1 John 1

1 John 1 King James Version (KJV)

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, of the Word of life;

2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto 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 the truth:

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth 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.

1 John is ,in my opinion, the very first book of the Bible that any new Christian should study. If you do a discipleship class this should be the fundamental text. It has so many of the things we believe, and why we believe them. So I am going to do a break down of each chapter and try to explain for the beginners as best I can. I am not the end all in explanations so please read and pray and study God's Word for yourself.

Verse 1 -4: John is giving testimony to the Truth, Jesus Christ is God. John the Apostle saw Christ, ate with Him, learned from Him, Was there when Christ died and saw Him again after Christ rose from the dead. John is attesting to First hand knowledge of Christ, His death, His burial, His Resurrection, His ascension to the Father, and to the Divinity of Christ. Christ is God from the beginning, and through out the ages - Christ is God. Christ is the way the truth and the life. He is God's Word of life.

John is now taking the time to pass on to us the things we need to know that we may share in his experience and wisdom. He is declaring these truths to us that we may have the joy and peace of Christ as our very own. Only those who know Christ, can fellowship with Him and God the Father.

Verse 5-9: God is light. Light is pure. Light is all-piercing in it's illumination. There is no darkness with light. God is pure and holy. Sin is dark and dreary. There is no darkness in God. If you are in the darkness you are not in the light of God's fellowship. This means ,like Adam, you can not walk with God in the Garden. You can not fellowship with God if there is darkness. God has given us the way to commune with Him. God has provided the salvation necessary for us. We as men left God through sin, He gave us the way back at no cost to us. He gave His Son to Suffer, be bloodied, bruised, beaten, and die for us.

If you walk in Darkness that is to mean if you are unsaved you can not know Christ as the saved do. It means you can not fellowship with Christ, there is no power of the Holy Spirit upon you, God does not hear you. If you say there is no sin in you that you are good enough on your own - wake up you are lying to yourself and to God. All have sinned.

However, if you are in the light ,saved, cleansed through the blood of Christ and stand in Him complete then you can fellowship with Him. You have all the benefits that the light brings.

Another aspect of the light shows us sin we may have un-confessed and laid at the feet of God to be cleansed in the Blood of the Lamb who died for us. True fellowship only comes when we are as clean and pure as He. We can not achieve that purity in and of ourselves we must go to Him.

However, even in our saved, redemptive state we still sin. We still fall short of the Glory of God. Adam's sin still weighs on us. The spiritual state is still influenced by the physical. As long as we are on this earth we will sin. We will have to confess daily this sin to maintain our fellowship, our communion with God.

God knows we are human, God knows we will sin. God has promised that if we confess our sin, acknowledge it as sin like He does, repent and turn from it He will forgive us and keep that fellowship with us. We must make sure that ALL sin in our hearts, lives and mind are acknowledged and seen as He sees it - Sin. Do not make apologies for it, do not justify it. Confess it. Cleanse yourself and walk with God. Go to Garden in the morning and commune with Him. Ask Him to bring to Light any sins you may have unconfessed, Any thing left that you do not remember or consider sin. He will bring it to the Light and show you so that you may resume your fellowship. He is as eager as you are to talk, to walk, and to commune. This why He created us. To be the Sons of God.

A word of caution though. Do not be overly pious, do not be self-righteous. We can do nothing without Christ, We are nothing without Christ. Nothing we do or have is without Him. The second you become to haughty, to much of a "look at me see how righteous I am" type of person -This is Sin. Pride is at the root of most sins. God is no respecter of persons and neither should you be. Remember that all men are the same in God's eyes. The only difference between you and the unsaved is Christ found you. You didn't find Him. You probably were not even looking for Him. If ever you feel sorry for someone because they are not as good as you then you have a problem and need to get to the Garden right then and there Because brother you have sin.