The book of 1st John was written to Christians. The purpose of the writing of the book was to correct wrong behavior. The wrong behavior John addressed was the disobedience of Jesus’ commandments. By the time John wrote 1st John, the overall church had decided obedience of Jesus’ commandments was unnecessary, even though Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”
In 1John 3:4, John says, “Whoever commits sin also transgresses the law; for sin is the transgression of the law.” By this we know sin is defined as transgression of the law of God. The law of God has changed though through the years. Abraham had no law against adultery, so when he had intimate relations with Hagar, he was not sinning against God. Romans 5:13 tells us, “Sin is not imputed where there is no law.” So when Jesus perfectly kept the law of God, then died under penalty of disobedience of God’s law, the slate was wiped clean and there was no law of God, so no sin could be committed against God.
When the Father raised Jesus from the dead, however, the Father gave Jesus the name above every other name, and all power in heaven and earth, so that at His name, every knee in heaven and earth would bow. Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings, the blessed only Omnipotent, and only wise God. Jesus’ commandments are the commandments of God. So in Acts 1, when Jesus stands before the disciples to command them, He is the blessed only omnipotent God. These are Jesus’ commandments and uniquely so.
So in 1John 1:6, when John says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.” The dividing line for John is: “Do you keep God’s commandments.” To keep God’s commandments is to walk in the light; to fail to keep God’s commandments is to walk in darkness. If you walk in darkness, the fellowship you enjoy is not God’s fellowship; it is Satan’s fellowship, who masquerades as an angel of light. If you say you have fellowship with God but keep not His commandments, you deceive yourself and the deceiver becomes your best friend. You have a lot in common with the deceiver, who is also the father of disobedience, making him the father of the disobedient.
John continues in verse 8: “If we say we have no sin (because Jesus fulfilled the Father’s law), we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us,” because if we disobey Jesus’ commandments it is sin. Where there is no law, sin is not imputed, but where there are commandments, sin is imputed. John writes this book to Christians who believe their sins were placed on Jesus and Jesus fulfilled the old covenant law for them. They don’t believe they have to keep Jesus’ commandments. They do not believe disobedience is imputed to their account as unrighteousness. John then says: “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.”
In chapter 2, John begins, “My little children, these things I write to you that you sin not.” He is trying to point out behavior that is keeping these believers from having fellowship with Jesus. They believe they are having fellowship with Jesus but are disobeying Jesus’ commandments; they do not realize disobeying Jesus’ commandments is sin, sin is darkness, and darkness has no fellowship with light.
He continues this theme in verse 3 “Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” In other words, do not be deceived. He goes on in verse 4, saying again, “He that says I know Him and keeps not His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.” “Whoso keeps His Word (commandments), in him is the love of God perfected: hereby we know we are in Him.” Now curiously, Jesus said, “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me and he that loves me will be loved of my Father, and I will love Him and will manifest myself to him.”
“He that says I abide in Jesus ought to walk as Jesus walked.” Let me direct your attention to John 15:10, “I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in my Father’s love.” I say, In order to abide in God’s love, you must keep God’s commandments. The thing about it is, however, the Father God was Lord of the old covenant but when Jesus perfectly kept His Father’s covenant and died under the penalties of disobedience, He fulfilled His Father’s covenant. He was given the name and title Lord, and enacted a new covenant. If we walked as Jesus walked, we would walk in obedience of Jesus’ commandments as He walked in obedience to His Father’s commandments.
Let me remind you of Jesus’ new commandment, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus loved all mankind by keeping His Father’s commandments perfectly and giving that righteousness to the whole human race. This is how Jesus propitiated the sins of the entire world. The word, propitiate, means, to make right with God. Jesus made the whole world right with God by keeping His Father’s commandments perfectly, then giving that perfect keeping to the whole human race as a free gift. This is what is called the grace of God; or God’s unmerited favor. If we were to love one another as He has loved us, it would be by perfectly keeping Jesus’ commandments. Perfect obedience is possible because if we repent of disobedience, Jesus is faithful to forgive the disobedience and call our obedience perfect.
In verse 7 and 8 He is still talking about commandments and in verses 9,10 and 11, John has not suddenly changed subjects. To love one another as He has loved us is to walk in obedience of His commandments, thus to love your brother is to keep Jesus’ commandments and to disobey Jesus’ commandments is to hate your brother. He speaks of commandments through verse 16 and in verse 17 he says, “The will of God abides forever.” The will of God is not mysterious at all, it is obedience. God’s will is always obedience of the current commandments. Adam and Eve were not responsible for the old covenant commandments, but they were responsible for the commandment God gave to them.
Likewise, the Church is only responsible for keeping Jesus’ commandments, but the church, worldwide, does not believe it is responsible for keeping Jesus’ commandments, and has not believed for a very long time. John wrote this book around 100 AD and it was ineffectual at curbing the disobedience of his day. The disobedience John wrote to try to curb is now universal. I believe we are on the cusp of the great tribulation period. I believe the tribulation period to be a time when Jesus judges the Church for disobedience of His commandments.
Jesus is using the churches’ neighbors to unsettle the church, just as the Father used the neighbors of the Jews to unsettle them when the Jews disobeyed the Father’s commandments. Today we are experiencing the birth pains of the tribulation period and the Church has not begun to realize yet it is being judged for disobedience of Jesus’ commandments. We are now 1900 years removed from John’s letter to an early Church and the disobedience He tried to correct is Church wide today.
In verse 18, John says, “Little children, it is the last time: and as you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrist; whereby we know it is the last time.” Now, according to the scriptures, there were three time periods allotted to man. The first time period was from Adam to Moses; the second from Moses to Christ; and the last from Christ to the thousand year reign of Christ. The word anti, means, to be in opposition to, so to be anti Christ is to be in opposition of the Christ.
Again, in John 15:10, Jesus said, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.” Anyone who says you can abide in Jesus’ love, and Jesus is God, wielding all power in heaven and in earth, without keeping Jesus’ commandments is anti Christ. Such a one is teaching an opposing message to the message of Christ. You cannot walk in fellowship with Christ while teaching an opposing or anti message. In 100 AD, John said there are many antichrists. What would he say today with almost every preacher out there on radio, TV, and the internet saying you can abide in Jesus’ love without keeping Jesus’ commandments and Jesus’ commandments are not applicable today?
John says the antichrists “went out from among us” in verse 19. They obviously had an opposing viewpoint and wanting to express that viewpoint, left those who held the view that Jesus’ commandments were critical to salvation, to preach a message saying the commandments of Jesus were superfluous. In verse 25, he reiterates the promise of the new covenant is eternal life, but only to those who keep the commandments, verse 29, you know that everyone who does righteousness is born of Him.
Righteousness means, to do the right thing. You see, Jesus did the right thing under His Father’s covenant and gives that right thing to the whole human race. All who believe this to be true do not have to do the Father’s right thing; they have already done it in Christ by faith. Jesus, however, redefined the right thing to do when He issued His commandments. His commandments are the definition of righteousness in the new covenant age, also known as the last time. To teach believers that Jesus’ definition of right living is immaterial or somehow not applicable today is to be anti Christ, or against Christ.
Now we are back to 1John 3:4: “He that commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” It is a very simple argument. If there is a law, transgression of the law is sin. If Jesus’ commandments are applicable today, disobedience is sin; if they are not, there is no sin in disobeying them. The problem is: eternal life is only offered under the new covenant. You can only gain it through obedience of the Lord of the new covenant’s commandments. Who is Lord of the new covenant? It is Jesus, so Jesus’ commandments must be kept. The first commandment, if you take the commandment to love one another to be first, is to walk in obedience of Jesus’ commandments. The second is to wait for a baptism with the Holy Spirit, the third is to preach this gospel of obedience to the Lord’s commandments, and the final is to disciple.
“You know He was manifested to take away sin and in Him is no sin.” Here John is talking about Jesus delivering all mankind from the old covenant law but in verse 6: “Whosoever abides in Him sins not,” He is talking about the keeping of Jesus’ commandments. To abide in Him is to walk in obedience of His commandments. If any man fails to keep Jesus’ commandments, Jesus is faithful and just to forgive sin and cleanse of all unrighteousness. To attempt obedience, even if unsuccessful, is to be sinless.
“Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous.” It is impossible to be righteous without doing the acts righteousness defines. There is a righteousness Jesus purchased for all mankind but it is tied to a list of commandments. Jesus said, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love,” which is to say, if you do not keep Jesus’ commandments, you cannot abide in His love. To say that you abide in His love while disobeying His commandments is to lie, it is to be deceived.
As we move on through 1John 3 we find verse 11: “For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,” but to love one another is to keep Jesus’ commandments as Jesus kept His Father’s commandments. The next 10 verses speak of the love we should have one for another but love is defined as obedience. It is obedience that allows us to abide in Jesus’ love and out of that abundance, give to others. “And whatever we ask, we receive of Him because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” If you do not keep His commandments, you have no reason to expect to receive answers to your prayers.
“And this is His commandment; that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ.” Here John refers to the Father. The Father’s commandment is that we believe on the name of His Son. The name the Father gave the Son is the name, Lord. To believe in the name of Christ is a completely different faith from a belief on the Lord. The name, Lord, the Father gave to Jesus is the name above every other name, the name at which every knee shall bow, both in heaven and in earth. To believe on this name is to keep the Lord’s commandments. If you don’t believe Jesus is Lord of Lord’s and King of Kings, you will not give Jesus the respect and honor He deserves and fail to make heaven your eternal home.
“And he that keeps His commandments dwells in Him and He in him.” Chapter 4 begins, “Beloved, believe not every spirit.” We already know many antichrists are in the world. They came out from among the keepers of Jesus’ commandments but they didn’t believe they had to keep Jesus’ commandments to abide in Jesus’ love. Here John identifies these antichrists as false prophets. A prophet is a proclaimer of God’s Word; a false prophet is a proclaimer of falsehoods.
Then John says, “Hereby you will know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,” but there has to be more here than meets the eye. The church universally believes obedience of Jesus’ commandments to be unnecessary. The church also universally believes Jesus was God, clothed in human flesh. There is no way, however, that God could redeem mankind from sin by dying on a cross as God. Moreover, how could God be killed on a cross?
Now, on the other hand, how could God lay aside His Godhood to become human flesh? The only way this is possible is if Godhood is a power that makes God who He is. Godhood can also be defined as righteousness. All Jesus’ miracles were performed because of the power of righteousness and mankind becomes sons of God because Jesus gives mankind His righteousness.
One thing is certain, only a man could fulfill the old covenant law and only a man could redeem mankind from the law and only a man could atone for mankind’s sin. In Luke 1:35 the angel describes the conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb. The description is very similar to the bringing to life of Adam in the Garden of Eden. If you remember, God formed Adam out of the dust of the earth and the Holy Spirit breathed on him and he became a living soul. In Luke we are told the Holy Spirit would come upon and overshadow Mary. It is reasonable to believe Jesus was conceived as a perfect man but only a man. John’s statement that “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,” has to speak to the humanity of Jesus.
Now it is in Philippians 2 where we are told the Father highly exalted Jesus. In order for Jesus to receive all power in heaven and earth, the Father and Holy Spirit would need to be able to relinquish their power. The thing that makes God who He is; is removable, otherwise Paul could not call Jesus the blessed only Omnipotent in 1Timothy 6:15. To be antichrist is to be against Christ; to be a false prophet is to preach untruths. Anyone who says Jesus did not become human flesh undermines Jesus’ ability to provide salvation for mankind and anyone who says you don’t have to keep Jesus’ commandments to abide in His love undermines salvation itself. It is hideously evil for anyone to do either.
Ephesians 2:8 tells us we are saved through faith so if your faith is in the wrong thing you will fail to attain salvation. The false prophets go out preaching falsehoods. People place their faith in these falsehoods and are deceived, having entered into league with Satan, but this is where their faith is placed. They will fight against God for the right to hold this falsehood because they are deceived and believe their faith to be true.
John says, “Every person who preaches a message denying that Jesus was a man is not of God: this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof you have heard that it should come and even now is in the world,” in verse 3 of chapter 4. He goes on to address his followers saying, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” Now here John is speaking of the Holy Spirit, but every last human being has the Holy Spirit in their hearts because Jesus has propitiated every last human beings sins.
So again, there is more here than meets the eye. Those who keep the commandments of Jesus not only have the Holy Spirit in their hearts; they are also saturated by the Holy Spirit daily. This continual state of saturation sets them apart unto God. John then talks about the dividing line between those who accept the message of keeping Jesus’ commandments and those who do not accept this message. Jesus defined love as obedience when He said, “If you love me keep my commandments. Those who do not love Jesus, the man, will not keep Jesus’ commandments.
Here again, where you place your faith becomes critically important. We are saved through faith. If your faith is placed in the wrong thing, it will not produce the right result. The world has an opposing definition of Love. God defines love as obedience but the world defines love as doing acts of kindness. We are not saved because of acts of kindness, we are saved through faith.
So in verse 7: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God and knows God. He that loves not knows not God; for God is love,” whose definition of love do we use? If we use the world’s definition, our government, is of God and knows God, yet our government believes the killing of innocent life to be right behavior. We know God is against the killing of innocents, so how can acts of kindness be the definition of love?
The thing that separates God from Satan is obedience. Satan is the father of disobedience and those who practice disobedience are children of their father. It is critically important, therefore, that we know the commandments of Jesus and keep them. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” To love God and your fellow man is to keep Jesus commandments. Jesus said, “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me, and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.” It is this manifestation of Jesus we seek. If you do not keep Jesus’ commandments you do not love God or your fellow man.
As we come up to chapter 5, in verse 2 we read, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” A little further on we read, “Who is he that overcomes the world but he that believes Jesus is the Son of God.” The world John speaks of here is Satan’s world, the world of disobedience. There is a faith that overcomes Satan’s push for disobedience of Jesus’ commandments and it has to do with what you believe about Jesus.
In John 1:1, John points out “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” and down in verse 14 says “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” So Jesus was God but became a man, as much man as you or I. As man He lived His life by God’s law perfectly, then died under penalty of the disobedience of God’s law. In this way, Jesus fulfilled the Father’s law for all mankind and gave His perfect obedience to the whole human race. This great act of grace delivered mankind from the old covenant law with its guilt and shame. Jesus took our sins in His own body and paid the penalty for our disobedience. When He got to hell, Satan could find no unrighteousness in Him and sent Him back to earth where Jesus raised His body from the grave and ascended into heaven.
Jesus presented Himself before the Father as a sinless man, certified to be so by the father of sin himself, and the Father drew a knife across the neck of Jesus and collected Jesus’ blood in a bowl. Jesus is now dead. “The life is in the blood,” according to Leviticus 17:11. The Father then raises Jesus from the dead. The Father begat Jesus when He raised Him from the dead; it is here that Jesus becomes the only begotten Son of God. Jesus exists in a bloodless body. The life within Him is the life of the Father. Jesus’ life, His blood, is what washes away the sin of mankind. It is forever sprinkled over the new covenant tabernacle. The tabernacle is a representation of the new covenant. Each time we obey, we are washed.
John 3:16, as all of you know, states, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life,” but which Jesus must you believe in? For Jesus, who was with God in the beginning and was in fact God, to have been begotten by God, must have laid aside His Godhood at some point to become a man. If Jesus is the begotten of God, then He was made God again by God. Is this the Jesus you believe in?
The word, begotten, means, the Father gave Jesus life. Was this in Mary’s womb or in heaven?
The world has one economy; God has another. In order for mankind to participate in God’s economy, mankind must keep God’s commandments. No one keeps Jesus’ commandments today and Jesus is the God of the new covenant age so the world has not seen God’s economy in operation. If however, we are on the brink of the tribulation period, we may soon see the economy of God as thousands of Christians repent for disobedience and turn to obedience.
The three times of man were each a 2,000 year period. Today most scholars begin the last time at Jesus’ birth but Jesus lived under the old covenant law, or second time, so the last time began at Jesus death. The fixing of Jesus’ birth was 6 years off. If we take Jesus’ age at death and add 2,000 we get 2033. If we subtract 6 years we now have 2027 and the last seven years of the last time is the tribulation period. If we back out 7 years we end up with 2020, this year.
Hebrews 12:6 tells us: “Whom the Lord loves He also chastens and scourges every son whom He receives.” The word, chastens, means to restrain or limit and the word, scourge, means, to whip with a multi throng to inflict severe corporal punishment. 1Corinthians 11 adds to the understanding of Hebrews 12:6. Paul says “Whosoever shall eat of this bread, and drink of this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” Notice it is not the body and blood of the Christ. Jesus died on the cross as the Christ.
Paul continues, “He that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” These believers were not discerning the body and blood of the Lord, or, in other words, their faith was not in the death of Jesus in heaven, where His blood was poured out as atonement for sin. They weren’t keeping Jesus’ commandments. In taking communion, they were receiving the benefits of Jesus’ death without honoring that death with obedience. As a result, Jesus limited them with sickness and disease in an effort to get them to repent; then when they didn’t, scourged them.
All of this chastening and scourging is done in an effort to get mankind to repent. Without repentance there is no forgiveness and without forgiveness there is no salvation. The tribulation period is when Jesus begins to judge the church for disobedience. He will use outside forces to punish His church for its disobedience of His commandments but three and one half years from now, He will judge those also. In the end all humanity will be judged for disobedience of Jesus’ commandments because all mankind received Jesus’ righteousness, citizenship in the kingdom of God, and an open invitation to make heaven home.