1 João 1
Ray Stedman · Citado em PreceptAustin
1 João 1:3
Stedman comments that in this passage John teaches us "the most remarkable thing about Christian life, communion, or fellowship with Christ. It really takes two English words to bring out what this really means. FELLOWSHIP IS PARTNERSHIP There is, first of all, a partnership, i.e., the sharing of mutual interests, mutual resources, mutual labor together. God and I, working together, a partnership. All that I have is put at his disposal. Well, what do I have? I have me. I have my mind, my body. True, these are gifts of God, but they are put at my disposal to do with as I please. That is what I have, and now I put them at his disposal. When I do I discover something most remarkable. Everything that He is, is put at my disposal. Is that not marvelous? The greatness of God, the wisdom, the power, the glory of His might -- all is made available to me, when I make myself available to Him. This is the great secret of fellowship. This means that he makes available to me that which I desperately lack, wisdom and power, the ability to do. There are things I know I want to do, things I would like to do because it is His will, what He wants. But I can only do them as I make myself available to Him, depending upon Him to come through from His side, making Himself available to me. Then I discover that I can do what I want to do. That is what Paul says: "I can do all things, through Christ who strengthens me," Philippians 4:13-note). FELLOWSHIP IS FRIENDSHIP But it is not only partnership, there is also friendship. Friendship and partnership together spell fellowship. Have you ever thought of this, that God desires you to be His friend? What do you do with a friend? You tell Him secrets. That is what friends are for. You tell them intimate things, secrets. And God wants to tell us secrets. Jesus said to His disciples, "I have not called you servants, but I have called you friends," (John 15:15) (Ed: As an aside "friend" is a covenant term which speaks of "oneness"-See explanation). He said this in a context in which He was attempting to impart to them the secrets of life. Now God will do this...He wants to do it. This is what that wonderful word, fellowship, means. But it will be as you are able to bear these secrets. As you grow along with Him you will discover that your eyes are continually being opened to things you never saw before. God will tell you secrets about yourself, about life, about others around you, about everything, imparting these to you because that is part of fellowship. That is what we are called to. The fellowship is based upon the relationship. You cannot have the fellowship until you first come to Christ and receive Him. When you have the Son you are related to the Father, and when you are related to Him, you can have fellowship with Him. (1 John 1:1-4: Life With Father) FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD... TO HAVE COMMUNION WE MUST HAVE COMMUNICATION Spurgeon gives an illustration of fellowship with God and then discusses the relationship of fellowship and prayer... Let me give you an illustration to show you what fellowship is. Yet, while I use it, I regret that it falls so far short of the truth I wish to illustrate, yet I know not of a better one. Suppose that a great plague raged in London, like that which carried off so many of the population in years gone by; and suppose that there lived, in this city, a father and a son, whose one care was for the healing of others. Suppose you lived in the same house as they lived in, and that you saw the intimate affection existing between them, and that you were in their council-chamber when they consulted together as to what was to be done for the perishing citizens. You marked the resolve of the son to make a sacrifice of himself, from day to day, by going into the homes of those who were smitten with the plague. You observed him as, with his father’s smile resting upon him, he went forth to his work. You were privileged to live in the house while the work of rescue was going on, and you saw how the sick ones were being plucked from the grip of the terrible disease, like brands from the burning. You watched the father’s love, and the son’s self-sacrifice, and you were filled with admiration of them.... Well, suppose we are living in such a house as I have tried to describe to you, the first thing necessary for fellowship with such a father, and such a son, would be mutual communication. To live in the house where they were, yet never to speak to them, or to be spoken to by them, would be no sort of fellowship. Merely to know that there were such persons in the house, and to know that they were engaged in such blessed work as that, would not make us partakers with them, and would not give us communion with them. We must speak to them, and they must speak to us; and the speaking, on both sides, must be of a kind, loving sort; — not, on our part, that which would offend them; nor, on their part, that which would imply anger towards us. That is the very beginning of our fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. There must be mutual communication between us. We must have heard the voice of God in our hearts, and we must have spoken to God from our hearts. You cannot enjoy this fellowship, my friend, whatever you say, unless your soul has learned to speak with God in prayer and praise, and unless your ear has learn to listen to whatever He says to you through His Book, and by His Spirit, through His ministers, and in creation and providence. His voice is sounding everywhere; and, in order to fellowship with Him, you must have the ear that hears, and the heart that believes what He says to you; and you must also have a tongue that responds to His voice, for there can be no true communion without mutual communication. Do you not perceive the kinship of the two words, communion and communication, communion and converse? This there must be, or there will be no true fellowship. (Read the entire sermon - Fellowship with the Father and the Son) THOUGHT: Spurgeon's words beg the question - How is our prayer life? (Mine is not that what it should be!) Would this truth that the depth of our fellowship with God hinges at least in part on our communication with Him motivate us to speak with Him more freely and more often? May we learn to converse with Him in times that are not "classic prayer mode"...like riding a bicycle, walking around the park, driving to and from work, etc, etc? May God's Spirit take this truth and transform our times of communicating with Himself into times of rich communion for the sake of His Name. Amen. Chuck Smith draws some practical applications from this passage observing that... John begins with a lower level, "Fellowship with us" then raises it to the highest level. "Our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ." Fellowship, communion, oneness with the Eternal God the Creator...is the ultimate purpose for our existence. This was God's basic purpose in creating man. "And Adam heard the voice of God as He walked in the garden in the cool of the day." (cp Ge 3:8) Walking and communing with God in the beauty of His creation, that is the ultimate experience in life. For You have created all things and for your good pleasure they are and were created. (Rev 4:11) How would you rate your fellowship with God? Casual? Close? Intimate? The closest relationships in life are based on love. We sometimes have business relationships, they can become very strained but we continue them because be cannot afford to break them. Many relationships are based on fear. One terrorizes the other, is a tyrant and holds the relationship together with fear. These can be very strained relationships. God wants a loving relationship with you. He initiated this relationship by His love for you. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. "We love Him because He first loved us." Can you imagine God wanting to share all of His resources with you? I realize that I have so little to offer this relationship except love. I have nothing that God needs, I can only offer Him what He desires, and that is my love. (Chuck Smith - 1 John 1:3 Sermon Notes) William Harris comments that "People who are in koinōnia share some reality in common, and this is particularly important to the author of 1 John in the context of the ongoing controversy with the opponents about the importance and implications of the earthly career of Jesus. The author and the recipients of the letter share in common the apostolic (eyewitness) testimony about who Jesus is, a reality not shared (in the opinion of the author of 1 John) with the opponents....In general the term koinōnia in 1 John 1:3, 6, and 7 is used to describe a personal relationship with the author or with God—a relationship the author does not believe the opponents genuinely have. In 1 John 1:3 the secondary nuance of commitment to a common task—the proclamation of the gospel message (“word”) of life—may be present as well. (1 John 1:1-4 The Prologue to 1 John) Wayne
1 João 1:3
Stedman comments that "We shall discover, as we go on as Christians, that the horizontal relationship is directly related to the vertical one. If the vertical is not right, the horizontal one will be wrong, and, if it is wrong, it is because something is wrong between us and the Father. If we want to straighten out the horizontal relationship, that of getting along with our fellow Christians and fellow men, we must be sure that the vertical one is straight. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. (1 John 1:1-4: Life With Father) J M Gibbon writes "Union is union with God. Cicero has said that there can be no friendship but between good men. Bad men may combine, but cannot unite. Their combination is a rope of sand. God only unites. “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” The hope of the world lies not in agitation, nor in revolution, nor in reformation, but in regeneration. (1 John 1- Biblical Illustrator) Communion with men must begin with union with God. As Findlay stated above "Jesus Christ had brought His disciples into spiritual union and fellowship with the living God." John Stott makes an interesting observation that. "John does not here mention the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, which is a characteristic expression in the Pauline Epistles (2Co 13:14; Phil 2:1), no doubt because the false teachers against whom he is writing make him concentrate on the Son, whom their heresy dishonored, and the Father whom they thereby forfeited. (BORROW The Epistles of John : an introduction and commentary) This fellowship is a present experience of sharing in the eternal life of the Father and the Son. Our fellowship (koinonia) is - In John's experience this fellowship is vibrant, real, alive and dynamic, even though Christ had physically departed from this world some 60 years earlier. Fellowship with the Father and the Son transcends time and space, for it is a supernatural fellowship wrought by an unbreakable covenant bond and the Spirit of God (2Co 13:14+). This fellowship is a present experience of sharing in the eternal life of the Father and the Son. It is joint participation in a common life with the Godhead (VERTICAL) and with fellow Christians (HORIZONTAL). In sum, this sharing in the life of Christ is not a past experience, but a present reality, an ongoing lifestyle which will last forever and ever (Amen!) Lightner rightly states "This is a stunning claim. The author of the epistle is stating that he is a part of a circle so intimate with God that if one has fellowship with his circle, one has fellowship with God the Father and with His Son." (The Books of 1, 2, 3 John and Jude) To have fellowship with the Father also includes being a sharer or partaker in the work that the Father is carrying out on earth. Henry Blackaby has written a wonderful book entitled Experiencing God : knowing and doing the will of God (BORROW and you may want to do this study yourself! I personally can testify this study truly changed my life and approach to ministry!) in which some of his main premises are the truth that the Father is always working around us and the amazing truth that He invites us to join Him in His work (cp "partaker" or "sharer")! With the Father and with His Son - His Son (literally "the Son His") identifies the divine nature of Jesus Christ. Note that fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ and that it is only possible in and through Christ. Stated another way, apart from Jesus Christ no man can experience fellowship with the Living God (cf Jn 14:6+). Marvin Vincent calls our attention to "the repeated preposition meta (meaning "with"), distinguishing the two persons, and coordinating the fellowship with the Father, and the fellowship with the Son, thus implying sameness of essence. The fellowship with both contemplates both as united in the Godhead. (
1 João 1:4
Stedman comments that clearly joy is the inspired word "but perhaps it will be more helpful for us to understand what John means if we use the word, excitement. "That your excitement may be complete." Joy is a kind of quiet inner excitement and this is what results when we really experience the fellowship that John is talking about. When we discover that God is actually using us, it is the most exciting and joy-producing experience possible to men. I have seen it happen many, many times. I have seen young people get so excited over this that they literally jump up and down. There is a dear girl in this congregation that cannot relate what the Lord does without literally bouncing as she tells it. I have seen men, familiar with the world of high finance who work continually in the great marts of trade, get so excited over the fact that God was using them in some simple way that they literally trembled as they told it. I have known women who have discovered how exciting it is to have God at work in their neighborhood, using their kitchen, and their coffee pot, that they have not been able to sleep at night. They are overwrought with excitement, with joy. That is what John is talking about, life, as life was intended to be lived, filled with joy. Oh yes, with many pressures! Do not make the mistake of thinking that the only way to have joy is to be free from pressures or problems. No, take all the pressures and the problems, but with them that wonderful feeling down inside that God is at work, and He is at work in you. You are a vital part of God's program. God is using you to do His eternal work. There is nothing more exciting than that. That is what John is writing about. That is worth listening to, is it not? (1 John 1:1-4: Life With Father) John
1 João 1:5
Stedman has a sermon with a very interesting analysis of light - see God Is Light) As J Ligon Duncan explains "theology proper is theology that has to do with who God is and what He is like. It’s usually one of the first sections in a systematic theology. It deals with things like: the names of God and the attributes of God, the characteristics of God and the works of God--like creation and providence and redemption. And it’s interesting that John responds to this ethical error in the church by first taking people to who God is, and he announces in verse six that God is light. Now in doing that, in and of itself, he reminds us of a very important truth; and that is this: that the Christian life flows from what you really believe God is. What you really believe God is. Who you really believe God is. What you really believe God is like will work itself out in the way that you live the Christian life. And so he makes this announcement that God is light. Wayne Grudem writes that "When Scripture speaks about God’s attributes it never singles out one attribute of God as more important than all the rest. There is an assumption that every attribute is completely true of God and is true of all of God’s character. For example, John can say that “God is light” (1 John 1:5) and then a little later say also that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). There is no suggestion that part of God is light and part of God is love, or that God is partly light and partly love. Nor should we think that God is more light than love or more love than light. Rather it is God himself who is light, and it is God himself who is also love. (See page 141 Systematic Theology) Marvin
1 João 1:9
Stedman - The Man who Denies Sin - 1 John 1:8-9) (Bolding added) THOUGHT: As an aside, we always need to be discerning regarding Christian music, asking asking the simple question, "Is it Biblical?" If not we need to discard it, because music is a powerful vehicle for reaching deep into our soul and influencing our feelings and our behavior! It is notable that this verse (contrary to what many commentaries suggest) does not specifically state to whom our sins should be confessed - to God, to one another, in private or in public. That said, since sin is first and foremost always against God (Ge 39:9, Lev 6:2, Nu 32:23, 2Sa 12:13, 24:10, Ps 51:4), we should always confess our sins to Him. In the Old Testament David sinned against God and against man (Uriah, Bathsheba, his people) and in Psalm 51 and yet we note that he confesses his sins to God… Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned, and done what is evil in Thy sight, So that Thou art justified when Thou dost speak, And blameless when Thou dost judge. (Ps 51:4) CONFESSION: AN ACT OF MORTIFICATION The great Puritan writer Thomas Manton has a pithy description of confession writing that it "is the best way to bring the soul into a dislike of sin. Confession is an act of mortification; it is as it were the vomit of the soul; it breeds a dislike of the sweetest morsels, when they are cast up in loathsome ejections (Ed: This ought to give us something to ponder the next time we contemplate willful sin!) Sin is sweet in commission, but bitter in the remembrance. God’s children find that their hatred is never more keen and exasperated against sin than in confessing. (A Practical Commentary, or An Exposition with Notes on the Epistle of James) John