Light and Darkness I. Base Text: 1 John 1:1-2:14 II. Context A. Authorship 1. Author never explicitly named 2. Similarity of language, themes, emphasis, even phraseology with Gospel of John evident throughout 3. Thus the work has always been considered a letter written by the same author as the Gospel of John; not disputed in antiquity 4. John the Apostle: brother of James, one of the three Apostles in the inner circle, possibly related to Jesus (Matthew 4:21-22, 10:2, 26:37); according to tradition, lived in Ephesus until 90s CE 5. Author of Gospel of John, 1 John, and likely the "elder" of 2 and 3 John as well, and Revelation B. Time and Place 1. Neither time nor place identified in the letter 2. Time is disputed, generally seen either as ca. 61-67 or ca. 85-95 CE, depending on whether one believes all of the Bible written by 70 or not 3. Very little in the text provides temporal context, but the lack of connection with the situation as envisioned in Paul's letters lends credibility to the later date 4. It is assumed that John wrote from Ephesus based upon tradition and his activity in that area (cf. Revelation 1:1-3:21) 5. He does not seem to write to any specific congregation; hence 1 John reckoned as one of the "catholic," or universal letters 6. His audience is fellow Christians; intimate language like "my little children" may indicate that he writes to Christians who already know him (1 John 2:1, 5:23) C. Purpose 1. 1 John 1:4: John writes "so that our joy may be complete" 2. He wishes to encourage Christians to stand firm, follow Jesus' commandments, maintain assurance of their relationship with God in Christ (1 John 2:1-6, 4:7-21) 3. He also wishes to warn Christians about the doctrines of the "antichrists," false teachers who have departed from their midst and are promoting docetic (that Jesus only seemed to be human and/or die, from Greek dokeo, "to seem"; 1 John 4:2, 2 John 1:7) and perhaps gnostic (various groups who claimed superior knowledge and revelations; 1 John 4:1-4) views (cf. 1 John 2:18-22) III. Meaning and Application A. The Word of Life (1 John 1:1-4) 1. Not exactly the way most letters begin! 2. John gets right to the heart of the matter, reminiscent of John 1:1-18: a description of Jesus as the Word of Life (1 John 1:1-3) 3. Yet John is not describing how Jesus is the Word of life; instead, he establishes the basis upon which he should be heard: he has physical, visceral experience with the Word of life, for he saw Him, heard Him, and touched Him (1 John 1:1) 4. Apostolic authority is grounded in their witness and participation in Jesus (Luke 24:44-49) 5. John then sets forth the apostolic mission: he has seen the Word of life manifest in Jesus, and so he bears witness to the life of Jesus and the life that is in Jesus for all who believe (1 John 1:2; cf. Matthew 28:18-20, John 5:21, 26, 6:27, Acts 1:8) 6. John declares these things so that the hearer may have fellowship with him and the Apostles, as they have fellowship with God in Christ (1 John 1:3; fellowship as Greek koinonia, association, joint participation) 7. He writes so that his joy may be complete (1 John 1:4) 8. John simply, but powerfully, declares the nature and purpose of the Apostolic proclamation of the Gospel a. The Gospel is rooted in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, God with us in the flesh, fully man, fully God, exhibiting the very characteristics of the Father (1 John 1:1-2; cf. John 1:1-14, 14:1-11, Colossians 2:9, Hebrews 1:3) b. The Apostles preach because they have experienced the Word of Life in Jesus and wish to share in that life with others (1 John 1:2-3; cf. Matthew 28:18-20) c. The end goal of that preaching is fellowship, association, or joint participation in Christ: sharing the faith in common so as to share in eternal life together (1 John 1:3-4; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, 12:12-28, Ephesians 4:11-16) d. This is why we continue to believe what the Apostles taught; this is why we follow Jesus based on what has been revealed to us from the Apostles; this is how Christianity remains a living religion, empowered by a Risen and Living Lord Jesus, who remains just as active in the creation as in days of old (Ephesians 3:10-11, Hebrews 1:3) 9. Christianity is about the Word of Life: Jesus, the Word of God, the life, source of eternal life and sustenance to all who come to Him, past, present, and until He returns! B. Light and Darkness (1 John 1:5-10) 1. Having established his credentials, John then provides his "thesis statement" of sorts, the message which he has heard and announces to believers: God is light, and in Him is no darkness (1 John 1:5) 2. Light and darkness a frequent Johannine metaphor; light as bringing life, thus, all that is holy and good; darkness as absence of light and life, thus all that is sinful and evil (cf. John 1:4-5, 10) 3. John then presents a series of true conclusions based on 1 John 1:5 4. First conclusion: if we say we have fellowship with Him but walk in darkness, we lie and do not accomplish the truth; even if we claim to be a Christian, if we continue to live in sin, we lie to ourselves and others, and will suffer the consequences if we do not repent (1 John 1:6; cf. Matthew 7:15-27) 5. Second conclusion: if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin (1 John 1:7) 6. John thus describes the basis of Christian association: we each seek Jesus and the life God would have us to live, and we share that path with others seeking the same thing and thus work together toward that end, and maintaining those relationships allows us to be cleansed from sin 7. John then focuses on the believer and sin in 1 John 1:8-10 based on 1 John 1:5-7 8. 1 John 1:8, 10 are quite similar, yet distinct in time: "we have no sin" in 1 John 1:8 is present tense, indicating a progressive/ repeated aspect, while "we have not sinned" in 1 John 1:10 is perfect tense, indicating completed aspect 9. 1 John 1:9 is right in the middle for good reason; the Christian is not holy by virtue of his own perfection but on account of cleansing from God in Christ 10. John is critiquing those who would claim either to have presently fully overcome sin or those who flat-out deny that they have ever really sinned: the Word of Life are in neither, and they have deceived themselves, and would make Jesus a liar! 11. Instead, when we stumble, we must confess our sins (Greek homologeo, to speak the same thing as); if we do, we can have every confidence that God will forgive us and cleanse us of our sins, allowing us to continue to walk in the light 12. John therefore has important things to say about the Christian life a. Throughout the generations many have claimed that Christians can reach perfection in this life or attempt to deny the reality of sin in life b. Here John re-affirms Paul's declaration that all have sinned and need forgiveness, and that none can be made righteous through their own efforts (cf. Romans 3:20-23) c. Christianity is about walking in the light as Jesus is the light, but our ability to accomplish that walk is not dependent on our own abilities but upon our willingness to continually declare before God our sins, failures, weaknesses, and shortcomings, and to be cleansed by Him (cf. Ephesians 5:25-27, Titus 3:3-8) 13. Christianity is about a shared walk in the light of God, possible only through cleansing from the blood of Christ, and no matter how well we progress in holiness, we do well to recognize our continued dependence on Jesus for continual cleansing! C. Knowing our Advocate (1 John 2:1-6) 1. Lest anyone come away with the wrong conclusion, John reassures "my little children," the Christians whom he loves, that he writes so they may not sin (1 John 2:1) a. Some might come away from 1 John 1:8-10 resigned to sin and thus feel justified in sinning b. Paul dealt with similar challenges in Romans 3:7-8, 6:1-2, 15, and develops many of the arguments in the Roman letter to combat such distortions c. In setting forth the reality of sin John does not attempt to excuse sin! 2. Yet we must not understand the declaration absolutely, for he continues by saying that if they do sin, they have an advocate in Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1) a. Many are tempted to take statements John makes, absolutize them, and apply them in ways never imagined by John b. Such people would see a massive contradiction in 1 John 2:1: do not sin, but if you sin, you have an Advocate c. So which is it: do not sin, or have an Advocate because you have sinned? d. The answer is yes, for John understands the reality on the ground experienced by Christians: they strive to not sin, but stumble at times e. Advocate: Greek parakletos, an advocate or comforter, defense counsel or intercessor, helper; used to describe the Spirit in John 14:16, 15:26, 16:7 f. Jesus as uniquely qualified to be our Intercessor since He is God and man, 1 Timothy 2:5 3. Since Jesus is the propitiation for our sins and the sins of the world, Christians can maintain confidence that He will be their Advocate before the Father when they sin and repent of that sin (1 John 2:1-2 in light if 1 John 1:8-9; cf. John 1:29, 3:16, Romans 5:6-11) 4. John gives the first two of many assurances of how we can know if we are in Christ: keeping His commandments, walking as He walked (1 John 2:3-6; cf. 1 John 3:19, 24) a. True knowledge demands doing; it is not enough to mentally recognize the truth of a fact, but it must inform how we think, feel, and act, just as Jesus Himself declared (Matthew 7:21-27, 19:17) b. One has not truly known who Jesus really is if they are not following His commandments (1 John 2:4) c. Yet the love of God is perfected in the one who does Jesus' commandments, as manifesting the transformation in the Spirit (1 John 2:5; Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 5:17-24) d. Another way to describe keeping Jesus' commandments is to walk as He walked, since He is the exact imprint of the divine nature and perfectly exhibited the character of God (1 John 2:6; John 14:1-11, 1 Corinthians 11:1, Hebrews 1:3) 5. John again gets right to the heart of what it means to be a Christian a. We are not to sin; God's love is to be manifest in us and through us b. Yet when we sin, Jesus will be on our side, if we are contrite and repentant c. We can have confidence in our knowledge of God in Christ only if we do His commandments; in context, this is a repudiation of claims of superior knowledge of Jesus yet do not lead to substantive holiness or the development of the character of Christ, and ever since has been the yardstick as to whether a given portrayal of the faith in Jesus is consistent with what has been revealed in His name d. So much for a cheap grace based on intellectual acceptance of a proposition, and, for that matter, so much for Christianity as an intellectual exercise: you only truly know Jesus by doing and living what He says, walking as He walked! e. Few illustrations of Christianity are as fruitful for our understanding as 1 John 2:6: Christianity involves following Jesus, doing His commandments, walking as He walked! D. The New Old Commandment (1 John 2:7-11) 1. 1 John 2:7-11 seems to be a confusing mess: John is not giving a new commandment, but an old commandment, but it really is a new commandment, and yet it is not explicitly given 2. He expects his readers to understand what he is saying a. It is not a new commandment, but an old one from the beginning which they had heard (1 John 2:7) b. Yet it is a new commandment, something true in Christ and in Christians, since darkness is passing away, and the true light shines (1 John 2:8; cf. 1 John 1:5) c. He builds upon walking in the light as in 1 John 1:5-10: the one who says he walks in the light but hates his brother actually remains in darkness, and, in fact, is so blind in the darkness that he cannot see where he is going, but the one who loves his brother is in the light and has no occasion of stumbling in him (1 John 2:9-11) 3. The key, alluded to in 1 John 2:9-11, is found in John 13:34: the commandment is to "love one another even as I have loved you" a. Loving one another is an old commandment, seen in Leviticus 19:18 (cf. Matthew 22:39) b. Yet to love one another as Jesus has loved us is a new commandment, going well beyond what was expected under the Law, as seen in Matthew 20:25-28, Philippians 2:1-4 4. John therefore speaks a word of warning to those who "hate their brother" yet claim to follow Jesus! a. "Hate" is a strong word, and contextually John likely has in mind those who feel superior to their fellow Christians based upon supposed revealed knowledge and insight and who pose a stumbling block to them b. Yet "hate" can also involve "loving less," and all must be on guard about this, for if we do not love our fellow Christians as Jesus has loved us, proving willing to put their best interest above our own, seeking to build them up in their faith, not causing them to stumble, then we do not have a share in Him (John 13:34, Romans 14:1-23, 1 Corinthians 8:1-13, Galatians 6:10, Philippians 2:1-11)! 5. "Walking in the light" is not just between a man and God; he must love his fellow man as God has loved him and them as well! E. Children, Fathers, and Young Men (1 John 2:12-14) 1. John suddenly begins waxing poetic and speaks of children, fathers, and young men; this change is so abrupt that many have wondered whether the text has been corrupted 2. There is no textual basis for concerns regarding corruptions, so we do well to wrestle with what John is saying as written 3. 1 John 2:12-14 is some form of poetry, with an a, b, c, a, b, c pattern 4. It would seem that he provides purpose statements for writing, yet he speaks of the condition of the readers and not about his own motivations 5. "Little children" have their sins forgiven for the sake of the Name and know the Father (1 John 2:12, 13) 6. "Fathers" know Him who is from the beginning (1 John 2:13, 14) 7. "Young men" are strong, the Word of God abides in them, and they have overcome the Evil One (1 John 2:13, 14) 8. While it remains possible that John means the concrete referents, considering the way he speaks about believers throughout the letter (and in other writings), and the complete lack of the female gender, such is unlikely 9. John likely speaks to people at different points of maturity a. "Little children" as younger believers in the faith; they may not have maturity and experience yet, but they do have innocence, purity, and devotion (cf. Matthew 18:1-4) b. "Young men" as Christians who have grown beyond immature faith yet do not have much time-tested experience and maturity: they are strong, empowered in faith and knowledge, and conquer the Evil One (cf. Revelation 12:10-11) c. "Fathers" as Christians who have gained full maturity and experience; they have obtained what is true deep knowledge of Him who is from the beginning in their walk with Him, mentor others (cf. 1 Timothy 1:2) 10. Thus we see that John wishes to encourage all Christians wherever they are in their development in the faith a. Some are new in the faith; others are mature in the faith; still others have become elders and/or mentors because of their standing in the faith (Hebrews 5:14, 1 Timothy 1:2, 3:1-12, Titus 1:5-8) b. All have their place in the Kingdom; all must work to encourage one another (1 Corinthians 12:12-28, Ephesians 4:11-16) c. We do well to appreciate the strengths and benefits which come from believers at every station in faith and in life, all to the glory of God! IV. Conclusion A. In a concise way John has provided great encouragement for believers, grounding them in the basis and purpose of their faith 1. The Apostolic message is based in their experience in Jesus the Word of Life 2. They have been commissioned to proclaim the message of that Life 3. Christianity is about walking in light and not the darkness, seeking to overcome sin, without denying one's sinfulness and confessing sin 4. We can know we are in Christ if we do His commandments, walk as He walked 5. We must love one another as Christ has loved us 6. Everyone in Christ has standing in the Kingdom, benefits the whole in their station in life and in the faith B. Let us walk in the light as Jesus is the light, maintain association with God and with one another, and abide in the Word of Life! C. Invitation/songbook Scripture, Meditation, and Application 1: That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life (1 John 1:1). Christianity is unique inasmuch as its revelation is rooted in a Person and the complete experience of that Person, Jesus of Nazareth, God in the flesh, fully expressing the character of God in what He thought, said, and did. Let us put our trust in the Lord Jesus, the Word of Life, and follow after Him! 2: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin (1 John 1:7). Christian fellowship is rooted in a shared walk in the Lord the light, all focused on the same destination and following the same path. We remain in the light when we follow what God says and treat one another as He has treated us, and in that condition maintain the continuous cleansing which comes from the blood of Jesus. Let us do so and enjoy what is truly life! 3: And hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments (1 John 2:3). True knowledge of God in Christ is not merely a matter of mental acceptance of true propositions, nor merely an exploration into deeper knowledge, nor merely an intellectual pursuit. One only truly knows God by doing what He has said; a faith that only influences the mind does not honor God. Let us know of God in Christ by keeping His commandments, and take hold of eternal life! 4: He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked (1 John 2:6). Few illustrations so nicely encapsulate what it means to be a Christian as walking even as Jesus walked. To walk as Jesus walked demands not only mental transformation but a pursuit of the things Jesus pursued and becoming like Him as much as possible. Let us walk as Jesus walked, finding that narrow path which leads to life!