Back to First John (Chapter 1)

I've been sidetracked lately and have posted about some other issues recently. I know some of you are waiting for the notes from our study of First John. You can find the previous posts about the book in the archive section of this blog, located on the right hand side of the main page.

The first chapter of this book is probably the key to entire book. Once it is understood, the four chapters fall in line. The first chapter is a counter to 15th chapter of John's gospel. John 15 explains the positive side of fellowship, abiding in Christ. First John 1 explains to us that when we don't abide in Christ we must seek forgiveness so we can have that fellowship. We'll talk more about abiding later.

Keep in mind what the Gnostics believed as you begin reading the first four verses. They said all matter was evil. Humans were evil. Jesus could not be the Christ because he would have been evil in the form of a man. One group said that it just appeared that Jesus was on earth. It was an illusion.

I think of John as a court room lawyer making his case to the jury right off the bat as I look at I John 1:1. He tells these critics that he's talking about "that which was from the beginning". John then goes on to say he used three of his senses as he knew "that which was". John heard Him, saw Him and touched Him. You can't do those things with an illusion. He's going right after the Gnostics at the start of his opening argument.

John strengthens his argument in verse two and three. "The life was manifested". John again says he saw Christ and is His witness and now he's sharing that news with his audience and refuting these Gnostics. John is saying I have fellowship with Him and you can too. The word fellowship comes from koinonia in Greek. It means partnership, joint sharing. We can only have fellowship when there is a joint sharing, a common bond in the faith, in love and in work.

Verse four must have been a very powerful verse to this original audience. They've been hearing these Gnostics tell them that to try to serve God one must suffer total depravity. John says no. I'm telling you these things, "that your joy may be full." Joy was the total and complete opposite of what these people had been hearing from the false teachers. What a breathe of fresh air that sentence must have been to them and should be to us. If you have Jesus you have joy.