Bible Study Series - The 1st General Epistle of John Chapter 1

 

1 John 1 Authorized (King James) Version

 

1 John 1:1 "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 life;"

 That which was from the beginning, Jesus Christ our Lord is from the beginning, (John 1:1, Psalms 90:2, Psalm 106:48) The Apostles had the privilege of being in the presence of the Lord, they heard him, they saw him, they touched him, Jesus is the Word of life; the Word that created all things.

 John is giving a testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom is the eternal life; Jesus went onto say the following:

John 20:29 "Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

Blessed are we that have not seen, but have believed on the Lord!

1 John 1:2 "(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;)" 

For the life is manifested, Jesus who is God manifested in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16, John 1:14). Jesus is that life, only through him will you obtain eternal life. The many disciples, and witnesses, including the Apostles saw this, and they testify to this truth.

1 John 1:3-4 "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. ⁴ And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full."

John is writing this epistle to declare that all the things they have seen and heard of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may have fellowship, or a friendly relationship in sharing a common interest with the Apostles; which the fellowship is indeed, with the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, his Son.

In fact, the whole reason why God created man in the first place was for us to have fellowship with him. 

If God is a spirit, then our fellowship with God should be in the new man, the born again spirit of man in fellowship with God because he is a Spirit; man is in the image of God, which is spirit. Flesh fellowship is with flesh, Spirit fellowship is with the spirit.

These things are written to the reader so that, we too may have complete joy in our lives from reading the testimonies of those who had been with Jesus. To realize the relationship we can have with the Father and the Lord Jesus does bring joy unspeakable.

Those who believe have hope of the resurrection; that the world does not have.

1 John 1:5 "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."

What is the message which we have heard of him? Jesus was always doing his Father's will, this message came from the Father, and John and the other Apostles declare that God is light, in him there is no darkness at all.

Light and darkness has always been used in the bible as symbolism for good and evil. Light symbolizing holiness and purity; darkness symbolizes evil, deceit, wickedness, and sin.

There is no darkness in God only light, so that mean we can completely trust in him.
Light is also Truth, Life, and Darkness is Lies, Deceit, and ultimately Death.

1 Timothy 6:16 "who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen."

God lives in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, or can see (Try telling that to Mr Smith Jr. and his followers in regards to his first vision which there are about 7 different versions of this story).

Man on the other hand is in complete darkness, spiritually dead, dead in sins and transgressions; without the Word of Life, we cannot possibly even begin to fellowship with the Father. So we need to be born again (John Chapter 3), born of the spirit to have fellowship with the Father through Christ.

From verse 6 and onwards there is a reoccurring theme, John contrasts in his writings between good and evil, important to know is that the bible never uses the word "bad" to denote wickedness, evil or sin; the word "bad" is used to define something of poor quality, or with defects; do a concordance with every single use of the word and you'll see that the bible uses that word differently to how we use it today.

John is writing in such a way, that regardless where we are at in our lives, be it we are saved or not, whether we are a believer reading this or a unbeliever we can ponder his writings to reflect on ourselves.

1 John 1:6 "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 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."

Verse 6 here John continues the thought process of fellowship, he says we are deceiving ourselves, we are lying to ourselves if we say we have fellowship with him but walk in darkness: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Christ his Son cleanses us from sin; do you see here if you quoted these verses out of context you can deliberately mislead people into gross error.

John here is stating an obvious truth I don't deny this at all, if you walk in darkness you have no fellowship, your deceiving yourself.

You can take these verses and say see, you have to turn from your sins, see you have to repent of your sins, but hold on let's keep reading.

 

1 John 1:8-10 "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."

In the last few verses of this chapter, John expands more on verses 6 and 7, on the subject of contrasting darkness and light.

In verse 8 he says that any man who says he is without sin or I've heard people say along the lines of, "I've learnt how to give up my sins, and so can you", my friends, if you say you have no sin, you deceive yourself, and the truth is not in us.

 
The Psalmist wrote:

 

Psalm 14:3 "They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one."

 
And the Apostle Paul writes in the epistle to the Romans:

 

Romans 3:10 "as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:"

 
Verses 9 and 10, we read if we confess our sins, admit that we are a sinner, that we are not righteous, and John tells us that he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness, what cleanses us?

 The answer is given to us in verse 7, the blood of Christ Jesus cleanses us from ALL sins!

• Water Baptism does not cleanse us from our sins.
• Taking the weekly sacrament does not cleanse us from our sins! 
• The working of Carnal Ordinances does not cleanse us from our sins!!
• THAT PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST CLEANSES US FROM ALL OUR SINS!!!

Verse 10, if you can go around telling people that you have no sin, then I would call you perfect. 

But the bible, the Word of God tells us differently in that if we say we have no sin, we make him a liar, why?

 
Because it is written in the scriptures that ALL have gone aside, they are ALL TOGETHER become filthy: There is none that doeth good, no NOT one! There is NONE righteous!!!

 

…HIS WORD IS NOT IN US!

Go to 1 John Chapter 1 2 3 4 5