CHAPTER 1
Verses 1-4. The fulness of the grace which is in Christ: the Son has brought us that eternal life which was with the Father. There is a complete exposition of this truth in these few verses, a general statement introductory to the Epistle.
Verse 1. “That which was from the beginning ... which we have seen with our eyes ... and our hands have handled of the Word of life.” It is the testimony of eye-witnesses, the apostle’s language suited to the circumstances of the saints, who were at that time threatened by the heresy of the Gnostics. These latter laid claim to development; they said, The Gospels have given us the truth in germ, and now we possess the development of it. Not so, replies the apostle of God, we possess that which was in the beginning, and it is great and perfect enough to admit of no development. The heretics denied also that the Christ had come in flesh. John affirms the contrary in saying: we have seen Him and have handled Him.
Verse 2. This verse is parenthetical. “The life was manifested” in the Person of the Son come in flesh. “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” The life manifested in Christ is an object for faith. “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath the Son hath also the Father.” This is the objective side on which this truth is first presented. But it has also its subjective side: the life, which has been manifested here below by the Son, abides in us who have believed. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.”
Let us remark that the life has not in us an independent and isolated existence. Far from leaving us in such a state, it introduces us into communion with the Father. But, besides, this life is Christ Himself; Christ, who is in heaven, is also in us. Certainly there are effects of this life which are confined to our individuality, regeneration for instance, and other such blessings. But the life itself assumes in us a different existence, and, by its link with the source that produced it, presents something larger. The source of the life is Christ; the stream is in us, and the stream is not severed from the source. If a man said, speaking of his hand, “It lives,” it would signify that his hand had an existence independently of the rest of his body. Doubtless the hand lives, but it lives by the life which animates the whole being to which it belongs.
“We shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.” The apostles possessed this life by direct communication; the saints receive it by the testimony borne to this life. “That ye also may have fellowship with us” signifies that you may participate in the things which we, who have seen the Lord, enjoy. “And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” The saints to whom these things are said knew already communion with the Father. John desired that they should enjoy their privilege, and therefore he brought it again before their notice. God has not only given us life, but it is His will that every kind of intercourse should exist between Himself and His children.
“Our fellowship.” In virtue of the fact that we have life, we have the same affections, the same sentiments, the same thoughts as the Father and the Son. Jesus imparted to His disciples all the communications by which the Father testified His love to the Son. These blessed communications are also our portion, and we enjoy them in direct relation with the Father and the Son.
Verses 5-10. Here we approach a second general truth. It being our privilege to enjoy communion with the Father and the Son, what is the God with whom we are in communion? For an answer we read this message: “God is light.” The God who has brought us into communion with Himself is the holy God. Such is His nature. Here we notice that when John speaks of God in connection with the work of grace, he uses the expression, “the Father and the Son”; when he speaks of His nature, he says “God.”
Verse 5. “This then is the message.” The apostles, who looked upon the life in the Son and declared it for the blessing and joy of the saints, have also heard the message whereby God reveals that He is light, and they declare that also. “God is light.” The life which we have received and by which we have entered into communion with the Father and the Son, has emanated from God who is light, and by this life we are placed in that light.
Verse 6. In this verse and those following, John confirms by contrasts the truths he has just put forth, and submits them to a counter-proof. In the grace whereby He introduces us into His communion, God gives up none of His attributes, none of His rights. “God is light,” and if we walk in darkness there is no communion between us and Him. To pretend to have fellowship with Him whilst walking in darkness is to fail of the truth of God, and to lie.
Verse 7. But if we walk in the light, we realise blessed communion. In order to enjoy it we must walk in the light, and not merely according to the light. Being in the light we are with God, and there is no place for sin there; and besides the light reveals sin and judges it. “We have fellowship one with another” signifies our mutual communion. “The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” By the existence of sin there is a difficulty to communion as a real thing; but the blood of Christ has removed this difficulty, it answers before God for the condition of man. To be cleansed from all sin is to be conscious of being without spot before God, in virtue of the blood of Christ. This spiritual state of the saints only exists through the gospel. Under law the worshippers retained a conscience of sins; the ineffectual offerings of bulls and of goats could give them no other standing. But ours is very different and far better. We possess that infinite grace which, through the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, places us with a purged conscience in the light of the presence of God, with a capacity for enjoying the fellowship of one another also God.
[p. 307] Is the child of God sprinkled by blood several times? No, for the sprinkling of the blood upon the believer answers to the shedding of blood accomplished once for all before God, neither is repeated. It is important that the Christian should hold fast a true sense of the value of the blood of Christ offered once. Otherwise we sink into Jewish elements, and for every failure we seek a fresh sprinkling. Now this is precisely the state which the apostle contrasts with the conscience perfected by the blood of Christ; Hebrews 10: 14. “The worshippers once purged have no more conscience of sin[s],” Hebrews 10: 2.
Verse 7 sets forth the state of the Christian with regard to purity, even as verses 2 and 3 do with regard to communion with God. Set in the light by the cleansing blood of Christ, and abiding there we are in communion with the saints; but communion has been first formed with the Father and the Son by the life we received in the Son.
Verse 8. “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves.” The light requires that we should confess what we are in our nature. To say that we have no sin is not only ignoring a truth but also deceiving ourselves. In such a case the truth is not in us, for if Christ who is the truth dwells in us, we must know that we carry about a sinful nature.
Verses 9, 10. The light also requires that we should confess the truth as to our actions. If we deny that we have sinned, which is equivalent to denying that sin is in the world, we are not converted, and in that case the word is not in us. “He is faithful and just.” He cannot fail to answer to that attitude of grace which He has taken towards us.