1 John 1:5-2:2 Reflection
By Gerry Straker, 16 May 2020
At Church by the Bay we need to listen to John’s apostolic message - the message about Jesus that he gave to his apostles, and they, and the Holy Spirit, caused to be written down in the New Testament for us today (1:5).
These ‘antichrists’ John talks about (2:19) have never gone away. They are not some horrible horror film figure, but they are those denying that the Son of God took on flesh and they have built their own idol version of Jesus. When people stop listening to the Apostles they craft their own Jesus. And if there’s no proper teaching on Jesus needing to be fully God and fully man to save us, then there’s no proper teaching on sin and judgement, on the cross, or on holiness.
This is really dangerous because it is attractive and wobbles Christians. It is a religion that leaves people free to do what they want and so it is acceptable to the world. And it is dangerous because it leads to eternal death.
And so John’s headline message is this: ‘God is light’ (1:5). God is glorious, bright, shining, pure, perfection, ‘in him is no darkness at all’ (1:5). Light is the very first thing God created on day one of Creation (Genesis 1:3) - the very first way God chose to picture himself in creation. He dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16). Light is God’s garment (Psalm 104:2). Charles Spurgeon says on this verse: ‘If light itself is but his garment and veil, what must be the blazing splendour of his own essential being![1] You can’t look at the sun in the daytime; how much more would we be dazzled by God himself?
After his headline, John addresses three lies of the antichrists and as he does that he teaches the Apostolic church – the Church listening to him – what it means to be the true Church…
- Walk in the light and have fellowship 1:6-7
The antichrists claim fellowship, yet walk in darkness – this means a lifestyle of sin. But God is light (1:5), so they simply can’t enjoy knowing him, if they walk in the darkness! There can be no fellowship between light with darkness (2 Corinthians 6:14). To add to their darkness they lie, they ‘do not practise the truth’ (1:6).
But John reassures them that they can walk in God’s light (1:7). God’s Son is the light;[2] God’s salvation is being lit or brought into the light,[3] and God’s Word lights our way.[4] This doesn’t mean perfection, but as rescued people living as God the light wants us to live,[5] with God lighting our way, home to Him.[6]
And that means we have fellowship with one another (1:7) – we would expect John to write ‘with God’. But, once again, we see the closeness of God and his people. You can’t have fellowship with God without fellowship with his people.
This shows us that walking in the darkness in particular means walking apart from the Church, not meeting together, not being committed, and not loving the God’s people. After all, the Church is the light in the Lord,[7] and the antichrists have left the church (2:19). So walking in darkness means not having fellowship with the Church.[8]
They claim to know God while rejecting the Church. That happens today – people ‘move on’ from that old embarrassing thing called church – they still claim to be Christians, but they know better now. But, says John, walking in the light means fellowship with the Church.
And that means the blood of Jesus, the Son of God, ‘cleanses us from all sin’ (1:7). His precious blood bought the church.[9] As we walk in the light, and as we seek to do what God wants don’t you find more and more sin exposed? More and more darkness of sin in us, that needs washing away.
Wonderfully, we have ongoing cleansing (it’s in the present tense) from Jesus. We are purified from all our sin – all the sin before we were Christians, and the sin yesterday, and the sin this morning. All the residue of sin is washed away. You can’t see it any more, you can’t smell it any more, and there’s nothing left under the nails.
And that total cleansing happens when we confess our sins.
- Confess your sins and be forgiven and purified 1:8-9
The second claim of the antichrists is that they have not sinned (1:8). This is exactly what happens when someone stops listening to the Apostles’ teaching about sin and when someone is not in fellowship: they are not having their sin exposed by the Word or by the godliness of other Christians. You stop noticing your sin as sin and in the darkness, you are blind to your sins. Without the Word and the Church, exposing our sin for what it really is, sin becomes ‘acceptable’ and can even become ‘good’ - selfishness becomes ‘standing up for my rights;’ pride becomes a virtue; and having ‘freedom to express who you really are’ is a given.The antichrists can’t see this is what they are doing: they are lying to themselves and succeeding (1:8).
Again, this kind of Christianity is attractive and acceptable to the world. A religion that doesn’t talk about sin, that says we are good deep down and the problems are ‘out there’ - like litter on the beach.
But the true Church, confess their sins – the rubbish in their hearts. And God who is faithful to his promises to forgive, and just to only punish sins once in Jesus, will forgive and ‘cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1:9).
Walking in the light doesn’t mean perfection, it means confessing our sins. Don’t you find there’s more of your heart the Holy Spirit wants to work on as you go on in the faith? There’s always more to confess!
So, Church by the Bay, confess your sins. Sunday confession is really important, but it’s hard to be specific in a gathering, or to confess our sins by name. So, don’t wait for Sunday, repent daily. This is how we enjoy fellowship with God!
If we’re choosing sin instead of God or keeping away from God because we’ve sinned, God will feel distant. The answer to both issues is to confess your sins, and enjoy the blessing of being forgiven, enjoy closeness to God again![10]
And if we confess our sins, we have Jesus…
- If you do sin, you have Jesus! 1:10-2:2
The third claim of the antichrists in 1:10 seems to be similar to 1:8: they claim to have not sinned. Earlier John calls them liars (1:6), and said they were successfully lying to themselves (1:8) but now John says they are calling God a liar! (1:10). Because God says they have sinned. And so ‘his word is not in them.'
Now John addresses the Apostolic Church that he loves: ‘my little children’ (2:1). Yes we sin, yes we can confess our sins, yes we will be forgiven, but please don’t sin!
For believers, sin is a tragedy. True believers hate and mourn their sin. And so when you do sin, hear these comfortable words:
‘But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:1-2).
- Jesus is our Advocate, the one who speaks to the Father on our behalf. But he isn’t pleading for us like a lawyer in a courtroom to a Judge. And Jesus isn’t begging for mercy from a cold and remote God who needs persuading. No, It is the very fact of Jesus’ death on the cross, his resurrection and ascension, and his presence in God’s throne room that pleads for us. It’s not that God is desperate to smite us, but Jesus is blocking the way and calling God’s attention to his death - absolutely not! It was a joint plan of Father and Son for Jesus to do what he did. The Triune God planned this in eternity!
- Jesus is Righteous. Because he is the Son of God, he is righteous. It’s the same word here in the Greek used to describe God as ‘just’ in 1:9. And Jesus is a righteous man; although fully human he didn’t sin. The antichrists say they didn’t sin; the true Christ actually didn’t sin.
- And Jesus is our Propitiation. He took God’s wrath at our sins. As we saw in Mark, Jesus cries out ‘My God, My God why have you foresaken me’ (Mark 15:34) teaching us that the darkness of God’s judgement is falling on him. As Jesus dies, the curtain is torn in two from top to bottom - it's because God’s judgement has fallen on Jesus we can go in.
Because Jesus is righteous he could be our propitiation and so he is our advocate. And hs sacrifice, is so extraordinary, so massive, that it is able to deal with the sins of the whole world! And that means it really will cover your sins. If you come to Christ, if you confess your sins. Whatever you’ve done, you are welcome! So come to Christ; come back to Christ.