SCRIPTURE: 1 JOHN 1
INTRODUCTION:
John, the beloved disciple of Jesus wrote four books namely: Gospel of John, 1st John, 2nd John and 3rd John. John wrote the first letter of John to warn Christians about dangerous false teachers who misled people by teaching them that Jesus was not the Son of God and He is not a man. John told the Christians to believe that Jesus Christ is both God and man. He encouraged these Christians to keep their faith in Christ and continue to love one another and obey God’s commands. He emphasized sonship with three marks of true child of God: doing God’s will, loving brethren and believing the truth. He also presented God as “light”, “love” and “life”. As God is light and truth, His children should also walk in the light and obey the truth. As God is “love”, His children should love others with good relationship evidenced by good deeds. As God is “life”, His children are assured of eternal life in heaven.
MEMORY VERSE:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
THE WORD OF LIFE (vs. 1-4)
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 Words of life. 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. 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. We write this to make our joy complete.
WALKING IN THE LIGHT (vs. 5-10)
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 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, purifies us from all sin.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.; If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
THOUGHTS:
John was the disciple Jesus loved. He wrote this letter to show the difference between light and darkness (truth and falsehood) and encourage the church to grow in genuine love for God and for one another. He also wrote to assure believers that if their faith is genuine, they could enjoy all the benefits of being God’s children and the assurance of eternal life.
Light represents what is good, pure, true, holy and reliable. Darkness represents what is sinful and evil. “God ls light” means He is perfectly holy and true and that he alone can guide us out of the darkness of sin. Light is also related to truth because light exposes whatever is good or bad. In the dark, good and evil look alike, but in the light, they can be clearly 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.
Fellowship that God wants His children to have:
- Living fellowship – Even if we cannot see God or touch Him, He can still be real to us as His Holy Spirit dwells in our heart to reveal His Word.
- Joyful fellowship – Our fellowship with God is that of a child with a parent. God as our father shares His unmeasurable love with us when we live for Him and serve him faithfully.
- Genuine fellowship – Genuine fellowship comprises of sincere and truthful relationship which means walking in the light and dealing honestly with sin.
True confession involves a commitment not to continue in sin. When we confess our sins to God, we should pray for strength to defeat temptation so that we won’t be committing the same sin again.