seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
1 John 1:1 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. 2 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. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our[a] joy complete.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[b] sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
a. 1 John 1:4 Some manuscripts your
b. 1 John 1:7 Or every
The regular commentaries were all preach and no teach this morning.... so this is from "got questions".
False spiritual teachers were a big problem in the early church. Because there was not a complete New Testament that believers could refer to, many churches fell prey to pretenders who taught their own ideas and advanced themselves as leaders. John wrote this letter to set the record straight on some important issues, particularly concerning the identity of Jesus Christ.
Because John’s letter was about the basics of faith in Christ, it helped his readers reflect honestly on their faith. It helped them answer the question, Are we true believers? John told them that they could tell by looking at their actions. If they loved one another, that was evidence of God’s presence in their lives. But if they bickered and fought all the time or were selfish and did not look out for one another, they were betraying that they, in fact, did not know God.
That did not mean they had to be perfect. In fact, John also recognized that believing involved admitting our sins and seeking God’s forgiveness. Depending on God for cleansing from guilt, along with admitting our wrongs against others and making amends, was another important part of getting to know God.
According to one of the commentaries.... John was 50 or 60 years old by the time he wrote these letters. He was living in Ephesus.
A Greco-Roman philosophical and religious movement, namely Gnosticism.... was taking over. People were saying Jesus was not human. People were teaching Jesus was not human....or He was human but not when He was on the Cross. They were teaching Jesus was not human... He was a hybrid.... but not human.
Gnostics take the Christian out of Christianity. They claim that Jesus was not human.... so why did He bother coming to earth and dealing with humans? He would never know what it feels like to be human.... and being human is the biggest reason any of us do anything we do. We are all born with this desire to do it now and ask permission later. We were all born to be drug addicts, sex addicts, money grubbers, liars and thieves. Caine murdered Abel in the first few chapters of the book... because Caine was jealous that God loved Abel more than Caine.
Jesus had to be human to understand..... Jesus had to understand why humans do what they do.... in order to know stupidity.... Jesus had to experience it.
1 John was written to the Christians because there was trouble in the church. John was telling the church that he knew Jesus personally.... He was the best friend of the Messiah. John was telling the church that John knew what Jesus taught first hand... and these teachers were fakes.
There were fake teachers in the church.
