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The Word of Life
1 John 1.1 to 1 John 2.2
Good News Translation (GNT)
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1 We write to you about the Word of life, which
has existed from the very beginning. We have
heard it, and we have seen it with our eyes;
yes, we have seen it, and our hands have
touched it.
2 When this life became visible, we saw it;
so we speak of it and tell you about the
eternal life which was with the Father
and was made known to us.
3 What we have seen and heard we announce
to you also, so that you will join with us in the
fellowship that we have with the Father and
with his Son Jesus Christ.
4 We write this in order that our (a) joy may be
complete.
God Is Light
5 Now the message that we have heard from
his Son and announce is this: God is light,
and there is no darkness at all in him.
6 If, then, we say that we have fellowship with
him, yet at the same time live in the darkness,
we are lying both in our words and in our
actions.
7 But if we live in the light - just as he is in the
light - then we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son,
purifies us from every sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves,and there is no truth in us.
9 But if we confess our sins to God, he will
keep his promise and do what is right: he will
forgive us our sins and purify us from all our
wrongdoing.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make a
liar out of God, and his word is not in us.
1 John 2
Christ Our Helper
1 I am writing this to you, my children, so that
you will not sin; but if anyone does sin, we
have someone who pleads with the Father
on our behalf-Jesus Christ, the righteous one.
2 And Christ himself is the means by which our
sins are forgiven, and not our sins only, but
also the sins of everyone.
Footnotes
1 John 1:4 our;
some manuscripts have your.
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Taken from 'word-on-the-web' supplied by the
Scripture Union
Christ Our Helper
1 John 1.1 to 1 John 2.2
It's hard to miss the parallels
between the beginning of John's Gospel
and the beginning of his first letter.
Both emphasise that God came
into the world as a human.
In both, Christ is the eternal 'Word'.
Both use the words 'beginning',
'Word', 'life' and 'with'.
In the epistle, however,
John emphasises his unique credentials
as an apostolic eyewitness -
he has heard, seen, looked
and even touched this Word of Life
that was from the beginning.
As he writes, he is quite probably
the lone survivor from the earliest
Jesus movement and this fact is not
lost on his readers.
It establishes a distinctive authority
and sets the tone
for the rest of his letter.
Yet John's desire is to share his
intensely personal revelation of Jesus
with his readers, so that,
through his ministry,
they may also have fellowship
with the Father and his Son Jesus.
John's purpose in writing is that
they would also share
in the eternal life of Jesus;
this is what would make his
fatherly joy complete.
John then turns to his favourite
image of God: light.
In typical Johannine dualism,
light represents all that is good,
true and holy,
while darkness represents
all that is evil, false and sinful.
He appeals passionately to his readers
that they cannot claim to have fellowship
with the Light and continue
to walk in the darkness.
Yet he is also quick to acknowledge
that everyone sins;
this passage hinges around the
pastoral invitation
to confess and be forgiven.
The promise is extraordinary -
if we confess our sins, God,
the Light one, is both faithful and just,
not only in forgiving us our sins
but also in purifying us
from all unrighteousness.
This passage invites us to
get right with God,
enjoying the light of God's
presence in our lives.
Confess your sin,
receive forgiveness,
for this leads to lasting change.
John is a realist.
Throughout this letter he holds together
the tension of our being in the light
and yet continuing to sin -
a paradox we may struggle to grasp,
yet one that every Christian understands,
in his or her, own experience.
Every one of us is responsible
for the sin we commit -
and sin is serious.
It alienates us from God.
However, there is a way to forgiveness
and cleansing. Jesus Christ
bore the full weight of
our guilt on the cross.
God is light, utterly pure,
and can have nothing to do with sin -
but he loves us, sinners though we are.
He took our sins on himself.
How well we grasp this is
measured by our behaviour
as we embrace his values,
priorities and attitudes.
Other versions are available here
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