CHRIST CHURCH
April 19, 2009, 10.00am
1 John 1:1-2:2

As we look this morning at the opening section of the first of John's epistles, we are surely struck by the very direct way in which John writes. It was the custom of the day that all such letters would begin with the type of greeting all the other epistles (Hebrews apart) start. Something along the lines of "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus to the church in..".

Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who were in danger of abandoning their faith, and was almost certainly written by a writer who himself was a Jew. This letter of John was written, likewise to a group of Jewish Christians, who were in danger of being misled by a heresy. The writer of this epistle never names himself, but is almost certainly John the apostle. We need look no further than the opening verses of this epistle and compare that with the prologue to John's Gospel, which has always been incontrovertibly attributed to the apostle.  It is actually interesting to note how John writes. His language is very simple, but direct, with exact choice of word; his style is like the poetic Old Testament writers, for example the Psalms, where each verse has two reinforcing clauses. We shall see that time and again as we read through 1 John.

John begins then with a prologue, and immediately are minds are driven to the prologue to John's Gospel. The phrases and concepts used are the same, and it seems almost as if John is here in his epistle writing a commentary on the prologue to his Gospel.
We note first that where the John 1:1 has "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God", then here in the epistle we have  "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have
touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. " Some commentators would suggest that in the epistle the 'beginning' was that of the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, it accords with John's general tone to see this as the beginning. In Genesis we have "In the beginning God", and then God bringing the created order into being by his spoken word, and recall in John's Gospel "without Him [the Word], nothing that was made was made"
John writes about the created order, the cosmos, and he says here that "we" have seen, heard and touched that Creator. That Creator is not a remote being, just a creative power. No!, says John. We have seen, heard and touched it! What an amazing statement and really John says it all over again
"The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us".  
But this is no mere repetition. Yes, he says again that "we" have seen and heard-heard his voice, heard his teaching, and seen-more than mere observation- a point which comes more clearly in verse 1, where John uses a word meaning 'gazed upon' But note two extra things:
(a)  Where at the start John speaks about the 'Word of life', now he introduces the thought that this was the word of eternal life- for this was the Word which came from the Father; this creative Word, who was a real flesh-and-blood person could speak into being in us mortals the eternal life.  
(b) John speaks about 'fellowship'. This is the Greek word koinonia, and Earl Palmer says of this word: "koinonia is used in classical Greek as a term to express the most intimate kinds of human relationship, as for example, in marriage" From later in chapter one, John goes on to speak of fellowship with God; a fellowship he already enjoyed and into which he wishes to invite his readers. This is an intimate fellowship with the One who by his Word flung the stars into space.

John goes on in verse 5 to speak about this God: what kind of God he is, and he says quite simply:
"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. " Fausset-Brown says of God as Light being the fountain of wisdom, purity, beauty, joy, and glory. In the parallelism of the psalms, of which I spoke earlier, the second phrase can reinforce the first by a negation, and here we have a strong nagation- in God there is no darkness at all. All the darkness of our experience is outside of God, even opposed to God- so indeed the Devil is in the Bible (among many things) the "prince of darkness" The other point about God being light is that in Him 'light' is interchangeable with 'truth' It's there in verse 6.

In the section from verse 6 onward, John in fact sets two opposing ways of life before his readers and before us. Verse 6, of which I just spoke says that if we claim to be in fellowship with God, yet "walk in the darkness", then we are liars. John is never one to mince his words! Does the 21st century church sometimes mince its words?! But what do we mean we we speak of 'walking in the light- or darkness'?
Walk in Scripture has the sense of how we live- our life's goal and direction, and it is either in the light or in the darkness. To walk in the light is also in truth: it is a way of openness, open to what God says to us in his Word. O treasure that word! With the psalmist say "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." (Psalm 119:105)
To walk in darkness is to despise and disregard God's Word in our daily walk. For a professing Christian this is a lie!
John has two other warnings, in verses 8 and 10
First of all: if we claim sinless perfection we are deceiving ourselves and then (v10), we are making God a liar, and says John "God's Word has no place in our lives"

Against all this we are given reassurance that if we walk in the light, and get real with God and are open to Him and his Word, then there is forgiveness and purification. Forgiveness means that, if we have confessed, and agreed with God's Word and named our sin as sin, then God puts our sin and there is purification and cleansing.
For John's readers when mystery religions ruled the day, this was all something quite new and revolutionary. It is against any form of mere outward religiosity.

Verses 1 and 2 of chapter 2 belong more to chapter 1 than what follows. John is still concerned about the sin issue. He begins chapter 2 by saying: "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin." Note his address to 'my little children' It's a term of loving intimacy. It also underlines John as a figure of respect in the early Christian community- but all that has just gone before is with that stated aim. Sin is always a serious issue.
But sin has, in Jesus, an answer. We have One who will be our Advocate, One who is righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sin. (I prefer that word to 'atoning sacrifice' that our NIV has). It gives the urgency of the plea of the tax-collector in the Temple who we are told (Luke 18:13) "beat his breast, saying, ‘God,  be merciful to me, a sinner!’"  

To end I want to go back to verse 4 of chapter 1, which I sidestepped earlier. It has an important message for us. John says:
"We write this to make our joy complete."- the 'this' being his wish that his readers would enjoy fellowship with John and his circle, and also with the Lord Jesus Christ. It was G K Chesterton who said that "joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian". And this joy is complete only when we bring others to that fellowship.
Do we have the joy of which John writes? 'Joy' is not the ephemeral, circumstance-dependant of 'happiness'; it is something far deeper. And is our joy that much greater if we can bring others into the Christian fold.