1 John 1 (New King James Version (NKJV))
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, concerning the Word of life— 2 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— 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. 4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.
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. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice 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 Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 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.
There are a couple of points to this chapter.
Part one, verses 1to 4 tells why he wrote this. He wants us to know joy should be full or complete because of Jesus. We need to have fellowship with Christ and with one another. This is where we find life. He explains the witness or testimony of what we have heard, seen and experienced. We have a testimony or a witness to share. We have heard the Word of God, we have seen what God can do and we have experienced what God has done in us and for us. That is what we declare.
He also wrote about fellowship. Verses 5-7 explain that we have a message. God is light and we are to walk in light. Darkness has no place and cannot be in the light. When we turn on a light in our house we can see where we are going. I have a basement and if I do not turn on a light, it is very dark and hard to see. I don't like that. I always reach for that light switch. We are to be the light. We are to walk in Him. Jesus is the light of the world and he does not fellowship with darkness. I saw a picture that has a match burning. On the wall behind it is a shadow of the match, but there is no shadow for the fire. Light does not have a shadow. God is light and we are to reflect that light to the world. There should be no place for sin in our lives.
Verses 8-10 explain to us that we need to recognize that we have sinned and we should not deceive ourselves by thinking we have no sin or say we do not sin. We get caught up sometimes in thinking we are doing good, trying to be good and do nice things etc. We let our self take pride in our own righteousness. God says that our righteousness is filthy rags before him. (Isaiah 64:6) In Romans 3:23 it says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Thankfully, we have forgiveness in the blood of Jesus. He has cleansed us from all unrighteousness. In Him, we are made righteous and holy. We have no holiness in ourselves. Only through Jesus are we made holy and right.
John definitely gave some good advice and explanations about who we are in God. We have a testimony. We are forgiven. That is a good place to start.
1. Do I realize that my testimony is powerful?
2. Think about your own testimony. Go back to that moment we salvation came to you. What a powerful moment.
3. Do we recognize the righteousness of God operating in us?
4. Let us remember the joy of salvation today and thank Him for this precious gift.
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