Bible Commentaries
1 John 1

Introduction

ANALYSIS.

The writer of this Epistle from the very outset seems to have before his mind some claim that is being put forth with more or less apparent candor, and urged as‘ true with great zeal and persistence, which is regarded by him as heretical and subversive of the cause of Christ. In the very first utterance contained in the first verse of this chapter he begins a refutation of this pernicious doctrine. Affirma-tively, the writer says in this chapter that the Word of Life was from the beginning. That living Word was manifested, and was seen, heard and handled by the apostles, and only what they had seen, heard and handled did they declare to the world; that those who accepted this message and acted upon it had fellowship not only with the apostles, but also with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, which, being a great honor, ought to render them joyful to completeness. The declaration is plainly stated that the message so declared by the apostles was that God is light, and that to have and retain fellow-ship with him we must walk in the light. Those who claim this fellow-ship while walking in darkness lie, and have no regard for the truth. Those walking in the light, should they in an unguarded moment give way to temptation and sin, are therefrom cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Sin, of course, must be penitently confessed. The writer then says: "If we think we have no sin, we deceive ourselves; and if we say we have not sinned, we thereby make God a liar, who has already declared by his Word that all have sinned."

Verse 1. That which was from the beginning.

The peculiar characteristic of the writer of this Epistle is manifested in his very first utterance. When the same writer commences to write his memoirs, by us at the present day commonly called the Gospel by John, in the very outset of that production he asserts the majesty and moral gran-deur of the Lord Jesus in this most astonishing announce-ment : "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" ( Joh_1:1-51 : I). He thus boldly takes us back to the beginning of things, so far into the past of all existences as the great Creator has seen fit to make a revelation. Now, in this Epistle he desires his readers to understand that the living Word, about which he proposes a further discourse, is the same Word that was at the beginning of all things, and that so now he is the same Word at the beginning of the gospel age. The Word that was at the beginning has simply taken upon himself human flesh, and thus has become to us the living Word, and as the living Word we that is, his chosen twelve apostles have heard, seen and handled him.

At this point in the exposition of this verse more than ordinary care and caution should be invoked in order that we fail not in grasping in all its amplitude the force of the apostolic declaration. Think of it heard, seen and handled. Three of the more important of the human senses are brought into lively exercise, and we are so clearly and definitely informed, for the purpose, no doubt to satisfy the reader or hearer, that he may rely upon the communi-cations made with the most implicit confidence. However, before proceeding further, it will be of advantage to have also before us the contents of verse 2.

Verse 2. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness,

This entire verse is parenthetic, and designed to be, at least to some extent, explanatory of the facts contained in verse 1. The idea is this : The Word was with God at the beginning of all things ; that same Word took upon himself flesh and became the Living Word became Jesus who was born at Bethlehem and this Living Word we apostles heard whenever he spoke, saw whatever he did, and to make the matter more absolutely certain, we handled him while here on earth hence we bear witness ; that is, testify. We testify to what we heard, what we saw, and to the further fact that we handled the Word of life. We show to you by our testimony that this is the author of eternal life to all, for; if he was with God at the beginning, and was God, he is eternal life himself, although for a time he abode here on earth in flesh. This brings us to a point where we can, with profit, apply the thoughts contained in the first verse. The essential qualifications of a witness are by the apostle plainly and boldly asserted. The issue is so sharply drawn that it can not be evaded. These qualifications are asserted, and may be investigated. If, however, the witnesses possess all these qualifications, their competency to testify must go unchallenged, and their testimony can not be either excluded or disregarded. The decision l a sound reason and the com-bined wisdom and enlightened judgment of the ages is, that with the unimpaired faculties of seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling, the information these communicate to the human soul is to be accepted and regarded as con-clusive. Sometimes only one of these senses may be called into exercise, and to that extent only will the testimony be admissible. Sometimes two. Sometimes all five of the senses are in lively exercise, as in the case of the miracle recorded in Mat_14:15-21 verses, inclusive. It so happens that most generally two only of these senses that of seeing and hearing are in exercise, and these are considered all-sufficient to render a witness competent to testify in the most enlightened tribunals. The apostles having heard, seen and handled (felt) the Word of life while in the flesh, their competency to testify in relation thereto is placed beyond question, and, if honest, their testimony must be received as absolutely and overwhelmingly true by every intelligent man and woman on earth.

Verse 3. That which we have seen and heard.

We apostles have told you nothing concerning the Lord Jesus, what he came into the world for, his teachings, his miracles, his death, burial and resurrection, his world-wide commission to his apostles, the establishment of his Church in the world, his great desire that all should become his followers, be pardoned here, walk in life as he commanded and have eternal life in the world to come, but just what we have seen and just what we heard of the Lord; and nothing but this have we declared unto you, and we so declare it that you may participate with us in this knowl-edge. This is fellowship. God's love gave us a Savior, in fact, the whole Christian system. Jesus was sent by the Father; Jesus spoke the words of the Father and performed what the Father desired. We, his apostles, received the words of the Lord, and now we communicate to you, so that our fellowship our participation in this knowledge and in these blessings is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. It might be well here to state that, in all the courts of judicature in all civilized lands and nations no one ques-tions the competency of a witness to tell in a given case what he has seen, what he has heard, and, if the subject of inquiry admits of it, to tell what he has felt, tasted or smelt. It may be said that one witness might be deceived as to what he saw. This is true ; but suppose one witness should testify that, at the same time, he also more than once heard plainly certain utterances. Think you that both senses could be deceived ? Possibly, even this might occur, and mainly for this reason it is that more than one witness on some occa-sions is required in the courts to establish a given proposi-tion, although not absolutely requisite in the proof of a will. But what must be the evident conclusion where three or more, and even thirteen, as in the case of the resurrection of Christ, wherein all testify essentially to the same thing. Can it be possible that the sense of sight and hearing of so great a number could be deceived at one and the same time? Take now your own experience or that of any of your acquaintances can you admit an illusion of both the senses of sight and hearing at one and the same time ? But, admit-ting such a possibility, with your experience as a rule for guidance, what can you say when two, three or more all say that they saw, heard and handled at the same time a certain person whom they had known ? If all such could be deceived, then there is no certainty in the evidence of sense, upon which the whole superstructure of our laws depend. Here I present a quotation from the introduction to the "Christian Preacher's Companion," written by Alexander Campbell, which I regard as absolutely convincing on this point. "But we speak of perfect testimony of a large number of wit-nesses having ample and repeated opportunities for exami-nation of the most cautious, rational, discriminating charac-ter; most of them first opposed to the facts which they afterwards believed and reported, and withal having often two, frequently three, and sometimes all of the senses addressed in the same miracle. Such witnesses as these never were deceived, and not to believe them, who on such testimony changed their whole course of life, is to admit the chief of absurdities, viz.: an effect without a cause."

Verse 4. And these things write we.

I, it is true, write you, but in so doing you may feel assured that it is the same as though all the witnesses of the Lord were writing, and the object of writing to you concerning the things of the Lord and our fellowship with him is that your joy may be full and complete when you fully recognize the great honor that is thus bestowed upon you.

Verse 5. This then is the message.

The message we heard of the Lord, and the one we declared unto you, I now repeat in another form, and this I do because I have spoken to you of our fellowship with the Father and with the Son.

God is the source and the dispenser of light all light, both physical and moral. God being the head of our fel-lowship and the source of all light, he is, therefore, the dispenser of all moral light. He is light absolutely. In him is no darkness at all, no evil, no mistake. Moral light is pos-sessed by him in infinite perfection. Bro. B. W. Johnson's notes here are especially clear. He says: "The term denotes luminous, clearness, the free and benevolent source from whence flow light, intelligence, purity and blessing, abso-lutely free from alien intermixture, since in him is no darkness at all. Light represents truth, knowledge, holiness; darkness represents ignorance, error, falsehood and sin."

Verse 6. If we say that we have fellowship with him.

Should we claim to have fellowship with God, who is absolute light light in infinite perfection while we are walking in darkness that is not doing right, not doing what we know God requires at our hands, acting wickedly ; in so claiming we lie. This must be plain, and it is in accord-ance with the doctrine of the gospel, that if God is light and we walk not in the light, the fellowship is broken, we are not in accord, and we must be in accord with the will of God to have fellowship with him.

Verse 7.--But if we walk in the light.

If we claim fellowship with God while we walk in the light, we lie not. If we practice holiness in our lives because we are assured that God is holy, we thus keep before us the desire of the head of our fellowship, that all should be holy, as he is holy ; then and in that case we do have fellow-ship with God and with one another; and also in that case the blood of Jesus Christ, which was shed for the remission of sins, shed as an atonement for sins, cleanses us from all sins. That is walking in the light all our days. At the last we need fear no punishment for sin; from this punishment we are delivered. We are fitted to have a fellowship or communion with our God in the heavenly world.

Verse 8. If we say that we have no sin.

We can not, however, claim that we have reached a sinless state in this life. Should we so claim we deceive our-selves and possess no knowledge whatever of the truth on that subject, as taught by Christ and his disciples. The Nicolaitans in the days of John, the writer of this Epistle, made this claim. They claimed that they could do no wrong, and hence indulged in all sorts of excesses, and yet they were promptly repudiated by the Master. ( Rev_2:6 .) All along the ages and in our own day there are those who, in one way or another, and to one extent or another, make the claim that they have attained to a state in which they sin not. Now the language of the apostle is in direct opposition to this claim.

Verse 9. If we confess our sins.

Since it is that while we are in this life we are liable to sin, be it known to you brethren, that God is faithful and just to forgive our sins if we confess to him. Admitting our sins and our firm determination to forsake them, God will pardon. We obtain this pardon through the blood of Christ, coming to God in penitence. Note carefully, the con-fession of sins must be made by the sinning one directly to God. Since the pardon comes from him, the confession must be made to him, exhibiting at the time of such confession the other requisites indicative of true penitence. True penitence is followed, as a matter of course, by a reforma-tion in the matter wherein the sin occurred.

Verse 10. If we say that we have not sinned.

We attempt to make God a liar when we say we have not sinned. This will appear evident to every mind when we reflect that on this subject God has spoken. He has said: "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" ( Rom_3:23 ). "They are all gone aside; they are alto-gether become filthy ; there is none that doeth good, no, not one" ( Psa_14:3 ). Or, as this Psalm is quoted by the apostle Paul: "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one There is none that understandeth ; there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way ; they are together become unprofitable ; there is none that doeth good, no, not one" ( Rom_3:10-12 ). Thus, God has spoken by his servants, and should we in the face of these declarations declare our sinlessness, we make God a liar and his word is not in us. We must observe that the verses 8, 9 and 10 are addressed to and intended for Christians, and the impression is intended by the Apostle John, to be left indelibly upon their minds, their constant dependence upon God ; their great necessity for God's pardoning mercy day by day. The alien is elsewhere taught how to obtain the pardon of his sins, and become, by adoption, a member of God's family and an heir of eternal life. But the apostle, in the ninth verse of this chapter, points out the law of pardon to the erring Christian. These distinctions kept in mind, all is plain.