1 JOHN

Introduction: John wrote five books of the New Testament. A Gospel, which deals with our past—our salvation. Three epistles, which deal with our present—our sanctification. And the book of Revelation, which deals with our future—our glorification.

John puts the key to understanding his Gospel at its backdoor (John 20:30-31). John puts the key to understand the book of Revelation at its front door (Revelation 1:1, 19). However, when it comes to the first of his three epistles, he gives us three keys to understanding it. First, he wrote it so “that [our] joy may be full” (1 John 1:4). Second, he wrote it so that we will “sin not,” but know when we do “sin [that] we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). And third, he wrote it so that we “may believe on the name of the Son of God” and thereby “know that we have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

Another key verse in this epistle, as well as a most pertinent and important one for our day and time, is verse 3 of chapter 4. In this verse, John puts Gnosticism, one of the two main heresies threatening the church in its infancy—Judaism being the other—in his crosshairs. Not only does he declare Gnostics to be apostates, but he points to ancient Gnosticism as being possessed with “the spirit of antichrist” that will continue to rise upon this earth until it eventually crest and breaks over the whole antichrist world of the end-time.

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I believe 1 John is one of the most important books in the Bible. It is absolutely imperative to the contemporary Christian, since it teaches us how to live confidently in Christ, even in these precarious and perilous times. Although it has been called a “grammatical tangle,” which defies outlining, the theme of the book is clear; it’s all about confidence.

The word “confidence” appears three times in this short epistle (1 John 2:28; 3:21; 5:14). However, the word “know” appears twenty-one times, in only five chapters. Among the things 1 John teaches us that we should confidently know as Christians are the following.

We should know that we know Christ. (1 John 2:3)
We should know that we’re in Christ. (1 John 2:5)
We should know that it is the last time. (1 John 2:18)
We should know that we have the unction of the all-knowing Holy Spirit. (1 John 2:20)
We should know the truth. (1 John 2:21)
We should know that when Christ returns we shall be like Him. (1 John 3:2)
We should know that Christ has taken away our sin. (1 John 3:5)
We should know that we have passed from death unto life. (1 John 3:14)
We should know that we are of the truth. (1 John 3:19)
We should know that Christ abides in us. (1 John 3:24)
We should know the Spirit of God. (1 John 4:2)
We should know the Spirit of truth. (1 John 4:6)
We should know that we dwell in Christ and that Christ dwells in us. (1 John 4:13)
We should know that we have eternal life. (1 John 5:13)
We should know that God hears and answers our prayers. (1 John 5:15)
We should know that we are of God and that the whole world is in opposition to God. (1 John 5:19)

A couple of other key words used by John in this epistle to encourage us to live confidently in Christ are “assure” (1 John 3:19) and “boldness” (1 John 4:17). According to John, our confidence in Christ should assure our hearts before Him, so much so that we may have boldness to face Him on the day of judgment. Assuredly, learning the lessons of this little epistle will help all Christians to know how to live boldly, as well as confidently, in Christ, even in these perilous times of the last days (2 Timothy 3:1).

1 John 1:1-4 — John skips any salutation and suspenses with any introduction, in order to swiftly sprint to his opening salvo, as though he was so excited over his subject—the reality of the eternity of the life of Divinity—that he couldn’t contain himself.

The question the ancient man Job asked, and that has haunted mankind down through the ages, “If a man dies, shall he live again?”, the Apostle John rushes to answer in the affirmative in the fabulous and fathomless first four verses of his first epistle. (Job 14:14)

1 John 1:1a — From John’s embarkation in this epistle he excitingly exclaims the eternity of Christ’s existence.

Christ’s life neither began in the crib of Bethlehem nor ended on the cross of Calvary. Instead, Christ has always been alive and always will be. Not only was He alive “from the beginning,” but He also has “neither beginning of days nor end of life.” (Hebrews 7:3)

1 John 1:1b — John, as an eyewitness to Christ’s resurrection, attests to its reality, by affirming that he heard the resurrected Christ with his own ears, saw Him with his own eyes, and touched Him with his own hands. (Luke 24:36-48)

The infinite and indestructible life of Jesus Christ is no figment of man’s imagination, but a matter-of-fact, as was certainly proven by Christ’s resurrection and confidently proclaimed by all of its eyewitnesses, not just the Apostle John. (John 1:14; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8; 1 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:16; 1 John 1:2)

1 John 1:c — The Greek word John uses here for “life” is “zoe,” not “psuche.” Whereas “psuche” is the Greek word for human life, as well as all natural life, “zoe” is the Greek word for divine life or God’s life. The latter is eternal, but the former merely temporal.

By presenting Jesus as “the Word of Zoe,” John is portraying Jesus as not only the possessor of eternal life, but as the proof and provider of eternal life as well.

1 John 1:2 — God became a man in the man Christ Jesus to not only show His life to man, but to also share His life with man.

John is the only New Testament author who identifies Jesus as “the Word.” In his Gospel, John identifies Jesus as simply “the Word”; that is, as the living manifestation of God, who shows us what God is like (John 1:1, 14, 18). In the book of Revelation, John identifies Jesus as “the Word of God”; that is, as the living manifestation of God’s Word, who is coming again to bring God’s Word to life and all of God’s promises to pass (Revelation 19:13). And finally, here, in his first epistle, John identifies Jesus as “the Word of Life”; that is, as the living manifestation of the life of God, which God originally created man to possess within and to manifest without, but was withdrawn from man, when man was separated from God because of sin, but can now be restored to man when he is saved from sin and reconciled to God by receiving Jesus Christ, who is Himself the eternal life of God.

According to the Scripture, it is not just Jesus alone who speaks the words of eternal life (John 6:68), and in whom alone eternal life is to be found (John 5:26), and to whom alone we must come for eternal life (John 5:40), but Jesus Christ is in fact eternal life itself (John 11:25-26; 14:6; 1 John 5:20)! Therefore, to have Christ is to have eternal life and to not have Christ is to not have eternal life (1 John 5:12).

1 John 1:3a —The Greek word John uses here for “declare” means to “announce” or “proclaim.” John wants us to know that he is not tentatively suggesting to us his subjective opinion about Jesus Christ, but emphatically declaring to us the objective truth about Jesus Christ.

“The preacher who is not dogmatic is not a preacher in the New Testament sense.” (Martin Lloyd Jones)

1 John 1:3b — John writes “truly” to show us the surety of eternal life, which he sums up in “our fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” In other words, all who have a personal relationship with God through Christ are proven to be recipients of eternal life.

These words of John, in the third verse of the first chapter of his first epistle, remind us of the words of our Lord, in the third verse of the seventeenth chapter of John’s Gospel, where we read, “And this is eternal life, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Truly, eternal life is exclusively known by those who know God through Christ, as well as definitely not known by anyone else in any other way.

1 John 1:4 — John, whose fulness of joy was found in his reception of eternal life through his relationship with Jesus Christ, wanted his readers' joy to be full as well, by them also becoming personal recipients of eternal life through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Apart from the joy of our own salvation, us becoming a recipient of eternal life through our relationship with Jesus Christ, we should know no greater joy than that of bringing others to salvation; that is, into a forever relationship with Jesus Christ.

John 1:5 — In the light, we not only see God clearly, that He is light without any darkness, but we also see ourselves clearly, that we are sinners without any doubt.

The closer we get to the light the holier we’ll see God and the more heinous we’ll see ourselves, which explains why sinners elude the light to keep their sins from being exposed. (John 3:19-21)

A true sign of Christian maturity is an ever-increasing veneration of God and an ever-decreasing view of ourselves. For instance, at the beginning of his ministry, the Apostle Paul claimed that he too was an apostle of Jesus Christ. Midway through his ministry, Paul confessed that he was not worthy to be called an apostle. Then, toward the end of his ministry, Paul wrote to his young prodigy Timothy, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15).

1 John 1:6 — Anyone who claims to be in fellowship with God, but who is concealing rather than confessing their sins to God, is not only walking in darkness rather than light, but also lying rather than telling the truth.

There is a difference between sonship and fellowship. While all Christians are children of God and in God’s family, not all Christians are in communion with God or in God’s favor. To walk with God we must not only acknowledge our sins to God, but also agree with God about our sins. (Amos 3:3)

1 John 1:7 — Both communion and cleansing are contingent upon our confessing; that is, upon us walking in the light, which means living our lives in honesty and transparency before God.

Notice, it’s not so much how we walk, but where we walk—“in the light”—that matters. While we should not trespass against God and others, when we do, as we surely will as sinners, we should be transparent about it, confessing it so that our sins will be remitted and our relationships not severed.

1 John 1:8 — If we say we have no sin, we are not only outright denying the truth, but downright devoid of the truth.

The only one fooled by your denial of your own sin is you yourself, for you’re certainly not fooling God or anyone else. Instead, you’re only fooling yourself into believing that anybody else is fooled.

1 John 1:9 — The only sin God will not forgive is the one you will not confess.

To deny that you are a sinner is to damn your own soul, it is to readily condemn yourself over your refusal to confess your sins. On the other hand, to confess your sins is to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, not only from all of your unrighteousness, but also from all of your sins. (1 John 1:7)

1 John 1:10 — To deny you’re a sinner is not just to damn yourself as a liar, but to also denounce God as a liar and to deny the truthfulness of God’s Word. (Romans 3:23; 5:10)

Refusing to acknowledge your sin to God, to abandon your sin for God, and to agree about your sin with God, is as serious an affront as you could ever commit against God!

1 John 2:2 — If Christ had sinned, His death would have been His punishment rather than our propitiation.

1 John 2:18 — The word “antichrist” means “in place of Christ,” as well as “against Christ.” Therefore, everyone promoting themselves rather than preaching Christ are just as antichrist as those who protest against Christ.

1 John 2:18 — The Scripture teaches us that the last times are typified by coming and countless antichrists, those who substitute themselves for Christ as our lord and savior. They will seek our submission to their lordship under the sham of them serving as our savior.

1 John 2:19 — To lose one's faith is not to lose one's salvation, which is a biblically taught impossibility. Instead, it is to prove one's faith spurious rather than saving. While saving faith is proven by perseverance, a pseudo faith cannot possibly lose what it never possessed.

1 John 2:22 — To profess to believe in God, but not in Jesus Christ, is to prove oneself a lying antichrist.

1 John 2:22 — Contrary to popular opinion, Christ-rejecting Muslims prove themselves lying antichrists when they claim to worship the same God as Christians.

1 John 2:22 — Contrary to popular opinion, Christ-rejecting Jews prove themselves to be lying antichrists when they claim to worship the same God as Christians.

1 John 2:22-23 — To profess to believe in God, but not in Jesus Christ, is to prove oneself a lying antichrist. Whereas only those who acknowledge God the Son truly believe in God the Father, all who deny God the Son deny God the Father.

Contrary to popular opinion, neither Muslims nor Jews believe in the same God as Christians, since Christians believe that Jesus Christ is God!

1 John 2:23 — Whereas to deny Jesus Christ—God the Son—is to deny God the Father; to acknowledge Jesus Christ—God the Son—is to acknowledge God the Father.

1 John 3:2-3 — It is those who truly believe that Christ could come today who will live today true to Christ.

1 John 3:5 — To die for sinful men God had to first become a man and live a sin-free life.

1 John 3:5 — Christ was was able to take away our sins because of the absence of any sin in Him.

1 John 3:19-22 — A clear conscience gives confidence in prayer, because the Spirit’s conviction is greater than Satan’s condemnation. However, if we’re guilty of the least little infraction of God’s Word or will, Satan can rob us of our confidence and ruin our prayer life.

1 John 3:19-22 — It is the keeping of God’s commandments that keeps us out from under Satan’s condemnation and confident in our prayer closets.

1 John 4:3 —The spirit of antichrist, which Scripture predicts will grow until it becomes a tsunami that crests and breaks over an end-time world, is currently cresting and breaking, as is incontrovertibly proven by our world’s growing antagonism toward Christians and Jews.

Spreading anti-Semitism in an increasingly antichrist world serves as proof positive that we’ve entered the Apostle Paul’s predicted perilous times of the last days. (2 Timothy 3:1)

1 John 4:8 — Love is not what God does; it is what He is!

For an unloving person to profess to know God is like someone claiming to be intimate with another whose language they cannot speak.

1 John 4:18 — The realization of God's perfect love for us rids us of the fear of God's punishment of us. For us to be perfected by God requires us to be perfectly persuaded of God's perfect love for us.

1 John 4:20-21 — To profess to love God, while not practicing love toward others, is like professing to be intimate with someone whose language you cannot speak.

1 John 5:4 —The world can never overcome the faith of a genuine born again child of God, but the genuine faith of a born again child of God can always overcome the world!

1 John 5:11-12 — The surety of eternal life is promised in God’s Word and possessed solely in God’s Son. Therefore, to disbelieve God’s promise and to deny God’s Son is to be devoid of eternal life.

1 John 5:12 — If you are without Christ, you are without life, since Christ is life! (John 14:6; Colossians 3:4)

1 John 5:13 — The purpose of Scripture—the written Word of God—is to get us to God's Son—the Living Word of God—so that we may be given and guaranteed eternal life.

Everyone who has committed their life to Christ in faith, can be sure of eternal life, since they have the guarantee of God’s eternal Word on it.

1 John 5:14-15 — Prayer is not bringing God over to our side, but us going over to God’s side. It is not persuading God to do our will, but petitioning God to do His will. If you’re trying to talk God into doing your bidding, you’re not praying.

1 John 5:14-15 — Answers to our prayers and availability to God’s power are only attainable within the parameters of God’s will.

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