I am starting a new post tonight on 1 John. I am going to go through, chapter by chapter, and just give some initial thoughts. I am doing this right now, in the refuge of my bedroom, the blinds are slightly opened to the late afternoon sunlight. We just had a beautiful rainstorm with thunder, and the streets and earth are wet and ready for new growth. I hope that these words and thoughts from 1 John touch your hearts the same, that you may grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 John begins so beautifully – ‘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 – The Word of Life.’
Jesus Christ is the Word, and He is the Light. The awesome thing about going through the book of John in BSF right now is making these connections between the books of the Bible. Let us let Jesus define Himself for us, and let us not try to fit Him into our own ‘molds’ and presuppositions.
Verse two speaks about this Life being manifested, which, I would attribute to Jesus Christ, the Holy Son of God and Son of Man, coming down to become human to ultimately take upon Himself the sins of all mankind.
John talks about the fellowship that believers in Christ share. Oh what a privilege to take part in Christ! And through Christ, we are able to take part in the Father! And then, next verse, ‘and this was written that your joy may be full!’ Is your joy full from this knowledge? That through Jesus, you are redeemed, and chosen as one of His own? That you are forgiven? Now that is something to have GREAT joy over!
And now, in verse 5, the gear shifts to speak about who God is: ‘God is light, and in Him there is no darkness.’ Darkness is attributed to evil, and to sin. God is holy and pure. If you try to look at the sun, you will struggle, because the light is so bright. I picture God as a million billion trillion bajillion times brighter than that. He is HOLY. He is PURE. Not a thread, a pebble, or even a speck of sin is worthy to be in His presence. Again, let this make your mind wander again to how wonderful His grace is to us, to allow us, sinful people ‘filthy rags’, completely unworthy to have access into His presence.
Verses 6 and 8 address the hypocrisy of those who say that they are in the light and yet walk in darkness. You cannot be black and white; there is no neutral here. You are either for God or against Him. What do the decisions and choices that you have made lately say?
In between 6 and 8, 7 says that we have fellowship with one another and with God when we walk in the light. Consider the blood of Jesus Christ your ‘access card’ to the heavenly fellowship club 
He’s got you covered (sorry, that was sort of trite and cute, but you really are covered!)
Verse 9 deals with sin. Sin has got to be dealt with. We are covered by God’s grace, but we first must realize how filthy we are. That’s where confession comes in, ‘if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’. Whoever is reading this, this is your comfort and assurance. Stop feeling hopeless about sin. If you confess in true faith, God has forgiven you, and you are released from sin and the guilt from it. Guilt is a primary way that Satan attacks us. Hold on to the knowledge of the saving grace of Jesus Christ!
Lastly, verse 10. Again, don’t say that you don’t have any sin. You do. You may consider sin something like committing murder, or adultery . . . think again buddy. Sin is down in our very cores. We were concieved into sin, ever since the fall of man. Its our curse. When Jesus died for our sin, He reversed it that we may be seen as a new person in Him. That doesn’t mean that we are sinless, it just means that we belong to Christ and our heart’s desire is to follow Him and put our sin to death.
There we go. Some initial thoughts to start this little study 
Have a lovely rest of your day.
