John writes this letter to remind the church how important it is to know the TRUTH, and to walk in the LIGHT and to LOVE one another. He does so because anti-christs are promoting false views of Jesus Christ. As we work through this book together, I hope you realize how much God loves you and wants you to fight sin, to love others and to believe in the true Jesus for salvation (forgiveness of sins/eternal life).
GOD IS LIGHT
How can we have fellowship with God?
a. By Walking in the Light
b. By Confessing Sin
c. By the advocacy of Christ
1 John 1: 1-4
John begins this letter by giving his creditials. He reminds the church that he is a reliable witness to what he is telling them. John heard with his ears, he did not rely on others speculations or opinions, he literally seen Jesus with his own eyes, today we see him through eyes of faith. "Though you have not seen him you love him and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy." (1 Peter 1:8) John is saying that now we look to Jesus in faith for salvation. After that we are to gaze upon him. Thats's what studying this book will help us to do. We need to do more than just look to him for salvation, we need to spend time gazing upon him with the eye of faith in order to be the women that God desires us to be..Oaks of Righteousness a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor. John is proclaiming to us eternal life? What is eternal life? It is the person of Jesus Christ. You either have Christ or you don't. You either trust Him or you don't. If you trust Him you have eternal life. The question you should ask yourself is do you have eternal life?
In verse 3 John again tells us what he has seen and heard. This must be very important for him to repeat this 3 x's in 3 verses. He tells us what he has seen and heard so that we can have "fellowship" with God and with the church (the body of Christ, true believers). God is holy and we are not. We are unholy because of sin in our lives. This separation between God and man must be bridged so that we can have fellowship with Him. What does John mean by "fellowship"? This word in the greek is "koinonia" means having in common or sharing with. Christian fellowship means sharing the things of Christ. To do this we must know Jesus, not just know about Jesus, but know him as our personal Savior. We talk together about His Word, faith issues and our fellowship is with both the Father and the Son. When we are experiencing fellowship with God though Christ we will have complete (abundant) JOY. Fellowship with God is taking communion, praying, giving is an act of fellowship with God. Are you experiencing joy in your life? If not why? Are you in fellowship with God? If not why? Do you have one foot in the world and the other in the church? If so maybe this is why you are not experiencing life the way God intended it.
Verses 5- 10
God is Light and it is important that we walk in the Light. This is a problem because God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all. What does God is Light mean?
1. When you turn on the light darkness flees. When John says God is Light he is referring to His glory, the radiance, the beauty and the wonders of God.
2. Another characteristic of light is that it is self-revealing. Light reveals flaws and impurities. Light reveals dirt. Our sins are before God because He is Light. "secret sin down here is an open scandal in heaven."
3. Light also speaks of the purity of God. God is pure..he moves w/o making a shadow.
4. Light is a great cleanser...the sun is a natural whitener.
5. Light also guides men....it points out the path and gives courage to go on.
Darkness is the opposite of Light....it is hostile to the light. The light and holiness of God are in direct conflict with the evil darkness of the world and in rebellion against God. God has made it clear that He finds no good in man. Romans 7:8, Romans 3:10 "there is no one righteous no not one" So what do we do in order to have fellowship with God? There are 3 ways in which man has attempted to do this:
1. Reduce God to mans level - alot of people claim to have fellowship with God but in reality they do not at all. Why? Because they are not walking in the Light. They lie and do not live by the truth. When you have fellowship with God you walk in the Light and if there is sin in your life you are not walking with him. You cannot bring God down to your level. Verse 7 says "if" we walk in the Light that is according to God's word, notice that the cleansing of the blood depends upon us walking in the Light. Have we come into the presence of God and allowed the Word of God to shine upon our sinful hearts? It is possible to walk in darkness and think you are alright. John says in verse 8 that if we say we have fellowship with God but are walking in sin we are lying. (Johns words not mine) People today want to make excuses for sin in their lives try to explain it away, (nobody's perfect, ev'one is doing it, its human nature) but if you are living in sin, God will not have fellowship with you. Now if you are a child of God and are living in sin and now see it in the light of God's word what do you do? When the Light reveals dirt you wash it off. John says "And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" This is family truth...if you are a child of God and have sin in your life and don't confess and repent of it, God is going to treat you like a disobedient child. He will punish you.(Hebrews 12) You cannot bring God down to your level. It doesn't work but many folks try to do it. This brings us to the 2nd way we attempt to have fellowship with God that does not work.
2. Bring man up to God's level - verse 8 says "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Some Christians think they are perfect. That they never sin. They think they have already attained and are sinless. Christians should sin less and less as they grow in their relationship with Christ but will never be sinless so if you think you are you are deceiving yourself. You cannot ever in this world be good enough on our own merit to have fellowship with God. Since you cannot bring God down to your level and you can never reach his level, what are you going to do? John tells us in verse 9
3. Confess Sins - "If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness". This is the right method of bringing together sinful man and a holy God..confession of sins. Confession means agreeing with God what he already knows. When you confess your sins you turn from them. You agree with God what you have done is sin and God hates sin and so should you ..v 10 says if we say we havn't sinned we are a liar..lets not lie, lets just go to God and talk about it...he has made a wonderful way for us to get back in fellowship with Him.
1 John 2:1
We have Fellowship with God by the Advocacy of Christ.
John does not say we cannot sin, but he is writing to us that we may not sin. " But if anyone does sin we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense...Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."
I want to end this lesson by saying that if you Believe that Jesus Christ is the sinless Son of God who came in flesh, born of a virgin, lived and died, shed his blood, for the sins of the world. He not only died but he rose again, ascended into heaven and is at the right hand of the Father interceeding on our behalf and if you have Received this gift of salvation by Admitting you are a sinner and need a Savior and have confessed and Repented of your sins and were Baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost as recorded in Acts 2:38-41 than you are a child of God and have the gift of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. Praise the Lord!!!
You are now in God's family and your relationship with God is all important. We need to have fellowship with Him. We need to grow in our faith...stop taking sin in our lives lightly, but when we do sin we repent and we are forgiven because of Jesus Christ the righteous one ...he is our advocate...He stands in the gap between God and mankind. Jesus shed his blood for not only my sins but your sins too.
In Chapter one of 1st John we discussed God Is Light and what it means to walk in the Light. I hope you have found this helpful. In the next blog we will discuss God is Love and what it means to walk in Love.
Again I want to mention that alot of what I am sharing I discovered from a Bible Commentary written by J. Vernon McGee who went to be with the Lord in 1988...but his teaching continues....To God be the Glory!
As always if you have any questions feel free to comment or contact me at robinmartin3@hotmail.com
Joyfully Serving Jesus
Robin
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