1 John 1

I absolutely love 1 John. It is one of my favorite books of the Bible filled with such a great message. I studied it during youth leadership meetings at church a while back, and I just wanted to return to it once again, sharing it with you! I'll start with 1 John 1 for this post, and within the next few days/weeks will touch upon the other chapters!

In 1 John, apostle John is writing to give reassurance to those who are strong Christians, but also to expose those whose conduct does not align with their claims and beliefs. 

Verses 1-4 
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. 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. 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. We write this to make our joy complete. 
  
Here, John begins by announcing a message: We must testify what we have seen and heard in the Word, truth from the beginning. He announces this message so that others may come to God as we have. 

Verses 5-10
"This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; 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 cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."

In this section, we read that if you are with God, you cannot also be against him. There is no way you can mix God's light with the world's darkness. By living according to the truth, how the Bible wants us to live, we are living for God and walking in His light. Even if we are living with, say, only one sin in our lives that we cannot get rid of, we are not walking in God's light. You can't say there's a peeing section in a pool, or that having just a tiny bit of poop in your brownies is okay, can you? It's the same with sin. If you continue to sin, you are still walking in darkness. However, verse 9 tells us that if we confess, He is faithful. No matter how dark of a place we are in, if we confess our sins and repent, we are able to walk in His light. God forgives us if we confess. God's word cannot be in us if we do not admit to our sins!