1 John 1:1-10 - Living Word of Life and Hope

1 John 1:1-10

What Was Heard, Seen, and Touched

(John 1:1–5)

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, concerning the Word of life— 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

Fellowship with Him and One Another

5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to 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 practice 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 Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

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.

The Living Word gives us life and hope.  Jesus Christ is the eternal Word of God who the apostles personally saw and touched with their own hands to show Jesus was real as a God’s Son come to us as a real man and no mere illusion or tall tale.  He is the very Word of life to give us eternal life, unending in and through Him starting at our conversion by faith (John 1:1, 12, Ephesians 2:8-9) through repentance to life (Acts 11:18).  Apostles such as John were spokesmen for God’s Son to speak life through His name to all whom He calls (John 6:44).  He and the others whose words we read (Matthew, Luke, Mark, Peter, James, Paul) given to teach us as we are saved by grace (Matthew 28:19-20) and taught by their writings recorded for us to hear now, these all had been chosen to bear witness as those seeing our Lord personally to then declare His person and work and words to us.  They displayed the eternal life in Jesus shown them for us to see as well in a spiritual face to face encounter until the day when we meet Him fully face to face in spirit now and after our death in new bodies following our resurrection.  These men declared this eternal hope of life to of the living Word to us in written words that we might share in the fellowship with them in Christ, this fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.  John writes to tell us the reason is to fulfill our joy in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior!  This message of the gospel is to assure us that God is light in the midst of darkness who shone in our hearts and souls through the grace of faith that takes Him at His word as to His identity and work to deliver us from our deserved penalty of our sin.  If then we have been truly changed by this encounter with the truth by His Spirit and are spiritual newborns (John 5:24, Galatians 2:20, 1 Peter 1:23), then we should see evidence of that change by living in the light of righteousness and truth now and not still stumbling about in the darkness of sin through life as before.  This is living practice of the truth within us.  This walking in life and truth provides us the sharing of fellowship with Him and one another as we realize the cleansing of the blood of Christ’s sacrifice in our stead to die and shed His blood of life (Leviticus 17:11, Matthew 26:28, John 6:53, Hebrews 9:22, 27-28) that we are released from death and the penalty of sin once and forever.  He cleanses us from all sin, past, present, and future; we need only confess it to Him for assured forgiveness and strive to repeat it less and less as we mature in Christ by walking in the light.  He promises to forgive our sins and make us clean again!  This is our certain hope in the life we have been given that never ends.  However, if we deny that we still sin, we are calling Him a liar because His word in us that shows we are still sinners is absent from us and we need to go back to making our position in Him (2 Corinthians 13:5-6, 2 Peter 1:10-11) certain.  Once we understand we are truly regenerate in Jesus Christ, then we understand in humility our deliverance from sin’s (1 John 4:18) punishment of eternal torment into everlasting life in Christ by His atoning sacrifice of His life for ours.  For those of us who have His word abiding in us, let us continue to approach the throne of grace for confession and forgiveness as no mere man can do for real absolution which we already possess.  This is the Living Word of life and our certain hope in Christ.