Confidence Day 2 Confidence In Testimony: Digging Deeper
April 18, 2023
Discover the original intent of Scripture. Make good application to our everyday lives.
Become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
1 John 1:1-10
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. 6 If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. 7 If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
The Original Intent
1) What is John’s testimony of Jesus and why is it important? (verses 1-4, 7, 9)
John testified to who Jesus is, but throughout his letter he emphasized what he himself experienced while Jesus was in human form on earth. He speaks to what he personally witnessed through sight, hearing, observation, and what he physically touched regarding Jesus and His ministry.
Why was this personal experience so essential to John that he included it in his letter? During this time, the heretical teachings of Gnosticism were beginning to spread. This doctrine taught that all matter was evil and all spirit was good. Yes, sin brought evil into the world and separates us from God (Genesis 3), but Gnostics twisted this truth by teaching that creation was evil. What God called good in the creation story (Genesis 1) the Gnostics called evil. All flesh was evil, including Jesus’ own physical humanity.
John reasons that, as an apostle who spent three years with Jesus, he had authority to speak to Jesus’ identity as both God and as a man. He knew Jesus, walked with Jesus, listened to Jesus, watched Him, touched Him, experiencing Jesus exactly as He was without any pretense. He understood that because Jesus was God there could not be evil in His spirit or His flesh. (verse 3, Matthew 17:1-8) John used this letter to strongly refute dangerous Gnostic teachings creeping into the early church.
The Everyday Application
1) What is John’s testimony of Jesus and why is it important? (verses 1-4, 7, 9)
I am astonished that the God of all creation sent Jesus, His Son and equally God, to walk the earth as a human. Unlike you and I, Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life. (verse 5, Hebrews 4:15). No other man or woman can truthfully make such a claim. (verses 8 and 10) Jesus was both fully God and fully man, without sin, yet He became our sin payment. (1 Peter 2:22-24)
We need someone to pay the punishment for sin we owe because we are each sinners. (Isaiah 53:6) We cannot possibly stand before a holy God on our own merit because even one sin separates us from God. (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23) Jesus, through His death and resurrection, provided us forgiveness of our sins and the ability to stand before God by giving us His perfect righteousness in place of our sinfulness. (verse 7, 2 Corinthians 5:21) Therefore, when God looks at us He does not see our sin, but Jesus’ righteousness!
Not only did Jesus conquer sin on the cross, but He also conquered death by rising from the dead and making a way for us to no longer be condemned to spiritual death, but to live forever with Him! (John 6:40, John 6:40, 1 John 4:9-10)
If you have not confessed your sin to Jesus, asked for His complete forgiveness, and surrendered your life to Him, I plead with you to do so. He gave His life for you and me to make us blameless before God Almighty and to live eternally with Him. If you have not given Him your life and made His act of love your testimony, today is a very good day to choose Him! (1 John 4:14-16)
The Original Intent
2) What does fellowship mean for the believer? (verses 3, 5-9)
In verse 5 John stated a true premise, “God is light.” Beginning in verse 6, he wrote a series of “if” statements to build on this premise; the first two statements address Christian fellowship. First, he wrote that if they walked in darkness they would not have fellowship with God. (verses 5-6) Second, he wrote that if they walked in the light they would have fellowship with other believers. (verse 7)
Of utmost importance was their relationship with God through repentance and the forgiveness of sins.
Flowing from their relationship with God, a relationship with other believers would flourish. If fellowship didn’t exist between believers, it proved there was no active fellowship with God.
The Gnostics taught that whatever you did in the flesh had no impact on your relationship with God because of the separation between spirit (good) and flesh (evil). John declared this to be un-true and that living in fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ was a testimony of your fellowship with God.
However, John didn’t stop there. After the first chapter he never used the term “fellowship” again. Rather, he dug deeper into fellowship and began to use the word “love.” John wrote that it was right for them to love one another, (1 John 3:10) that they should love one another (1 John 3:11), and that it was impossible to truly love God while hating their brother (1 John 4:20).
How did John say they should love? By helping believers in any way possible. “Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.” (1 John 3:17-18) True fellowship moved far beyond warm, fuzzy feelings to authentic love and support of one another as they each provided for the others’ needs as brothers and sisters in the family of God.
The Everyday Application
2) What does fellowship mean for the believer? (verses 3, 5-9)
John Piper once explained Christian fellowship as “…a mutual bond that Christians have with Christ that puts us in a deep, eternal relationship with one another.” (Desiring God)
Fellowship is more than a church dinner or ladies’ night out. These can be among the initial blocks to build fellowship with other believers, but they are only the beginning. Peter said believers are “living stones” being built together into a “spiritual house” with Christ as our cornerstone. (1 Peter 2:4-7) Why? To work toward the common goal of glorifying God.
Note that prior to these verses, Peter commands believers to rid themselves of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander which all tear down relationships. (1 Peter 2:1) In place of sinful desires focused on self, believers are to “desire the pure milk of the Word, so that you may grow up into your salvation.” (1 Peter 2:1-3) Believers are to rid themselves of sin patterns that tear down relationships and instead, desire God’s Word.
I must admit I don’t always longingly desire to read and meditate on Scripture. I use the excuses that too much is on my plate, or I am too tired. Yet, I am reminded of the story of the sisters, Mary and Martha, as they interacted with Jesus. (Luke 10:38-41) Martha complained to Jesus that her sister wasn’t helping her but was instead sitting and listening to Jesus. The Lord responded in kindness toward Martha while reminding her that Mary had “made the right choice.”
There will always be the tyranny of the urgent, but we must decide which of these things are truly urgent. Choose to sit at Jesus’ feet. Study. Listen. Flowing from connection with Him will be a hunger to love as Jesus loved. “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
The Original Intent
3) What does it mean that God is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins? (verse 9)
John wrote, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) The beauty of the gospel is displayed here. The Gnostics taught that sin did not hamper a relationship with God because of the separation of the spiritual and flesh. Therefore, there was no need to admit they were sinners and confess their sin.
Throughout his letter, John reminded his readers that sin did indeed separate them from God, but God would faithfully and righteously forgive them and give them eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (verses 7 and 9, 1 John 2:1-2, 1 John 3:5, 1 John 4:9-10, 1 John 4:14-15, 1 John 5:1, 1 John 5:11-12)
To the Gnostic, Jesus’ death in the flesh meant nothing in the spiritual realm. In reality, however, it meant everything. John recognized the truth because he had lived with Truth Himself, Christ, and he testified to the truth he knew.
He desired his readers to not just ignore the teachings of the Gnostics, but to correct their false teaching by also testifying to the truth of our sin, our spiritual death, and our consequence of eternal separation from God because of our sin. We must understand the truth of our separation from God so we can embrace the gift of God by accepting His faithful, just character to forgive us and make us new so we can live in the truth and godliness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Everyday Application
3) What does it mean that God is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins? (verse 9)
This verse is a favorite in the church. It speaks truth to our hearts and reminds us that God’s forgiveness provides access to fellowship with Him. Have you ever considered to whom God is faithful and righteous? Is He faithful and righteous to us? That sounds warm and fuzzy, but His faithfulness and righteousness toward us alone would mean we would die in our sin.
Without our acceptance of Jesus’ sin payment, we would receive eternal death. This isn’t what John is saying. God is faithful to Himself and His character; He is righteous to the sin payment Jesus made on the cross. When I admit to God that I’m a sinner and can do nothing to wipe away my sin, He must be true to Himself, to what Jesus did on the cross, and to the plan that existed from the beginning for our redemption. (Genesis 3:15)
God does not, and cannot, change. This is called the immutability of God. No matter what we do, God stays faithful to who He is and has always been. (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Hebrews 13:8) John R. W. Stott in “The Letters of John” wrote, “The cross is, in fact, the only moral ground on which He (God) can forgive sins at all, for there the blood of Jesus His Son was shed that He might be ‘the atoning sacrifice for our sins.’” (1 John 2:2)
God will always forgive us of our sin when we come to Him brokenhearted and truly repentant. This is our much-needed testimony to a broken and sinful world! Freedom from the penalty of sin is available because of God’s love for us! This truth will never change!
We decide how we will respond to this truth, which affects where we spend eternity, either in Life with Christ or in Death with our sin.
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