May that Divine Spirit, who inspired every word of this wonderful letter, bless it to all our hearts as we read it!
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 upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
You remember how John begins his Gospel: «In the beginning was the Word «and how, a little later, he says, «In him was life.» The Holy Spirit seems to have recalled those expressions to his mind, for he moves him to use them again. Note how clearly, how explicitly, John writes concerning the Logos, the eternal Word. He says, «That which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life,... that declare we unto you.» The facts of Christ's history on earth are recorded by eye-witnesses who could not be deceived concerning them. They exercised their various senses with regard to Christ, hearing, seeing, and touching him again and again. They were veracious witnesses, and they died in testimony of their faith in what they asserted. And when anything has been heard, seen, inspected, and even touched and handle-, by a company of reliable witnesses, the testimony of such witnesses concerning it must be accepted as true.
1 John 1:2. (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;)
John and his fellow-apostles were eye witnesses of the coming to earth of God in human flesh, the indwelling of the Word of life in a body like our own,
1 John 1:3-4. 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. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
Hear ye this, ye people of God! The object of the revelation of Jesus Christ is that you may have joy, yea, that you may have a heart full of joy, and that you may know what full joy means; for, here below, we get but drops and dashes of joy, unless we are brought into fellowship with God through Jesus Christ; and, then, we have the very joy of God in our souls. Oh, the delight of it! Oh, that you could all know it to the full!
1 John 1:5. 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.
That is to say, God is knowledge, God is truth; God is purity. «God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.» There is no darkness of sin, or ignorance, or error about God.
1 John 1:6. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth;
He who walks in ignorance and sin, is in fellowship with the powers of darkness; but he is certainly not in fellowship with God, who is light.
1 John 1:7. 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.
So that, in the very highest state to which we can attain in this world, namely, walking in the light, as God is in the light, and having fellowship with him, even then we shall sin, and shall still need the blood of Christ to cleanse us from its stain. So those err exceedingly who say that the Christian man can or does live utterly free from sin. Either they have lowered the standard by which they judge the actions of men, or they excuse themselves on some Antinomian principle, or else they must be altogether ignorant of the truth about the matter; for «if we walk in the light, as God is in the light,» and have fellowship with him, still «the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin;» and, therefore, there is sin needing to be cleansed, for Christ does no work as a superfluity. But what a mercy it is for us to feel the continual cleansing of the precious blood of Jesus, so that, if we sin through ignorance, or if we sin by omission or by commission, that precious blood constantly keeps us so pure, that we can still walk with God!
1 John 1:8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
It does not matter either, in what sense we say it. We may try to beguile ourselves with the idea that we say it in some peculiar gospel sense; but «we deceive ourselves» if we say it in any sense whatsoever, for we have sin, and we do sin.
1 John 1:9. If we confess our sins,
That is the point; and he, who says that he has no sins, will not confess them. He, who believes himself to be perfect, cannot enjoy the blessing described in this 9 th verse. To deny that we have any sin, is to walk in darkness, and to show we are without the light which would reveal our sin to us, kind if we are walking in darkness we cannot be in fellowship with God. But to see sin in ourselves from day to day, humbly to confess it, and mourn over it, is to walk in the light; and walking in the light, we shall have fellowship with God who is light. «If we confess our sins,»
1 John 1:9-10. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all, unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
This exposition consisted of readings from 1 John 1:1 and 1 John 2:1-6.