The Incarnation of the Word of Life
1 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. 2 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. 3 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. 4 We write this to make our [Some manuscripts your] joy complete.
Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 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, purifies us from all [Or every] sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
NOTES:
1:1–4 There is a striking parallel to the prologue of the
gospel of John (Jn 1:1–18), but the emphasis here is not on the preexistent
Word but rather on the apostles’ witness to the incarnation of life by their
experience of the historical Jesus. He is the Word of life (1 Jn 1:1; cf. Jn
1:4), the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible (1 Jn 1:2;
cf. Jn 1:14), and was heard, seen, looked upon, and touched by the apostles.
The purpose of their teaching is to share that life, called fellowship…with the
Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, with those who receive their witness (1
Jn 1:3; Jn 1:14, 16).
1:5–7 Light is to be understood here as truth and goodness;
darkness here is error and depravity (cf. Jn 3:19–21; 17:17; Eph 5:8). To walk
in light or darkness is to live according to truth or error, not merely
intellectual but moral as well. Fellowship with God and with one another
consists in a life according to the truth as found in God and in Christ.
1:8–10 Denial of the condition of sin is self-deception and
even contradictory of divine revelation; there is also the continual
possibility of sin’s recurrence. Forgiveness and deliverance from sin through
Christ are assured through acknowledgment of them and repentance.
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