1 John 1:5-10; John 14:21-23, Sin Destroys Fellowship

John wants us to enjoy joyful fellowship with God.  He is building on things that Jesus said in the upper room the night before He was crucified. Hear the Lord.

21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”  22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”  23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

Note three things.  First, Jesus lived His earthly life before both those who believed in Him and those who wanted to kill Him.  But He was only manifested to those who believed.  The world did not really perceive Him.  Remember John’s word in 1 John 1:1: he not only saw, but he also contemplated on and perceived Jesus.  John was in a fellowship relationship with Jesus.

Second, Jesus promises the Father will love the one who obeys Him.  The Son will love him.  They will truly see Jesus.  The Father and Son will be at home in that person.  That is what John means when he says he wants our joy to be full. 

Lastly, notice the condition.  The one who keeps His commandments experiences this “fullness of joy type of fellowship.”  Jesus is not saying this as a threat: “obey Me or I’ll make the fellowship miserable.”  Jesus is presenting this as the result: “if you don’t obey Me we can’t really experience the oneness that joyful fellowship offers.”  Like the prophet Amos said, “Can two walk together unless they are agreed” (Amos 3:3).  This is common sense.

If you don’t see this, then 1 John 1:5-10 is ideal for you.  God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (v5).  If you walk in the darkness then you are not having fellowship with the Father and the Son (v6).  But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we do have fellowship (v7a).   The word “walk” in verses 6-7 are in the form of possibilities: you can do one or the other.  Whichever you do, there will be  automatic result.  It doesn’t matter what you say.  It is just a fact.  You can’t walk in agreement with God if you aren’t in agreement with God.  Each possibility results in a fact: in one you have no fellowship, in the other you do.

But John continues in v7: not only do we have fellowship but the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.  This is also a fact: it is part of the resulting experience of the one who walks in the light.  You might think, “I don’t have any sin that needs cleansing.”  But if you say that, you are lying (v8).  Instead, you need to “confess” you sin, meaning to agree with God that you have sin that needs to be cleansed away (v9).  And again, if you say you have not sinned, again, you are lying, and worse you are making God a liar (v10).

We’ll have a few more things to say on this passage but that is the sense of it.  (The problem of sin in destroying fellowship continues through 1 Jn. 2:27.)