1 John 1 Explained
By: Charles Crosby
1 John 1 is not addressed to converts or Born Again Believers! How can this be so, and if so, how have ‘Bible scholars’, ministers, pastors and theologians missed this crucial understanding of God’s Word? Under the title Recipients in the NIV Study Bible they clearly state the book of 1 John is aimed at believers, but notice they conveniently choose 1 John 2 to erroneously prove their point i.e. they go straight to Chapter 2 and in the process by-pass Chapter 1. Why do they do that? Easy, the NIV is the work of Bible intellectuals and theologians who are men with men’s agendas. Unfortunately these agendas are not The Lord’s agenda and they never were. Apologies, I have digressed a little.
There are two factors of error or gross misunderstanding at work here. The first and most important factor is the error of reading the epistles as if they were, and are, written for the benefit of the converted alone. In fact this is a common failure of most ‘Christian teaching’. The second factor of error, which leads to the first error is this: Paul’s epistles are aimed at the converted so the above mentioned ‘authorities’ jump to the conclusion that all the epistles that follow are also written to the same audience; to disciples and Born Again believers alike or to those with same level of Spiritual maturity, but as I will prove, this is definitely not the case especially 1 John 1. Let’s consider this example; everyone is in church on a Sunday and a Spiritual message is delivered. Now this message maybe for those new to The Faith or it maybe for babes or it maybe for mature converts; some will say “is there a difference?” Well Paul certainly thought there was because he withheld his meaty teaching from certain congregations because they weren’t ready for it; 1 Cor 3:2. I have only ever met one minister who differentiated or separated his flock for teaching. Why did he do this? After I have explained 1 John 1 I hope you will understand why he did.
So if 1 John 1 is not aimed at Born Again Believers, to whom is it aimed and what is the issue at stake here in this passage of scripture? Is the issue sin? Well yes, of course, but then again, no. The emphasis is more to do with attitude toward sin, a preparedness to admit to being a sinner, a willingness to confess those sins for the first time - honesty. Being prepared to not live in a state of denial; a state of mind of not kidding oneself – Truth, but before I get into the meat of this passage we need to understand the opening verses.
1 John 1:1-3 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; Verse 2; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us Verse 3; That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. Verse 4; And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. Verse 5; This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”
Look at these opening verses carefully. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard…” John is immediately setting the scene, style and approach of this letter or as some have commented - this sermon. A letter to be read aloud to the Churches, but what is the style or approach? It’s as if it is all new to the listeners and of course it is because the first five verses amount to a declaration and the word ‘declare’ appears twice; verses 3 & 5. Now only new news is declared – no one ever declares old news, so these opening verses must be for the benefit of those who have not heard this message before. Why would John ‘declare’ this news to those already converted? They already believe, don’t they? Have they not heard this before? They knew very well that the Apostle John was an original disciple of Jesus. Have you noticed the other important point, a point more important than it being a declaration? I have underlined it along with the word ‘declare’ - That you also may have fellowship with us. This is telling us that these people are not yet in fellowship with the brethren of that Church. OK let’s move on to the last part of this chapter.
Now notice John opens with: “IF” (the biggest word in the world!) and he says it five times. So let’s go through these five verses one by one.
1) Verse 6: “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:”
Here John is stating an obvious fact; how can we say we have fellowship with Jesus Christ and walk in darkness; it’s impossible and it is a total contradiction? So who are they that walk in darkness? Easy, those who are still in the world and of the world and are not saved, they are in darkness and therefore they cannot do the truth. Why? The Truth is not in them. Why and how is the Truth not in them? They have not received the Holy Spirit! They are not born (from above) again. Why did John make this statement? To help these potential new converts to examine themselves.
2) Verse 7: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Now John says: if we walk in The Light, as He is in the Light (the ‘in’ here is a poor translation as Jesus is The Light see verse 5) So what is John saying here? ‘If we?’ well do we or don’t we, or more importantly how do we walk in the light? Easy, or maybe not so easy, by confessing our sins, being baptised and receiving the Holy Spirit. Now we walk in The Light. We now have fellowship one with another as Jesus’ Blood has cleansed us from; now notice this - ALL SIN. All means all, not some of our sins but all of them!! Past, present and future!
3) Verse 8: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
OK, here’s a question: What type of person is going to say they have no sin? Is a non believer going to say this or someone the Father is calling? Or in this case, are these potential converts going to admit they are sinners or not? The Father is probably calling some of them, and this question will challenge them and convict them, but not others. Some of them do not have The Truth and the others do have The Truth, so who is not going to be truthful? Now notice the last part “The Truth is not in us” if The Truth is not in someone, then they are of the world and not Born Again; they do not have the indwelling of The Holy Spirit. Now, if the Father is calling someone [John 6:44] this person’s awareness of sin is automatically heightened; made aware of their sins and if reading this passage of Scripture will be convicted of their sins, possibly for the first time, by it. If on the other hand we think this verse applies to True Believers or those Born Again as well, let’s try and apply to them and see if it makes any sense:
Is a True Believer going to say they have no sin? Hello! Excuse me! That’s hardly likely when they would have acknowledged and confessed their sins already. Is a True Believer into lying and deceiving people whether himself or anyone else? Again, very unlikely, unless he or she is a tare, but then John’s message would not change them anyway. Finally “and The Truth is not in us.” This if applied to True Believers, is nonsense because The Truth is in them if they are Born Again and Believe in The Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. If Born Again, The Truth is in us because The Truth is Jesus Christ and He is in us through the indwelling of The Holy Spirit - His Spirit
4) Verse 9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Notice; All Unrighteousness, not some or only part of our unrighteousness. True Believers have already confessed their sins, they are walking in The Light and The Truth is in them so why would John re-teach this fundamental again, is he into preaching to the converted? No. True Believers who keep on believing are cleansed of their sins and this took place at Baptism. This verse as with the whole of 1 John 1 can only apply to those new to the Faith and/or non believers. John here is encouraging those who were hearing the message to confess their sins for the first and only time; see my study on repetitive confession of sins at the link below.
http://www.confessionofsins.blogspot.com/
5) Verse 10: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and his Word is not in us.”
This verse just confirms what has already been said with the added dimension of telling the new converts that if they profess to be of Jesus and say they have not sinned they make Our Lord out to be a liar as well, and His Word is not in them. By contrast, how could those of us Born Again behave in this way? If we are True and Faithful followers it would be impossible and make a mockery of our calling.
Charles Crosby