Thank you for the sweet fellowship I had with you yesterday in prayer. Help me to see any areas in my life that are not reflective of You. Let Your truth invade my thoughts today. Amen.
1 John 1
Today we want to focus on Jesus and Who He is.
John was intimately acquainted with Jesus as He walked on this earth. Yet somehow you can sense that John‘s understanding of Who Jesus is has become vastly enlarged, to put it mildly! Sometimes we too can become enamored by the humanity of Jesus and be ignorant of the totality of Who Jesus is.
In the first few verses of chapter 1, John seems to be fearful that he won’t be able to say enough to convey to the readers of this letter the enormous truth of Who Jesus really is. It’s almost as if he can hardly contain himself as he describes his relationship with Him as he personally heard Him, saw Him, and touched Him. John says that being able to write these truths completes his joy … joy that I’m sure he couldn’t wait to share with everyone.
Can you hardly believe it … the light of the world came to have fellowship with us! And that light produces a change in every believer. First it cleanses us from all sin and unrighteousness. Then it gives us sweet fellowship with God and with one another. It also keeps us from walking in darkness and enables us to practice the truth … giving us a whole new lifestyle.
There is no darkness in God, and that is the absolute contrast between God and the world. The world loves darkness, but we, as believers in Christ, are children of light and cannot live in darkness! Oh, how much God loves us; that He shows us over and over again the evidence of our salvation. Salvation is the most important thing for any human being to be assured of.
God alone transforms us into His likeness so that He has a witness for this lost world to see! More and more like Jesus we will be, as He transforms us to His Son’s image. It’s all about Jesus … always has been and always will be!
If a person is wrong about Jesus Christ, he is wrong about God, because Jesus Christ is the final and complete revelation of God to men. Jesus is our light!! John marvels in the first 3 verses of this chapter that he had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ….that his was no “second hand” experience. He knew Jesus face-to-face.
But it wasn’t John’s physical nearness to Jesus in His humanity that caused John such great joy. It was his spiritual nearness that had given him eternal life and had cleansed him from sin … that was what John was excitedly declaring to all! And now he wanted to explain how this eternal life transforms man in the here and now.
God is light; sin is darkness. How much clearer could John be!
The only thing you are asked to do today is in verse 9.
Confess any sins that the Lord brings to your mind as you reflect on your life.
True confession is naming sin – calling it by the very name God calls it… pride, lust, envy, hatred, lying,… whatever He brings to your mind.
Remember that He already knows the problem, but “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” as we confess it to Him.
Enjoy your weekend with your family and friends, and be sure to “not forsake the assembling of ourselves together… exhorting one another” this Sunday! See you next week!
I love you Lord. Amen.
