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BackgroundThis epistle, appears to have been written some 30 years after Paul's last letter, and well after the fall of Jerusalem A.D. 70, when many Christians, including John, had, in response to Christ's command, fled the city. John made his new home in Ephesus, a city that had been a stronghold of the occult. A practice upon which many of the founder members of the church had turned their backs.

John is writing at a critical time in the life of the church for Peter, James and Paul had all been martyred.

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Creeping into the life of the church was false teaching known as Gnosticism. Those following this new teaching appear to have left the church 2v19. The Gnostic leaders claimed a special 'anointing' [charisma] of the Holy Spirit which brought to them a true knowledge of God. This ‘knowledge’ or 'gnosis' was central to their teaching .

Gnosticism was a real threat to the church and this letter was written as a defence of historic Christianity. It provides a number of tests which authenticate genuine Christian discipleship. This is the particular and abiding value of thisepistle for all ages.

Background

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IntroductionThe Gnostics placed more emphasis upon ideas than on historic facts. They ridiculed those who believed in ‘the childish literalism’ of the incarnation and resurrection of Christ. They taught these stories were myths to which they alone had the interpretation. This 'higher knowledge' made them superior to the uninitiated and freed them from the morality that governed the lives of ordinary Christians. They saw themselves as a new spiritual elite. Similar claims continue to be served up to the church today. Biblical literalism has been replaced with a speculative theology that is divorced from Christian practice .

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IntroductionThe Gnostics believed that all matter was evil. They could not accept that God created the world. It was unthinkable that ‘the Word’ could become flesh, and that the eternal Son of God could unite himself with our humanity. They taught that the eternal Christ came upon the man Jesus at his baptism and left him prior to the crucifixion! Hence undermining the doctrine of the atonement - if anyone other than the eternal Son of God died upon the cross then there is no adequate sacrifice for sin - no salvation, no forgiveness, no adoption into God’s family.

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IntroductionFalse teaching always leads to false living. It would appear that these false teachers had begun to claim some sort of moral perfection for themselves through their superior enlightenment and they were contemptuous of those who did not share their enlightened views. They failed to take sin and their sinful natures seriously. John will show that to profess a knowledge of God without a holy life, and without a clean break from sin and a genuine love for other believers is as great a delusion as the denial of the incarnation. For belief and behaviour are inseparable. True light leads to desire for true holiness and to a genuine love for fellow believers.

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IntroductionThe need of this teaching is as real today as when this epistle was first written. We are presently being exposed to distortions of historic Christianity. Some church leaders are unwilling to profess a belief in the incarnation, in Jesus’ sacrificial death, and in his literal resurrection. We should not be surprised to find that scriptural marker posts, which have guided the church for centuries, in areas of morality, sexuality and the sanctity of human life are being uprooted by what is called the findings of modern scholarship.

John recalls us to the things that matter most.

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The Word Of LifeJohn dispenses with the formal preliminaries as he opens his epistle. He begins by drawing our attention to the 'Word of Life'. John often uses words and phrases which carry a twofold and complimentary meaning. The phrase 'the Word of Life' used in v1 refers both to the life giving gospel and to Jesus. It refers both to the person of Christ and to the quality of life which he brings to the believer by his indwelling Spirit. John tells us that the eternal Christ who was from the beginning was someone he and the other apostles had a real human encounter with. John heard Jesus, he saw him, he touched him. He is not a phantom, not an illusion but a real flesh and blood Jesus.

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The Word Of LifeJohn uses two very interesting words. The word 'looked' is used in Jn. 20v6, 12, 14 - references to the resurrection, with the meaning, 'to look and to see the significance of'. The word translated 'touch' is used in Lk.24v39 where Jesus says to his disciples "touch me and see" where the idea is 'touch and see the significance of.'

John points to a Jesus whose resurrection had been verifiable, historical and literal. The apostles' gospel was based both upon their personal acquaintance of the eternal Son of God and upon their first hand experience of a gospel that brings abundant and eternal life to men.

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The Word Of LifeJohn's touchstone for a genuine spiritual experience is not mere knowledge of the truth but fellowship with the true God! And eternal life is defined by Jesus as fellowship with the Father and the Son, “This is eternal life; that they may know you the only one God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” Jn. 17v3. The word ‘fellowship’ that John uses describes the marriage bond, the most personal of human relationships. And so to have fellowship with the Father and the Son is to be drawn into a personal intimate relationship.

‘Fellowship’ also means to have a common share with someone in something. John is saying, 'Our aim is to bring men and women into the family of God by becoming one with us and our teaching'. We cannot know fellowship with God and each other without receiving and believing the apostolic testimony concerning Jesus.

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Walking In The LightInterestingly, John doesn't begin by focusing attention on false teaching but upon God himself. The way to deal with error is not by becoming obsessed by it but by proclaiming the truth which the error is seeking to undermine. John says what he knows to be true 'God is light‘ v5. This speaks of the moral perfection and transparency of God. God does not hide any aspects of his character from us. There is not a dark side to his character which he keeps quiet about.

Secondly, to say, ‘God is light’ describes a God who wants to make himself known. When God gives light he gives understanding of who he is and what he is like.

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Walking In The LightWe have the first test of authentic Christian discipleship in v6. If God is light, it is impossible to claim to have fellowship with him, if we walk in darkness. How can a man claim to have personal communion with God when the seriousness of sin is not acknowledged. We cannot divorce the spiritual from the moral. Have you ever seen someone with one foot on a boat and another on a riverbank? They cannot remain in that condition for long. The boat begins to drift from the bank and no matter how agile they are they have an date with the river! Some people attempt to perform a religious splits. They are drawn to both to the riches of God's grace and the appeal of sin.

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Walking In The LightA Christian justified his immoral relationship by saying, "God understands". He was saying, "I see no inconsistency between my profession to be a Christian and what is termed my immoral relationship." But we cannot separate our religious lives from our personal morality. If we try to do so we are in John's words ‘living a lie’. A person who persists in sin cannot be in touch with God. You might as well live in an underground cellar and claim to have a panoramic view. Jesus identified the religious schizophrenia of his day when he said in Jn 3.19ff... 'Light has come into the world...

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Walking In The LightFurther evidence of walking in the light is having fellowship with other Christians v7. A symptom of the darkness John describes, is a heart-attitude which says, “I can have fellowship with God without having fellowship with other believers”. We cannot act like that and claim to be walking in the light.

Those who walk in darkness yet claim to be in the light are guilty of redefining sin. For they refuse to see their unwillingness to love other Christians as sin. They justified their behaviour on the ground of having additional knowledge, more light than others! This does not mean that Christians always have to agree about everything but rather where disagreements occur they will still love and value one another. They will not sever the ties that bind them together as children of light.

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Walking In The LightJohn also indicates that to live one’s life with no on-going conviction of sin is a sure sign that we're not walking in the light. The true Christian finds the searchlight of God's words constantly exposing dark areas in his life. Indeed, the closer we come to God, the more aware of our sinfulness and of the need to confess our sin we become.

Paul, towards the end of his ministry described himself as “the chief of sinners.” That was not a false humility.

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Walking In The LightMany believers have been thrown into a tailspin by what John says in v6… and they ask, "Does the fact that I've sinned call into question the reality of my Christian profession". The devil tries to convince us that if we come to God and say, “Lord I've blown it again just like the last time”, then our Christianity must be ingenuine. With amazing pastoral sensitivity John anticipates this and unpacks the scope of Christ's sacrificial death saying, “the blood of Jesus, his Son keeps on [continuous tense] purifying us from all sin” v7.

God’s welcome mat is always out for repentant sinners. We can never come too often to ask God for forgiveness. God has sets no limits!

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Walking In The LightThe purifying properties of Christ's atonement apply to each and every sin that the believer commits. You may remember that Jesus himself distinguished between a continually repeated acts of cleansing and the initial complete bath of regeneration in Jn.13v10 ““Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean”.

The repeated cleansings are confirmation that the initial bath was received. Therefore the man who feels no need to come for regular 'cleansing' has never truly had the 'bath' and therefore has no part in Christ.

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Walking In The LightSecondly, the false teachers claimed that they were without sin for the principle of sin had been eradicated from their lives. Some holiness and perfectionist teaching today make similar claims. Phrases such as ‘full surrender’ ‘complete brokenness’, and ‘release of the spirit’ are some of the catchwords used to suggest that Christians can be delivered from their battle with sin.

Sincere Christians, who want to be the best for God are often attracted by this teaching. John's response is that if we think we are without sin we are deluded! The process of sanctification in the believer continually peels back onion- like layers of hidden depravity and sinfulness, so that we increasingly see ourselves as we really are in God's sight.

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Walking In The LightOthers concentrate upon denying their sins rather than their sinful nature. And so describe sin as 'little weaknesses'. If in v8 speaks of those who deny the existence of the principle of sin within them then v10 speaks of those who deny their actions are sinful. Today's society uses a new vocabulary, designed to disguise the ugliness of sin. We talk about being 'economic with the truth' instead of lying, selfishness has been replaced by 'standing up for ones rights'. Theft is 'helping oneself to the perks', immorality is 'sexual experimentation' and so on. Rebranding something does not dilute its effect.

If a chemist dispensed arsenic and labelled the bottle, ‘an effective of anti-depressants‘, it would not render its contents less harmful!

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Walking In The LightThe last thing many people want to do is call their sin, sin. When we behave in this way we call God ‘a liar’ v10 and in this way we claim that he has not told us the truth about ourselves. In practice we are rejecting the truth of Scripture which alone can make an honest and on-going diagnosis of our sinful condition.

And by that act of rejection men and women show that God's Word has never really been at home in their lives. They refuse to give it open access into their minds and hearts.

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Walking In The LightHow should the Christian deal with his sin? Cf. "If we confess...v9. John speaks of bringing our sin out into God’s light, of exposing it. We needn't wait for set times of prayer. As soon as we're aware of something said, thought or done that has begun to cloud our fellowship with God we should immediately confess it and ask forgiveness.

One of the principal causes of the Christian's failure to enjoy fellowship with God is his reluctance to keep short accounts with him. We can let weeks go by and we remain the most miserable people on earth, because we have failed to remove the cloud obscuring God's smile.

God in his faithfulness has made provision for our sin.

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ConclusionThe false claims made by some alleged that they had no need of continuous forgiveness because they had no sin to forgive!

The first test of authentic discipleship, in this epistle, is not simply that we have been to Christ for a once and for all cleansing of past sin but that we continue to bring the exposed and accumulated sins in our lives before the light of God's presence. We then confess and forsake them and seek God’s forgiveness.

How important is it to you to know that you have a living vibrant fellowship with God – that we walk in the light? Our answer tells us something about the reality of our Christian profession.

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