Fellowship, 1 John 1:1-4

There’s a sunset out my western window.  Treetops pierce the sky from below, black against the final pale blue glimmer behind them. The clouds, layered one above the other, streak the expanse in pink billows, like the day’s last chance to leave an impression before darkness. If my family was here right now, I’d call them to come and see how stunning it is! Sit with me in it.

Being side by side with people that we love, sharing in the wonder of a sunset, maximizes its joy.  Sharing doesn’t divide the joy; it multiples it. It’s why we want everyone to join us in whatever we love - a sunset, a meal, a relationship - and it’s the opening reason for why John writes this book.

Beginning in the initial verses and continuing throughout, John’s message is firm, but his tone is invitational. It's like an arm around another's shoulder, pulling them in close, steering them toward the light. I never knew either of my biological grandfathers, but John’s approach paints a picture of a wise and weathered man of faith beside his wavering child or grandchild. A shaken family member needs reassurance, so he speaks tenderly to his children, his beloved people. He's eager for this family of believers to participate with him in the security of oneness with God.

Eternal life is shared life from the Father, because of the Son, through the Spirit in His children. It's His life in us and among us and still ahead for us. Beyond potluck dinners in a church fellowship hall, eternal life allows us to walk on common ground with other believers and, incredibly, with God Himself. Hear it, experience it: common ground with God’s children and with God Himself. This is fellowship, and it's evidence for eternal life.

When two people share common ground, certain of the other’s love, there’s a joyful confidence between them. The Spirit's aim is that a joyfully confident fellowship exists between God and his child and be evident among God’s children, because fellowship can be threatened. Doubt casts its shadow, deception clouds a relationship, and sin blocks the light, ruining the possibility of enjoying togetherness and raising the question of whether the claim of being in a relationship is real or not. 

But we’re not left in the dark. 1 John shows us what it looks like to share together in this eternal life that shines more brilliantly and permanently than a sunset.

Backdrop to 1 John

Many commentators agree that the issues addressed in 1 John could indicate the emergence of what would later become a formalized belief system called Gnosticism. According to Gnostics, only the elite obtained an enlightened level of mystical knowledge that could save their immaterial spirits from this encumbering world.

Imagine the exclusivity. Can I access this salvation country club? I’m probably not qualified enough to be “in the know”. 

Physical creation was thought of as evil, to be denied and escaped. Imagine the doctrinal corruption. How could a perfect God come as a human if matter is evil?  Jesus isn’t who he seemed.

On the other hand, physical desires were considered meaningless, to be thoughtlessly indulged as inconsequential to “real” spirituality. Imagine the disconnect. What’s the big deal about my actions if spirituality is all about knowledge?  God’s commands don’t matter.

Recipients of 1 John were hearing teachings like this, and - most disturbingly -  from former church participants. Conclusions such as these still echo thousands of years later, even if they aren’t from clearly gnostic sources today. Have you ever wondered if you’re as spiritually elite as someone else? Has someone planted doubts about who Jesus is? Is there a disconnect between the words of people you follow and the way they live?  

These lead to an undoing of confidence in the Gospel and in God’s promise of eternal life, so they’re countered from various angles throughout the book. Since John writes to believers, he isn’t first and foremost explaining to his audience how to have eternal life, but he answers the question, “What proof should I look for so that I know I have eternal life? And how can I discern whether the person I’m listening to has eternal life?” Like an apple dangling from a branch doesn’t make the tree an apple tree, it proves you can be sure it is an apple tree.  Apples are the evidence that point to an identity.

There are three aspects of life that offer proof of eternal life, and we will evaluate these topics again and again in 1 John.

Belief: Who is Jesus?

Behavior: How am I following God’s Word?

Brotherly Love: Where can love be seen in my life?

Eternal life begins with accurate belief in who Jesus is. His life in us produces behavior consistent with God’s commands and the type of love for others that He himself showed.  As you read 1 John, note the ways these three areas are expounded upon even more fully in the coming chapters, and let’s hold our own hearts and lives up to the light. 

Questions throughout 1 John

Below, you will find a few questions to ask if you’re going through 1 John on your own.  Pick any one, and use it like a lens as you read. It may be helpful to write the question at the top of a page in a journal or notebook, and then, as you read through 1 John, write down your observations in answer to the question. 

Throughout the book, John gives numerous explicit reasons for writing to them (“I am writing these things…I write to you…”). Why does he write to them?

John refers to his readers in multiple ways. How does he address them?

John repeatedly emphasizes knowing. What could they know and how could they know it?

What do you learn about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit? This question could be divided into three pages. For example, you could break it down like this:

Who is God the Father, and what did/does he do? 

Who is Jesus, and what did/does he do? 

Who is the Spirit, and what did/does he do?

What do you learn about the devil/evil one, antichrist, and the world? This could also be separated into three different pages with each subject at the top.

What do you learn about love?

These questions draw out major themes in 1 John, so whether you’re able to focus on one or all of them, they’ll be worth the effort!

A Personal Intro to 1 John

Have you ever been confused by religious words you hear from someone that don’t match the lifestyle you see them live? Has that deconstructed your personal faith?  Maybe it’s all fake.

Or when your own missteps fall short of what you say you believe, have you hidden in the darkness for fear of being discovered, by people or by God? Have you ever doubted whether you actually believed in the first place? Maybe I’m the fake. How can I know for sure what’s real?

As a teen, I struggled with whether my salvation was real. I used to lie sleepless in bed, tormented by the thought that my faith as a child, when I first confessed that I needed Jesus to be my Savior, may not have been complete enough to seal my eternity in heaven.  Were there words I was missing or something I didn’t know that I needed to believe or do or pray? Was there a way to know for sure that the promise of eternal life was real for me? 

Most who have had doubts like mine, can’t usually remember the first time they heard the name “Jesus”, because it was in utero and every day after that. Kids who grow up learning the Gospel from the very beginning and then place their faith in Christ at young ages, don’t experience the radical life-change that creates dramatic reports from missionaries or garners applause from church crowds.  Drastically changed lives are powerful testaments of God’s grace, to be sure, but a child might wonder whether Christ is real in their own lives if He didn’t rescue them from drugs or jail by age 5. Back then, I didn’t realize the grace it is to know Christ early in life, or the privilege it was to have a dad who could introduce my doubts to 1 John.

As it turns out, the question of Is it real?, isn’t isolated to 21st century Christianity. It’s been asked since the time John wrote this 5-chapter book, addressing a people close to his heart, who, for various reasons, had doubts about their faith. Words and life were mismatched, deception and self-deception threatened, sin was detected, and their confidence was shaken.

The book opens, not with a testimony of how Christ changed John’s life, but with the reality of Christ’s life itself as the basis for our faith. Jesus wasn’t a hologram or optical illusion, so neither was the life he promised. In Christ, eternal life was made audible, visible, observable, and touchable.  He was eternal life in real life, and the rest of the book is what His eternal life in us looks like in real life.

Quick read, Lifelong application

On The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, by Tim Keller

Although self esteem is a buzzword from another era, we all know self hasn’t left center stage. At least I know from my own experience…

I was in the middle of a conversation with a friend one sunny day, when I suddenly caught myself looking into her sunglasses, not at her eyes, but at ME, warped in the rounded reflection.  Did I look good standing there, smiling as she talked?  Or did I have broccoli in my teeth?  

I’ve basked in self-obsession.

Another day, as worship music played during church, my voice joined in the lyrics, but my thoughts overruled with critiques: That leader is so much better than you. Don’t even try. 

I’ve wilted under self-accusation.

And on other occasions, I’ve heard the whisper: Aren’t you so offended by what that person just said to you? You don’t deserve that.  

I’ve retaliated in self-promotion.

Is there a way out from under the tyranny of Me, Myself, and I? It seems like an inescapable dilemma to be plagued by self, and that’s what first drew me to The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. 

Unpacking our sense of self, or ego, Tim Keller uses the analogy of a courtroom, based on 1 Corinthians 3:21-4:7. Keller explains, throughout this pamphlet-sized book, that whether we view ourselves too highly or too lowly, neither frees us to have joy. The problem is: “Every single day, we are on trial.  That is the way that everyone’s identity works. And everything we do is providing evidence for the prosecution or evidence for the defense. Some days we feel we are winning the trial and other days we feel we are losing it.  But Paul says that he has found the secret.”   

There are some books that mark pivotal moments in our lives, and we are uniquely changed as a result of what we read. This was one of those books for me.