The Epistles: 1 John

The apostle John shares with us in this epistle, some of the most profound truths every Christian must know. The purpose of 1 John is so that we would know; we would know the father and Jesus Christ his Son. Secondly, John was writing at a time when the teachings of gnoticism had taken hold of the church. I gave a definition in the introduction. And so John says; our lives must reflect that we are children of God. "This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin." 1 John 1:5‭-‬7 NLT. We can't claim to be children of God, to be children of the light and then walk in, or live habitually in darkness. Next, obeying God's commands proves that we love him. And his command to us is simple; "Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us." 1 John 3:21‭-‬24 NLT. God's commandment is that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. Why? Because, it is Jesus Christ's sacrifice that atones for our sins and fulfils the just demand for the punishment of sin. John also tells us that; God's commandment is that we love one another. God himself is love, we can't claim we know God or love God and not love the same people made in his image. If we claim we love God, it has to show in how we practically treat one another. "We love each other because he loved us first. If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers." 1 John 4:19‭-‬21 NLT.