Sermon Tone Analysis

*/A Study of 1st, 2nd, & 3rd John/*

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/A.

Basic principles of fellowship (1:5-2:2)./

*1:5.*

In the prologue the author asserted that he was writing about things he had heard, seen, and touched.

Here he began with something he had heard.

*This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you.

*By the words “from Him,” John no doubt meant from the Lord Jesus Christ whose Incarnation he had just referred to (vv.

1-2).

The content of this “message,” as John expressed it, is that *God is Light; in Him there is no darkness at all.

*This precise statement is not found in the recorded words of Jesus, but the author was an apostle who heard much more than was “written down” (cf.

John 21:25).

There is no reason to think that John did not mean just what he said.

This is a truth he had learned from the Lord.

In describing God as Light, which John frequently did (John 1:4-5, 7-9; 3:19-21; 8:12; 9:5; 12:35-36, 46; Rev. 21:23), he was no doubt thinking of God as the Revealer of His holiness.

Both aspects of the divine nature figure in the discussion of sin and fellowship in 1 John 1:6-10.

As Light, God both exposes man’s sin and condemns it.

If anyone walks in darkness, he is hiding from the truth which the Light reveals (cf.

John 3:19-20).

Thus revelatory terms such as “the truth” and “His Word” are prominent in 1 John 1:6, 8, 10.

It is important that the “message” John had heard is the one he directed to his readers (“we . . .

declare to you”).

Some scholars have maintained that the false assertions which are condemned in verses 6, 8, and 10 are those of the false teachers, or antichrists, about whom John wrote later.

But there is no proof of this.

The writer continued to use the word “we” throughout as though both he and his readership were in view.

When carefully considered, the kind of claims which John refuted are precisely the kind which may be made by Christians who lose touch with spiritual realities and with God.

The effort to find in verses 6-10 the doctrinal beliefs of heretical teachers lacks adequate exegetical foundation.

*1:6.*

Since “God is Light,” it follows that a Christian cannot truly claim communion with Him while living in the darkness.

As John warned, *If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.

*John knew, as does every perceptive pastor, that Christians sometimes feign spirituality while engaging in acts of disobedience.

The Apostle Paul had to deal with a case of incest in the Corinthian assembly (1 Cor.

5:1-5) and laid down a list of sins for which church members should come under church discipline (1 Cor.

5:9-13).

Spurious claims to fellowship with God have been a tragic reality throughout the history of the church.

A Christian who says he is in fellowship with God (who “is Light”) but who is disobeying Him (walking “in the darkness”) is lying (cf. 1 John 2:4).

Ten times John used “darkness” to refer to sin (John 1:5; 3:19; 12:35 [twice]; 1 John 1:5-6; 2:8-9, 11 [twice]).

*1:7.*

There can be only one sphere of real communion with God—the light itself.

Thus John insisted that this is where a Christian will find that communion: *But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

*It is strange that many commentators have understood the expression “with one another” as a reference to fellowship with other Christians.

But this is not what the author is discussing here.

The Greek pronoun for “one another” (allēlōn) may refer to the two parties (God and the Christian) named in the first part of the statement.

John’s point is that if Christians live in the light where God is, then there is mutual fellowship between Himself and them.

That is, they have fellowship with Him and He has fellowship with them.

The light itself is the fundamental reality which they share.

Thus true communion with God is living in the sphere where one’s experience is illumined by the truth of what God is.

It is to live open to His revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ.

As John soon stated (v.

9), this entails believers’ acknowledging whatever the light reveals is wrong in their lives.

It is significant that John talked of walking /in /the light, rather than /according to /the light.

To walk /according to /the light would require sinless perfection and would make fellowship with God impossible for sinful humans.

To walk /in /it, however, suggests instead openness and responsiveness to the light.

John did not think of Christians as sinless, even though they are walking in the light, as is made clear in the last part of this verse.

For John added that *the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from every sin.

*This statement is grammatically coordinate with the preceding one, “We have fellowship with one another.”

The statement of verse 7, in its entirety, affirms that two things are true of believers who walk in the light: (a) they are in fellowship with God and (b) they are being cleansed from every sin.

So long as there is true openness to the light of divine truth, Christians’ failures are under the cleansing power of the shed blood of Christ.

Indeed, only in virtue of the Savior’s work on the cross can there be any fellowship between imperfect creatures and the infinitely perfect God.

*1:8.*

But when a believer is experiencing true fellowship with God he may then be tempted to think or say that he is, at that moment at least, free from sin.

John warned against this self-deluding conception.

*If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us *(cf.

v. 6; 2:4).

If Christians understand the truth that God’s Word teaches about the depravity of the human heart, they know that just because they are not /conscious /of failure does not mean that they are free from it.

If the truth is “in” them as a controlling, motivating influence, this kind of self-deception will not take place.

Whether someone claims to be “without sin” for a brief period of time or claims it as a permanent attainment, the claim is false.

*1:9.*

In view of verse 8, Christians ought to be ready at all times to acknowledge any failure which God’s light may expose to them.

Thus John wrote, *If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

*Though the NIV‘s translation “our sins” (after the words “forgive us”) is quite admissible, “our” is not in the Greek text.

The phrase /(tas hamartias) /contains only an article and noun and it is conceivable that the article is the type which grammarians call “the article of previous reference.”

If so, there is a subtle contrast between this expression and the “all unrighteousness” which follows it.

John’s thought might be paraphrased: “If we confess our sins, He . . .

will forgive the sins we confess and moreover will even cleanse us from /all /unrighteousness.”

Naturally only God knows at any moment the full extent of a person’s unrighteousness.

Each Christian, however, is responsible to acknowledge (the meaning of “confess,” homologōmen; cf.

2:23; 4:3) whatever the light makes him aware of, and when he does so, a complete and perfect cleansing is granted him.

There is thus no need to agonize over sins of which one is unaware.

Moreover, it is comforting to learn that the forgiveness which is promised here is both absolutely assured (because God “is faithful”) and also is in no way contrary to His holiness (He is “just”).

The word used here for “just” /(dikaios) /is the same one which is applied as a title to Christ in 2:1 where it is translated “the Righteous One.” /Dikaios /is also used of God (either the Father or the Son) in 2:29 and 3:7.

Obviously God is “just” or “righteous” when He forgives the believer’s sin because of the “atoning sacrifice” which the Lord Jesus has made (see 2:2).

As is already evident from 1:7, a Christian’s fellowship with God is inseparably connected with the effectiveness of the blood which Jesus shed for him.

In modern times some have occasionally denied that a Christian needs to confess his sins and ask forgiveness.

It is claimed that a believer already has forgiveness in Christ (Eph.

1:7).

But this point of view confuses the perfect position which a Christian has in God’s Son (by which he is even “seated . . .

with Him in the heavenly realms” [Eph.

2:6]) with his needs as a failing individual on earth.

What is considered in 1 John 1:9 may be described as “familial” forgiveness.

It is perfectly understandable how a son may need to ask his father to forgive him for his faults while at the same time his position within the family is not in jeopardy.

A Christian who never asks his heavenly Father for forgiveness for his sins can hardly have much sensitivity to the ways in which he grieves his Father.

Furthermore, the Lord Jesus Himself taught His followers to seek forgiveness of their sins in a prayer that was obviously intended for daily use (cf. the expression “give us today our daily bread” preceding “forgive us our debts,” Matt.

6:11-12).

The teaching that a Christian should not ask God for daily forgiveness is an aberration.

Moreover, confession of sin is /never /connected by John with the acquisition of eternal life, which is always conditioned on faith.

First John 1:9 is not spoken to the unsaved, and the effort to turn it into a soteriological affirmation is misguided.

It may also be said that so long as the idea of walking in the light or darkness is correctly understood on an experiential level, these concepts offer no difficulty.

“Darkness” has an ethical meaning (/Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, /s.v.

/“skotos,” /7:444).

When a believer loses personal touch with the God of light, he begins to live in darkness.

But confession of sin is the way back into the light.

*1:10.*

However, after a believer sins, he should not deny that sin.

*If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His Word has no place in our lives.

*This statement should be read in direct connection with verse 9.

When a Christian is confronted by God’s Word about his sins, he should admit them rather than deny them.

To deny one’s personal sin in the face of God’s testimony to the contrary, is to “make” God “out to be a liar.”

By contradicting His Word, a person rejects it and refuses to give it the proper “place” in his life.

*2:1.*

Some of John’s readers might have thought his insistence on the sinfulness of Christians somehow would discourage holiness.