¹ That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched–this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. ² The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. ³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. ⁴ We write this to make our joy complete.

1 John 1:1-4

John begins his first letter with a lengthy introduction in which he assures the readers that what he is going to tell them about, he saw, heard with his own ears, and even touched. He wants them to understand that his message is grounded in reality, a reality he himself was witness to. In this introduction, which comprises the first four verses, John gives two reasons why he is passes on this good news to them. In verse 3 he says that it is “so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” So the purpose of this letter is relational. The sharing of this truth brings about fellowship, participation with one another and with the triune God Himself. I find it so easy to impersonalize truth so that its endpoint is merely to increase my store of knowledge, but John here is saying that truth leads to changed relationships, to new fellowship in Christ. Secondly John says in v. 4 that “we are writing this that our joy may be complete.” Joy comes as we can share in and fellowship in this truth with others–having others enjoy the sunset with us!

The main point, though, that I find myself focusing on is in the next verse: “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.” I found this verse fascinating. After building his readers through the introduction to trust what his message is, John tells them succinctly the main point he wants to make. And it is that God is light and there is absolutely no darkness in him at all. Now why is this the best news John has for his readers. Why should this be the first thing he wants them to hear? Well, I started thinking about what it would be to know someone in whom there is no darkness. I realized that there is something in us that longs to know someone we can totally and completely trust to be who they appear to be.

Don’t we long to be able to be transparent with others? To find that someone who we can be vulnerable with and trust that they will know how to handle our vulnerability. I was thinking that the darkness that mars us, that keeps us from completely doing this with any other human is not just direct sin, but our sinful condition which means we are still somewhat dark, because we are not yet ourselves, we don’t fully know the truth about ourselves and others. Darkness comes partly from the ignorance that comes with our sinful condition. We cannot totally reveal ourselves because we don’t fully know ourselves and because some of what we are is still toxic to others (and ourselves).

John wants his readers to know that God can be counted on completely. There is no deceiving in God, no “dark side.” He is all one thing, light. I need not be afraid to put my trust in Him. I need not be afraid to reveal myself to God because He knows me better than I know myself and He will not betray my confidence, intentionally or unintentionally. If the circumstances in my life look dark at times, John reminds me that I needn’t be afraid that now I am seeing a “dark” side to God. God remains the same, all that He is, is light and life giving.

This is not to say we can’t have fellowship with one another–we do, although imperfectly. But we can, as John will go on to say later, have fellowship with one another only in Him, for He becomes our light and the light of our relationships with one another. We can enjoy each other best when we count on Him to be the one in whom there is no darkness at all!

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; 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 his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸ If we say 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, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John 1:5-10

This is a meaty passage, isn’t it? And at first it seems a bit confusing. John seems to be saying that we cannot fellowship with God if we are still sinning, but also that we are sinners and to say differently is to make God a liar.

Let’s consider the passage as a whole. John speaks of fellowship here–both with God and with one another. Fellowship is closely related in John’s mind with how we are living our lives. And we deceive ourselves when we try to pretend this isn’t not so (i.e. I can live anyway I want and it should not affect our friendship in the least). Walking in the light is the way to have real fellowship with God and each other. In fact , in verses 8 and 10, John says that we cannot have God’s truth (v.8) or his word (v.10) in us if we are not truthful about ourselves.

Now consider how John talks about sin and darkness here. We looked at v.5 last week and noticed that John was excited to share with them the truth that God is all light and that there is no “dark side” to him so that we can trust him utterly. Now he continues with this darkness idea in v. 6 by saying that we cannot fellowship, have an intimate relationship with God when we are walking in the darkness. So what does it mean for us to walk in the light? Does it mean to be sinless? Actually no, because John goes on to say in v.8 that we are deceiving ourselves when we claim we have no sin. And this seems to be following directly on his thought in v.6 about walking in the darkness. I think that John is saying that darkness involves deceit, being deceived about yourself and others. When we walk in darkness, we remain in a place of deceit. And what are we deceived about? About who we are, and where our source of life and identity truly lie. We say we are fellowshipping with God, but we are not receiving His light into our lives.

What ultimately is sin? Sin is not trusting God to be our life, not trusting Him to be the triune God He has revealed Himself to be. Sin is not just what we do wrong–the deeper part of sin is the lack of trust in God that these deeds spring from. Sin then is related to this deceit and darkness. And of course, deceit leads to a greater and greater desire to cover up the truth. We can become afraid of the light, because of what it may reveal. And this I think is why John begins by assuring his readers about the character of God. God is not deceiving us–if there is any light we can count on to be for us, it is God’s light. It will not be easy for it to shine in our lives but we can be sure that it will lead to full life–fellowship with God and with others.

What may seem ironic is, that the way to step into the light is to admit we are in darkness, that we sin. God in other words, is not expecting me to be perfectly trusting of Him on my own, or to be perfect independent of Him (as if that were even possible!) I begin and continue to move forward by confessing to God that I am not counting on Him to be all that He is in my life. I hand over to Him my lack of trust and I stop deceiving myself that I am really very together already. It seems, in fact, that John is saying that one way we know the truth is in us is that we see more clearly our sin. God’s truth, His words, moves in and we see more and more as we walk with Him the many ways we have not yet trusted Him and the many ways we charge ahead on our own every day.

And what does John say about this sin? That when we confess it, God is faithful and just and will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So John turns his readers back to the wonderful character of God and expands their understanding of what it means that He is light. God is faithful, just, forgiving, and cleansing. Apparently then, it is not our job to make ourselves righteous. We participate in God’s making us righteous by turning over to him all the junk His light continues to reveal to us.

This has been a very encouraging passage to me these past weeks. I was made to walk in the light with God and He has enabled this to happen. I can rejoice over the revealing of the darkness in my life, because as it is confessed and handed over, I am letting God both forgive me, and take out this darkness slowly and surely. He is cleansing me, taking away the dirt that is polluting me and my relationships. And can I trust Him as He does this? Absolutely!! It is His business and pleasure to destroy the darkness and make me more and more able to receive His light and love. Every day we are faced with the realization of the sin that remains in our lives, as we anxiously consider our circumstances or interact with our children, spouses and friends. John is assuring us that that is exactly where God wants us: aware of our sin so that we can hand it right over to Him to forgive and cleanse us from it. When you see that you are not trusting Him, then trust Him enough to hand Him your anxiety so He can heal you.

¹ My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin: but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and ² he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. ³ And by this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments. ⁴ He who says ‘I know him’ but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; ⁵ but whoever keeps his word, in him truly love for God is perfected. ⁶ By this we may be sure that we are in him: he who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

1 John 2:1-6

In the first chapter of this letter, John speaks a lot of the relationship between our walk, or the way we live our life, and fellowship, or intimate relationship with God and with each other. He says that he is proclaiming to his readers what he has seen and heard so that they might have fellowship with him and with Jesus and the Father. God is light and when we walk in the light, we have fellowship with Him. So truth and living in God’s reality (which is reality) is intricately bound up with our relationships or lack thereof. Intimate fellowship only happens in the truth.

John continues this theme in the 2nd chapter. In verse 3 he says that we know God when we keep his commandments, which is the same as walking in the light. Our knowing God, having fellowship with Him, then is bound up with obeying Him, living according to the truth.

Before I say more about that, we should look at the first 2 verses. John tells them that he is writing about not deceiving ourselves but confessing our sins so that we may not sin. This at first seems a bit odd, when he just told us that we need to confess we sin, how can we now be admonished to not sin? But if we remember that sin is distrusting God, I think that John is reminding us of the need to be truthful about ourselves, i.e. that we are not righteous on our own and that we need to trust God to forgive and cleanse us, and to be truthful about God, i.e. He is totally and completely trustworthy. He reminds us of this so we can go on trusting God and not ourselves and not therefore fall into sin. The opposite of sinning is to count more and more on God and to live as if He really is our total source of life and identity. So remember who you are, a sinful broken person in need of God’s constant healing and don’t fall back on counting on yourself again.

But before any one has time to despair over their ability to count perfectly on God, John rushes on to remind them that if they do sin, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the expiation for our sins , and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” What a mouthful! John calls Jesus our advocate, one who comes alongside and speaks for us, presents our case because we can’t present our own. An advocate represents another not to cheat the system but because he/she is better able to speak for you than you are. The advocate understands you and your case better than you do. Jesus, as our advocate, stands in our place and speaks on our behalf, able to shed his light on us and revealing the truth about us in him.

He gives Jesus the title “the righteous”. He is not a slick lawyer trying to get us off, stretching or giving no heed to justice or having to manipulate or cheat the justice system. Our advocate with the Father is the one who is righteous or in right relationship with the Father and with us. What a great advocate to have then, one who knows already what it is to be righteous and one who can make us righteous. Also, this title echoes v.5 of chapter one–God is light, there is no darkness in Him. Jesus is the Righteous one–that is who He is and He can be trusted to act according to His character–righteously.

But John goes on from there. Jesus doesn’t just expiate our sins, i.e. separate us from them, turn us away from them. He Himself is the expiation for our sins. In Himself, He has not only removed the sin from us but has dispelled the darkness in which we lived and filled our lives with his light. He is the great justifier, the one who makes us righteous by giving us His own righteousness. And to help his readers even better to see how wonderful Jesus is he reminds them that Jesus is this expiation for the sins of the whole world. The whole world is affected by what Jesus has accomplished in Himself.

Now that John has again reminded his readers of the character of the triune God he says that we know God if we keep His commandments. In fact, we are nothing better than liars if we claim we know God but we don’t obey Him. Again, this makes sense in our human relationships. A child can come to know better his/her parents’ hearts only as they do as they are told. They can come to see the wisdom in the things the parents ask them to do and so know their parents on a deeper level. God’s commandments come out of who He is and when we do them we know better, on a deeper level, that He truly is good and for us. When we disobey (don’t walk in the light) we miss the opportunity to see how He would have worked and used our obedience in our own transformation. Staying in the darkness doesn’t help you see better in the darkness.

It is important, too, to remember here that a crucial part of obeying God is trusting Him, counting on Him. Trust is the foundational command so that all of our obedience is to flow out of a trust that He is active and good and present. And, as we trust Him and act on that trust, we see that He is trustworthy, we come to know Him better. As we all know it is difficult if not impossible to have an intimate friendship when there is no trust.

It is interesting to look at v.5 and see that when we keep His word, “love for God is perfected” in us. Notice it does not say that we perfect our love for God. Rather as we trust God and act on that, even when that means being honest about our own sins, God is able to do something in us–He is able to grow our love for Him to perfection–which goes back to what it means to be righteous. Righteousness, perfection, is not some abstract individual goal to attain. To be righteous is to be in right relationship. To obey God is to grow in having more and more of an intimate full loving relationship with Him. Right now I know my love for God is poor. I do not enjoy loving Him very much. How wonderful to know that some day nothing will impede me from loving Him with all that I am and so also come to love fully all His ways as well.

Last point–John says that the way to know we are in Christ is to walk or live in the same way He walked. John is speaking about something deep, internal, personal. The point is not so much that we need to follow Jesus’ example but much more we should as abide where He abides, remain with Him wherever He goes, share in His heart and mind, be led by His Spirit. Being in Christ is not just imitating Him, appearing like Him, mimicking Him, letting Him be our role model. That’s all superficial and shallow, external compared to what John is telling us. Jesus is far more than a example or a tool or instrument or means to an end. The connection between Jesus and us is far more profound. Jesus walked by the Spirit, trusting wholly in His good and loving Father, doing what He saw His Father doing, knowing and sharing in His very heart.

God is light and Jesus, the Righteous, by becoming the expiation for our sins has connected Himself to us in such a way that now we can share in His loving relationship with His Father and He will make us right in Him so that our fellowship with God is perfected. Hooray!

⁷ Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. ⁸ Yet I am writing you a new commandment, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. ⁹ He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness still.

1 John 2:7-9

John has been telling his readers that to know this God, who is all light and no darkness, is to lovingly obey Him. And of course, this obedience can be summed up as loving God and living as if He truly is light, He truly is the One who can be trusted to never deceive and betray us and that it is in His light that we can come more and more to see ourselves as we really were created to be–those who are becoming in Him, and are sharing in His light. John encourages His readers, to abide in Jesus, to “walk in the same way in which he walked.”(2:6) Jesus lived His human life in the Spirit, counting on the Father to be the Father, participating in all He saw His Father doing and rejoicing in the doing because He knows the Father’s heart. When we love God obey out of a trust in His faithfulness and light, we grow to know more and more our Father’s heart and in our loving His heart more–we see and experience more and more His goodness and so are able to trust Him even more.

Up until now, I haven’t pointed out the way John addresses his readers. In 2:1, he calls them “my little children” and here he says “beloved”. Don’t jump over this word too fast! John is telling them that this is the truth of who they are. It is not spoken of as a potential or a goal, but a reality. We are beloved…by God!!! This is the good news. The God who is light loves us, we are His beloved. We begin here, we are not trying to arrive there.

John is helping his beloved readers to see how what he is writing relates to the revelations of God that went before. First he points out that this is not new. The commandment to trustfully obey God is an old commandment. Remember, Abraham obeyed by faith. He makes two more points about this old commandment. First he reminds them that they had it “from the beginning.” God has not changed in His love for us. His character, and His desire for us to count on Him and live out of that trust is constant. From the beginning, God has intended that His creatures have intimate fellowship with Him–a fellowship in the truth and therefore free of deceit. Secondly, John says that this old commandment is “the word which you have heard.” So it is from the beginning and they have heard this in His word. It is God’s eternal purpose and it is God’s self revelation to them in His word. It’s not a secret, at least anymore.

“Yet,” John goes on, “I am writing you a new commandment.” It is what they have heard before and yet what John is writing them about also is new. How can that be?

Again John makes two points. It is new because this commandment “is true in him and in you.” Here is that word “in” again and this is an amazing phrase. The reason this is new is because it is now true in Christ and in us! Something has happened in Christ, the one who was from the beginning and yet John saw, heard, and touched Him. He is the life that has been made manifest to us, but it goes beyond that. Christ by His life, death, and resurrection, has made this commandment a living reality both in Him and in us. It is no longer a command outside of us, hanging over our heads, something we strive on our own to accomplish but always fail at. Jesus becomes human, grabs a hold of our humanity and makes this trusting, abiding, obedient relationship with His heavenly Father a reality in human flesh. And not just a reality for Himself, He makes it a reality in us. I find this so overwhelming that it is hard to feel that I can articulate adequately what this means. Actually I don’t yet know all that this means. But I do know that it means that God has done something real in my life by uniting Himself to me in His Son. I forget this so easily and turn again to seeing God as external to me, watching and waiting to see if I am going to come through in my attempt to follow His example. But whether I always feel this is true John is saying that in objective reality, God has made this true in Christ and in me.

John goes on to say that this is a new commandment because “the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.” Again John is saying that the reason for the newness is because something has changed in reality. The triune God has already done something and it is continuing to have real effect. God didn’t just change the rules, or decide to forgive us now. God did something–in Christ in us, and now John speaks on a larger scale of the darkness and the true light. The darkness that surrounds us and is in us in actually passing away–not because of us but because of God. It may appear quite immovable and all encompassing. There are times when I look around and I see incredible amounts of darkness. It can be so overwhelming. But John is telling us the truth. Actually the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

So this commandment to live in Christ is one we can participate in in a new and wonderful way because Christ has already made it real in my life. And I can trust this because I know the character of God is that He is all light and no darkness. This good news is hard to hold onto, isn’t it? It is always amazing to me, no matter how many times I hear it. It was hard I am sure for John’s first readers as well. We can abide in Christ, live in Christ, know the truth about ourselves and our complete inadequacy to save ourselves and yet not be crushed by it, because Christ has done all that is necessary to truly abide with us and share His life with us and make us more and more able to receive that life. Why wouldn’t I then want to turn and abide in Him when He is working to accomplish His purposes for me? To resist His work, to not strive to get every obstacle to receiving His peace and life out of the way, seems ridiculous when I read John’s words. But God desires to remind us of this truth again and again. Darkness deceives us. We can get entangled over and over in questioning whether God can be trusted. We easily forget not just His goodness, but His accomplishing a new intimacy with us in Christ which He is making manifest over time. As long as we are on this dark planet, we will still struggle with the darkness–in our relationships with God and each other, and in our lives. But John reminds His readers that the darkness is passing away, and we are made alive in Him–this is what God has accomplished and we can trust Him to go on being the light that is already shining.

My prayer for you is that you will see more clearly the truth that you are His beloved and will find strength in Him to turn to Him throughout the day for the trust and strength you need to obey in whatever He is leading you to do.

¹⁰ He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness still. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and in it there is no cause for stumbling. ¹¹ But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

1 John 2:10-11

John returns here to some ideas he has already touched on in his letter and expands on them. John has already told his readers that God Himself is light and in Him there is absolutely no darkness. In God all things are clear and so, true intimate fellowship is possible in Him and with Him, when we are in the light. But we can also have intimate fellowship with one another when we are in the light. In fact, John indicates that fellowship is only possible in the light. When there is deceit, true fellowship cannot occur. And, as we have talked about, we know this in our own lives. A friendship can only go as far as there is trust and trust must be based on the truth. It is impossible to trust when there is deceit–if trust grows in a relationship that has had some deception in it, it is certainly not on the basis of that deception but on the basis of assurance that the deception has now ended.

To walk in this light is not to already be perfect ourselves. It is to place ourselves in God’s hands to be cleansed from our sins. It is to turn over our unbelief or lack of trust to Him to have Him make His life manifest in us. To have His word in us, is to admit the truth of our own inadequacy to make ourselves sinless or to rescue ourselves out of darkness.

In the passage right before this, John assures his “beloved” readers that this commandment to love God and trustingly obey Him (hand Him our lives in whatever condition they are in), while it is a word that has been from the beginning, is also new, because it “is true in him and in us”. God has done something in Christ, to work in us a share of what is true in Him. This is no longer external to us–we do and can truly abide in Christ.

So now John gets back to the issue of fellowship and darkness. John is helping his readers to uncover more of what it means to live in God’s light instead of the darkness. John is saying that when we abide in Christ, there is an effect on our relationships with others. Our fellowship with God is intimately connected with how we view others. Now why is that? Well, who are we abiding in? Christ. And He is the first one who truly loves God and His brothers–us! In Him, God and humanity are brought together. Jesus loves His heavenly Father and He loves us, His sisters and brothers. Jesus sees and knows and loves us–sees us clearly in our sin and darkness and loves us and rescues us to live in His life and light and to be made more and more like Him and like the sisters and brothers we were created to be.

In hating our brother, we fail to recognize that we are the same–both able to live and be redeemed and transformed only by the gracious action of God. To love our brother is to see in him/her the same good news that Jesus can break through the darkness with His light. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t times when we struggle with great anger and hate toward others. And it doesn’t mean that we have to be absolute best buddies with everyone we meet. It goes beyond feelings. To hate our brother is to reject him, to fail to see God’s love and commitment to that person, and to fail to hope for them to be filled with God’s life just as we hope for that for ourselves. This does mean, though, that when we do hate someone else we have a clue that, at the time, we are no longer walking in the light and able to receive fellowship from God. Only the one who truly loves both God and brother can rescue us. Only Jesus, as we turn over our hate, can dissolve it. Really, the only way to be a sister to others is to recognize that Jesus is first a brother to them. We participate in Christ’s brothering of others (and of course in His brothering of us!).

John says in v. 10 that when we abide in the light, “there is no cause for stumbling” but (in v. 11) that when we are in the darkness we do not know where we are going because darkness blinds our eyes. When we hate another, we cannot see that person clearly. When we hate even ourselves we cannot see clearly. And when we proceed to relate to another then out of hate, we proceed blindly. Here is a wonderful reason to turn our troubled relationships over to God. We cannot possibly move forward when we are looking at a distorted picture of reality. I have thought of this as I have listened to the news of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hate blinds. We come to see the “enemy” as a thing, a “cut-out” of a real human being and there is no way forward. We need to recognize who we truly are–broken creatures all in great need of being made able to receive the wonderful life God desires to pour out on us.

And what a great freedom–to turn our relationships over to the one who will never deceive us!

¹² I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his sake. ¹³ I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. ¹⁴ I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

1 John 2:12-14

John has already given a couple of reasons why he is writing this letter. In the first chapter, verse 3, he says that he is proclaiming this message, “so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” At the beginning of chapter 2, he says, “I am writing this to you so that you may not sin…”

What is interesting about this section is that John says he is writing because of things that are already true about each of these groups. He does not say here that he is writing in order to get them to do something new of change the direction of their lives. It seems to me that he writes to remind them of what is already true about them because of what is true about who Jesus is and what He has done. John wants to remind them again of this truth, this reality because, I would think, in the midst of their present circumstances they are being tempted to forget .

I am sure you noticed that John addresses each group two times in this passage, using the same order each time. I think that I will look at all of what is said to each group. Let’s look first at his comments to children. As we have seen, John calls all his readers children at the beginning of chapter 2. But here, it seems clear he is addressing just children since he mentions young people and fathers as well. He says he is writing to the children because “your sins are forgiven for his sake” and “because you know the Father.” As I was mulling over this passage I wondered, why do the children need to hear these truths in particular. I wondered if children struggle with being sure they are truly forgiven when they do something wrong. It can be particularly hard for them to see how one can move past something they did wrong and know to be wrong. When I have spoken to my own children in those moments when they recognize that they really blew it, I see that it can be difficult for them to move forward. Notice John doesn’t stop with their sins being forgiven. He says they are forgiven for His sake not their own. This piece is crucial. When children (and of course this applies to us as well!) are feeling trapped in the sin they committed and aware of their own inadequacies, John reminds them that the way out is not dependent on them. Jesus has forgiven them for His own sake, because that is who He is. Jesus is Savior at the very core of His being and we can count on Him to forgive us, not because of who we are or what we have done. We count on who He has shown us He is. So John reminds the children that their forgiveness lies not in their own worth or talents but in the very character of God–this is both very freeing and humbling, isn’t it?

Secondly, John says he writes to the children because they know the Father. I would think they might be tempted to respond, “We do?” John says yes, you know Him. I don’t think he is saying that they already know everything there is to know about their heavenly Father since he wants them to grow in their ability to discern, as we will see later in the letter. But, I do think he is encouraging them to realize they have a knowing relationship with the Father that is established. Now they can grow in it–they do not have to start the relationship themselves. And if we connect this phrase with the earlier one, John seems to be saying that they know Him and they are forgiven because of who God is and that is why they can count on Him–He is acting out of who He is, not out of who we are.

Now let’s look at the 2 phrases addressed to the young people. They are very similar with each other, but the second one expands Johns point. The first time John says he is writing to the young people because “you have overcome the evil one” and the second time because “you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” Again, I wonder if the young people who first heard this were a bit surprised, “I have overcome the evil one?” These are great words that John addresses to the youth. There is so much going on in those years, so many pressures. We all remember, I am sure, the struggles of these years and how everything seems so crucial. It can be very hard to stay anchored. There are plenty of times when one feels anything but strong. Linda, my daughter, is now at this age and we talk a lot about the pressures she faces at school: the pull to “fit in” and all the things that threaten to pull her off center. What great words John says here and how freeing and reassuring they are to those in the midst of youth. John says they have already overcome the evil one. But again, this isn’t dependent on them, their own strength. John reminds them that “the word of God abides in you.” God has already done a work in you, John is saying, and the battle against the evil one is won. Don’t think when you face these daily pressures that assault you that you are defenseless or that the outcome is still to be determined and dependent on you. You can resist evil because God is truly in you and He has overcome.

If you look at John’s word to both children and youth, He is reminding them of the truth of who they are in Christ. So that they can hold onto that in the midst of a world that sends other messages.

Now let’s look at John’s words to fathers. He says the same thing both times to them! I guess he felt it bears repeating and that the most important thing to remind them of is that they know God and that He is from the beginning. Why does he emphasize for the parents that the God they know is the One from the beginning? Well, I think because it is so tempting for fathers (and mothers too!) to believe that parenting is all up to them, that they are in a sense “the beginning”–where the buck stops. But John wants to remind them to keep their perspective in line with the truth. God is the One from the beginning. Before these fathers were fathers, were even thinking of becoming fathers, God was Father. God has always been Father and our parenting is done in that truth. God is my Father, as well as, the Father of my children. I am being Fathered by Him as I am mothering and Gary is fathering our kids. And He Fathers them as well and they grow up to be my brothers and sisters in Christ.

¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. ¹⁷ And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides for ever.

1 John 2:15-17

How does this strong command and warning follow from the previous passage about who were now are in Christ? Well, it looks like there were people in the churches that John was writing to who were claiming the new life in Christ, but were harboring hate for others and were continuing to pursue the things of the world. They were like someone who visits the doctor, believes in this doctor’s great ability to heal, writes down all that the doctor commands, and yet goes away and does none of it. John insists that this new life in Christ, that we now have in union with Him, is reality and affects real change. It is not possible for followers of Christ to go on living as before because that is to live a lie, to live in an unreality.

We already talked about the passage on hating your brother so I won’t go back to that one now. Why is it that we cannot love the world and have the love of the Father in us? Well, to have the love of the Father in us is to know ourselves as His children–really, truly His sons and daughters. That is not just a new label to add to all the rest, it is the reality that all roles, labels, even thoughts about ourselves must conform to. We are His sons and daughters and God is making this reality more and more manifest–someday there will be no doubt as to our true selves.

God is our life, not just the origin of our biological life but the only source of true life in every dimension. The particular Greek word often used for eternal life is zoe. It is not just bios, biological life going on forever and ever. It is life from God—God-life, the only source of life. It goes beyond the biological and yet of course includes it, because God is the author of all life at all levels. The life God gives us in Christ is a life that involves removing and destroying all the brokenness, evil and twistedness of sin in us. It is the life that comes from the very heart of the triune God–full of love, joy, peace, and hope.

To love the world is to still be seeking for something out there, apart from God, that is going to give us our meaning, purpose, security, identity, life. John is not speaking here of enjoying the earth and the beauty of God’s creation. He is not speaking against music and art that can be enjoyed and reflected upon.

He says in verse 16 that what he is warning his readers about is “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.” Lust is a desire for possession and control of some object, person, or circumstance. It looks to created things for ultimate fulfillment and meaning. It wants to be overcome and absorbed by or even become one with created objects of desire or what they seem to be able to provide if we devote ourselves to possessing them, sacrifice for them. Lust is a form of idolatry.Why does one lust? Because he/she is not trusting that rich, full life is only found in God. A lustful person is not convinced that what God is giving is truly enough.

The pride of life refers I think at least partly to the ever present concern in this world with how we appear to others or what we perceive to be our status in society. It is a concern for power (not just positional power), a desire to have influence, to be well thought of by others. As with acting out of lust, someone caught up in the pride of life is not trusting that they are already empowered by God, loved by God and “famous” with God (CS Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”), so they seek these things elsewhere.

John wants to uncover for us what is really going on when we love the things of this world and indulge ourselves with them. We cannot receive God’s life when we are looking for life somewhere else. We cannot live in His love and peace. In fact, what the world offers is, as John put it earlier, darkness. It twists and breaks us. What the world offers is what God is healing us from, so that we can receive His life. And John ends this section by telling us “And the world passes away, and the lust of it.” These other things we are tempted to pursue to give us life, security, power and identity, John says, have no lasting substance–they will pass away. It is not like there really are two places to find life–God and the world, but that God is a little better. The world will pass away. It is a shadow, an empty promise that cannot fulfill itself. Real life, life that lasts, is in God alone.

But aren’t we all still struggling at times with loving the world and the things of the world? Does this mean that God is not abiding in us? Well, I think if we go back to the 1st chapter, we see that John has already said that yes, we still sin. In fact, he says we need to keep admitting that truth and handing it over to the One who can and does forgive us and who is destroying that sin in us. God will remind us over and over of the emptiness of the world’s promises. We will soon or later be very disappointed, be betrayed by them. Our participation in God’s work in our lives is to agree with God that our lives and true identities are only to be found in Him and to not place ourselves in temptation’s way. And our obedience to what we sense God is calling us to, should come out of a trust that God is the only source of life. God does desire that we trust Him and live as if He is who He reveals Himself to be—our ultimate joy and life. As we struggle to live in this world and not be of it, we can place our hope in God, to finish His work in us and to lovingly continue to show us the emptiness of all other “sources” of life.

This passage reminded me of a quote by C.S. Lewis that you have may have heard before:

“When he said, ‘Be perfect,” He meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder–in fact, it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird; it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad…”
(Mere Christianity, bk. 4, chs. 8, 9)

Thank God, He has in mind for us so much more than we do! I hope that God is able to give you hope and renewed trust in Him.

¹⁸ Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; ¹⁹ but they went out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us. ²⁰ But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all know. ²¹ I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and know that no lie is of the truth. ²² Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. ²³ No one who denies the Son has the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also. ²⁴ Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is what he has promised us, eternal life.

²⁶ I write this to you about those who would deceive you; but the anointing which you received from him abides in you and you have no need that any one should teach you; ²⁷ as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him.

²⁸ And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. ²⁹ If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that every one who does right is born of him.

1 John 2:18-29

It seems that the situation in the churches to which John is writing is that there were people who had been a part of the church, but had pulled away and were now trying to influence others still in the church to follow them. It sounds like John’s readers are feeling unsure about what to do. They know these people who are now trying to give them a “new, improved gospel” and this makes it harder for them to discern the truth. Perhaps these people had seemed very devout and enthusiastic when in the church and now they are equally passionate about their “advanced message.” From what John has written so far, the message these people promote has to do with indulging one’s desires in the world and turning against certain people. They may be stirring up hate and animosity towards a particular group. They are probably advocating trends, ideas, or pleasures that unbelievers around them are pursuing, arguing that these things are either harmless or even advantageous to the believer.

John begins this section by telling his readers that they are living in the last hour and that part of how they can know this is because there are many antichrists that have come. One interesting point that John makes about these antichrists, that I alluded to already, is that they are coming out of the church. It seems that John is saying that the greatest danger to Christians will not be from those who have never been in a church, but those who at one point were involved in the church and then left. These are the ones John says he wants his readers to know about so that they won’t be deceived (v.26).

I can understand why someone who was once in the church would be harder to disregard. Perhaps some of these people are still claiming to be Christians. How are the readers to discern what is the truth? This is exactly what John is addressing.

John has already said that hating your brother is not something you can do if you are loving God (2:9). So if what his readers are hearing is tempted them to hate or turn against particular individuals or groups of people, John is reminding them that that is incompatible with abiding in God. John has also told them that “if any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him”(2:15). This is the last passage we looked at. John wants them to find their identity and life only in God and to see that pursuing “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life”(2:16) is to turn from drawing on God’s life and filling ourselves with what cannot possibly satisfy and give life.

Now John is telling them that they are in the last hour. It may be that these people John calls “antichrists” are advocating their doctrines with the argument that Jesus has left and that His kingdom is distant and doesn’t really affect our lives here and now. But John says this is the last hour. I don’t think John merely thought that Jesus was about to return and that he turned out to be wrong on this. I think that John is saying that all of life after the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus is in the “last hour”. Don’t be fooled–the kingdom is imminent, it has come closer in Christ and is still “at hand”. It is the greater reality than life on this earth and should orient all that we do here and now. We live our lives differently now, in the framework of this imminent kingdom which is solid and real while “the world passes away”. So this to is meant to help John’s readers to remember the truth and discern the truth from falsehood. We can live now in the light of the coming rule and reign of God through Christ, because the Kingdom of God is a real hope, the actual future.

Ultimately John says in vv. 22-23 that the best way to discern what someone is saying is to know what she/he is saying about Jesus. First, he says that the antichrist is one who denies the Father and the Son, but then in the next verse he states that to deny the Son is to deny the Father. You can’t have one without the other. God is the Father, Son, and Spirit God. This is who He is. To abide in God is to abide in this Trinity. To love God is to love all of God and to see that the heart of who He is and what He does involves the Father, Son, and Spirit. God is drawing us up into this very relationship of love between the Father and Son in the Spirit. To reject Jesus, but somehow to hold onto a generic “God” is to reject the Triune God revealed in Christ.

John assures his readers on the flip side that to confess Christ is to have the Father also. And he assures them more than once that God is already abiding in them by His Spirit and that He is and able to continue to teach them the truth. They do not need to be afraid that they will not be able to discern the truth. In v. 21 he tells them he is writing this to them not because they don’t know the truth but because they do. In v. 27, he tells them that they have been anointed by God and that this anointing “teaches you everything”. They do not need to fear. So how do they hear this Spirit? Well, John says they need to keep abiding in the word they heard from the beginning and to abide in Jesus. This I think shows the reason John’s warns them about the antichrists. The real danger, the real loss when we hold onto hate, or look to the world for our life and identity is that we stop abiding, drawing on, living in, the great, good love and presence of our triune God. Did you notice how many times John repeats the word “abide” in this passage? This is the whole thing. Sometimes we want things in our lives to go faster or change. We want more immediate, tangible evidence of God’s work. Or we fear we might be missing out on life somehow and so we try to grab a hold of our spiritual lives and take control.

But John reminds us over and over that it all comes down to abiding in Him. Whatever is going on in our lives, whatever we are struggling with, we are to hand it all to Him, and to rest in, wait on, live in His presence and peace. It is our abiding in Him, not counting on ourselves that will make us confident when He returns. It is interesting that shame comes not from what sins we have committed, but from not abiding in Him. So John concludes in v. 29 that we can be sure that “every one who does right is born of him” because we know Jesus is righteous. And this doing right is living in God, letting Him tell us who we are, letting Him work in our lives and in the lives of others around us, counting on Him and obeying Him out of our trust that He is light.

¹ See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

1 John 3:1-3

In the immediately preceding paragraph, John encourages his readers, whom he calls “little children” to abide in Jesus so that when he appears “we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.” He goes on to say that as we know Jesus is righteous we can know that whoever “does right is born of him.” As I said in the last study, John is saying that the way to not be ashamed when Jesus returns is to remain in Him, draw your life from Him, wait on Him, turn your life moment by moment over to Him. In other words, live as if He is your source of life and identity and you will grow in your confidence that this is indeed the case. This doing right that he mentions in the next sentence must refer again to this abiding in Jesus. Our actions should come out of our abiding in, resting in, and counting on Him to be present and active in our lives. We can only “do right” as we act out of a counting on Him as the righteous One.

Now John develops these thoughts about abiding and waiting for His appearing in these next three verses. He begins by exclaiming that they “see” or “behold”, which means consider, dwell on, direct your attention to, this fact about the love God has for us. Isn’t it amazing John says, that we are called the children of God. God looks at us and He calls us His daughters and sons. And he goes on to say, this is not just a label, we really are the children of God. This indeed is a truth that we need to see, focus on. It is so easy to slip right by this and on to the next point. We belong to God as His children, not just as His creation. To be His children means to be born of Him, to be of His “flesh and bones” so to speak, to truly belong, to be welcome as one who really is part of the family. God is not ashamed to call me daughter, to identify me as one who truly belongs to Him. Can we let this truth sink into our minds and hearts?

The intimacy of this truth is staggering. We all have different experiences of being the children of our earthly parents. For some of us, it was not easy growing up to sense being cherished and welcomed over and over by our parents. But what John is saying here is that our earthly experience is not as deep as the truth that we are truly children of God. We have come home, to our real home in God, the home we were always meant to one day know and enjoy. God heals our past as He not only says we are His children, but makes us truly His children in His son Jesus.

This truth is not easy to hold onto and John goes on to deal with this fact. There are so many competing voices in the world, ready to tell you who you are, as we have discussed before. The world will not treat you as one who is already a daughter or son of our heavenly Father. The world will not confirm the goodness of who you are or be able to already knowing who you are. The media in fact wants you to constantly question who you are and to be discontent with yourself–that is how they hope to sell you their products.

John knows that his readers are facing hostility rather than confirmation of the truth. He assures them that the reason the world cannot see and acknowledge the truth is because the world did not recognize Jesus. In our fallen world, there is grasping for power and influence over one another because human beings are seeking to know themselves as worthy of respect, admiration of, and attention from others. They themselves try to give themselves life. When Jesus came, He came already knowing who He was as the Son of the Father. He lived here, as He did and now does in Heaven, receiving moment by moment His life and identity from the Father. This made no sense to the fallen world. They tried to tell Jesus who He was and to manipulate Him to be what they wanted him to be for their own ends. We deal with these same pressures since the world is still so distorted.

Now I love this next verse [number 2] John knows that his readers are looking at their lives and thinking “But it is not obvious even to me that I am God’s child.” The world does not recognize my true identity, but I am not sure that I see evidence of it either! So he assures them that they are God’s children now, but that this truth is not completely manifest yet. We don’t reject the truth of who we are just because we cannot see it completely in our lives here and now. John says we are becoming, and we cannot yet see the end result. But we can know that when Jesus, the Son appears, we shall be like Him, we shall be inside and out, the children of God. And we will know we are like Him because we will be able to see Jesus as He is. You cannot really see someone else’s heart if you have no sympathy for them. To be like Jesus is to be His sister or brother, to enjoy, appreciate, know His heart. I am becoming one who will be able to have true intimate fellowship with the triune God who made me and now is transforming me into a daughter who belongs with and to Him.

John’s last point in this section is that “every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” As I hope in Jesus to make me like Him, and therefore more truly the person I was created to be, I become more pure as He is pure. Jesus is pure–the same inside and out. There is no darkness or deceit in Him, as John stated in the first chapter. I am still broken, there are still parts of my life that are muddy. I do not act out of a whole heart. I am so grateful that the triune God can be completely trusted to be the light that He is. But to think that He is making me the same is truly wonderful. God’s deepest desire is to separate us completely from the sin that distorts and destroys, to make us His children all the way down to our toes. And this is not just a potential John says. God has made us His children truly, really in Christ. We are now His daughters and sons, and while it is sometimes painfully obvious to us that we are still not living in that truth completely, we can set our hope in His completion of this work He has started in us. John wants to remind His readers of this awesome truth to encourage them to abide, live, obey out of hope in the greater work of God in our lives and in the lives of others.

⁴ Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵ You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶ No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. ⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does right is righteous, as he is righteous. ⁸ He who commits sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ No one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. ¹⁰ By this it may be seen who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he who does not love his brother.

1 John 3:4-10

God has come in Christ not only to forgive us, but to make us truly right, whole, pure. As John has said, we are not only to be called the children of God but to be the children of God. This means Jesus will remove all sin from our lives, heal all the wounds, and straighten out all brokenness. Why is this? Because sin is to trust in someone or something besides God for our identity and our life. To sin is to turn from God, to close our hands to Him. It is the sin that we have done and others have done to us over all our years that twists and distorts us, crippling our ability to be filled to overflowing with the great love of God. Gary has a good illustration for sin that I know some of you have heard before: to sin is like putting water in the gas tank of your car. Your car was made to run on gas, water will wreck the engine. God made us to live in (run on) His love, to enjoy and fully participate in the love between the Father and the Son in the Spirit–as children, not just creatures. As God makes us whole, we can more and more enjoy that life in Him.

So John is telling his readers that as God’s children our relationship with sin has changed. We have had that relationship undone in Christ, we now live in Him, not in seeking our life somewhere else. John is not saying that Christians will never sin again. He has already said in the first part of his letter that “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” And in the previous passage, he says that it “does not yet appear what we shall be.” So John knows we are still becoming the children we now are in Christ. He is not now saying that we will never sin again. But he is saying that sin is not part of this new life in Christ, it is no longer a part of our identity. Sin is of the devil, it is anti-life and it is what God is destroying. My guess is that there was a group of people who were saying that sin is a natural part of us, something we will always have. It is okay to sin, it doesn’t really do us any harm, they tell John’s readers.

But John is saying no, sin is not a part of the life of Christ, it is what he came to take away (v.5) It is harmful to us, it has consequences, and it is no longer natural to us. The good news is that when God reveals an area in which we are not trusting Him, He is not condemning us or showing us the “truth of who we really are.” He is showing us what He is doing away with. He is revealing not us but the sin in us that is our enemy. We never have to think we are our sin again!

But we will still sin. The healing, becoming process takes time. And when we turn from Jesus to trust in someone or something else we are not abiding in Him in that moment, and the sin is of the devil. It is something else that God will need to redeem and heal in our lives as we hand it over. And this He does gladly for His children for this is why He came to us (v. 8) We find, now that we are born of God, that we long more and more to be put right in all of our lives. When we sin, we need to turn it over to God in repentance trusting in His ability and desire to forgive and heal. John is saying here that to continue to trust in God as well as in yourself or others is impossible and shouldn’t be hoped for. Sin is destructive to us and we shouldn’t be fooled on where the desire to not trust or do harm or control others, etc. comes from.

In v. 7 John says “He who does right is righteous, as He is righteous.” And we have seen several times in this letter what John means by doing right. To do right is to count on God to be your source of life, to be the only one who can tell you who you really are, and to make us all He created us to be, His very daughters and sons. We are made pure and right in this hope and obeying Him out of this hope, counting on Him to take all we give Him and transform it for our deepest joy and life.

He concludes this section by saying in v. 10 “whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he who does not love his brother.” To not do right is to refuse to count on God for one’s life and identity, to hang on to all the deceit that we can give ourselves life by being in control, trusting in ourselves or others to tell us who we are and to give us meaning and worth. It makes sense that these two ways of living are not side by side but opposites.

I am so glad to remember again that I am not my sin. I do not have to despair that I will never really change. God is going to make me whole and His. I will not have any part of my life that will be left unredeemed and unhealed. I will not have any regrets left when I am presented before my Father. For God’s love for me is so great that He will make me able to totally receive moment by moment His passionate wonderful love.

May this be a word of encouragement and hope to you.