First John Chapter One
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; 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;)
1. What has been from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands did touch with regard to the Word of Life; 2. and the Life was revealed, and we have seen and not only bear witness but also proclaim to you the Eternal Life, Who was with the Father and was revealed to us (literal).1
What, as it is used here, is a neuter, relative pronoun (a relative pronoun introduces a descriptive clause, and, being neuter here, it calls for what, that or which);2 however, it very quickly becomes evident that John is writing about the Lord Jesus. The first phrase describes the essence of the Lord, and those following relate to John’s personal experience as a disciple of the Lord (as a member of the chosen twelve; hence, the pronouns we and our). “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1); both in his Gospel and this letter, John very carefully begins with Who Jesus is: He was there when creation began! “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1); as a part of the eternal Godhead, Jesus was there as an active participant in the creation process (John 1:3).
John goes on to sketch the experiences of the disciples: they heard Him, which goes beyond the ear to a heart that gives heed to what is heard; they saw Him, not only visually but also through the knowledge that they gained as they followed Him throughout His ministry; they beheld Him, which involves an attentive contemplation in order to gain a greater understanding; they touched Him – they understood His humanity. As the disciples followed the Lord during His short ministry, they were continually reminded of His supernatural character through the miracles that He performed, and so John begins by establishing Jesus as being God, Who was there when it all began.
John identifies Jesus as being the Word of Life. We’ve already noted that, in his Gospel account, John identified Him as the eternal Word, and Jesus declared Himself to be the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). The theme of the Gospel that John wrote is Jesus as the Son of God, and as he neared the end of his writing, he noted this: “And these have been written so that ye will believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and so that, believing, ye will have life in His name” (John 20:31, literal).3 More than any of the other Gospel writers, John wrote about Jesus as being the source of life (John 11:25), and that it is by abiding in Him that we can partake of that life and peace (John 15:5; 16:33). As Jesus spoke against the attacks of the Jewish religious leaders, He made this statement: “And ye do not come to Me, so that ye will have life” (John 5:40, literal);4 He is the only Source of spiritual life for us. He is the eternal Word and fountain of Life!
It was this Source of eternal life Who was revealed, or made known, by God to the world; however, as we just noted, even the religious leaders of the Jews, who should have known the prophecies of the coming Messiah, refused to accept Him for Who He was – the Son of God! “For the heart of this people has become dull, and the ears do hear with difficulty, and their eyes they did close lest at any time they should see with the eyes, and should hear with the ears, and should understand with the heart, and they should turn and I should heal them” (Matthew 13:15, literal).5 As the Jewish religious leaders heard Jesus’ words, their focus was to stop Him because He taught with authority (Matthew 7:29), and, as He gained favor with the people, they feared that they would lose their political influence (John 11:47-48). They refused to see what He was doing (they saw their positions of authority over the people being eroded); they would not hear His words (they sought to justify their own teachings, which elevated them and suppressed the people); their hearts became increasingly insensitive to the Lord as they sought for a way to protect the status quo, which allowed them to live in opulence and have influence with Rome. In essence, they did not desire a Savior to cleanse them from their sins – they were content with the god of their own making. They held the interpretation of the Jewish traditions firmly in their hands so that they were able to appear to be holy before their fellow Jews, but, in reality, they were hypocrites, blind guides, fools, serpents and vipers – this is Jesus’ assessment of them (Matthew 23:13-33). Earlier, Jesus declared to His disciples: “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case [the Greek shows this as the double negative ou me, a strengthened form; never] enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).6 Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man, showed Himself to His own (the Jews), but they refused Him (John 1:11); the miracles that He performed and His teachings, only served to increase their resolve to do away with Him.
However, He also took the time to reveal Himself more fully to His disciples, and so John writes: we have seen Him, and proclaim to you the Eternal Life. To the multitudes, Jesus used parables to speak forth the Truth because they had already closed their eyes to His message; they enjoyed the miracles, but their hearts were not open to Him. Out of the many who believed in His nameHimH (John 2:23-24), after His death, resurrection and ascension, only 120 were gathered to await the coming of the Spirit of God (Acts 1:15). Nevertheless, there is evidence that some understood Who Jesus really was, even from very early on: Andrew, after encountering Jesus, went to find Peter and declared that he had found the Messiah (the Anointed One; John 1:41); Martha, sister to Lazarus, recognized Jesus as being the Christ, the Son of God (John 11:27); when Jesus asked His disciples Who He was, Peter declared Him to be the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). Within a small group, Jesus was truly revealed, and John, being one of them, proclaims Jesus as the Eternal Life, Who was with the Father as the Word (John 1:1) and was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). John’s introduction to this small letter is very similar to his Gospel account: Jesus is God!
3. 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.
That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you so that ye also have communion with us, and indeed, our fellowship [is] with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ (literal).7
John is writing as one of those who had seen and heard the Lord Jesus, and is now proclaiming the same to his readers so that they are able to have communion with us (those who had seen and heard Jesus). John’s purpose is to relate the Message of Jesus to the extent that those who have never seen or heard Him will gain sufficient insight and understanding so as to abide in Him (John 15:4). It is his desire for his readers to join with him in his life (communion) that is lived for the Lord.
He goes on to elaborate on the communion that he wants his readers to have: our fellowship (the communion that those who had seen and heard Jesus enjoyed) is with God the Father and His Son, Jesus. Therefore, as John writes this letter, his purpose is to proclaim the truths of Jesus to the point that his readers will not only have fellowship with those who saw and heard Him (us), but also with the Father and the Lord Jesus, which is the focus of the fellowship. In order to have communion with Jesus’ earthly heralds of His truth, it is necessary that John’s readers move into fellowship with both the Father and the Son – without the latter, the former will not take place.
Before He went to the cross, Jesus prayed for those who would read John’s letter: “20. Neither pray I for these alone [His earthly disciples], but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:20-21). His prayer was that everyone who will come to believe on Him will abide in the Father and the Son, and, consequently, be one in Them. “Jesus said to him [Judas, or Thaddaeus (Matthew 10:3)], ‘If someone is loving Me, My Word he will obey, and My Father will love him, and unto him We will come and will live with him’”(John 14:23, literal).8 How can we be one in the Father and the Son? By living in obedience to His Word! Then we are not only one in the Father and the Son, but they are also abiding within us – even as the Father is in the Son (John 14:9), and the Son in the Father (John 1:18). It is this intimate fellowship with the Lord that John desires for his readers, so that they will then also be in fellowship with those who witnessed the Lord Jesus’ ministry.
4. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
And these things we are writing to you so that our joy is completed (literal).9
John now provides the reason that he is writing: to fill up, or complete, the joy of both the witnesses of Jesus and those who are hearing of Him through this letter. You’ll notice that the KJV uses the word your, yet as I studied the Greek, I found the word to be ἡμῶν (hay-mone’), which is a first person, plural, possessive pronoun (i.e., our).10 It is interesting that even the corrupted Greek texts of Westcott-Hort show the Greek word as ἡμῶν (our), yet the KJV translators chose to follow the Bishops’ Bible, and retain the English word your. Frederick H.A. Scrivener, who produced a Greek text that was based upon Beza’s of 1598, with modifications made to the Greek in order to better reflect the KJV, shows this word as ἡμῶν;11 Scrivener endeavored to compile the Greek text that produced the KJV. Nevertheless, in this verse, Beza showed this word as υμων, which is the Greek for your;12 it is evident that at this point, Scrivener followed neither the Beza Greek nor the KJV, and used the correct Greek word.
John has just spoken of a fellowship that is centered on the Father and His Son – a communion that is shared by those who knew Jesus in the flesh and those who come to know Him through their testimony. What he is writing will serve to build upon this fellowship so that our joy (of both the witnesses and those who learn from them) will be made full. The context for this verse supports the use of the word our.
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.
And this is the promise that we have heard from Him and report to you, that God is light, and in Him is absolutely no darkness (literal).13
Here we have a difference between the KJV’s message and the word promise that comes from a careful consideration of the Greek. The word in Greek is epaggelia (ep-ang-el-ee’-ah), which firstly speaks of an announcement, but in later use it came to be a promise, or pledge.14 As the prophet Isaiah wrote of the future, he included this phrase: “the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light” (Isaiah 60:19) – a promise of a time when Jehovah will be a Light to the people.15 The ultimate fulfillment of this promise will come in the New Heaven and Earth, where Jesus, the Lamb of God, will be the light (Revelation 21:23).
However, Isaiah also wrote of a time that would take place before the eternal Kingdom of God was established: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isaiah 9:2). Darkness, in this case, stands in exact opposition to light; the people who had no light came to see a great light. The fulfillment of this promise came with Jesus, for He declared: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth [is following (present tense)] me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).16 Notice that it is the one who is following Jesus who does not walk in darkness, and unless He is our top priority in life, we are not following Him (Luke 14:26). The Jews of Jesus’ day were a people who walked in spiritual darkness (particularly the leadership), but, when the Light came to them, despite seeing the miracles that He performed and hearing His words of life, they refused Him. “And the Light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness did not overpower it” (John 1:5, literal);17 truly, Jesus gained the victory over death and the devil (Hebrews 2:14) – the Light (Jesus, the Son of God) overcame the darkness. As Jesus was being arrested in the Garden, He made this statement: “When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53); the power of darkness was about to exert its greatest effort to silence Jesus and end His mission to earth. However, Paul explained that God “… hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13); the supreme effort of the power of darkness (Satan) to extinguish the Light of the world proved to be his defeat. For those who are in Christ (faithfully obeying Him) have been transferred (translated) from the realm of darkness (the kingdom of this world and Satan) into the kingdom and light of the Son of God.
Jesus came to earth and proclaimed Himself to be its Light, and He overcame the darkness to become the Savior of the world – the only means of cleansing from sin. John seeks to make it abundantly clear that Jesus is the Light, the promised One of God, Who came to bring life and hope to a sinful humanity, who abides in utter darkness.
John writes that in the Lord there is absolutely no darkness. However, when the Lord descended upon Mt. Sinai, we read that “… Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was” (Exodus 20:21b). Thick darkness (Hebrew, araphel) is better understood as a heavy cloud that the Lord used to veil His presence from the Israelites and Moses (without any thought of darkness);18 nevertheless, the LXX used the word for darkness, while the Bishops’ Bible used thicke cloude.19 The KJV translators ignored the Bishops’ Bible, and followed the LXX to include the thought of darkness. The God Who called light out of darkness (Genesis 1:2-3) has provided us with His light in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. “Because God did command the light to shine out of darkness, the one Who did shine within our hearts to reveal the knowledge of the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6, literal).20 Jesus, the Son of God, is the Light of the world; we come to Him out of darkness, in order to abide in His light. In the promised eternal home, Jesus is the Light (Revelation 21:23); this is a place where there is no night (Revelation 22:5) – no darkness of any kind. Truly, there is no darkness in God!
6. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
If we have said that we are having fellowship with Him, and in the darkness we are living, then we are lying and are not practicing the truth (literal).21
John draws the truth that God is light, into the fellowship that he desires us to have with the Father and His Son. He begins by outlining the conditions for his statement: 1) we have claimed to enjoy fellowship with the Father, or His Son, and 2) we are living contrary to the light of God (in the darkness of this world). John declares that if these conditions are both true, then: 1) we are lying, and 2) we are not abiding by the truth.
Within modern Christendom, there are many who will claim to have fellowship with the Lord. However, let’s consider an example from Jesus’ ministry that will help us to understand our proper approach to such claims. When Jesus healed the man who was sick of the palsy, He told him, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee” (Matthew 9:2b). The Jewish religious leaders took offense at this, and so Jesus asked them which was easier: to say that his sins were forgiven, or to tell him to rise up and walk (Matthew 9:5); obviously, the first is easier because there is nothing observable to verify the change. However, Jesus then told the man to arise, pick his bed up and go home (Matthew 9:6) – this immediately confirmed for the scribes that Jesus did, indeed, have the power to forgive the man’s sins. So there are many today who will claim to have fellowship with the Lord because no one can see into their hearts to determine the veracity of their claim. The point that John is making is that if there is a claim made regarding this fellowship, then it must be reflected in a life that is being lived in obedience to the commands of the Lord – there is a need for physical evidence to provide support for the spiritual claim! If the evidence of obedience is not there, then the claim is a lie and the Truth is not present.
“1. … trespasses and sins; 2. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air [Satan], the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:1-2). Disobedience to the Lord is identified as being the working of Satan (darkness); therefore, anyone who professes to belong to the Lord (being in fellowship with Him), yet lives in disobedience to Him, is in darkness and has absolutely no fellowship with the Lord! John identifies that person as being a liar, and the destiny for all liars is the Lake of Fire (Revelation 21:8)!
It is noteworthy that John uses the pronoun we as he presents this truth, by which he includes himself in this reality. In other words, he, too, needs to be continually alert to any disobedience that might creep into his life; this is the Apostle John, who was a member of the inner circle of disciples who were the closest to Jesus. As Jesus told His disciples about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, the sign of His coming, and the end of the world, He began with: “Ye must take care lest someone should deceive you” (Matthew 24:4b, literal).22 Deception is something that we must all guard against; yet the basis for Jesus’ warning is that we must first know and believe the truth. As we apply this to John’s warning, we must ask: how many today have been deceived into believing that their life of disobedience to the Lord is actually pleasing to Him – in their deception, they believe that they are living in obedience. I would venture to say that their focus has been misplaced; our singular focus is to be on the Lord and His Word (Hebrews 12:2), yet, too often, through eloquent persuasion, it is shifted to a favored preacher or theology. “Take heed, brethren [earlier (verse 1) referred to as holy brethren], lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing [to become apostate] from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12).23 The reality is that someone who is truly born again is quite capable of removing himself from the hand of the Savior; there is full protection from all outside attacks, but inward deception is an ever present reality (John 10:27-28). Jesus stated: “Ye must abide in Me and I in you…” (John 15:4a, literal).24 Abide is in the imperative mood (it is a command), and active voice (it is a command that we [being the ye] must act upon).25 If we are responsible to remain in Christ (through obedience to Him), then it follows that, if we become deceived, then we are very capable of no longer remaining in Him. This is the apostasy that the writer of Hebrews warned against, and the deception that Jesus recognized as being a possibility!
Unfortunately, modern preachers and teachers have endeavored to redefine apostasy in order to have it fit within their theology; they have made the effort primarily to retain their once-saved-always-saved theology. The late John MacArthur was a strong purveyor of this new apostasy: he said that “there are lots of apostate people … who profess faith in Christ and identify themselves as disciples but who never genuinely embrace the truth.”26 Revealing the mental quandary that he was in, he earlier defined apostasy as “abandonment, a separation, a defection – the abdication of truth altogether”27 – a brief evaluation of these two will expose their contradiction! It is impossible to abandon something of which you have never been a part; if you have not embraced the truth (Jesus being the Truth), then you are not a disciple of Jesus, regardless of your profession. In such a case, you cannot become apostate from Him because you have never been born into Him; if you forsake your profession, then you are simply living according to the dictates of your unregenerate heart – that is not apostasy! However, if you are truly born again by the Spirit of God, and you then turn to a life of disobedience to the Lord, that is true apostasy from which there is no recovery! Because this reality contravenes their doctrine of eternal security, much effort is taken to circumvent the problem.
John warns against holding a profession without a supporting life of obedience to the Lord – such people are liars and fail to live by the truth. John is proclaiming genuine fellowship with the Father and the Son – something that cannot come through profession only.
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.
But if we are living in the light, as He is in the light, then we are having fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, is cleansing us from every sin (literal).28
In contrast to living in darkness, John now presents truths that are conditional upon our living in the light. He has just clarified that God is light, therefore, this condition means that we are in Christ and living in obedience to Him. As already noted, we cannot profess to be in God while we are living in disobedience to Him; the disobedient are living under the control of Satan, the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2). We are about to see the two things that John declares to be true for those who are living in the light of God.
First of all, he states that we are having fellowship with one another. Some contend that this fellowship is to be understood as being among the followers of Christ, but I believe that the context requires something else. John did write of horizontal fellowship earlier (verse 3), but the present subject is the truth of whether we are in fellowship with the Lord, Who is light, or if we are living in darkness, apart from God (verse 6). The condition that must be met is that we are living in God’s light! If this is true, then we are genuinely having fellowship with the Lord (with one another), and we are not liars (verse 6). John includes two factual statements so as to assist us in coming to a correct understanding of what he is saying: 1) God is light (from verse 5), and He is in the light – both are in the indicative mood: God and light are synonymous; 2) we are having fellowship; this, too, is in the indicative mood: if we are in the light, then we (God, Who is light, and we, who are living in that Light) are in fellowship with one another.
As we noted earlier, true fellowship among the Lord’s children can only take place when the children are in fellowship with the Father and the Son (verse 3). There can be no spiritual fellowship between a professor of faith and a child of God because there is no Spirit in common. Paul asked the question: “what communion [fellowship] hath light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14b), with the understood answer being: “None!” John is making a similar distinction, and taking great care to present the reality of what is required to have fellowship with the Father and the Son: living in the light of God!
The second truth that John presents is that a continual cleansing from sin comes for the child of God through the blood of Christ. He will elaborate on this amazing truth in a moment, but we must not miss the fact that this makes it very clear that we are not sinless, even as we are living in His light. Some denominations teach that sinless perfection is an achievable goal for everyone and that it must be sought after: this is primarily the Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, Methodists, Seventh-Day Adventists and Quakers.29 John declares that for the one who is in fellowship with the Father and the Son, cleansing from sin is available through Jesus’ blood! We’ll see how John develops this thought.
8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we have said that we have no sin, then we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us (literal).30
Again, a conditional sentence; the condition is simply: have we said that we have no sin? John has just stated that if we are living in the light of God, then the blood of Jesus is cleansing us from every sin. Although some might be tempted to construe this to be an automatic cleansing as we abide in Christ, thereby rendering us perfectly holy all of the time, none of the denominations just noted follow this Biblically indefensible approach.
One day, a young man came to Jesus asking Him: “what good thing [singular] may I do in order to have life everlasting” (Matthew 19:16). Jesus said that if he wanted to enter life, then he needed to obey the commandments (plural); when asked which ones, Jesus outlined the commandments that deal with our relationship with our fellowman (Matthew 19:17-19). Even though the young man said, “All these things have I kept from my youth up,” it was evident that he still felt that he was missing something, for he added, “What am I still lacking?” (Matthew 19:20, literal).31 Jesus went on to expose his failure regarding the first Commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). In order to be perfect before the Lord, Jesus told him to sell his possessions, give to the poor and become His disciple (Matthew 19:21); the young man failed at this point because his wealth possessed him – his sin was not against his fellowman, but against the Lord. He exercised great care in his dealings with the people around him, but he neglected the One Who was able to give him everlasting life. Likewise, John is warning us to attend carefully to our relationship with the Lord.
The reality is that we are all sinners: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Psalmist declared this truth more than once: “there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Psalm 14:3b), “there is none that doeth good” (Psalm 53:1b), and “there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Psalm 53:3b). Jeremiah wrote these words: “The heart [of man] is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). There can be no doubt that everyone within the family of humanity bears a sin nature – an inheritance from Adam (Romans 5:12). Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life …” (John 14:6), and also, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17b). Since no one is righteous (Romans 3:10) and everyone is a sinner, in essence, Jesus declared that His call goes out to all of humanity; it is the self-righteous whose hearing is impaired so that they do not hear Him (Matthew 13:15).
At the time of Jesus, it was the Jewish religious leaders who considered themselves to be righteous; after all, they studied the Law of Moses very carefully, provided the common people with their interpretation of the Law, and did so in a manner that permitted them to retain their high positions within Jewish society. Yet it was these same “righteous” leaders who sought to remove the Son of God from their midst because He was eroding their influence among the Jews, and they feared that they would lose their authority (John 11:48). A lawyer, who was an expert in the interpretation and application of the Law of Moses, came to Jesus with a question very similar to the rich young man: “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25); he asked this in arrogance, hoping to catch Jesus saying something that was contrary to the Law of Moses. Jesus asked him what the Law said, and he answered correctly: a thorough love for the Lord, and a love for our neighbor (Luke 10:27-28). However, his pride shone through, for in an effort to justify himself, he asked Jesus to identify his neighbor (Luke 10:29). Jesus told the parable of the man who fell among thieves and was rescued by a Samaritan, and then He forced the lawyer to identify the Samaritan as the neighbor to the victim (Luke 10:36-37). The Jews despised the Samaritans, yet Jesus tells this righteous lawyer to love them as he loved himself. The religious leaders of the Jews had deceived themselves into thinking that they were righteous before God, not because of their faith in the Lord to bring cleansing from sin, but because they kept the letter of the Mosaic Law, even while showing no regard for the more important spiritual applications of the Law (Matthew 23:23).
James wrote: “And become doers of the Word; and not hearers only, [by which] ye are being deceived by yourselves” (James 1:22, literal).32 He is saying that those who only hear God’s Word but don’t obey it, are being deceived by themselves. It is the hearers who will profess to know the Father and the Son, even while they are living in darkness (verse 6); they like what they hear, and may even appreciate the company that they keep, but they never get beyond hearing to obedience to the Lord. Jesus said that those who love Him (which should include those who say that they know Him) must be living in obedience to His commandments (John 14:15). These hearers might consider themselves to be as good as those with whom they associate, but they have become deceived into believing that they are destined for heaven. Paul warns that those who are “measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” (2 Corinthians 10:12). Earlier we noted that there can be no spiritual fellowship between a professor of faith and a child of God because there is no Spirit in common; hence, there will be no communion between a doer of the Word and someone who is only a hearer. The professor and the hearer have been deceived into believing that they are okay before the Lord, when, in truth, they do not even know Him! These people may know much about the Lord, but they do not know Him because they are not His disciples, and the Truth is not in them.
9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we are confessing our sins, He is faithful and just so that He forgives us the sins and cleanses us from every unrighteousness (literal).33
Confess is from a Greek word that means to say the same thing, or to agree with.34 Confessing is also in the present tense (it is to be a continual action) and active voice (we are to do the confessing).35 This requires that we be continually alert to sin, and that we quickly agree with the Lord so that we are able to enjoy His forgiveness and cleansing.
The context tells us that this confession is made to the Lord Jesus, through Whose blood cleansing from sin is available (verse 7); we are agreeing with Him in regard to our sins. He already knows our sins; He is only waiting for us to agree with Him. As we come together with the Lord in a proper identification of our sins, He will then extend forgiveness and cleansing. The confession is made by us to the Lord, and not to a priest as those of the Catholic tradition practice. It is interesting to note that the Catholics do not use this verse as a support for their sacrament of Penance since it actually speaks against it – the context identifies the Lord as the One with Whom we must agree. John makes it very clear that the forgiveness of sins comes from the Lord Jesus, and not through the pronouncement of a sinful man (a priest).
Let’s take a moment to consider what the Catholics use as their Biblical basis for requiring their people to confess their sins to a priest for the sole purpose of absolution, or the forgiveness of sins. This is one of their seven sacraments, or rituals, that are said to impart saving grace to the participant; they contend that these sacraments were all established by Jesus. Their basis for this one is cited as being John 20:22-23.36 Let’s look carefully at this: “21. Then Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace to you; just as the Father sent Me, I also am sending you;’ 22. and, having said this, He breathed on [them], saying to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit; 23. If anyone’s sins ye remit, they are remitted to them; if anyone’s [sins] ye retain, they are retained’” (John 20:21-23, literal).37 This passage carries some interesting words. Breathed on (enephysesen) is precisely the same word that the LXX uses in Genesis 2:7, where God breathed into Adam the breath of lives (both physical and spiritual [the eternal soul]).38 Jesus, as the eternal Word, was actively involved in creation (John 1:3), and now He, as the Creator of the first man, Adam, breathed on His disciples to prepare them to become His new creatures with the advent of the Holy Spirit not many days later. The disciples were the first to enter into the New Covenant (NC) that was established through Jesus’ shed blood (Luke 22:20), something that also signaled the fulfillment, or completion, of the Old Covenant (OC) (Matthew 5:17). Receive (from the Greek lambano) primarily means to take, then receive, or accept;39 in essence, Jesus is commanding His disciples to take (it is in the imperative mood) the Holy Spirit when He comes. Being in the imperative mood, it is a command that can be either obeyed or disobeyed by the disciples; what we must not assume is that the Spirit of God will be accepted (received) by everyone.
Consider the order of events of this passage: Jesus first commissioned His disciples to go into the world, just as His Father had sent Him into the world. Jesus made it very clear that His mission on earth was carefully guided by His Father in heaven: “because I, from Myself, did not speak, but the Father Who did send Me, He did give to Me a commandment [as to] what I should say [the topics], and what I should speak [the words used] (John 12:49, literal).40 As Jesus was baptized, John witnessed the Spirit descending and abiding upon Him (John 1:32); on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God descended onto the disciples and rested on each of them (Acts 2:2-4) – they received the Holy Spirit, as Jesus had commanded, and were now equipped for their ministry. The disciples now had the guidance of the Spirit of God, similar to what Jesus had during His ministry on earth, but with one significant difference: Jesus was the sinless Son of God, while His disciples were sinful. Jesus never misunderstood the guidance of the Spirit; as sinful humanity, the disciples were capable of missing, or misunderstanding, the prodding of the Spirit (Galatians 2:11).
When Jesus was presented with the man who was paralysed (palsy), because of his faith in the Lord to bring healing, Jesus told him that his sins were forgiven. The religious leaders immediately took offense, and reasoned: “Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?” (Mark 2:7). These leaders understood that God is the One Who can forgive sins, since sin, by definition, is an offense against God.41 The act of sin may well cause hurt to others, but the sin itself is primarily a violation of what God has established, and, therefore, it is only fitting that the forgiveness of sins be limited to God. Jesus went on to demonstrate to these Jewish leaders that He, as the Son of Man, was God, and He did so by healing the paralytic in their presence (Mark 2:10-12). He did not do this to show that men can forgive sins, but, rather, to provide evidence to these religious leaders that He was God, and, therefore, was not only able to heal the paralytic but, more importantly, to forgive his sins. The forgiveness of sins rests solely with the Lord (Psalm 130:3-4), and Jesus used this occasion to present His deity to these religious leaders.
We must not forget that the New Covenant is very different from the Old one: under the OC (the Mosaic Law only, the Ten Commandments are not a part of the OC42), only a temporary cleansing from sin was possible (Hebrews 10:4), but under the NC, the penalty for sin has been paid in full (Hebrews 9:12); under the OC, many regulations governed the daily activities of the people (“Cursed be he that confirmeth not [does not carry out (obey)] all the words of this law to do them” [Deuteronomy 27:26a]43, but under the NC, God’s Law (the Ten Commandments) is placed within our hearts and minds (Hebrews 10:16), and the Spirit of God comes to abide within, in order guide us into all truth (John 16:13, 17:17). Jesus used a vine and its branches to illustrate the relationship that we can have with Him under the NC; we come to abide in Him by faith, and we remain in Him through obedience to His commandments (John 15:10). It is only as we continue in Jesus that we are able to stay in the NC, for it is only as we are in Him that we are not under the Lord’s condemnation (Romans 8:1). Jesus shed His blood to make eternal cleansing from sin available to all of humanity (1 John 2:2), as the innocent Lamb of God, He died and thereby broke the power of death (Hebrews 2:14), and He rose from the dead to bring us new and abundant spiritual life (Romans 6:4). Having a clear understanding of the NC, in contrast to the OC, helps us to understand the setting for Peter’s first sermon.
Now let us consider the actions of the Apostles after the coming of the Holy Spirit. When Peter explained how all of the Jews of Jerusalem heard the Good News in their own languages, he told them of the work that Jesus had accomplished through His death and resurrection. The response of people was: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37b). Consider carefully what followed: “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized each one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38, literal).44 Peter did not simply remit their sins, but called upon them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus, Whom the Jews had demanded that the Romans crucify. Peter called these people to repent (the word is plural), and to individually be baptized (singular); baptism, among the Jews, was a sign of purification or consecration (a rite that all proselytes had to complete in order to be accepted into the Jewish faith).45 Repent, from the Greek metanoeo, literally means to perceive, or understand, afterwards; after there has been time to consider a matter, a change of mind results – a change for the better.46 Peter issued a command (imperative mood) for the people to repent – to change their minds about Jesus, and to recognize Him as the Promised One (the Christ) Who paid the price for their sin. In this case, to repent involved turning away from the OC, and, by faith, believing that Jesus was the promised Messiah; baptism, then, was the sign that the individual had changed and entered into the NC by faith in the Lord Jesus.
Therefore, Peter’s message was this: repent (turn away from Judaism, and believe that Christ is the Promised One) and be baptized in the name of Jesus (publicly declare belief in Jesus as the Christ), and then your sins will be remitted. Remission of sins for these people did not come through the word of Peter, but through a living faith in the Lord Jesus Who paid the price for their sin. This is the standard that was established from that very first day (Pentecost): only God can forgive sins, and that can only come through faith in the payment that Jesus made for the sins of the world. Peter, and the other disciples, had just received the Holy Spirit from heaven, in keeping with Jesus’ promise. Peter’s message for the people was repent, publicly testify to that repentance, and then forgiveness of sins will come. Therefore, for anyone who repented and was baptized that day, Peter could forthrightly declare that their sins had been pardoned; likewise, for those who did not repent, he could as vehemently confirm to them that their sins remained! There is absolutely nothing here that could provide any support for the Catholic sacrament of Penance, because it is very clear from Scripture, and even from Peter’s example, that the forgiveness of sins comes only from God.
James 5:16 begins: “Confess your faults one to another …”; is this related to our verse, or not? The context is vastly different; James is writing about healing and the role of the elders, while John is speaking of our confession of sins to the Lord in order to receive His cleansing and forgiveness. Furthermore, James used the word paraptoma, which refers to a failure or misstep along the path of right; John used hamartia, which is to miss the mark, or to not have a share in.47 Although both paraptoma and hamartia refer to sin, the former speaks more to a fall from, or lapse, in our walk in the pathway of righteousness, whereas the latter identifies the essence of sin as our inability to meet God’s holy standard. James identifies a means of being in submission to one another (Ephesians 5:21), of holding one another accountable before God; John challenges us to agree with the Lord concerning our sins so that He can forgive us, and we are able to enjoy restored fellowship with Him.
10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
If we say that we have not sinned, we are making Him [to be] a liar and His Word is not in us (literal).48
John reinforces what he just declared in verse 8: saying that we have not sinned is self-deception and His truth is not in us. In a much stronger manner, he now adds that if we claim to have not sinned, then we are making the Lord of glory to be a liar, because His evaluation is this: “2. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. 3. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Psalm 14:2-3). In truth, as we saw earlier, “For all did sin and are coming short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, literal).49 The sin of Adam was passed along to all future generations: “… just as through one man, sin did come into the world, and through sin, death, and so unto all men, death did come, in that all did sin” (Romans 5:12, literal).50 As a result, sin is inherently a part of everyone who is born into this world – hence, no one can say that they have no sin; to do so is to contradict the Lord Himself, which, as John notes, is to make Him to be a liar. What could be a greater failure than to make out that the God of truth is a liar (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 31:5)? Jesus described Himself as being the Truth (John 14:6), and called the Word of God, the Truth (John 17:17). As Paul addressed the condition of those who are a part of the world, he said that men have “changed the truth of God into a lie” (Romans 1:25a), and then went on to state: “let God be true, but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4a). God and truth are inseparable, therefore, if our reasoning should contradict the truth that God has expressed, then we have become involved in a lie.
1. What has been from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands did touch with regard to the Word of Life; 2. and the Life was revealed, and we have seen and not only bear witness but also proclaim to you the Eternal Life, Who was with the Father and was revealed to us (literal).1
What, as it is used here, is a neuter, relative pronoun (a relative pronoun introduces a descriptive clause, and, being neuter here, it calls for what, that or which);2 however, it very quickly becomes evident that John is writing about the Lord Jesus. The first phrase describes the essence of the Lord, and those following relate to John’s personal experience as a disciple of the Lord (as a member of the chosen twelve; hence, the pronouns we and our). “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1); both in his Gospel and this letter, John very carefully begins with Who Jesus is: He was there when creation began! “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1); as a part of the eternal Godhead, Jesus was there as an active participant in the creation process (John 1:3).
John goes on to sketch the experiences of the disciples: they heard Him, which goes beyond the ear to a heart that gives heed to what is heard; they saw Him, not only visually but also through the knowledge that they gained as they followed Him throughout His ministry; they beheld Him, which involves an attentive contemplation in order to gain a greater understanding; they touched Him – they understood His humanity. As the disciples followed the Lord during His short ministry, they were continually reminded of His supernatural character through the miracles that He performed, and so John begins by establishing Jesus as being God, Who was there when it all began.
John identifies Jesus as being the Word of Life. We’ve already noted that, in his Gospel account, John identified Him as the eternal Word, and Jesus declared Himself to be the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). The theme of the Gospel that John wrote is Jesus as the Son of God, and as he neared the end of his writing, he noted this: “And these have been written so that ye will believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and so that, believing, ye will have life in His name” (John 20:31, literal).3 More than any of the other Gospel writers, John wrote about Jesus as being the source of life (John 11:25), and that it is by abiding in Him that we can partake of that life and peace (John 15:5; 16:33). As Jesus spoke against the attacks of the Jewish religious leaders, He made this statement: “And ye do not come to Me, so that ye will have life” (John 5:40, literal);4 He is the only Source of spiritual life for us. He is the eternal Word and fountain of Life!
It was this Source of eternal life Who was revealed, or made known, by God to the world; however, as we just noted, even the religious leaders of the Jews, who should have known the prophecies of the coming Messiah, refused to accept Him for Who He was – the Son of God! “For the heart of this people has become dull, and the ears do hear with difficulty, and their eyes they did close lest at any time they should see with the eyes, and should hear with the ears, and should understand with the heart, and they should turn and I should heal them” (Matthew 13:15, literal).5 As the Jewish religious leaders heard Jesus’ words, their focus was to stop Him because He taught with authority (Matthew 7:29), and, as He gained favor with the people, they feared that they would lose their political influence (John 11:47-48). They refused to see what He was doing (they saw their positions of authority over the people being eroded); they would not hear His words (they sought to justify their own teachings, which elevated them and suppressed the people); their hearts became increasingly insensitive to the Lord as they sought for a way to protect the status quo, which allowed them to live in opulence and have influence with Rome. In essence, they did not desire a Savior to cleanse them from their sins – they were content with the god of their own making. They held the interpretation of the Jewish traditions firmly in their hands so that they were able to appear to be holy before their fellow Jews, but, in reality, they were hypocrites, blind guides, fools, serpents and vipers – this is Jesus’ assessment of them (Matthew 23:13-33). Earlier, Jesus declared to His disciples: “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case [the Greek shows this as the double negative ou me, a strengthened form; never] enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).6 Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man, showed Himself to His own (the Jews), but they refused Him (John 1:11); the miracles that He performed and His teachings, only served to increase their resolve to do away with Him.
However, He also took the time to reveal Himself more fully to His disciples, and so John writes: we have seen Him, and proclaim to you the Eternal Life. To the multitudes, Jesus used parables to speak forth the Truth because they had already closed their eyes to His message; they enjoyed the miracles, but their hearts were not open to Him. Out of the many who believed in His nameHimH (John 2:23-24), after His death, resurrection and ascension, only 120 were gathered to await the coming of the Spirit of God (Acts 1:15). Nevertheless, there is evidence that some understood Who Jesus really was, even from very early on: Andrew, after encountering Jesus, went to find Peter and declared that he had found the Messiah (the Anointed One; John 1:41); Martha, sister to Lazarus, recognized Jesus as being the Christ, the Son of God (John 11:27); when Jesus asked His disciples Who He was, Peter declared Him to be the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). Within a small group, Jesus was truly revealed, and John, being one of them, proclaims Jesus as the Eternal Life, Who was with the Father as the Word (John 1:1) and was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). John’s introduction to this small letter is very similar to his Gospel account: Jesus is God!
3. 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.
That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you so that ye also have communion with us, and indeed, our fellowship [is] with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ (literal).7
John is writing as one of those who had seen and heard the Lord Jesus, and is now proclaiming the same to his readers so that they are able to have communion with us (those who had seen and heard Jesus). John’s purpose is to relate the Message of Jesus to the extent that those who have never seen or heard Him will gain sufficient insight and understanding so as to abide in Him (John 15:4). It is his desire for his readers to join with him in his life (communion) that is lived for the Lord.
He goes on to elaborate on the communion that he wants his readers to have: our fellowship (the communion that those who had seen and heard Jesus enjoyed) is with God the Father and His Son, Jesus. Therefore, as John writes this letter, his purpose is to proclaim the truths of Jesus to the point that his readers will not only have fellowship with those who saw and heard Him (us), but also with the Father and the Lord Jesus, which is the focus of the fellowship. In order to have communion with Jesus’ earthly heralds of His truth, it is necessary that John’s readers move into fellowship with both the Father and the Son – without the latter, the former will not take place.
Before He went to the cross, Jesus prayed for those who would read John’s letter: “20. Neither pray I for these alone [His earthly disciples], but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:20-21). His prayer was that everyone who will come to believe on Him will abide in the Father and the Son, and, consequently, be one in Them. “Jesus said to him [Judas, or Thaddaeus (Matthew 10:3)], ‘If someone is loving Me, My Word he will obey, and My Father will love him, and unto him We will come and will live with him’”(John 14:23, literal).8 How can we be one in the Father and the Son? By living in obedience to His Word! Then we are not only one in the Father and the Son, but they are also abiding within us – even as the Father is in the Son (John 14:9), and the Son in the Father (John 1:18). It is this intimate fellowship with the Lord that John desires for his readers, so that they will then also be in fellowship with those who witnessed the Lord Jesus’ ministry.
4. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
And these things we are writing to you so that our joy is completed (literal).9
John now provides the reason that he is writing: to fill up, or complete, the joy of both the witnesses of Jesus and those who are hearing of Him through this letter. You’ll notice that the KJV uses the word your, yet as I studied the Greek, I found the word to be ἡμῶν (hay-mone’), which is a first person, plural, possessive pronoun (i.e., our).10 It is interesting that even the corrupted Greek texts of Westcott-Hort show the Greek word as ἡμῶν (our), yet the KJV translators chose to follow the Bishops’ Bible, and retain the English word your. Frederick H.A. Scrivener, who produced a Greek text that was based upon Beza’s of 1598, with modifications made to the Greek in order to better reflect the KJV, shows this word as ἡμῶν;11 Scrivener endeavored to compile the Greek text that produced the KJV. Nevertheless, in this verse, Beza showed this word as υμων, which is the Greek for your;12 it is evident that at this point, Scrivener followed neither the Beza Greek nor the KJV, and used the correct Greek word.
John has just spoken of a fellowship that is centered on the Father and His Son – a communion that is shared by those who knew Jesus in the flesh and those who come to know Him through their testimony. What he is writing will serve to build upon this fellowship so that our joy (of both the witnesses and those who learn from them) will be made full. The context for this verse supports the use of the word our.
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.
And this is the promise that we have heard from Him and report to you, that God is light, and in Him is absolutely no darkness (literal).13
Here we have a difference between the KJV’s message and the word promise that comes from a careful consideration of the Greek. The word in Greek is epaggelia (ep-ang-el-ee’-ah), which firstly speaks of an announcement, but in later use it came to be a promise, or pledge.14 As the prophet Isaiah wrote of the future, he included this phrase: “the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light” (Isaiah 60:19) – a promise of a time when Jehovah will be a Light to the people.15 The ultimate fulfillment of this promise will come in the New Heaven and Earth, where Jesus, the Lamb of God, will be the light (Revelation 21:23).
However, Isaiah also wrote of a time that would take place before the eternal Kingdom of God was established: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isaiah 9:2). Darkness, in this case, stands in exact opposition to light; the people who had no light came to see a great light. The fulfillment of this promise came with Jesus, for He declared: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth [is following (present tense)] me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).16 Notice that it is the one who is following Jesus who does not walk in darkness, and unless He is our top priority in life, we are not following Him (Luke 14:26). The Jews of Jesus’ day were a people who walked in spiritual darkness (particularly the leadership), but, when the Light came to them, despite seeing the miracles that He performed and hearing His words of life, they refused Him. “And the Light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness did not overpower it” (John 1:5, literal);17 truly, Jesus gained the victory over death and the devil (Hebrews 2:14) – the Light (Jesus, the Son of God) overcame the darkness. As Jesus was being arrested in the Garden, He made this statement: “When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53); the power of darkness was about to exert its greatest effort to silence Jesus and end His mission to earth. However, Paul explained that God “… hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13); the supreme effort of the power of darkness (Satan) to extinguish the Light of the world proved to be his defeat. For those who are in Christ (faithfully obeying Him) have been transferred (translated) from the realm of darkness (the kingdom of this world and Satan) into the kingdom and light of the Son of God.
Jesus came to earth and proclaimed Himself to be its Light, and He overcame the darkness to become the Savior of the world – the only means of cleansing from sin. John seeks to make it abundantly clear that Jesus is the Light, the promised One of God, Who came to bring life and hope to a sinful humanity, who abides in utter darkness.
John writes that in the Lord there is absolutely no darkness. However, when the Lord descended upon Mt. Sinai, we read that “… Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was” (Exodus 20:21b). Thick darkness (Hebrew, araphel) is better understood as a heavy cloud that the Lord used to veil His presence from the Israelites and Moses (without any thought of darkness);18 nevertheless, the LXX used the word for darkness, while the Bishops’ Bible used thicke cloude.19 The KJV translators ignored the Bishops’ Bible, and followed the LXX to include the thought of darkness. The God Who called light out of darkness (Genesis 1:2-3) has provided us with His light in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. “Because God did command the light to shine out of darkness, the one Who did shine within our hearts to reveal the knowledge of the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6, literal).20 Jesus, the Son of God, is the Light of the world; we come to Him out of darkness, in order to abide in His light. In the promised eternal home, Jesus is the Light (Revelation 21:23); this is a place where there is no night (Revelation 22:5) – no darkness of any kind. Truly, there is no darkness in God!
6. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
If we have said that we are having fellowship with Him, and in the darkness we are living, then we are lying and are not practicing the truth (literal).21
John draws the truth that God is light, into the fellowship that he desires us to have with the Father and His Son. He begins by outlining the conditions for his statement: 1) we have claimed to enjoy fellowship with the Father, or His Son, and 2) we are living contrary to the light of God (in the darkness of this world). John declares that if these conditions are both true, then: 1) we are lying, and 2) we are not abiding by the truth.
Within modern Christendom, there are many who will claim to have fellowship with the Lord. However, let’s consider an example from Jesus’ ministry that will help us to understand our proper approach to such claims. When Jesus healed the man who was sick of the palsy, He told him, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee” (Matthew 9:2b). The Jewish religious leaders took offense at this, and so Jesus asked them which was easier: to say that his sins were forgiven, or to tell him to rise up and walk (Matthew 9:5); obviously, the first is easier because there is nothing observable to verify the change. However, Jesus then told the man to arise, pick his bed up and go home (Matthew 9:6) – this immediately confirmed for the scribes that Jesus did, indeed, have the power to forgive the man’s sins. So there are many today who will claim to have fellowship with the Lord because no one can see into their hearts to determine the veracity of their claim. The point that John is making is that if there is a claim made regarding this fellowship, then it must be reflected in a life that is being lived in obedience to the commands of the Lord – there is a need for physical evidence to provide support for the spiritual claim! If the evidence of obedience is not there, then the claim is a lie and the Truth is not present.
“1. … trespasses and sins; 2. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air [Satan], the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:1-2). Disobedience to the Lord is identified as being the working of Satan (darkness); therefore, anyone who professes to belong to the Lord (being in fellowship with Him), yet lives in disobedience to Him, is in darkness and has absolutely no fellowship with the Lord! John identifies that person as being a liar, and the destiny for all liars is the Lake of Fire (Revelation 21:8)!
It is noteworthy that John uses the pronoun we as he presents this truth, by which he includes himself in this reality. In other words, he, too, needs to be continually alert to any disobedience that might creep into his life; this is the Apostle John, who was a member of the inner circle of disciples who were the closest to Jesus. As Jesus told His disciples about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, the sign of His coming, and the end of the world, He began with: “Ye must take care lest someone should deceive you” (Matthew 24:4b, literal).22 Deception is something that we must all guard against; yet the basis for Jesus’ warning is that we must first know and believe the truth. As we apply this to John’s warning, we must ask: how many today have been deceived into believing that their life of disobedience to the Lord is actually pleasing to Him – in their deception, they believe that they are living in obedience. I would venture to say that their focus has been misplaced; our singular focus is to be on the Lord and His Word (Hebrews 12:2), yet, too often, through eloquent persuasion, it is shifted to a favored preacher or theology. “Take heed, brethren [earlier (verse 1) referred to as holy brethren], lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing [to become apostate] from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12).23 The reality is that someone who is truly born again is quite capable of removing himself from the hand of the Savior; there is full protection from all outside attacks, but inward deception is an ever present reality (John 10:27-28). Jesus stated: “Ye must abide in Me and I in you…” (John 15:4a, literal).24 Abide is in the imperative mood (it is a command), and active voice (it is a command that we [being the ye] must act upon).25 If we are responsible to remain in Christ (through obedience to Him), then it follows that, if we become deceived, then we are very capable of no longer remaining in Him. This is the apostasy that the writer of Hebrews warned against, and the deception that Jesus recognized as being a possibility!
Unfortunately, modern preachers and teachers have endeavored to redefine apostasy in order to have it fit within their theology; they have made the effort primarily to retain their once-saved-always-saved theology. The late John MacArthur was a strong purveyor of this new apostasy: he said that “there are lots of apostate people … who profess faith in Christ and identify themselves as disciples but who never genuinely embrace the truth.”26 Revealing the mental quandary that he was in, he earlier defined apostasy as “abandonment, a separation, a defection – the abdication of truth altogether”27 – a brief evaluation of these two will expose their contradiction! It is impossible to abandon something of which you have never been a part; if you have not embraced the truth (Jesus being the Truth), then you are not a disciple of Jesus, regardless of your profession. In such a case, you cannot become apostate from Him because you have never been born into Him; if you forsake your profession, then you are simply living according to the dictates of your unregenerate heart – that is not apostasy! However, if you are truly born again by the Spirit of God, and you then turn to a life of disobedience to the Lord, that is true apostasy from which there is no recovery! Because this reality contravenes their doctrine of eternal security, much effort is taken to circumvent the problem.
John warns against holding a profession without a supporting life of obedience to the Lord – such people are liars and fail to live by the truth. John is proclaiming genuine fellowship with the Father and the Son – something that cannot come through profession only.
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.
But if we are living in the light, as He is in the light, then we are having fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, is cleansing us from every sin (literal).28
In contrast to living in darkness, John now presents truths that are conditional upon our living in the light. He has just clarified that God is light, therefore, this condition means that we are in Christ and living in obedience to Him. As already noted, we cannot profess to be in God while we are living in disobedience to Him; the disobedient are living under the control of Satan, the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2). We are about to see the two things that John declares to be true for those who are living in the light of God.
First of all, he states that we are having fellowship with one another. Some contend that this fellowship is to be understood as being among the followers of Christ, but I believe that the context requires something else. John did write of horizontal fellowship earlier (verse 3), but the present subject is the truth of whether we are in fellowship with the Lord, Who is light, or if we are living in darkness, apart from God (verse 6). The condition that must be met is that we are living in God’s light! If this is true, then we are genuinely having fellowship with the Lord (with one another), and we are not liars (verse 6). John includes two factual statements so as to assist us in coming to a correct understanding of what he is saying: 1) God is light (from verse 5), and He is in the light – both are in the indicative mood: God and light are synonymous; 2) we are having fellowship; this, too, is in the indicative mood: if we are in the light, then we (God, Who is light, and we, who are living in that Light) are in fellowship with one another.
As we noted earlier, true fellowship among the Lord’s children can only take place when the children are in fellowship with the Father and the Son (verse 3). There can be no spiritual fellowship between a professor of faith and a child of God because there is no Spirit in common. Paul asked the question: “what communion [fellowship] hath light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14b), with the understood answer being: “None!” John is making a similar distinction, and taking great care to present the reality of what is required to have fellowship with the Father and the Son: living in the light of God!
The second truth that John presents is that a continual cleansing from sin comes for the child of God through the blood of Christ. He will elaborate on this amazing truth in a moment, but we must not miss the fact that this makes it very clear that we are not sinless, even as we are living in His light. Some denominations teach that sinless perfection is an achievable goal for everyone and that it must be sought after: this is primarily the Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, Methodists, Seventh-Day Adventists and Quakers.29 John declares that for the one who is in fellowship with the Father and the Son, cleansing from sin is available through Jesus’ blood! We’ll see how John develops this thought.
8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we have said that we have no sin, then we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us (literal).30
Again, a conditional sentence; the condition is simply: have we said that we have no sin? John has just stated that if we are living in the light of God, then the blood of Jesus is cleansing us from every sin. Although some might be tempted to construe this to be an automatic cleansing as we abide in Christ, thereby rendering us perfectly holy all of the time, none of the denominations just noted follow this Biblically indefensible approach.
One day, a young man came to Jesus asking Him: “what good thing [singular] may I do in order to have life everlasting” (Matthew 19:16). Jesus said that if he wanted to enter life, then he needed to obey the commandments (plural); when asked which ones, Jesus outlined the commandments that deal with our relationship with our fellowman (Matthew 19:17-19). Even though the young man said, “All these things have I kept from my youth up,” it was evident that he still felt that he was missing something, for he added, “What am I still lacking?” (Matthew 19:20, literal).31 Jesus went on to expose his failure regarding the first Commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). In order to be perfect before the Lord, Jesus told him to sell his possessions, give to the poor and become His disciple (Matthew 19:21); the young man failed at this point because his wealth possessed him – his sin was not against his fellowman, but against the Lord. He exercised great care in his dealings with the people around him, but he neglected the One Who was able to give him everlasting life. Likewise, John is warning us to attend carefully to our relationship with the Lord.
The reality is that we are all sinners: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Psalmist declared this truth more than once: “there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Psalm 14:3b), “there is none that doeth good” (Psalm 53:1b), and “there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Psalm 53:3b). Jeremiah wrote these words: “The heart [of man] is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). There can be no doubt that everyone within the family of humanity bears a sin nature – an inheritance from Adam (Romans 5:12). Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life …” (John 14:6), and also, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17b). Since no one is righteous (Romans 3:10) and everyone is a sinner, in essence, Jesus declared that His call goes out to all of humanity; it is the self-righteous whose hearing is impaired so that they do not hear Him (Matthew 13:15).
At the time of Jesus, it was the Jewish religious leaders who considered themselves to be righteous; after all, they studied the Law of Moses very carefully, provided the common people with their interpretation of the Law, and did so in a manner that permitted them to retain their high positions within Jewish society. Yet it was these same “righteous” leaders who sought to remove the Son of God from their midst because He was eroding their influence among the Jews, and they feared that they would lose their authority (John 11:48). A lawyer, who was an expert in the interpretation and application of the Law of Moses, came to Jesus with a question very similar to the rich young man: “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25); he asked this in arrogance, hoping to catch Jesus saying something that was contrary to the Law of Moses. Jesus asked him what the Law said, and he answered correctly: a thorough love for the Lord, and a love for our neighbor (Luke 10:27-28). However, his pride shone through, for in an effort to justify himself, he asked Jesus to identify his neighbor (Luke 10:29). Jesus told the parable of the man who fell among thieves and was rescued by a Samaritan, and then He forced the lawyer to identify the Samaritan as the neighbor to the victim (Luke 10:36-37). The Jews despised the Samaritans, yet Jesus tells this righteous lawyer to love them as he loved himself. The religious leaders of the Jews had deceived themselves into thinking that they were righteous before God, not because of their faith in the Lord to bring cleansing from sin, but because they kept the letter of the Mosaic Law, even while showing no regard for the more important spiritual applications of the Law (Matthew 23:23).
James wrote: “And become doers of the Word; and not hearers only, [by which] ye are being deceived by yourselves” (James 1:22, literal).32 He is saying that those who only hear God’s Word but don’t obey it, are being deceived by themselves. It is the hearers who will profess to know the Father and the Son, even while they are living in darkness (verse 6); they like what they hear, and may even appreciate the company that they keep, but they never get beyond hearing to obedience to the Lord. Jesus said that those who love Him (which should include those who say that they know Him) must be living in obedience to His commandments (John 14:15). These hearers might consider themselves to be as good as those with whom they associate, but they have become deceived into believing that they are destined for heaven. Paul warns that those who are “measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” (2 Corinthians 10:12). Earlier we noted that there can be no spiritual fellowship between a professor of faith and a child of God because there is no Spirit in common; hence, there will be no communion between a doer of the Word and someone who is only a hearer. The professor and the hearer have been deceived into believing that they are okay before the Lord, when, in truth, they do not even know Him! These people may know much about the Lord, but they do not know Him because they are not His disciples, and the Truth is not in them.
9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we are confessing our sins, He is faithful and just so that He forgives us the sins and cleanses us from every unrighteousness (literal).33
Confess is from a Greek word that means to say the same thing, or to agree with.34 Confessing is also in the present tense (it is to be a continual action) and active voice (we are to do the confessing).35 This requires that we be continually alert to sin, and that we quickly agree with the Lord so that we are able to enjoy His forgiveness and cleansing.
The context tells us that this confession is made to the Lord Jesus, through Whose blood cleansing from sin is available (verse 7); we are agreeing with Him in regard to our sins. He already knows our sins; He is only waiting for us to agree with Him. As we come together with the Lord in a proper identification of our sins, He will then extend forgiveness and cleansing. The confession is made by us to the Lord, and not to a priest as those of the Catholic tradition practice. It is interesting to note that the Catholics do not use this verse as a support for their sacrament of Penance since it actually speaks against it – the context identifies the Lord as the One with Whom we must agree. John makes it very clear that the forgiveness of sins comes from the Lord Jesus, and not through the pronouncement of a sinful man (a priest).
Let’s take a moment to consider what the Catholics use as their Biblical basis for requiring their people to confess their sins to a priest for the sole purpose of absolution, or the forgiveness of sins. This is one of their seven sacraments, or rituals, that are said to impart saving grace to the participant; they contend that these sacraments were all established by Jesus. Their basis for this one is cited as being John 20:22-23.36 Let’s look carefully at this: “21. Then Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace to you; just as the Father sent Me, I also am sending you;’ 22. and, having said this, He breathed on [them], saying to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit; 23. If anyone’s sins ye remit, they are remitted to them; if anyone’s [sins] ye retain, they are retained’” (John 20:21-23, literal).37 This passage carries some interesting words. Breathed on (enephysesen) is precisely the same word that the LXX uses in Genesis 2:7, where God breathed into Adam the breath of lives (both physical and spiritual [the eternal soul]).38 Jesus, as the eternal Word, was actively involved in creation (John 1:3), and now He, as the Creator of the first man, Adam, breathed on His disciples to prepare them to become His new creatures with the advent of the Holy Spirit not many days later. The disciples were the first to enter into the New Covenant (NC) that was established through Jesus’ shed blood (Luke 22:20), something that also signaled the fulfillment, or completion, of the Old Covenant (OC) (Matthew 5:17). Receive (from the Greek lambano) primarily means to take, then receive, or accept;39 in essence, Jesus is commanding His disciples to take (it is in the imperative mood) the Holy Spirit when He comes. Being in the imperative mood, it is a command that can be either obeyed or disobeyed by the disciples; what we must not assume is that the Spirit of God will be accepted (received) by everyone.
Consider the order of events of this passage: Jesus first commissioned His disciples to go into the world, just as His Father had sent Him into the world. Jesus made it very clear that His mission on earth was carefully guided by His Father in heaven: “because I, from Myself, did not speak, but the Father Who did send Me, He did give to Me a commandment [as to] what I should say [the topics], and what I should speak [the words used] (John 12:49, literal).40 As Jesus was baptized, John witnessed the Spirit descending and abiding upon Him (John 1:32); on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God descended onto the disciples and rested on each of them (Acts 2:2-4) – they received the Holy Spirit, as Jesus had commanded, and were now equipped for their ministry. The disciples now had the guidance of the Spirit of God, similar to what Jesus had during His ministry on earth, but with one significant difference: Jesus was the sinless Son of God, while His disciples were sinful. Jesus never misunderstood the guidance of the Spirit; as sinful humanity, the disciples were capable of missing, or misunderstanding, the prodding of the Spirit (Galatians 2:11).
When Jesus was presented with the man who was paralysed (palsy), because of his faith in the Lord to bring healing, Jesus told him that his sins were forgiven. The religious leaders immediately took offense, and reasoned: “Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?” (Mark 2:7). These leaders understood that God is the One Who can forgive sins, since sin, by definition, is an offense against God.41 The act of sin may well cause hurt to others, but the sin itself is primarily a violation of what God has established, and, therefore, it is only fitting that the forgiveness of sins be limited to God. Jesus went on to demonstrate to these Jewish leaders that He, as the Son of Man, was God, and He did so by healing the paralytic in their presence (Mark 2:10-12). He did not do this to show that men can forgive sins, but, rather, to provide evidence to these religious leaders that He was God, and, therefore, was not only able to heal the paralytic but, more importantly, to forgive his sins. The forgiveness of sins rests solely with the Lord (Psalm 130:3-4), and Jesus used this occasion to present His deity to these religious leaders.
We must not forget that the New Covenant is very different from the Old one: under the OC (the Mosaic Law only, the Ten Commandments are not a part of the OC42), only a temporary cleansing from sin was possible (Hebrews 10:4), but under the NC, the penalty for sin has been paid in full (Hebrews 9:12); under the OC, many regulations governed the daily activities of the people (“Cursed be he that confirmeth not [does not carry out (obey)] all the words of this law to do them” [Deuteronomy 27:26a]43, but under the NC, God’s Law (the Ten Commandments) is placed within our hearts and minds (Hebrews 10:16), and the Spirit of God comes to abide within, in order guide us into all truth (John 16:13, 17:17). Jesus used a vine and its branches to illustrate the relationship that we can have with Him under the NC; we come to abide in Him by faith, and we remain in Him through obedience to His commandments (John 15:10). It is only as we continue in Jesus that we are able to stay in the NC, for it is only as we are in Him that we are not under the Lord’s condemnation (Romans 8:1). Jesus shed His blood to make eternal cleansing from sin available to all of humanity (1 John 2:2), as the innocent Lamb of God, He died and thereby broke the power of death (Hebrews 2:14), and He rose from the dead to bring us new and abundant spiritual life (Romans 6:4). Having a clear understanding of the NC, in contrast to the OC, helps us to understand the setting for Peter’s first sermon.
Now let us consider the actions of the Apostles after the coming of the Holy Spirit. When Peter explained how all of the Jews of Jerusalem heard the Good News in their own languages, he told them of the work that Jesus had accomplished through His death and resurrection. The response of people was: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37b). Consider carefully what followed: “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized each one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38, literal).44 Peter did not simply remit their sins, but called upon them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus, Whom the Jews had demanded that the Romans crucify. Peter called these people to repent (the word is plural), and to individually be baptized (singular); baptism, among the Jews, was a sign of purification or consecration (a rite that all proselytes had to complete in order to be accepted into the Jewish faith).45 Repent, from the Greek metanoeo, literally means to perceive, or understand, afterwards; after there has been time to consider a matter, a change of mind results – a change for the better.46 Peter issued a command (imperative mood) for the people to repent – to change their minds about Jesus, and to recognize Him as the Promised One (the Christ) Who paid the price for their sin. In this case, to repent involved turning away from the OC, and, by faith, believing that Jesus was the promised Messiah; baptism, then, was the sign that the individual had changed and entered into the NC by faith in the Lord Jesus.
Therefore, Peter’s message was this: repent (turn away from Judaism, and believe that Christ is the Promised One) and be baptized in the name of Jesus (publicly declare belief in Jesus as the Christ), and then your sins will be remitted. Remission of sins for these people did not come through the word of Peter, but through a living faith in the Lord Jesus Who paid the price for their sin. This is the standard that was established from that very first day (Pentecost): only God can forgive sins, and that can only come through faith in the payment that Jesus made for the sins of the world. Peter, and the other disciples, had just received the Holy Spirit from heaven, in keeping with Jesus’ promise. Peter’s message for the people was repent, publicly testify to that repentance, and then forgiveness of sins will come. Therefore, for anyone who repented and was baptized that day, Peter could forthrightly declare that their sins had been pardoned; likewise, for those who did not repent, he could as vehemently confirm to them that their sins remained! There is absolutely nothing here that could provide any support for the Catholic sacrament of Penance, because it is very clear from Scripture, and even from Peter’s example, that the forgiveness of sins comes only from God.
James 5:16 begins: “Confess your faults one to another …”; is this related to our verse, or not? The context is vastly different; James is writing about healing and the role of the elders, while John is speaking of our confession of sins to the Lord in order to receive His cleansing and forgiveness. Furthermore, James used the word paraptoma, which refers to a failure or misstep along the path of right; John used hamartia, which is to miss the mark, or to not have a share in.47 Although both paraptoma and hamartia refer to sin, the former speaks more to a fall from, or lapse, in our walk in the pathway of righteousness, whereas the latter identifies the essence of sin as our inability to meet God’s holy standard. James identifies a means of being in submission to one another (Ephesians 5:21), of holding one another accountable before God; John challenges us to agree with the Lord concerning our sins so that He can forgive us, and we are able to enjoy restored fellowship with Him.
10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
If we say that we have not sinned, we are making Him [to be] a liar and His Word is not in us (literal).48
John reinforces what he just declared in verse 8: saying that we have not sinned is self-deception and His truth is not in us. In a much stronger manner, he now adds that if we claim to have not sinned, then we are making the Lord of glory to be a liar, because His evaluation is this: “2. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. 3. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Psalm 14:2-3). In truth, as we saw earlier, “For all did sin and are coming short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, literal).49 The sin of Adam was passed along to all future generations: “… just as through one man, sin did come into the world, and through sin, death, and so unto all men, death did come, in that all did sin” (Romans 5:12, literal).50 As a result, sin is inherently a part of everyone who is born into this world – hence, no one can say that they have no sin; to do so is to contradict the Lord Himself, which, as John notes, is to make Him to be a liar. What could be a greater failure than to make out that the God of truth is a liar (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 31:5)? Jesus described Himself as being the Truth (John 14:6), and called the Word of God, the Truth (John 17:17). As Paul addressed the condition of those who are a part of the world, he said that men have “changed the truth of God into a lie” (Romans 1:25a), and then went on to state: “let God be true, but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4a). God and truth are inseparable, therefore, if our reasoning should contradict the truth that God has expressed, then we have become involved in a lie.
END NOTES:
1 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
2 Stephanus 1550 NT.
3 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Friberg Lexicon.
7 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon; Bauer Greek-English Lexicon.
8 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
9 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon; https://www.deepl.com/en/translator (ἡμῶν); Bauer Greek-English Lexicon; https://www.drshirley.org/greek/grammar/g_pro-pers.pdf.
10 https://biblehub.com/text/1_john/1-4.htm.
11 http://textus-receptus.com/wiki/Main_Page; Textus Receptus, Online Bible.
12 https://www.drshirley.org/greek/grammar/g_pro-pers.pdf.
13 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
14 Friberg Lexicon.
15 https://hebrew.billmounce.com/BasicsBiblicalHebrew-17.pdf.
16 Strong’s Online.
17 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon; Vine’s “comprehend.”
18 BDB; Strong’s Online.
19 LXX, BibleWorks 8; Bishops’ Bible, ESword.
20 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
21 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon; Bauer Greek-English Lexicon.
22 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
23 Gingrich Lexicon.
24 Stephanus 1550 NT.
25 Strong’s Online.
26 John MacArthur, The Truth War, p. 43.
27 Ibid.
28 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_perfection; https://answeringadventism.com/does-the-bible-teach-sinless-perfectionism/.
30 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
31 Stephanus 1550 NT.
32 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
33 Ibid.
34 Vine’s “confess.”
35 Strong’s Online.
36 https://www.learnreligions.com/the-sacrament-of-confession-542139.
37 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon; Bauer Greek-English Lexicon.
38 LXX, Bibleworks 8; BDB; https://biblehub.com/text/john/20-22.htm.
39 Friberg Lexicon.
40 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon; Vine’s “say.”
41 https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/sin.
42 The OC was the Mosaic Law received at Mt. Sinai, by the hand of angels, and written upon the regular writing material of the day (Galatians 3:19); the Ten Commandments were written by the finger of God upon tables of stone. Jesus declared that the Mosaic Law hangs from the Ten Commandments (Matthew 22:40, the two commands cited come from the Mosaic Law [Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18], and are a very concise summary of the Ten). The Mosaic Law ended at the cross, while the Ten Commandments remain in full effect.
43 Holladay Lexicon.
44 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
45 https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2456-baptism.
46 Vine’s “repent.”
47 Strong’s Online.
48 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
49 Ibid.
50 Ibid.
1 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
2 Stephanus 1550 NT.
3 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Friberg Lexicon.
7 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon; Bauer Greek-English Lexicon.
8 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
9 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon; https://www.deepl.com/en/translator (ἡμῶν); Bauer Greek-English Lexicon; https://www.drshirley.org/greek/grammar/g_pro-pers.pdf.
10 https://biblehub.com/text/1_john/1-4.htm.
11 http://textus-receptus.com/wiki/Main_Page; Textus Receptus, Online Bible.
12 https://www.drshirley.org/greek/grammar/g_pro-pers.pdf.
13 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
14 Friberg Lexicon.
15 https://hebrew.billmounce.com/BasicsBiblicalHebrew-17.pdf.
16 Strong’s Online.
17 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon; Vine’s “comprehend.”
18 BDB; Strong’s Online.
19 LXX, BibleWorks 8; Bishops’ Bible, ESword.
20 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
21 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon; Bauer Greek-English Lexicon.
22 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
23 Gingrich Lexicon.
24 Stephanus 1550 NT.
25 Strong’s Online.
26 John MacArthur, The Truth War, p. 43.
27 Ibid.
28 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_perfection; https://answeringadventism.com/does-the-bible-teach-sinless-perfectionism/.
30 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
31 Stephanus 1550 NT.
32 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
33 Ibid.
34 Vine’s “confess.”
35 Strong’s Online.
36 https://www.learnreligions.com/the-sacrament-of-confession-542139.
37 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon; Bauer Greek-English Lexicon.
38 LXX, Bibleworks 8; BDB; https://biblehub.com/text/john/20-22.htm.
39 Friberg Lexicon.
40 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon; Vine’s “say.”
41 https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/sin.
42 The OC was the Mosaic Law received at Mt. Sinai, by the hand of angels, and written upon the regular writing material of the day (Galatians 3:19); the Ten Commandments were written by the finger of God upon tables of stone. Jesus declared that the Mosaic Law hangs from the Ten Commandments (Matthew 22:40, the two commands cited come from the Mosaic Law [Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18], and are a very concise summary of the Ten). The Mosaic Law ended at the cross, while the Ten Commandments remain in full effect.
43 Holladay Lexicon.
44 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
45 https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2456-baptism.
46 Vine’s “repent.”
47 Strong’s Online.
48 Stephanus 1550 NT; Friberg Lexicon; Gingrich Lexicon.
49 Ibid.
50 Ibid.