1John 2:1 - Grandpa John and the Highbar with Second Helpings at the Grace Buffet

"My little children, these I am writing to you in order that you should not sin.  And if anyone should sin, a helper we have toward the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

-John calls us his little children.  Seven times in this letter, in fact.  Not just children (which is teknon in the Greek), but a cuter sounding word for a smaller cuter child (teknion).  It would be somewhat like how we would call a young Bob, "Bobby", or a young Susan, "Susie".  And when they grow older, they most likely come to prefer to be called by the more adult-sounding name.  But they will make an exception for their parents or grandparents, most likely.  My Grammy got to call me ‘Chrissy’.  Or the family will simply persist in using the cuter nickname.  We call this is a term of endearment, and John uses one of those here.  Whatever his relationship with these readers, we can understand that they are dear to him, that John thus has a fond affection for them, for us.  He cares.  He is the parent, or the wisened old grandparent, passing on sage words of advice to these younger readers.  Grandpa John.

-At this point in his letter Grandpa John has already said quite a bit.  Some hard truth.  So, here he’s circling back to remind us that he cares about us and wants the best for us.  And he wants us to abandon our life of sin, to come out of whatever darkness we may be in and into the Light.  Darkness, lying, absence of the Truth, deception, unrighteousness, sin - these are the things which sadden the heart of our heavenly Father.  They do not correspond in the least to Who He is or what He is like.  And that’s what we are - His children.  He is Light, and we are (we have been born again to be) children of Light.  John is saying, the apple needs to not fall very far from the tree at all.

-John goes on to add, however, that if one of us does sin - and he may just as well say "when" any one of us does sin - that we have a Helper.  An Intercessor.  The NASB translates it as "Advocate".  It is the Greek word paraklétos, one called alongside, i.e. to help.  Modern Greeks use the word, parakalo, for please.  it is essentially an appeal for help.  The "paraclete", then, is the one who answers this call.  The word is used only here by John, and then by Jesus four times in reference to the Holy Spirit Who would be coming alongside believers (actually inside us) to [be our] Help[er] (cf John 14.15-17).  Note that even there the context is that of obeying our heavenly Father.  So in a sense we are reminded of how God has not left us to our own devices when it comes to walking with Him in the Light, but to the point, if/when we stumble and fall, when we screw up, we have this second "back-up" Helper, Who gives us this second helping of grace.  And thirds, and fourths - it's a veritable grace buffet!

-And not just any old helper, this one.  He is Jesus Christ the Righteous.  He IS the Righteous One, the spotless Lamb, the One in Whom was no sin, the One Who always did everything His Father wanted and obeyed the Father perfectly in every respect.  And He is the Christ, the Messiah, the prophesied One Who came and paid the penalty for every single one of all of our sins (more on this in the next verse).  He is our perfect High Priest, precisely Who and what we’ve always needed, our go-between for all our whens, whenever we screw up and find our self walking in a bit (or a whole lot) of darkness.

-And to that point, I actually do love that John says, "If".  We all know that it’s more of a ‘when’ we screw up, as opposed to an ‘if’ we screw up.  But I love the bar set high here.  You know, that’s why products like cars made in Japan often tend to be so much more reliable than those made elsewhere, including those made in the USA.  Here in the US we expect certain products to fail, that failure is inevitable.  Traditionally many American manufacturers have factored in a failure rate in their production numbers, a literal tolerance for defects.  By contrast, Japanese manufacturers start with the bar set higher - a zero percent failure rate.  And I think the bar we set influences our outcome.  When we set a high standard, we are far more likely to achieve it.  And vice versa - lowering the bar is akin to compromise.  But may it not ever be that we compromise in regards to sin.  May it not EVER be that we lower the bar.  So maybe let’s not just assume that we are going to sin, that failure is inevitable.  Let’s move out in grace with the bar set high, a personal zero percent tolerance for failure, bathed in a corporate policy of bottomless grace, knowing that while we aspire towards heaven, that on this side of it nobody’s perfect.  And come what may we have One Who is with us always - He said so Himself.  Our ever-present second Helper (but not second rate!) in time of need, always and forever interceding on our behalf.  Second helpings at the grace buffet!  Thank You, Lord...

1John 1:10 - Spiritual Swiss Cheese

"If we should say that we have not sinned, a liar we are making Him and His Word is not in us."

-Well, we know that God is Truth.  So if we disagree with Him, the problem is not with Him.  WE are the problem.  And the truth is, we have sinned.  THAT’S a problem.  And that’s what He says about each and every man, woman, and child on planet Earth.  We have all chosen to go our own way and do our own thing at some point, freely tested and failed God in our minds and have received for our effort a mind which fails the test.  We cast Him out of mind.  We put something else, anything else, in God’s ordained place in our hearts.  We put self in His place, first and foremost.  And so we can either agree with that, or we can do one of two things - we can say that we have not in fact done that, we haven’t sinned (i.e. call God a liar), or else we can attempt to redefine what sin is.  We come up with some kind of a sliding moral scale and grade (ourselves) on a generous spiritual curve.  We’re not a mass murderer like that poor soul over there.  We’re not THAT bad.  Love wins, doesn’t it?  That’s not a sin - at least not anymore, right?  We’re so much more educated and enlightened today than they were back in those Bible days.  We know better now, don’t we?  And so we slice and dice and turn the Word of God into so much swiss cheese, an antiquated piece of parchment which gets doctored up to remove any and all parts which don’t set well with our modern progressive moral sensibilities.

-John here is talking about making God a liar.  Now if God is Truth, and He cannot lie (cf Titus 1.2), how is it even possible that we could make Him a "liar"?  Which is actually what the devil is.  Clearly we cannot force God to lie, nor are we able to somehow turn Him into a devil.  We can’t turn God into anything other than what He is and always has been.  He does not lie.  Never has.  Never will.  You will never ever be the first person to whom God lied.  What John means is that in any would-be attempt to deny our sin we are essentially forced to call the Lord a liar.  He in His Word says that all have sinned (Romans 3.23).  There is none righteous, no one who does good, not even one (Psalm 14.1-3, Romans 3.10).  Including me, first and foremost.  But if God and I disagree about my sinfulness or alleged lack thereof, somebody is wrong.  Guess who it is.  Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar (Romans 3.4).

-And thus we come what is really at stake here, to one of the core issues of our time, of all time, in fact - God’s Word.  Is it true?  Is it still true?  How can we trust what the Bible says - is it trustworthy?  Is it binding on all people at all times everywhere?  Is it binding on me, in other words?  Did God really say that?  A question - an accusation, really - as old as the garden itself.  Has God really said that (Genesis 3.1)?  If God said it, it’s probably true (no, for sure it IS true), but how do we KNOW if He said that?  Just that tiny seed of doubt, a little leaven of rebellion, and if left unanswered, left to spread and fester, it will produce a crop of unbelief which will spring up to a fountain of godlessness and death.  Is there a good answer to that question?  Many - including this author - say, yes, yes!  We believe that God’s people were sovereignly moved by His Spirit to write down His Words, and the rest of those who were truly His received this Word and obeyed it - saw it confirmed by transformed lives and societies and by fulfilled prophecies and miracles and by the empty tomb of Christ Himself - and they faithfully preserved and handed it down to us so that we too could believe and receive and enter into eternal life.  If you hear His Word today, do not harden your heart, simply believe...

1John 1:9 - (Be)coming clean with the Fire-hydrant of forgiveness

"If we may be confessing the sins of us, faithful He is and righteous, in order that He should forgive us the sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

-It takes a definite humility to admit one’s mistakes, to embrace one’s sins.  That’s what confession is, agreeing (with God) about my sins.  Absent that it is impossible to find forgiveness for them.  Truly forgiven people are honest people.  The truth is in them, they swallowed it, they drank that proverbial koolaid (true koolaid, to be sure!), truth about their sin and need for to be forgiven, for a Savior.  And in finding forgiveness they find grace, the kind of grace which says, you’re ok - not the way you were but the way you are now in Christ, the truth that now I am fully accepted by God in Christ, no more condemnation, no more shame, no more pretending or hiding.  I can walk in the light and be honest about who I am knowing that not only am I forgiven but I am in the company of fellow forgivens, pilgrims all, a band of filthy spiritual beggars who have come to the only true source of Cleansing.  All of us, our sins tho they were many (and bright red as scarlet) have been forgiven and washed away.  But it takes real humility and honesty (coming out into the light!) to own my iniquities in such a way that I bring them to the only place where they can be washed-whiter-than - the foot of the Cross.

-Let us not miss the basis here for forgiveness and cleansing.  John again points us to the character of almighty God, Who He is.  God is Light, AND He is both faithful and righteous.  He is faithful - He keeps His Word, His promises - He has promised that those who turn to and trust in Jesus for forgiveness of their sins will be forgiven.  That is true, and God will never ever go back on His Word, or forsake those whose hearts are truly His, who have approached Him with an honest and contrite heart.  He will stand by them and strongly support them until the end of time, come what may.  But He is also righteous, just - always doing what is right.  In this context, it is right for Him to stand by His promises, but at the same time He has in His Son done everything necessary to comply with His standards of holiness.  He not simply turning a blind eye or looking the other way while we get away with murder or any other act of unrighteousness.  These have all been atoned for, every last one of them.  ALL gone.  Every single cotton-picking one of my sins has been covered over by the blood of Christ and totally cleansed when I came clean with God about the fact of my sinfulness.  I fall short.  Always have, always will.  But in Christ I am brought near, back to the One Who made me and loved me (not necessarily in that order).  Therein lies the critical event - coming to that place where I honestly admit that I am a sinner and in desperate need of grace, of forgiveness.  And the good news is that there is (He is!) a Fire-hydrant of grace and forgiveness just waiting to open up on me and wash it all away.  White as snow, whiter than snow, if that is even possible (it is!)... (cf Isaiah 1.18, Psalm 51.7)

1John 1:8 - Stopping short... of heaven

"If we should say that sin we are not having, ourselves we are deceiving and the truth is not in us."

-You’re not fooling anybody.  Maybe just yourself.  There is never a point in this life, on this side of heaven, where any one of us could ever safely say that we have not sinned.  That we have it all together.  That we never have or will (ever again) make a mistake.

-There are those who will not even acknowledge their sin.  This perhaps is more the audience which John is addressing.  John is giving us a litmus test for those who have truly trusted Christ.  Because there are those who deny Him, who deny their need for Him, in that they deny their sinfulness.  They justify their actions.  They have yet to come to terms with how far short they fall of the sublime moral perfection of their Maker, the almighty thrice-holy God of heaven, and stopping short of this truth, the truth that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they show that they have in fact stopped short of Heaven altogether.  They are missing the truth, and are only deceiving themselves.

-There are others, tho, who because they are ashamed of their sins, of their shortcomings, will want to gloss over them.  They look around them in the assembly and think they are seeing a bunch of Mary Poppins-es, practically-perfect people.  Everyone looks like they have their act pretty much together, no problems or blemishes here.  Pay no attention to that (flawed) man (hiding) behind the curtain.  They want to put their best face forward and think that acceptance depends on perfection.  Or they simply do not have the requisite humility to be honest about how they messed up and are messed up.  But even these are mistaken, deceiving themselves - not only about the state of things in their assembly (where there are no perfect people, despite any appearances to the contrary, even if it looks as though there may be no imperfect people allowed)(and sadly this is the case in too many a Christian assembly), but also about what it takes to be a ‘good’ follower of Jesus.  Surely the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth, looking for folks who more closely resemble the humble, contrite tax collector who was honest about his sin, as opposed to the Pharisee who was trying to convince others (and who had certainly convinced himself) about how good and upright he was (Luke 18.9-14).

1John 1:7 - Would-be Luminaries

"But if in the light we may be walking as He Himself is in the light, sharing we are having with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son is cleansing us from all sin."

-On the other side of the spectrum (opposite darkness) we have a life which is walking in the Light.  In other words, walking with the One Who is (constantly) in the light, because He Himself IS THE Light.  No hiding.  No pretending.  No lying.  We’re not talking unblemished perfection, at least not on our end.  We're talking about truth.  Honesty.  Being honest about our short-comings and fears and weaknesses and bringing them into the light, to the One Who can and will cleanse and forgive them, and to the ones who can extend us the kind of practical grace which reinforces for us the reality of God’s grace which He has lavished on us in Jesus.

-This kind of honesty and transparency is vital, indispensible to any kind of deep soul-satisfying sharing which God’s children would have with one another.  We can keep talking about the latest weather and current events and politics (well, maybe not politics) and movies and sports and all the other unnecessaries.  But did not Christ Himself say quite plainly that only one thing is necessary (Luke 10.42)?  Was He not in that moment trying to help Martha get past all the fringe surfacy issues which inundate our lives, and bring her back to True North?  Is that not what God’s people are called to do for one another, to come together and spur one another on towards love and good deeds and towards Jesus (Hebrews 10.24-25, 12.1-2)?  Fellowship with one another.  Sharing.  Journeying together in community, one-souled.  It’s not simply intellectual agreement about a certain set of facts.  Nor is it just 18 inches of pew once a fortnight.  Not just another meeting.  Not merely a meal and some insipid group chat about what we liked in the sermon that week.  We’re talking real life.  Highs AND lows.  Struggles and hurts and junk.  Unbearable burdens which we take up and take on in comm(on)unity.  We need to come out of the isolation of darkness and into the Light of the family of God.

-And in doing so, we find cleansing.  Healing.  Grace and forgiveness.  Acceptance.  Victory.  All made possible by the blood of Jesus, that cleansing crimson flow poured out at Calvary for the sins of the world.  For my sins, every last one of them.  And for yours.  And when we come together as two (or more) forgiven people, real, honest souls, walking in the love and grace and truth of the One Who is all of these and so much more, it is... Heavenly.  Heaven come down and glory, filling my soul.  A thing of beauty.  Moving beyond the pretense or false bravado or fake got-my-act-all-togetherness which we instinctively bring to the table so much of the time.  Walking in the Light doesn’t mean we’re perfect, that we have it all together.  But by the grace of God and the blood of Jesus, as we join hands with other would-be luminaries, we find that we are being perfected together, drawing closer and closer and becoming more and more like the One Who died for us to make it all possible.  Not just isolated candles but a candelabra.  Not a single spotlight but an entire bank of high tech LED stadium lights - lighting the darkness and shining the light on Jesus for miles and miles around.  He is True North, our bright Morning Star, our Lighthouse and our shelter in the storm.  He is our Destination, and the Way, and the Means to get there.  Praise Him!

1John 1:6 - The Dark Realm of Darkness

"If we should say that we are having sharing with Him and in the darkness we may be walking, we are lying and we are not doing the truth."

-If my goal is joy, soul-satisfying thirst-quenching infinite-abyss-filling joy, if the goal is deep soul sharing with the God of light - in Whom there is no darkness whatsoever - and with His people, then you will not find me walking in the darkness.  Because there is certainly no darkness in God, or anywhere near Him, for that matter.  Nor will there be any pattern of darkness in those ones who are truly His.  Whether by deliberate choice or by sloppy habit, walking in the darkness - hiding, concealing truth and lying, and all the lifestyle choices which flourish in the darkness - these things will not be found in our lives, at least not on a consistent basis.  John is not saying that we are perfect.  Only that a consistent presence of darkness is inconsistent with a life which is caught up in the light.  If anything, darkness is being eradicated.  Being on a close and deep soul-sharing basis with the God of light, i.e. walking with Him, will definitely tend to root out any areas of darkness in our lives.  Because walking in the light and walking in the darkness by their very nature are two completely divergent paths.

-For this reason, John says that if we are walking in the darkness and yet are professing to have connected with the God of light, that we are mistaken.  In fact, he says we are lying.  Literally, we are not doing the truth (John 3.21).  This is the Greek verb, poieo, which means to do or make something, and to eventually bring something to fruition.  It is not focused as much on the outcome per se (i.e. the finished work) as it is with the process.  There will be outcomes of course - doing the truth as a course of habit will result in all kinds of good things.  But saying one thing and not doing it - that brings us into the dark realm of the hypocrite, those pretenders, those actors who can be very entertaining on the big screen but who are rather off-putting and nauseating when it comes to real life.  Nobody likes a hypocrite - least of all Jesus, Who reserved His most scathing commentary (there’s an entire chapter in fact - cf Matthew 23.1-3ff) for those who lived this kind of a life of pretense, who went to great lengths to maintain a veneer of religiosity but whose lives on the inside were full of all kinds of darkness.

-You can know the truth.  Hear it, listen to it.  Tell the truth, speak the truth.  Witness to the truth.  Stand in the truth.  Rejoice with the truth.  Manifest the truth.  Love the truth, obey the truth.  Question the truth, suppress the truth, exchange the truth, disobey the truth.  But Jesus IS the truth.  We have the Spirit of truth.  God’s Word is truth.  Truth is the very essence of Who God is and what He is like.  All that He is, all that He does corresponds to truth, everything He says is true.  And so we are never more like Him than when we are doing the truth.  Conversely we are never more like the devil than when we are lying.  He is the father of lies, that one - a liar from the very beginning.  The first couple listened to his lies and thus led the human race into darkness.  Hiding.  Hurling and hurting. Brokenness.  Death.  All because of a choice to not do the truth.  And that simple, fatal choice led them away and separated them forever from the One Who is truth and light.  Forever trapped in a world of corruption and lying, of hypocrisy and deceit and subterfuge.  Forever in that dark realm of darkness - absent a miracle, an intervention, an unblemished atoning sacrifice.  Which ultimately God gladly provided.  Himself.  Truth bursting onto the scene and into our hearts like a morning ray of sunlight, obliterating the darkness.  But John’s point is that a life which continues to walk in darkness, obfuscating the truth - lying, deceiving, pretending, not fully listening to God or obeying His truth, doing things of which He is and we should be ashamed - shows that we are likely lying about even coming to know Him in the first place.  We may merely be sadly mistaken, but either way it is time for a truth check.

1John 1:5 - Light vs darkness - Truth, Justice, and the Heavenly Way

"And this is the message which we have heard from Him and we are announcing to you, that God is light and darkness in Him there is not, not at all."

-This message John heard from Christ Himself.  “We’ve heard and seen... We’ve seen... We’ve seen and heard... We’ve heard...” - He’s is making a point.  John didn’t just make this stuff up.  He didn’t dream it up in a vacuum.  He was a witness.  Jesus was his personal teacher - for three years, in fact.  "I am the Light, the Light of life, the Light of the world" - Jesus said it over and over and over again (Jn 3.19, 8.12, 9.5, 12.35, 12.46).  "Come to Me, believe in Me, walk with Me - come out of the darkness and into the Light, walk in the Light, and become sons and daughters of Light..."

-Light and darkness - here we have the first of several motifs John begins to take up in this letter.  God is light.  He dwells in "unapproachable" light (1Tim 6.16), light so blindingly bright that human eyes cannot gaze at it directly and even the backside of it will light up your face like the sun.  n the beginning, the first thing God said was, ‘Let there be light’.  He had made the heavens and the earth, but the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the earth.  The eternal God spoke into the void and darkness and created the light with a word.  And light is the first thing mentioned in all of Scripture which was good.  Light is good, and in this sense, darkness is bad.  Light and darkness are completely antithetical - they cannot coexist.  Darkness is the absence of light.  It is the concealment of light, where truth and righteousness are suppressed and where I can (try to) hide and do those things of which I am (or should be) ashamed.  Where light goes, it dispels darkness.  And as you get closer to God, and approach all the way to Him, you will find that there is not even a single bit of darkness.  No hiding.  No concealing.  Nothing but light.  Truth, justice, and the Heavenly way.  And so we observe that John is beginning with the character of God, reminding us of Who God is and what He is like.  This is the God with Whom we have to do.

-From a certain perspective, darkness - or night - is a necessary concession to the physical constraints of life on our planet.  Living things need to sleep - and the darkness of night certainly seems more conducive to that.  But a 24-day - let’s say for the sake of conjecture that the earth did not rotate around its axis once every 24 hours but simply went around the sun with one side constantly facing towards it.  That side would be total desert.  The other side would be a massive ice cap.  It is difficut to imagine how life as we know it could exist without a period of darkness.  Nevertheless, we are told that one day - when the children of the Light find themselves in the new heavenly Jerusalem, with a new heavens and a new earth - that there will be no longer any night, nor even any need for a sun.  God Himself will be present in that realm, and the Light of His glory will illuminate the entire place such that somehow there is no longer any night (Rev 21.23-25, 22.5).  What a(n unending) day of brilliant blindingly breathtaking goodness that will be...!

1John 1:4 - Something better is here...

"And these we ourselves are writing, in order that our joy may be having been filled up."

-Joy.  It is not the same as happiness.  We all think we want to be happy, but what we really want is joy.  Happiness is fleeting, temporary.  Happiness is all circumstantial.  When my circumstances change, that can rob me of my happiness.  You and I don't really want to be happy - not when we understand the reality of the situation.  These aren't the droids you're looking for.  What you and I really want is joy.  Joy is qualitatively different.  It is a deeper and abiding sense of goodness and satisfaction which is rooted in the reality of Who God is, what He has done for me in His Son, and who I am in Him.  It is grounded in timeless unchanging truth.  Which is why Scripture - which is unchanging truth - can and does tell us to rejoice always (Philippians 4.4, 1Thessalonians 5.16, 1Peter 4.13, cf 1Peter 1.6-8, Philippians 3.1, Philippians 1.18, 2Corinthians 13.11, 2Corinthians 6.10, 1Corinthians 13.6, Romans 12.12).  Truth is always truth.  So that which is my cause of rejoicing today will (or should) still runneth over my cup tomorrow and the next day and the day after that.  Joy triumphs over circumstances - or should.  It washes over the brokenness and the sadness and the loss and the missteps, and says, something greater is here.  Something good, something better is here.  In fact, it is a Someone, and He working a weight of glory which is far beyond compare.  And right here, right now, He is good, He is in control, and He is with me.  Emmanuel.

-John here tells us that he is writing to fill up his own joy, but rest assured, his motives are altruistic.  There is an altruism, an others-centeredness, which transcends my natural instinct to merely please myself.  It finds joy and satisfaction in bringing joy to others, in helping them realize whatever desired outcomes they may have in mind.  There are two actual possibilities here, both of which could be in play.  One is that John’s joy is that of the friend of the bridegroom and will increase as more and more people begin to follow and honor the Groom, this One of Whom he is writing - his Savior, the Word of Life (cf John 3.29, Luke 15.7).  The other is that John’s joy will increase as others begin to drink from this same fountain of heavenly delights from which he also drinks deeply (the words of Jesus are truly a source of incomparable joy - John 15.11, John 17.13, cf Jeremiah 15.16, Psalm 119.103).  Whether increased glory for Jesus or increased joy for his readers, both will result in filling up his own joy.  That is why he is writing.  Next verse...

1John 1:3 - THE Heavenly Kegger

"...what we have seen and we have heard, we are proclaiming also to you, in order that also you may be having fellowship with us.  but even our fellowship [is] with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ."

-Pretty much the early church couldn’t stop talking about what they had seen and heard (Acts 4.20).  In other words, they couldn’t stop talking about Jesus.  John couldn’t either.  You know those things you just can’t stop talking about?  That crazy unbelievable play or that amazing finish?  That new life-changing product.  That unforgetable movie scene.  That speaker or book which is so moving.  Well, that is what these early believers had in Jesus.  Crazy, unbelievable, amazing, life-changing, unforgetable, moving - the superlatives runneth over.  He spoke life-changing truth, words of eternal life, He lived and died like no other, performing miracles (!!!), and then - wait for it - He. Rose. From. The. Dead.  Talk about an amazing unbelievable play!  A walk-off grand slam for the ages, THE the ultimate game-changer right there.  And so anyone with half a brain who had witnessed those things could not stop witnessing to others about those things.

-John here says his end goal was for others, these readers included, to be able to share in the inexpressible joy and glory of sharing in the inexpressible joy and glory of this risen Savior as well as that of His heavenly Father (Who happens to be the happiest Being in the universe!).  John says they are having fellowship with the Father and with Jesus.  This word means close and deep sharing, the kind of real soul sharing where you’re close enough to actually get the other person’s dirt on your own soul.  Only no dirt here.  There’s no dirt in the Godhead.  Only glory.  Glorious indescribably breathtaking goodness.  That’s what John and these others had tapped in to.  THE heavenly kegger.  They were full of it, fully intoxicated - yes, they were drunk on Jesus.  He had filled up their lives and had taken control of their behavior.  Just like alcohol, only there’s no throwing up or hangovers or liver damage.  Only some temporal damage to their reputation - there’s every chance that those not thus intoxicated would call such a person a fool.  A fanatic.  An extremist, perhaps.  Oh, and they might try to kill you.  But loss of reputation or even life would not deter these witnesses, these would-be martyrs even (the word for ‘witness’ in the Greek is actually martyr).  Life lived to the full with and for Jesus was fully worth it.  And still is.  There’s SO much more there than a little Sunday-go-to-meeting, a little dab’ll-do-ya and 18-inches of pew once a week.  If only we will tap into it.  That's what John is talking about.  And he wants to help us do just that.  Cheers!

1John 1:2 - Eternal Life on display

"...and the life was manifested, and we have seen and are witnessing and are proclaiming to you the eternal life which was toward the Father and was manifested to us..."

-This Life, this Word of life, was manifested.  John is talking about Jesus, Who appeared, was brought to light and made visible.  He had been with the Father from all eternity, but in the fulness of time He made His appearance on planet earth, right there in Galilee and Judea, among that diminuitive band of simple fishermen and tax collectors and prostitutes and carpenters.  John is clearly aware of the monumental privilege it was for him and his friends to have seen in the flesh this Son of God Who was Life, THE Life (John 14.6).  He says it again, they saw it, they saw Him, and their testimony was (and IS) credible, they were first-hand witnesses.

-I think that John is talking about more than the simple fact that he and his friends saw Jesus, however.  He is talking about eternal life.  Yes, Jesus is the Source of this life, He is the Way to this life, and this life begins with Him and is all about Him.  But I think John also has in mind the simple fact of eternal life.  Do you want to live forever?  Do you want to live, even after you die?  This is what I’m talking about, he says.  I have an announcement, and it pertains to your eternal destiny.  And guess what?  My friends and I, we actually saw eternal life show up, plain as day.  We saw it happen, played out in our midst.  This One Who was had existed forever with the Father in eternity, He came to earth, lived among us, was actually killed - put to death and buried - but then came back to life.  Eternal life, on display.  He defeated death and appeared among us in a resurrected never-to-die-again body which we both saw and touched.  He could go thru walls.  He could appear out of nowhere.  And He finally was taken up into heaven where He reigns on high and will someday return to take up to heaven all who have believed in Him in this life.  That’s what I’m talking about!

1John 1:1 - God in 3D: A Total Sensory Upload

"What was from the beginning, what we heard, what we saw with our eyes, what we looked at and what our hands touched, concerning the Word of Life..."

-The epistles of John belong to the group of epistles (letters) called the general, or catholic (universal) epistles, meaning that they are not written to one specific assembly in a particular city or region, but rather are intended for a broader audience, for the universal body of Christ.  This particular letter does not bear John’s name, but that would be consistent for this self-effacing apostle who throughout the gospel he wrote repeatedly fails to show up as he consistently refers to himself in the third person.  Clearly the author of this letter was a notable witness of the life and ministry of Jesus, and the Church in antiquity received this letter as being written by John the Apostle, brother of James and son of Zebedee.  In the absence of any even remotely compelling argument as to a different author, there is no need to depart from this traditional view.  We also do not have any firm intel on the date or place of writing.

-But again, what we clearly have here are the words of someone who heard and saw and touched and spent significant time with Jesus, listening to His words of life (John 6.63, 6.68) - life-giving, life-changing - learning from Him, hanging out with Him, enjoy special times of intimate interaction, witnessing wonders and beholding glory.  This writer - John - was a first-hand witness that Jesus, the very Son of God, came to earth bodily, in a real live flesh-and-blood body.  He saw Him with his own eyes, touched Him with his own hands, heard Him with His own ears.  He had tasted the bread and the fish which Jesus had multiplied to feed thousands, had drunk from the cup of the wine of His blood and eaten the bread of His body which was broken, and John had tasted (and smelled!) the fish Jesus cooked after He rose from the dead.  Most likely he smelled Jesus with his own nose.  We don’t know what Jesus smelled like exactly, but John doesn’t digress into that here.  His was a fully orbed, full-frontal, mind-blowing sensory experience of the Son of God.  A total sensory upload of God in 3D.  Life-giving.  Life-changing.

-But he calls Jesus the Word of Life, this One Who WAS the Word, was in the beginning with God and Who WAS God.  He spoke, and created the universe, giving life to every creature.  Everything which has ever lived, which has ever come to be was made by His WORD.  We are reminded of the power, the priority, the preeminence of the Word, the Word of God, the place it should have in our hearts and our lives and in our churches, and that God - the Author of the Word and the Author of Life - for all that He is is the God Who SPEAKS.  He has spoken, and it will come to pass.  His words are the words of life, imparting life, leading to life eternal.  We would do well to pay attention.  Our lives depend on it.  Always have.  Always will.

Galatians 6:18 - Way Better Than Over All Well-Being

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with your spirit, brothers.  Amen."

-Traditional leavetaking here, with some added elements.  Often times Paul simply says, grace [be] with you.  Grace for Paul had replaced the even more traditional Middle Eastern leavetaking of peace (shalom/salaam), as Paul had come to learn that while overall well-being is nice, unlimited underserved divine favor was, and is, way better.

-Paul does frequently attribute the grace to our Lord Jesus Christ, as he does here.  He here adds the word, "brothers".  And he lastly adds here that the grace would be "with their spirit".  Is there any significance to these additions?  Or is Paul simply being eloquent, or possibly verbose?  This author doesn’t believe that the Holy Spirit is inclined to waste words of divine inspiration.  The attribution of grace to the Lord Jesus Christ here could easily serve to reinforce the truth for these readers that we are saved not by any human work but only by grace - through faith in the finished work of Christ (Who God also raised from the dead and seated at His right hand, thus affirming Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords of all).  It is at the name of Jesus that every knee will bow.  Every tongue WILL confess that He is Lord.  It is not about me and what I do - it is all about Him and all that He did.  He must increase - I, and all others (including Moses), must decrease.  This was one point on which those circumcising Judaizers whiffed for sure.  

-Paul adds that grace would be with their spirit.  He says this to only one other assembly (Philippians 4.23), and he says it also to Timothy (2Timothy 4.22) and Philemon (Philemon 25).  He’s talking about this unlimited undeserved divine favor resting upon and abiding within them in that core part of their being which was designed and burdened with glorious purpose, to commune with their Creator.  It was our spirit which was dead to God before grace came into our lives, and it is our spirit which has been reborn to everlasting life, a never-ending relationship with our Father in Heaven.  Glory in the highest.

-Brothers - Paul could be adding this for several reasons.  This assembly (or assemblies) in Galatia was mixed, containing many Gentiles as well as Jews.  Paul has addressed the potential clash of culture and religious background at several points throughout this letter, but as he closes he reminds the Galatians that they are brothers.  They are family.  Part of God’s family.  Whatever else they are, whatever they may go through, God Himself has removed the dividing wall and has brought them together to journey together.  They are brothers.  And Paul is their brother as well.  They are on this journey together with him, and he is there for them, encouraging them, praying for them, cheering them on, right along with all the rest of their brothers who have gone before them (Hebrews 12.1).  They - and we all - journey TOGETHER - in brotherly love - for the forward progress of the Good News in our lives and in our world, or else we make little or no progress at all.  A new command I give you, Jesus said - that you love one another, and by this all men will know that you are following Me.  Amen.

Galatians 6:17 - The Heavenly Seal of Approval

"The rest of my troubles let no one be causing.  For I myself the scars of Jesus in my body I am bearing.’

-Whatever challenges might want to made to Paul’s authority, whatever angry reactions one might be tempted to level at him because of his teaching, he says, ‘enough’.  For his part, Paul would say later that he had in fact been beaten "times without number" (2Corinthians 11.23).  We know that in Galatia he was stoned and left for dead at one point (Acts 14.19).  That had to hurt.  Surely it left a mark.  Or marks.  But these wounds he (almost affectionately) referred to as the scars of Jesus.  They were Gospel merit badges, earned in the service of Paul’s great and glorious King.  The early church knew much of the glory of suffering for the sake of the Name of Jesus, so that others might come to know Him.  They well understood that it was in fact a privilege and an honor to be mistreated and persecuted and beaten and even killed because of their identification with Jesus (cf Acts 5.41).  Thus they closely identified with His scars, this One Who had first suffered so much for them (and us).  Their attitude was that of C.T. Studd, who famously declared, "If Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him."

-So was Paul saying that he had actually had enough?  No more suffering for him?  No way.  We know that he endured plenty more suffering after he wrote this letter, many beatings and mistreatings and lashings, hardships galore - and we have no indication that he shied away from any of them.  Just the opposite in fact (cf Acts 20.22-24).  What Paul is doing here rather is serving notice to the troublemaking Judaizers to cease and desist.  His message is indeed correct, and it is ratified by the scars he bears.  Those are proof positive that the content of his message is legit, that he has the heavenly seal of approval.  The very opposition he has faced from the Jews - who more than likely would have backed off had he been promoting circumcision - and those scars they gave him, are further validation of the content of his preaching, that salvation by grace alone through faith (and not through any works like circumcision) is for both Jews and non-Jews.  Which is very good news...!

Galatians 6:16 - Peace and a Canon

"And as many as to this canon will walk, peace [be] upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.’

-Inasmuch as Paul is wrapping up this letter, it is entirely appropriate that he here employs the standard Hebrew leavetaking, shalom, a wish for peace.  But there is more to it than that...

-The new creation, founded upon the cross of Christ, is now the "canon", the rule of thumb by which people can relate to God - and to one another.  It is the new gold standard of acceptance and of family ties.  We’re no longer to measure one another by the amount of skin on our members, nor by any other worldly standard.  The new measure is, how far away (or close) are we to Jesus?  Are we found in Him?  Have we put our trust in Him?  Having done so, we are fully and forever accepted by the Father, and we should extend this same acceptance to any and all others who do likewise.  A warm family embrace for all those fellow pilgrims who once were lost but who now have found their way to the Cross, our brothers and sisters who name the Name of Jesus...!

-For those who do embrace this new norm, Paul has profoundest wishes for peace and mercy.  A wish for shalom, overall well-being, a state of blessedness and happiness.  Isn’t this this is precisely what Jesus taught, the reality of the beatitudes, that those who pursue peace and who are full of mercy will themselves find great peace and mercy from the hand of their heavenly Father (Matthew 5.7-9)?

-Paul adds a wish for peace and mercy to also be upon Israel - ‘the Israel of God’.  Nowhere else in the NT does he say this.  Some say Paul is referring to Messianic Jews.  Others suggest (insist actually) that he is referring more broadly to what would be considered the true Israel, the new nation of God’s people which includes both Jews and Gentiles who have come to the Cross, who have trusted in the Messiah.  Safe to say he is not referring to the geopolitical nation or to those who are biologically descended from abraham.  Not all of those were or are walking by this new canon.  Very likely, in keeping with the spirit of this letter, Paul has in mind a growing, expanding spiritual tribe which includes both Jews and Gentiles alike - any and all who are trusting in the Good News of Jesus.  Such that he is wishing peace and mercy upon both the individuals who are doing so, and upon the collective body of these believers.  The old bumper sticker says it well - no Jesus, no peace.  Know Jesus, know peace. (and mercy!).  Let it be so...!

Galatians 6:15 - On Grand Canyon removal...

"For neither circumcision is anything nor uncircumcision but rather a new creation."

-A new creation.  This is the end game.  This is the unforeseen, paradigm-busting outcome of all that God has set in motion in and thru His Son, Jesus Christ.  New life, a brand spankin-new quality of life.  Because everything else we see around us, all the brokenness of humanity and of creation, at least this current itieration of it, is about death.  Life. Breaking. Down.  Broken lives.  Broken relationships.  It is about whatever and everything that pushes and keeps me apart from my Creator and from my fellow man.  Circumcision is precisely one of these things.  If anything, what circumcision ultimately did was perpetuate separation.  It exacerbated the brokenness.  The little ritual of cutting off the foreskin became this massive wedge between peoples, AND it did absolutely nothing to bridge the yawning chasm which separated man from God.  

-And so what we see is God, this Word Who was in the beginning, once again speaking into the void and bringing light and life and goodness and blessing and peace.  Peace on earth.  Goodwill towards and between men.  Out of death, life.  New, unending, overflowing life, flowing straight from Calvary and the empty tomb.  old things have passed away, everything has been made new (2Corinthians 5.17)!  And not just a coat of paint, not just a bit of freshening up.  We’re talking completely brand new.  There is a new outlook on life, and brand new possibilities for reconciliation and relationship which builds bridges across all kinds of dividing lines.  Specifically it cut straight across this iron curtain of separation which had been erected over long centuries of ritualized foreskin-ectomies.  In the beginning circumcision was a sign of a covenant between God and the new nation of His people who were to spread the knowledge and celebration of His breathtaking goodness to all the families and nations of the earth.  But it gradually devolved into a spiritual merit badge which took the place of men trusting in the Lord to be their Savior, and created a religious grand canyon between the circumcised Jews and filthy uncircumcised non-Jews, such that Jews came to have no unnecessary dealings whatsoever with any other nations (Acts 10.28), to whom they pejoratively referred to as Goyim.  But in Christ, this barrier has been removed.  The wall between God and man, and the wall between peoples.  There is no longer any distinction whatsoever.  Or at least, there’s not supposed to be.  All that matters is being in Christ, a new creation.  And if you and I are in Christ, then we are family.  Part of God’s forever family.  New life, building up, overflowing, life as it was always intended...