Walk the Walk, Talk the talk!

1 John 1 is a short and direct chapter that gets right on point. 

The background of this letter of John to the church in modern Turkey is that it was written to the second generation of the church, meaning that most of the first generation of disciples had finished the race! Some were beginning to question the divinity of Christ and had left God and the church. So even after the church was “fresh off the lot”, people were already confusing the message of Christ, salvation, and this new Christian lifestyle. That can be a familiar scenario even in today’s world, but as we’ll see John begins to offer ways to counter this. 

The first theme that John focuses on was fellowship. Having fellowship with one another is like having fellowship with the Father and the Son! At first glance I didn’t catch that but having the church and its fellowship is so that our joy may be complete. In verse 4 “that our” joy, John is referring to God / Jesus, that’s cool if you stop and think about it, for me it brought the idea of hanging out with the church community in a more expressive way. Fellowship can be any time spent with people and all of us experience fellowship or communion in various ways. For me if I’m hunting with a brother out in Charlottesville, surfing with others here or somewhere else, helping to fix something, I have ways to feel connected, serving, and encouraging. Then usually I get to have that meaningful conversation that always seems to happen. 

The second theme John brings out is walking in the light. When I was a young Christian, I thought this meant I had to be near perfect to stay out of the darkness but that’s not accurate. Verses 5–10 can seem heavy but when I understand the wording, the light is being like Jesus (John 3:21), when I made the decision to follow Christ and become his disciple. Walking in the light is my desire to follow Jesus and his commands and vs 7 means I’ve been redeemed, so I’m not constantly flying back and forth between darkness and light. 

I’ll sometimes have to remind myself that as I’m walking in the light: are my faults noticeable to me or those closest to me in my fellowship, i.e., spouse, kids, close brothers?  Can they tell when something is off or I’m having a bad day? Even if they don’t notice how do I confess, or talk to them about it? Then having been cleansed I get to experience God’s grace and appreciate those great friendships. That can also be a light to those around us as well. 

Let’s strive to be in fellowship and make their joy complete!

Peace to you all.