STUDIES IN THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN
Biblical Research Monthly-February, 1958
Dr. D.L. Cooper

Installment 2

ENJOYING FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD

"5 And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 but if we walk in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."

I. Purpose of the First Epistle of John

Before delving into the rich treasures of the First Epistle of John, one should have clearly in mind the Apostle's purpose in writing it: "These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God" (I John 5:13). In making known this glorious truth of eternal life for the born-again believer, John makes plain how one who believes on the name of the Son of God may be assured, without doubt, of his salvation. At the same time he offers to the believer a mirror wherein he can see his imperfections and correct them.

II. The Gnostic Heresy

To understand this Epistle, one should also know the main principles of Gnosticism, a mystical religion and philosophy prevalent in the Second Century, to combat which John wrote this first Epistle, as well as his Gospel.

1. Two Schools of Thought of Gnosticism

Of the different schools of thought of Gnosticism, or closely allied with it, two, in particular are pertinent to a study of the First Epistle. The adherents to Docetism, called the Docetae (from the Greek word dokein., meaning "to appear"), denied that Jesus had an actual physical body. Instead, they said, He only appeared to have a body. If it had any reality, its substance was celestial, not physical. Thus they theorized away the suffering of Christ, as well as His Resurrection and Ascension. The Cerintheans, the followers of Cerinthus, maintained that Jesus was wholly man, the son of Joseph and Mary, and that the Christ nature descended upon Him, investing Him with power, at His baptism and left Him at the Crucifixion. They also averred that, on the Cross, He cried out, not "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me," but "My power, my power is leaving me." From the very beginning of the First Epistle, John declares that reality of the physical body of Jesus and His divinity, in refutation of the Docetae and of the Cerintheans.

2. Three Degrees of Gnosticism

The followers of Gnosticism passed through three stages of development. To the initiates, Gnosticism was a way of life, a moral code. The psychic advanced from this initial stage into the intellectual realm, into a study of the psyche or the mind. Those who attained the third and ultimate stage, the pneumatikos (from the Greek word pneuma, meaning "soul, spirit"), claimed to have had all the dross of their old nature burned out; in other words, they maintained that they had attained sinless perfection. In the First Epistle, therefore, John very assiduously deals with the subject of sin.

III. The Message of the First Epistle: God is Light

Immediately after the introduction to the First Epistle, John declares : "And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (v. 5). Long before, the Psalmist David had proclaimed this same vital message.

"Jehovah is my light and my salvation;
 Whom shall I fear?
 Jehovah is the strength of my life;
 Of whom shall I be afraid?" (Ps. 27:1)

"For with thee is the fountain of life:
 In thy light shall we see light" (Ps. 36:9)

"For Jehovah God is a sun and a shield:
 Jehovah will give grace and glory;
 No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly" (Ps. 84:11).

John himself, in the Prologue to his Gospel, affirms: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men" (John 1:1-4).

In talking with Nicodemus, Jesus stated: "And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God" (John 3:19-21).

On a later occasion, Jesus said, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). Then, in His last public discourse, He again declared, "Yet a little while is the light among you. Walk while ye have the light, that darkness overtake you not: and he that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. 36 While ye have the light, believe the light, that ye may become sons of light" (John 12:35,36).

IV. The Two Walks of Life

1. The Negative Walk

Following the message of light, John sets forth the two walks of life, the negative and the positive. The negative appears in verse 6: "If we say that we have fellowship with him [God] and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: ..." The walk in darkness is negative, like walking in the counsel of the wicked, standing in the way of sinners, and sitting in the seat of scoffers, of which the Psalmist speaks in Psalm 1. Paul sets forth the negative walk as fulfilling the lust of the flesh:

"16 But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, 21 envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (Gal.5:16-21).

2. The Positive Walk

In sharp contrast with the negative walk is the positive, which John sets forth in verse 7 of the first Epistle: "... but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin." The walk in the light is positive, the walk by the Spirit, of which Paul wrote: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 meekness, self-control; against such there is no law. 24 And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof.

"25 If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us walk. 26 Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another" (Gal.5:22-26).

Paul further describes the positive walk as the one whereby the born-again believer attains unto "the stature of the fulness of Christ":

"I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called. 2 with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. 7 But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8 Wherefore he saith,

When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, And gave gifts unto men.

9 (Now this, He ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: 13 till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14 that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men in craftiness, after the wiles of error; 15 but speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ …" (Ephesians 4:1-15).

By the positive walk, by the walk in the light, one has fellowship with God. How greatly this fellowship is desired is reflected in Psalms 42 and 43, which are practically one in refrain and thought, the great longing for God in a time of trouble. Likewise David, at a time of affliction, sought refuge in the fellowship of God:

"My soul waiteth in silence for God only:
 From him cometh my salvation [deliverance]" (Ps. 62:1).
"O God, thou art my God;
 Earnestly will I seek thee:

My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, In a dry and wary land, where no water is" (Ps. 63:1).

V. Sin in the Flesh

Verse 8 of the First Epistle of John is of prime importance, because it is a refutation of Cerinthean doctrine of sinless perfection: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Unfortunately this English translation is not the best. A better reading is "If we say that we do not have sin, we lead ourselves astray, and the truth is not in us." In English having the negative adjective no modifying the noun sin gives the same meaning as having the negative adverb not modifying the verb do have, but in Greek the adjectival negative here has a different shade of meaning from that of the adverbial. John expressly uses the latter expression and, by so doing, is saying that, if we claim that we have not sin, we deny the principle of sin and are claiming freedom from sin in the flesh, and, therefore, "we lead ourselves astray, and the truth is not in us." John is refuting the claim of the Cerinthean pneumatikos to sinless perfection.

Paul gives eloquent testimony of the existence of sin in the flesh in his Epistle to the Romans, chapter 7. This important passage is often misunderstood to be a personal experience of Paul, whereas he actually identifies himself with mankind and relates a universal experience. It has no personal application to Paul apart from that which it has to any other human being. The entire chapter is of great significance; but, for brevity, only part of it is here quoted: "18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not. 19 For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practise. 20 But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. 21 I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 but I see a different law in my members, waring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin" (Romans 7:17-25).

The Scriptures do, indeed, teach that, by allowing Christ to dwell in us until we become, as Paul says, "crucified with Christ," so that it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20), we can live a sinless life. But nowhere do the Scriptures teach that we can divest ourselves of our sinful nature and thereby attain sinless perfection, as the Cerinthian pneumatikos claimed to do.

Having attacked this heresy in verse 8 of the First Epistle, John continues: "9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is a vast difference between the theory that we can free ourselves of our sinful nature and the truth hear stated that, by confessing our sins, we can through the Lord Jesus Christ be cleansed from all unrighteousness.

In Proverbs 20:9, Solomon declares: "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?" Then, in Proverbs 28:13, he states:

"He that covereth his transgressions shall not prosper;
But whoso confesseth and foresaketh them shall obtain mercy."

Likewise John writes in Revelation 1:5b-7: "Unto him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood; 6 and he made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and father; to him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, he cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they that pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him. Even so, Amen."

John continues in the First Epistle, in regard to sin, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us" (v. 10). Whereas in verse 8 John points out the error of claiming sinless perfection, he here shows the error of claiming that we have committed no specific act of sin. As Paul says, "… All sinned, and are falling short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23, literal translation).

Also to be noted is the consequences of believing these two false theories concerning sin. If we claim sinless perfection, we fool ourselves, but not necessarily others. If we claim that we have not sinned, we commit the far more serious error of making God a liar. We put at nought the promise of God to forgive sin and render needless His whole plan of salvation.

As stated at the beginning of this study, John wrote the First Epistle to counteract the false teachings of the Gnostics, in particular that of the Docetae and the Cerintheans. In it he shows clearly the sinful nature of man and his committing sin. He holds up a mirror wherein one can see himself as he is. Yet, as later studies will reveal, John shows how one who believes on the name of the Son of God may, not only be assured of his salvation, but also live without sinning.