JESUS, GOD, AND US
Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, open the Scriptures to me today; walk with me.
Read 1 John 1:1–10
The Incarnation of the Word of Life
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our[a] joy complete.
Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[b] sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
Footnotes:
a 1 John 1:4 Some manuscripts your
b 1 John 1:7 Or every
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What does this rich passage say to you today about the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father, the author – or yourself?It is sometimes hard to know how to begin a letter. John begins with his own experience of Jesus of Nazareth, whom he knew personally and lived alongside for three years. He saw Him with his own eyes, heard Him with his own ears and touched Him with his own hands. All Christian faith rests on the testimony of those first apostles.
John introduces this Jesus Christ not only as a contemporary, but also as timeless: He was at the creation, no less (1:1), and is now standing with the Father as our representative (2:1). Remarkably, John still enjoys fellowship with this Christ and with the Father through the cleansing of Christ’s death (3,4,7), and so can his readers.
Besides the Lord Jesus Christ, another fundamental of the Christian faith is the unchanging nature of God. God is light (5). Wrongdoing and evil are always incompatible with God. If it were not so, would He still be worth worshipping?
So all Christians need to keep a realistic view of themselves at all times. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves (though probably not other people). But God will forgive and cleanse us if we confess to Him. Honesty about ourselves is another fundamental of the faith.
Apply
Do you have the tendency to minimize the sin in your life? Or do you often feel overwhelmed by the weight of shame? Ask God to help you view yourself through His eyes of love and righteousness.
Closing prayer
Book and Author Intros
Extras
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