideas in this letter of John’s. It is the ancient Greek word koinonia, which speaks of a sharing, a communion, a common bond and common life. It speaks of a living, breathing, sharing, loving relationship with another person.
Jesus can be not only our Savior, but also our friend and our closest relationship.
I have discovered that for many people a relationship with Jesus is totally unappealing. Some often tell me I don’t have to go to church to have a relationship with God. I can watch a TV program and get the same thing. I would just like to say: “you need to test that idea.” And from someone who has experienced God at Church I can tell you that you are mistaken. God instituted the church and I want to honor Him by attending.
Other times they don’t know what there missing. Sometimes, it is because they don’t know who God is, and an invitation to a “personal relationship with God” is about as attractive to them as telling an eighth-grader they can have a “personal relationship with the assistant principal.” But when we know the greatness, the goodness, and the glory of God, we want to have a relationship with Him and we want to please Him.
(4) The result of relationship.
And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.
That your joy may be full: The result of fellowship is fullness of joy. This joy is an abiding sense of optimism and cheerfulness based on God, as opposed to happiness, which is a sense of optimism and cheerfulness based on circumstances and material goods.
John clearly echoed an idea Jesus brought before His disciples the night before His crucifixion. He wanted fullness of joy for them – even knowing that the cross was directly in front of them.
· These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:11).
· Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full (John 16:24).
· But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves (John 17:13).
Too many Christians are passive in their loss of joy. They need to realize it is a great loss and do everything they can to draw close to God and reclaim that fullness of joy.
If you have no joy then perhaps you should question if you are trusting and obeying God through his Holy Spirit. Some christians experience, less joy, because God put a calling on their life, and they are unwilling to submit. A meaning on one’s life means that God has given them an opportunity to serve him, and they are unwilling to submit and obey.
I have seen many run from the callIng to preach. I’ve seen many people run from callIng to teaching Sunday school. I’ve seen several people run from the calling of just joining a church. People try to justify their non-submittmeant, but they sacrifice their joy in their disobedience. This also causes a rift in their relationship with God! Pretty soon, they find them selves back in the world. And you may remember 2 Peter 2:20 this action is called one returning to their own vomit.
John’s message from God: dealing with sin and maintaining relationship.- is up next!
(5) “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.”
What John will tell us about God is what God has told us about Himself. We can’t be confident in our own opinions or ideas about God unless they are genuinely founded on what God has said about Himself.
I adopted my mother from a dear preacher (Steve Samples) and it goes like this: “my vote don’t Count.” What counts is what the word of God says and what God expects.
God is light and in Him is no darkness at all: We must begin our understanding of God here. John declares this on the simple understanding that God Himself is light; and light by definition has no darkness at all in it; for there to be darkness, there must be an absence of light.
God is light and in Him is no darkness at all: Therefore, if there is a problem with our fellowship with God, it is our fault. It is not the fault of God because there is no sin or darkness in Him at all.
Check out the next scripture! I feel like it out, Christian posers and false teachers.
(6) If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
You either walk or walk and talk the talk or you don’t. You’re either Christian or not. You can’t straddle the fence. And have sin today and sin tomorrow. Darkness does not have fellowship with the light!
John first deals with a false claim to fellowship. Based upon this, we understand that it is possible for some to claim a relationship with God that they do not have. We can also say that it is possible for someone to think they have a relationship with God that they do not have.
John speaks of a walk in darkness, indicating a pattern of living. This does not speak of an occasional lapse, but of a lifestyle of darkness.
Therefore, if one claims to be in fellowship with God (a relationship of common relation, interest, and sharing), yet does walk in darkness, it is not a truthful claim.
John sees things much more clearly than our sophisticated age does. The folks of today don’t want to see anything in black or white, but everything in a pale shade of gray. The modern world often thinks in terms of “my truth” in an individualistic sense. John focused on the idea of God’s truth, ultimate truth.
3. (7) “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
This means we walk in a generally obedient life, without harboring known sin or resisting the conviction of the Holy Spirit on a particular point.
We know that on this side of eternity, sinless perfection is not always possible. Yet we can strives to be obedient to the Holy Spirit.
The Christian life is described as one that walks, which implies activity. God never meant for us to receive salvation, and sit on the couch. I have never read the term couch Christian in the scripture. Instead, I have heard take up the cross and follow me.
Matthew 16:24-25 NKJVThen Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
Go seek and save those who are lost.
The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
In Matthew 28:18–20 Jesus instructs the corporate body to make disciples of non-believers, baptize them, and teach them God’s ways.
This verse instructs Christians to bolt into action! After all, we are supposed to lay our treasures up in heaven. If we’re not actively working, what kind of treasures are we laying up?
In fact the Bible does not agree with giving nothing!
Proverbs 21:25 “The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work”
The last two words in this verse “all sin” We can be cleansed, by the blood of Jesus, from all sin. The sin we inherited from Adam, the sin we committed as kids, the sins of our growing up; sins against our father, against our mother, against our brother and sister; sins against our husbands or wives, against our children; sins against our employers or our employees, sins against our friends and our enemies; lying, stealing, cheating, adultery, swearing, drugs, booze, promiscuity, murder; sins that haunt us every day, sins we didn’t even know we did – all sin can be cleansed by the blood of Jesus.
You can only come to fellowship with God by dealing with your sin problem through the blood of Jesus.
(8–10) “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
Today, many people have a problem, admitting that they are wrong; therefore, they will not admit that they are sinners. Many will say “I make mistakes” or “I’m not perfect” or “I’m only human,” but usually they say such things to excuse or defend. This is different from knowing and admitting “I am a sinner.
To say that we have no sin puts us in a dangerous place because God’s grace and mercy is extended to sinners, not to “those who make mistakes” or “I’m only human” or “no one is perfect” people, but sinners. We need to realize the victory and forgiveness that comes from saying, “I am a sinner – even a great sinner – but I have a Savior who cleanses me from all sin.”
Though sin is present, it need not remain a hindrance to our relationship with God – we may find complete cleansing (from allunrighteousness) as we confess our sins. And if I might add, now is the time to confess our sin to God. The Holy Spirit says that I need to explain confession.
To confess means, “to say the same as.” When we confess our sin, we are willing to say (and believe) the same thing about our sin that God says about it. Jesus’ story about the religious man and the sinner who prayed before God illustrated this; the Pharisee bragged about how righteous he was, while the sinner just said God be merciful to me a sinner(Luke 18:10-14). The one who confessed his sin was the one who agreed with God about how bad he was.
We don’t have to go to a confessional to confess our sin. We do not have to go to the priest or pastor.
When you are baptized, you are confessing your sin by saying you needed to be cleansed and reborn.
When you receive communion, you confess your sin by saying you need the work of Jesus on the cross to take your sin away.
But of course, we need to confess our sin in the most straightforward way: by admitting to God that what we have done is sin, and by asking for His divine forgiveness, based on what Jesus has done on the cross for us.
In fact, God has revealed that someone needs to pray and we should pause a second and do that.
However, confession is still vital to maintain relationship with God, and this is the context John speaks from. As God convicts us of sin that is hindering our fellowship with Him, we must confess it and receive forgiveness and cleansing for our relationship with God to continue without hindrance.
He is faithful and just to forgive us: Because of Jesus’ work, the righteousness of God is our friend – insuring that we will be forgiven because Jesus paid the penalty of our sin. God is being faithful and just to forgive us.
The promise of 1 John 1:9 shouldn’t lead us into sin, saying “Hey, I’ll go ahead and sin because God will forgive me.” It should lead us out of sin, knowing that God could only be faithful and just to forgive us our sins because the wrath we deserved was poured out on the sin. Since each sin carries with it its own measure of wrath, so there is a sense in which each sin we commit added to the agony of Jesus on the cross.
