The Book of 1John (KJV) Chapter 1

The Book of 1John

The book of 1John is my favorite book in the Bible, so I decided to put up a blog with my thoughts about it. I like 1John because it lays out the plan of salvation clearly in places, and it also gives us a clear guide about how to live in Christ’s love. The author of 1John is John the Apostle. It’s what is called an epistle, or in other words a letter. Although John’s name is not found in the book, this letter is attributed to John as the author because the style of writing and also his teachings matched other works that John penned. This epistle was originally given the name Ioannou A, or the “First of John.”

Chapter 1

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

- Verses one through three speaks of Christ and the sacrifice that he made so that we may have the eternal life that God promised to us. Verse one starts off right away with: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes… of the Word of life… here John is telling us that Christ is written all throughout the Bible, not only in the New Testament. If you think about it, the Bible is a historical text that we have of not only the things that have happened, but of those things that are happening and that will happen. If you break the word History up, you get His Story. The entire Bible really truly is His Story, the story of Jesus Christ. His coming is foretold in the Old Testament, He is born and lives in the New Testament, and his second coming is told again in the New Testament. Which was from the beginning… the Word of Life… John is telling us that Jesus is in the beginning of the Bible as well as the end, the Word of Life being the Bible, which is God’s Word. In verse three John writes to us about the importance of having not only fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, but also with each other as Christians. It is an important part of Christian life to have fellowship with other Christians and discuss God’s Word. When we do this, we are having fellowship with God and Jesus at the same time. John is asking us to have fellowship with him by reading his epistle, and at the same time to have fellowship with God and Jesus. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. John wants our joy to be full. He knows that we will have full joy once we know that we will live eternally by accepting Christ as our Saviour , and living a Christian life (which he will explain here in his epistle).

5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

-Verses five and six speak for themselves. Light vs. dark typically expresses the cut and dry differences between good and evil. Here John is telling us that God is completely good and pure, and in him is no evil whatsoever. Verse six speaks to us again about fellowshipping with God. It holds us accountable. Many people today claim to be Christian, and yet they do many un-Christian things. As humans none of us are perfect, the Bible tells us this repeatedly, but, we can try to live as God commands us to. Verse six tells us that if we are living our lives in an evil manner, it doesn’t matter if we say or claim to be Christians or not. God knows all things and there’s no tricking him. Simply saying that you are a Christian does nothing to save you if you are walking in darkness all the while. We simply can’t fellowship with God if we are doing evil.

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

- If we walk in light as Jesus and God do, then we cannot only have fellowship with God, but also other Christians. When we do this, we are showing that a change has taken place in our hearts, and we are showing that we have accepted Jesus as our Savior; doing this, the blood that Jesus gave when he was crucified takes away our sins.

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

- Again, verse eight lets us know that we aren’t perfect. Every human being is guilty of sin. We were born in sin because Adam and Eve were the original sinners, and we are their descendants. When they sinned they left us with a curse (death, disease, destruction… etc). We carry that curse around with us daily from the moment we are born. In the book of James, we are also told in Chapter 2 verse 10 that, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” This means that even though we may lead a good Christian life, we have all sinned at least once, we are then guilty of all sin. If you lie, you are also guilty of cheating. If you are an adulterer, you are also guilty of murder… God knows we’re not perfect… he’s not asking us to be perfect, but what he is asking us to do is to try our hardest to live our lives according to his word. If we lie about having never sinned, verse ten lets us know that we then make God a liar. The Bible being God’s word tells us that God will not deceive us, and the Bible tells us in James 2:10 that we are all sinners. Verse nine tells us something very important: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Once we have accepted Jesus as our Savior and accepted him as the Son of God, all we need to do to gain forgiveness for our sins is ask. God is a just God, and he is not unreasonable.

(chapter 2 here)

-JAWorley