I Am A Christian 1 John 1:5-10
In this letter, John is writing to Christians, to all the people who have heard and accepted Christ. At this time Christianity is new, and new leaders are popping up all across the region. Denominations and holy texts are almost unheard of yet. These people have perhaps a few letters and the words of others to go on.
Right off the bat in his letter, as he is communicating with new Christians, John wants them to know these ideas he’s expressing are not his alone; Verse 5, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you…” This is the message. This is not just any idea. This is not something we came up with over coffee one evening. What I am about to tell you came from outside myself. This is THE message.
So where did this message come from? This message we have heard from him. This is the message given to us. Given by who? By him. By Jesus. John makes it clear that everything he is about to tell us comes from Jesus.
“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) John uses this figure of speech to explain that God is righteous, 100% morally perfect and holy. And at no time, past, present, or future, can God be anything other than 100% righteous and holy.
Now that John has laid out his fundamental fact of Almighty God, he now goes on to expose those who are giving false testimony about God; verse 6, “If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie, and do not live out the truth.”
First, this points to John and his fellow disciples. He is saying, even for them, if we say anything that hints at God not being perfect, we are wrong, judge us by this. If we do anything that illuminates darkness or evil within ourselves, judge us by this. Second, this is meant to show all Christians, we are judged by this standard too.
How many have seen pastors preach virtue and fidelity, only to be caught in adulterous relationships. One cannot speak for Jesus and claim to follow him closely if your very life is a lie.
We all make mistakes; ministers are no different. I say live with patience. There are times I fail at this. But these times are few and I always ask God to make me better. Mistakes are the nature of mankind. But when a mistake becomes a persistent behavior over weeks or months or years; when it becomes something one must lie about so it can remain secret, then one is walking in darkness. And the one walking in darkness cannot preach truthfully about God’s light. For all Christians, when one’s life is a lie, you are walking in darkness, and you cannot truthfully tell others about the glory and righteousness of God.
God is light, righteous and holy. This is the message. All else hinges on this one truth. And it’s this one truth that must be held up and aspired to. I’ve watched a lot of services online. I’ve seen congregations singing and dancing, praising God and their unwavering devotion to live it out. And then the message declaring those people are destined to hell, those people are an abomination, those people are criminals, those people need to be shunned. I ask, where is God’s light in this? If one talks of hate, distrust, prejudice, self-superiority, if they live a life filled with these, they are not in God’s light. And as John writes, “they lie and do not live out the truth.”
Verse 7, “But if we walk in the light, because he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another…” When we as a congregation walk in God’s light, we have common truth, we have compassion and love for each other, we are brothers and sisters in God’s spirit. We are in true fellowship with each other. This is all true, but as John is writing about the message given by Jesus, he also means that when we walk in the light of God, living for him, doing our best to honor him by our words and deeds, then we have true fellowship between us and Christ Jesus.
Verse 7, “…and the blood of Jesus…purifies us from all sin.” When we have fellowship with Jesus we are purified and redeemed, cleansed of all sin. I do not claim to know what’s in a person’s heart, I do not claim to know who is going to hell, I do know that if one believes something other than Jesus can open the gates of heaven for you, you’re on very shaky ground. I do know that if you claim allegiance to Christ and live out prejudice, hate, exclusion, and judgment, you are standing in the dark and need to re-evaluate your commitment to Christ. We cannot claim to have fellowship with God if we live in darkness. To his Christian audience, John says we do not have true communion or participation with God if we do not live out our faith.
Verse 8, “If we claim to be without sin…” First, Christian or not, we all sin. I’ve had people say to me, “I don’t sin anymore because I accepted Christ.” Wrong, we still sin, it’s just that as believers, God’s grace forgives us. This is why before I try to point to someone else’s sin, I look very carefully at what my sins are.
‘If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8) When we claim to be sinless, we lie to ourselves. We ignore our own flaws therefore we are unable to understand another’s flaws.
But by ignoring our own sin we do more than just this; Verse 10, “If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar…” Who do we make out to be a liar, God in all three incarnations. We make God the Father a liar because if we don’t sin we don’t need the grace and mercy he says we do. We make Jesus a liar because he says he is the life, and without sin, we don’t need a savior. We make the Holy Spirit a liar because in John 14:26 Jesus says, “The Holy Spirit…will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said.” If we don’t sin, we don’t need a teacher and guide to bring us closer to God.
Our author John was one of Jesus’ twelve disciples. He lived with Jesus, listened to Jesus, and witnessed Jesus’ miracles. John is one of only a few who are uniquely qualified to tell us what Jesus wants from us.
Jesus tells us through John that there are only two ways to walk through this life; one, in the light with God as your focus, two, in darkness away from God with sin as your guide. We are told that even though we accept Christ and trust him as our Lord and savior, we still sin. If we claim we do not sin, we understand little to nothing. If we claim we do not sin, we are calling God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit liars.
I pray each of us will look to the righteousness of God, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the blood of Jesus to forgive us and cleanse us of all our sin.
I pray each of us will walk in the light and away from our prejudices, our fears, and our distrust.
I pray each of us will devote ourselves to the two greatest commandments; to love God with all our mind, body, soul, and strength; and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
This, more than anything else, will show others we are Christian.
God bless you
Amen