1 John Introduction
I love this quote from the ESV Bible’s introduction to the epistle
of 1 John:
It reaffirms the core of Christianity, saying that either we
exhibit the sound doctrine, obedience, and love that characterize all Christians,
or else we are not true Christians.
Talk about high challenge!
Either you are or you aren’t. It’s
pretty black and white. Either we’re
working towards Christ or we’re not with Him.
Not that we don’t make mistakes along the way, mind you. This quote isn’t saying we do anything
perfectly. It is saying that either we
have the doctrine, obedience, and love as the goal or we don’t. That’s powerful stuff – and I haven’t even
gotten to the official letter yet!
So long as I’m doing introduction, let’s talk author, date, and
circumstance. The author is
traditionally believed to be John the Apostle.
It is likewise presumed to be written sometime in the late first
century. It is also likely assumed to
written to the churches in Asia Minor (Turkey) – probably many of the same
churches to whom the book of Revelation was written. It is written because the “first generation” of
Christians were beginning to die and the second and third generation of
Christians needed to be reminded to keep the faith while continuing to declare
it to the world.
Confidence in the Faith
From the very beginning of this letter we hear about the
importance of keeping the faith. God has
been faithful since the beginning. His
promised Messiah has finally come. There
are witnesses to this fact – although admittedly more and more of the faithful
witnesses have died. The testimony is
true. It was not only heard but seen and
witnessed in the flesh.
This paragraph caused me to stop and think for a second. One of the things that I love about Christianity
is that it really has stood the test of time.
Yes, there have been ups and downs.
But there have been Christians ever since Christ came. This is no passing fad. This is not something dreamed up by twelve entrepreneurs
in the early first century who looked to “sell Jesus to the world.” {If it
was, then they gave their lives up for a creation of their own mind … that just
doesn’t make any sense.} No, the
truth is that Christianity has stood the test of time. People continue to believe in the incredible
claims of God even 2,000 years later.
What does John tell us is the first goal of the testimony? Why, fellowship, of course! New believers have fellowship with the mature
believers who have fellowship with the believers are now dead who – follow the
chain back far enough – had fellowship with Jesus Christ Himself who had
fellowship with the Father. This is the
same idea that the author of Hebrews speaks about with respect to the “Great
Cloud of Witnesses.” {Hebrews 12:1} The goal is fellowship with God and all the
people of God along the way.
Again, stop and think about that for a moment. Let this question sink in: Do you deserve to
be in fellowship with God? How awesome
is God that He wants to be in fellowship with us who do not deserve such a circumstance!
Confession
The second half of this introductory chapter really lays it out
there. Of course, those of us in a
liturgical setting recognize verse 8. “If
we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” That’s powerful. We are in bondage to sin – even while being
free in Christ! To confess otherwise is
like burying your head in the sand. We
do sin. We need to confess and
repent. We need God to fix our mistakes,
fix our being, and fix the world we mess up.
We need to humbly come before Him.
Let’s not forget verse 6. “If
we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie…” That’s a pretty powerful verse as well. How many times have I proclaimed I was in
fellowship with God when really God was the furthest thing from my mind! How many times have I considered myself a
full card-carrying disciple of Jesus Christ when in truth I wasn’t following
anyone but myself!
No wonder I couldn’t effectively make disciples in my youth. I could say all the right words, but there
was absolutely no fruit being born out in my life. Who wants to listen to someone who can say
all the right words but show absolutely no evidence of their words in their own
life? {By the way, that’s true about adults, too.}
No. Truth is that unless we
are actively “producing fruit of faith” we aren’t honestly walking with
Christ. Unless there is evidence in our
life of change, there isn’t actually any fellowship with Christ happening. If we say we have fellowship when really we
are walking in darkness, we lie. It’s
hard to get around that verse without either having evidence of our fellowship
or recognizing the desire to turn and confess our sin.
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