I have been promising a study of 1 John, and this is the first in a series of posts on an expository study of 1 John. I hope you enjoy it and come away with spiritual growth!
Let’s start with themes in 1 John and the overarching purpose of 1 John. Themes which recur throughout the book include the seed (of sin and of Christ), light and darkness, love (agape), Christian perfection, the imitation of Christ, following the commandments of Christ (obedience), overcoming sin and the world, and abiding in Christ.
The focus of 1 John is the imitation of Christ manifested by Christian perfection. A secondary focus is the obedience of Christ, which is part of our imitation of Him. We find both imitation and obedience throughout the entire book.
In this series of posts, we will review 1 John on a chronological verse-by-verse basis.
Starting in chapter 1, verses 1-3, John lays out the grounds for writing 1 John, which is proclaiming what he has seen and heard and which was manifested through Christ. This sounds much like the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). John is (and we should also) proclaiming Christ (Colossians 1:28) to both build up the body of Christ and call the world to follow Christ.
John then writes that we may have fellowship with Christ. In other words, he is writing to exhort us to fellowship with Christ and will write in an expository manner to explain the path toward fellowship with Christ. The book of 1 John reads much like an expository style of preaching.
What John writes he does so to increase our joy (verse 4). By this, we are to understand that fellowship with Christ and obedience to Christ are the source of our joy.
God is light, He is the source of our light, and what He reveals to us is light (verse 5). Light we understand to be illumination, and practically speaking, we need illumination to find our way. When it is dark, we cannot see what is around us, we cannot see dangers in our path or which may be lurking nearby, and we cannot see the pathway. Light here signifies illumination of our way, true righteousness (which begins with God), and knowledge (spiritual). The light which God provides to us is for our righteousness.
Light is contrasted to darkness, which we do not find in God. Spiritual darkness is sin, and sin has a blinding effect on us spiritually. Sin is the opposite of righteousness, just as light and darkness are opposites. God cannot devise evil plans, He is not the source of sin, and He does not commit any sin.
When we imitate Christ, we also are to have no darkness in us. No darkness is Christian perfection and a love for God which is unmixed with love for the world. A love for God is the embodiment of righteousness.
Jumping to verse 8, while there is no darkness nor sin with God, there is both darkness and sin with us. Our task is to completely put off sin and not walk in darkness.
We will pick up with verse 6 in the next post.
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