Sermon notes

Sermon notes September 25, 2006

INTRODUCTION
John’s gospel is about the character of God: He proclaims that God is light, and has no darkness at all (1:5). This gospel comes with the demand to walk in the light (1:6). What does that mean?

THE TEXT
“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth . . . .” (1 John 1:5-2:11).


STRUCTURE
John uses his light/darkness contrast at the beginning and end of this section (1:5-7; 2:8b-11), which sets apart these verses as a distinct paragraph. Within this outer frame, John deals with sin (1:8-2:2) and the commandment to walk in the same manner as Jesus walked (2:3-8a). John moves from one topic to another with “hook words,” a word used at the end of one section becomes the main theme of the next section (“sin” in 1:7-8; “darkness/light” in 2:8-9). John’s use of direct address (“My little children,” 2:1; “Beloved,” 2:7) also marks off new sections. The whole section is roughly chiastic:

A. Darkness and light, 1:5-7
B. Sin and forgiveness, 1:8-10
C. “My beloved children” (sin), 2:1-2
D. “By this we know,” 2:3-5a
D’. “By this we know,” 2:5b-6
C’. “Beloved” (commandment), 2:7-8a
A’. Darkness and light, 2:8b-11

DARKNESS AND LIGHT
I suggested in an earlier sermon that John uses “darkness” and “light” first of all as temporal terms (cf. 2:8b). “Darkness” is the evening of history, the Old Covenant; “light” is the day of the Lord that comes when the Eternal Light takes flesh (cf. John 1:6-9). How is the Old Covenant “night”? Israel was not completely in the dark. God revealed Himself to them, and they had the light of the law (Psalm 119). But the revelation in the Old Covenant was partial and incomplete compared with the new revelation in the Son (cf. Hebrews 1:1ff). Further, the Old Covenant was a covenant of veils, which separated the light of God’s glory from the people. With the new covenant, the veil is removed and the full light of God shines. In the first instance, those who “walk in darkness” are those who continue to live according to the patterns of the Old Covenant.

Since the Old Covenant instituted divisions between Jew and Gentile, walking in darkness means maintaining, or re-instituting, those divisions after they have been removed in Christ (cf. Galatians 2). In John’s situation, those who “walk in darkness” and “hate their brothers” are Judaizers; but the light/dark contrast has a broader application to anyone who hates other believers. In this respect, light/darkness in 1 John is like Spirit/flesh in Galatians.

FELLOWSHIP AND CLEANSING
John insists that we cannot have fellowship with a God who is Light so long as we walk in darkness, the darkness of the Old Covenant or the darkness of hatred. If we say we are of the light but continue to live in darkness, we become liars. Walking in the light together is the only way to have fellowship with one another (1:7). Those who are in fellowship with one another in the light are cleansed of sin (1:7). The sequence of John’s thought is important: It moves from walking in light to fellowship with one another to cleansing. The communion of the church is the place where we find cleansing – not, as Jews and Judaizers claimed, in temple sacrifices. We often think that God forgives sins in spite of His justice. But John says the opposite: God forgives sins because He is “faithful and just” to cleanse the sins of those who openly confess sin.


Browse Our Archives