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. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. (1Jo 1:3-4)

A sermon flavored with experience always plays better than one from theory alone. John prepares his readers that his letter will draw from actual life experiences. Within the context we also learn that he did not intend merely to write randomly about his life. No, this is not his autobiography. In the first two verses he singled out his personal witness of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. This testimony did not present a myth. He literally saw, heard and touched the human body of Jesus Christ. This fact directly contradicted the error John confronted in this letter. If the body of Jesus was only apparent, not a true literal physical body, then John could not possibly have touched it. But he tells us he did touch it.

The Greek word translated fellowship is koinonia. It carries the idea of community, of sharing and communicating. How sad in our time that fellowship has taken a dramatic negative overtone. Often when people use the word, they describe the hostile discontinuance of community, so they are actually describing "non-fellowship," not fellowship. We need to return to the Biblical use of this beautiful word.

John wants to communicate his vibrant personal testimony of Jesus' life with his audience, to create a sense of community with them based on the historic Jesus. He sees the dangers of Docetic error and challenges it in the most direct terms possible. We should not confront all differences in the same way. Some differences may be insignificant in terms of the major issues of the historic faith. The fact that two sincere believers, even people in the same church or fellowship, disagree does not necessarily mean that one of them is absolutely correct and the other is dishonest and sinister, or in error at all for that matter. In fact both sides of an issue may be partly correct and partly in error. Thus we should evaluate the whole of what we believe in terms of essential truth and non-essentials. Is a difference so significant, so contradictory to historic Christian teaching, that holding to it brings your very Christianity into question? Or is it a non-essential issue in which, to borrow from Paul (Ro 14:5 and context), each man should be persuaded in his own mind, and each person should charitably allow other viewpoints? Unless we take the time to separate our views into essentials and non-essentials, we tend to make everything an essential. Soon a minor disagreement on the interpretation of a particular passage, even though both sides hold to orthodox doctrine in their overall Biblical view, becomes a matter of schism and hostility. In Ro 14:1-23 Paul urges that believers show gracious non-judgmental attitudes toward each other in all non-essential areas. Be faithful to your personal convictions in these areas, but don't force everyone else to hold your exact view. Rather than looking for reasons to break fellowship, Paul joined John in urging its high value and preservation.

John also points us to the ultimate issue upon which we must build lasting fellowship with each other, the person of Christ. We may not agree on the best political party or candidate for our country. We may not agree on which car model to buy. We may not always agree on the preferred decorations in the church building. Perhaps we may not favor the same hymnal. After all hymnals are not inspired, so all of them contain both good and not-so-good selections. But none of these issues should be viewed as so important as to strain the fellowship we have in Christ and with Him. When two people become involved in a tense disagreement, they tend to polarize, to move farther apart. When they are willing to look jointly at Christ and their common inheritance in Him, they will begin to move closer together, not apart. Jesus does that to people, you know.

The ultimate "community," fellowship in John's model, is not simply our individual or collective relationships but our common relationship with Christ. His goal is to move us from one-on-one relationships, you and me, to a threesome; Jesus, you and me. We should not separate our personal relationships from our common relationship with Christ. Imagine what that dynamic does to interpersonal relationships. If you begin building your relationships on this model, your life will never be the same!

John draws the premise of including Jesus in this fellowship model from the historic reality of the incarnation. In Jesus God actually lived and died. He actually arose and returned to heaven as Lord and Christ, as God. Such a model of life could not develop around a mere phantom or a myth. True essential error has implications on every area of our Christianity. It alters the very character of historic Biblical Christianity.

That your joy may be full. First of all, John seeks to establish joyful Christianity as the normative model of the faith. He would have nothing to do with sour-faced religion often paraded as genuine Christianity. Joy in this sense means far more than sentimental emotive feelings. It means an inclusive worldview, a comprehensive lifestyle. Further it does not admit the self-deluded Pollyanna attitude that simply ignores the unpleasant or the painful in hopes that it will just "go away." It maintains its joyful character in the midst of life's greatest disappointments. It faces trial and difficulty head-on, but those things fail to dampen this kind of joy. Why? This Christian joy does not grow in the soil of hedonistic self-gratifying pleasure. It grows in the soil of God! Your whole world may be coming apart at the seams, but your joy is constant because it resides in your relationship with Jesus, not in the circumstances of your life. When things are at their worst in your life, you can celebrate your fellowship with Christ, full-well knowing that He endured far greater trials than you ever could imagine, and the Father stood by Him and delivered Him. Even in death the Father remained faithful to Him. Several times in Acts those first preachers quoted Ps 16:1-11 as applicable to Jesus' death and resurrection. "My soul shall rest in hope..." describes the prophetic attitude of Jesus toward His death. He faced death, fully assured that the Father would raise Him up on the third day. If we discover authentic fellowship with Christ, our joy in Him does not depend on success and pleasure. We may face imminent death and pain, but we can face it with joy if we stand firmly in "community" with Him. He never changes. In life or in death He remains faithful.

Did you ever have a friend who wanted to be your "best friend," but they insisted on a one-way relationship? Their whole view of friendship revolved around what you could do for them, what was in the relationship for them. You always left time with them emotionally drained. We've all had that kind of "friend." The relationship gave you anything but joy. John wants us to view our relationship with Christ as a vivid contrast to such relationships. An authentic relationship with Jesus Christ will add community, security and joy to your life.

Should a church cultivate a different culture than this? Every church develops its own unique personality and culture. That makes them authentic and individual. However, you occasionally see a church whose culture leaves you much like that needy "friend." Rather than enhancing your joyful community with God, they leave you drained and discouraged. Such a church fails at its most fundamental reason for existing! If godly friendships impart community, security and joy, should healthy churches do any less? We've all known people who play this "You're my best friend" game by their own rules. They don't really mean you are their "best" friend; they mean that you are their only friend. And they expect you to view them as your best and only friend. If you begin to develop community, involving yourself with other people, they will react. They feel insecure and threatened. This attitude is common among young adolescents, but it is not becoming or appropriate for churches or mature Christians. And it fails John's test for our faith. A "faith" so insecure that it cannot foster community, sharing, is a faith not worth having or sharing. A faith that presumes to have Jesus exclusively in its possession gives more evidence of spiritual adolescence than of Biblical maturity. It may be acceptable for a phantom "spirit-body" Docetic New Age Jesus, but it fails to measure up to the real Jesus of Scripture. John will expose the gnostic Docetic Jesus that threatened authentic faith, but he will do so in a way to challenge and grow each of us into stronger believers and followers of the real Jesus. May we grow with him. 1J.03 Theory and Practice Come Together 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. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 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. (1Jo 1:5-7)

One of the best ways to test any doctrine with which you are not familiar is to examine its view of God. Error views God inconsistently. You need only examine it carefully to discover the flaw. John introduces us to the basic dishonesty of the Docetic gnostic error in this passage. Those whose teachings he opposed said, "God is both light and darkness." John said God is light only. Remember their essential error in denying that Jesus had a material body. But He "appeared" to have a physical body. The whole of ancient Christian doctrine built itself on the reality of the Incarnation. For them God is not a phantom. He is not a remote uninvolved deity. He is real. He is constantly and intimately involved in the operation of the universe, especially in the lives of His people. The Incarnation proves that to be so. But if in this ultimate act of self-revelation, God worked deceitfully and dishonestly, what does that say about God? He must be both light and darkness. He is involved and He is uninvolved. He is faithful and He is deceptive. At the core, the Docetic god is unpredictable, not to be trusted! If he acted deceptively in his most direct act of self-disclosure, what does that say about his essential character?

John doesn't simply say that God has light, that He is an "enlightened" being. He says He is light. If He is light, He cannot be darkness too. Light and darkness are opposites. The Docetic god appeared to be human, but Docetists said he was not actually human. He appeared to live in a flesh-body, but they said it was merely appearance, not a real body at all. Reflect on what this means to a believer in such a god. You face a terrible problem and you pray. Your god answers with warm assurances of concern and promises to intervene on your behalf. But the nagging question looms in your mind. Will he follow through with his promise? Or is he playing this deceptive game with you, just as he did in the apparent, but not real, incarnation? How will you leave this encounter with your god? Will you find any comfort? Will you find any relief from your problem? Such a god is worse than no god at all!

In our systematic theology mindset we grab verses here and there, reconstructing the Bible in our neat theological outline of major doctrinal issues. But God didn't give us the Bible in that form. Systematizing major Bible doctrines serves a valuable purpose. However, for the average believer in the ordinary course of events, the Bible in its real form, the form in which God gave it to us, serves our needs far better. Take this lesson as an example. John begins the letter with the foundational truth of the incarnation. Then he touches on some rather practical implications to our theological perspective. If we reconstruct the Bible in the form of a systematic theology book, we might find one or two of these verses, but not all of them. We'd grasp one truth, but miss others in the context. This approach to Bible study and thinking tends to sterilize important Bible doctrines. They are great brainteasers. They challenge our minds. We find them amazingly interesting. But they contain no essential practical value whatever in the real world where we live! How often have you heard a sermon on a major doctrine of Scripture, but because of the manner in which it was preached, you left the sermon wondering what value that doctrine held for your life? We've all heard those sermons. The problem lies with the sermon, not the doctrine. Review the Docetic error. What implications does it have for you? How might it impact your personal discipleship? At first glance, you might think it has little impact at all. As we broaden the context of this passage, John shows us what an amazing impact it really does have on us. Those who worship a god should imitate the object they worship. If the god we worshipped were the Docetic god, we should follow his example. Or should we?

If we say one thing and act differently, we imitate the Doectic god, but we fail miserably to follow the true God of the Bible. If we say we walk in the light, we must actually walk in the light. The true God of Scripture frowns intensely on deceptive conduct. To say you walk in the light while knowingly walking in fact in darkness follows the practice of this false god.

We live in an age where appearance has taken on far more value than substance. In so many circles of human activity nowadays you can safely do whatever you wish so long as no one sees you or discovers what you are doing. Men and women often feel there is no moral problem at all in engaging in affairs as long as their spouse doesn't discover it. They consider the wrong to be in the discovery, not in the act itself. You can cheat on your spouse, steal from your employer and generally do just about anything you wish; just don't let anyone know. Then you can go to church on Sunday and put on a grand performance. Pretend to be a pure Christian full of faith. I recently spoke with a very conscientious pastor of a growing church in another denomination. He confessed that he was under a doctor's care for high blood pressure. It was dangerously high. After a few minutes he revealed the reason. This man's heart was breaking over the impact of sinful choices among the people to whom he ministers. Do you see this concern in John's comment? What you actually do, not what you say, carries the day. You may put on the best image and convey the best pretense imaginable. But if your conduct does not walk in honorable stride with you words and pretenses, you deceive yourself, but God knows. And your God is not a dishonest gnostic god. He knows all about you and all about your lifestyle. He cannot be deceived! You may succeed at deceiving those around you, even those in your own church and in your own family. But you will never deceive God. And He does not accept rationalizations for sin.

If we walk in the light, as he is in the light.... Our walk must match His, if not in perfection, at least in direction and consistency. Try as we might, we will never reach that point of perfection in our walk. The theological question for us becomes so obvious. How will we handle ourselves when we realize acts of sin in our own conduct? We can try to explain it away, but that doesn't work. God knows the truth. We can try to justify it, but He despises that attitude. It compounds one sin by adding another sin to the list. We can say to ourselves that it isn't really a sin, but a habit or a sickness. But God has the last word. If He calls it sin, call it what we wish, when we face Him, we must face the grim reality; it is sin.

Our walk in the light will not be uninterrupted and flawless. What do you do when you face the moment of sin? John carefully crafts his words here. We walk in the light, even as He is in the light. We walk the same way He walks. How, you ask, can we as sinners walk in the same way the holy God walks? You can't. But you can follow John's intent here. You can maintain consistency in conduct. When you fall into temptation, face it honestly. You can deal with it as God deals with sin. He calls it sin and deals with it. If God could honor His holy nature and play the mind games we play, He could have simply denied that all our sins are in fact sin, and He could have told Jesus the incarnation and atonement were not necessary. But this attitude toward sin is dishonest. God expects us to face our sins honestly when we do fall. He expects us to confess them and call them sins! View your sin just as God views it. That is walking in the light.

The blood of his Son Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. Notice the present tense of the verb. Present and ongoing cleansing is the issue. This passage is not a salvation text. It does not describe the once-and-for-all-time cleansing we receive through Christ's blood in the new birth. It describes the ongoing cleansing that occurs contingent on how we walk! If you face your sins dishonestly, you lose the joyful relief from that conviction and guilty conscience that God provides right now through Christ's blood. Calling your sins what they really are, sins, invades your pride. But it opens the door of cleansing and relief to you in Christ. As long as you pretend you haven't sinned, or the questionable action is actually not sin, you shut yourself off from the divine remedy. Like the dishonest employee who steals cash from his employer, every time the auditors come to visit, you sweat and worry. Will they discover your theft? Will you have to face the consequences of your actions? When dealing with God, we should live constantly on the premise that He knows. He will not discover our sin; He knows it! Why live with sweaty palms and a deceived heart when you could resolve the problem through confession and repentance? It is so simple. Why complicate it? Once you begin walking in God's light and dealing with your sins in His light, Jesus' blood cleanses, and cleanses, and cleanses.

Would you like to discover that joy? Would it give you sweet peace and relief from your past habit of covering up your sins? Then take your sins out of the shadows of your own deceived darkness immediately. Take them to God and tell Him you agree in every detail with Him and with His holy Word; what you did and have tried to avoid is sin. Tell Him you are tired of hiding it, tired of denying it and tired of living with it. Ask His forgiveness and strength to break the habit and start a new life free of it. He will answer that prayer and you will begin to realize the amazing joy of Christ's cleansing. You will see that truth move from a theological idea to a living reality in your life. You will discover the joy of fellowship with Him. What better time than right now!

1Jo 1:9-10 - Honest Confession - Faithful Forgiveness

1Jo 1:1-3 - Implications of the Incarnation