[:en]John, the beloved disciple of Jesus wrote first, second, third John and the gospel of John. His purpose of writing 1st John was to reassure Christians in their faith and to counter false teachings. His letter featured sharp contrast betwen love and hate, light and darkness, truth and falsehood.
THE WORD OF LIFE (vs. 1-4)
John opened his letter emphasizing that Christ – the Word of Life – is eternal. John was an eye witness to the human life of Jesus and had fellowship with Him.
WALKING IN THE LIGHT (vs. 5-10)
“God is light” means that God is perfectly holy and true. He alone can guide us out of darkness of sin. Just as darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, sin cannot exist in the pressence of the holy God. If we want to have a relationship with God, we must put aside our sinful ways of living.
False teachers claimed that we can have fellowship with God and still walk in darkness. They approved of gratifying physical lust because the body was going to be destroyed anyway. John was saying that no one can claim to be a Christian and still live in evil and immorality. We cannot love God and court sin at the same time.
In the Old Testament times, believers symbolically transferred their sins to animals. The animal died in their place to pay for their sins. When Jesus came, He died for the sins of the world and His blood purifies us from all sins.
False teachers also claimed that people had no natural tendency towards sin. They refused to take sin seriously so they saw no need to repent. They also denied that their conduct involved any sin at all. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive oursleves and the truth is not in us” (v. 8)
All people are sinners by nature. At conversion, all our sins are forgiven. But after we become Christians, we still sin and need to confess. Confession is the way to remove the barrier of fellowship between God and men. True confession involves a commitment not to continue in sin. We should pray for strength to defeat temptation in order not to sin.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (v. 9)[:]