That our joy may be made complete

1 John 1 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— ² and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— ³ what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.

⁵ This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; ⁷ but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving 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.

In today’s text John, one of the disciples who knew Jesus most intimately, says: Indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.   Fellowship with God the Father and Jesus is first and foremost what our Christian faith is about. It’s not about the things we do or the things we say, but rather it is about our relationship and our fellowship with God. In Matthew 22:34-40 it says:   But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him,  “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”    First and foremost it is necessary that we love God with all our heart, soul and mind. Everything else we do in the name of faith depends on that. Even before we can love others we must love God.   1 John 4:19 says:  We love, because He first loved us.   We can only love and have fellowship with God because He first loved us. We need then to fully understand, at least to the best of our human ability, how and how much God loves us. Jeremiah 31:3 says:   "I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.”   God is eternal. Before anything we know, God was and beyond anything we can see or imagine God is. That He loved us with an everlasting love is described in Jeremiah 1:5, where God says:  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you.”    Consecrate is defined as:  to make or declare sacred.    Before we were born God knew us and declared us sacred.   John 3:16 says: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  God loved us so much, with an everlasting, eternal love, that He sent Jesus so that we could have everlasting life and so everlasting fellowship with Him. Romans 5:8 says: God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

If God demonstrates His love for us in the death of Jesus on the cross, so that we can have eternal fellowship with Him, how should we demonstrate our love for Him? In today’s text, John says:  If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself 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 that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Truth and honesty is foundational to any relationship that will last. If then we are to have everlasting fellowship with God, it must begin with our being honest. We need to confess our sin so that the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. That is God’s plan and desire for us. Even before we were born, He consecrated us through the finished work of the cross. To have fellowship with God, we simply need to be honest, confess our sin and believe in Jesus Christ. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we are not honest and truthful, we break the foundation of our relationship and we cannot have everlasting fellowship with God.

John says:  What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.   John’s joy was first and foremost based on his relationship with and his love for God. That love is in response to God’s love, demonstrated in the cross of Christ. But John says that for his joy to be complete, others too would know the fellowship of God and Christ. Remember what Jesus says the second commandment is: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’     The love we have for others is in response to God’s love for us. We are to love others as we love ourselves. To love others then we must also be honest and truthful. To truly love them we need not to give them what we can give them, but rather we must point them to the demonstration of God’s love. Like John, our desire should be that others know the everlasting love and fellowship of God.  Again John says:  God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.   In Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus says:   “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”  …so that our joy may be made complete.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit thank You for Your everlasting love. Thank You that even before I was born You loved me and declared me sacred, cleansed by the blood of Christ, so that we could have eternal fellowship. Because of Your love, in response to Your love, I do love You with all my heart, mind and soul. Holy Spirit help me to walk in the light, in truth and honesty with the Father and help me also live as the light of God and Christ, that they too may glorify You, that they too may have fellowship with us; so that our joy may be made complete.     Amen.