Deep-Dive, Daily Devotionals 1 John

By Thomas Emmons

Deep-Dive, Daily Devotionals in 1 John takes an in-depth, interactive, integrative approach to daily devotions over its 330+ pages. The devotionals are both a deep and a devotional study of John's first letter. As you work your way through each daily devotional, you will learn the book of 1 John thoroughly and will understand how to apply it on a daily and transformational basis. Each devotional is brief, taking only 5-10 minutes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781684742561

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1 John 1

The Anchor for Our Souls (1:1-4)

Introduction

If you’re reading this page, it probably means you made it through the introduction and turned the proverbial page to continue with these deep daily devotionals in 1 John. So let’s dive into 1 John, but first a 15-second introduction to the structure of the book. The Apostle John’s first letter can be divided into the following four sections (for simplicity's sake):

PROLOGUE:      1:1-4

MAIN SECTION #1:      1:5-3:10

MAIN SECTION #2:      3:11-5:12

CONCLUSION:      5:13-21

In this daily devotion, we’re going to be looking only at the prologue. Let’s begin our devotional.

Our Devotional

(Read 1 John 1:1-4)

The Odd Beginning

John begins this prologue in a rather odd and convoluted manner. He starts with four relative clauses

What was from the beginning

What we have heard

What we have seen with our eyes

What we have looked at and our hands have touched

[Some translations put This is what we proclaim to you before these clauses for clarification purposes.]

Then John interrupts himself with a parenthetical statement that explains what his subject is, namely, the Word of life (v. 2). In verse 3, John resumes his original thought and sums up what he said in verse 1 with What we have seen and heard… At this point, John finally gives us a verb: we proclaim. So, that which is being proclaimed is what was from the beginning, what was heard and seen and touched, namely, the Word of life, Jesus.

Two Results of John's Prologue

From what we have just seen of the prologue, John has accomplished two things. First, he has refuted the false teaching of the opponents. They taught that the Son did not take on flesh but only appeared to have done so. They denied the humanity of Christ.

How does John refute this false teaching in the prologue? Think about it for a minute.

John and the other apostles were eyewitnesses of Jesus' earthly life. They had heard Him, seen Him with their own eyes and even touched Him. You don't touch an appearance of flesh!

Secondly, John's prologue demonstrates that the Christian faith, eternal life, is grounded in the historical, factual events of Jesus' life. Our faith is not merely a mystical, subjective concept. Faith in Christ is based on objective, historical facts. Our faith centers on the coming of Jesus into the world as a revelation of God. The incarnation of God in Jesus is the factual event that separates true Christianity from all other claims of religious revelation.

Pluralism Rejected

In the context of modern pluralism, the exclusivity of the incarnation is often rejected. In this prologue, however, John makes two things clear. First, what was from the beginning should determine what we believe now. We should not stray from what we experienced in Jesus, for it is the anchor. Second, true fellowship can only exist where there is doctrinal agreement on who Jesus was. This age of ecumenism spins the narrative that we can achieve ecclesiastical unity by laying aside our doctrinal differences. The aspirations for church unity are certainly admirable, but that’s a false narrative. Unity and fellowship in Christ are the products of believing the same thing about Jesus. When we sacrifice doctrinal integrity through doctrinal tolerance in hopes of achieving ecclesiastical unity, we no longer have a basis for true unity, and we have a church that stands for very little.

Christ's Deity

In verse 2 John explains that what they announce, and what they have experienced, is the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us. Since Jesus was the One they had experienced (heard, saw, touched), and it was Jesus who was revealed (Cf. John 1:14), then it is Jesus that John calls the eternal life. Only God possesses eternal life! So John is asserting Jesus' deity. He is claiming that Jesus is God.

Why do you think John asserts Jesus' deity at the beginning of this letter?

I'm sure you remember your introduction to 1 John?! A primary tenet held by John's opponents was the denial of Jesus' deity. They denied that Jesus was God. It was therefore necessary for John to assert the doctrine of Jesus' deity from the outset of this letter.

John's Purposes

In this prologue, John states two purposes for writing the letter.

Can you find John's two purposes in the prologue?

Purpose statements are typically indicated by in order that, or so that, etc. The first purpose statement is found in verse 3. John writes so that his readers may have fellowship with himself and the other apostles. The fellowship to which he refers is fellowship with God the Father and the Son. The apostles announce the facts concerning the incarnation of Jesus so that those who hear them might have fellowship with God. John’s words indicate that knowledge and acceptance of Jesus' incarnation are central to establishing fellowship with God. There is no other way to enter into a relationship with God.

The second purpose statement is found in verse 4. John and the apostles are communicating these things so that their own joy may be complete. Here is a profound understanding of life and meaning. What are these things that they are communicating? They are communicating the facts concerning the earthly life and ministry of Jesus, in other words, the gospel message. They are communicating the gospel message in order that their own joy may be complete.

Stop and think. What implication does this have to your experience of joy in this life?

John had a profound understanding of the meaning of life and the purpose for which we exist. Joy is experienced as we understand life's fundamental meaning and fulfill the purpose for our existence. The meaning of life is to glorify God, and therefore our essential purpose is to glorify Him by making His glory known and building His kingdom. We tend to act as though joy and happiness come as we make a life for ourselves; build our own kingdoms. We often try to achieve happiness and purpose by making much of ourselves; talking about our achievements, etc. But John tells us that joy is a result of making much of God, glorifying God, specifically by communicating the gospel message to others.

If we wish to experience a fulfilled, joyful life, we don't do so by pursuing it. We do so by participating in God's purposes, which include the telling of His story of salvation: making Him known. I'm sure many of you can join with me in giving examples of how telling the gospel message fills the messenger with joy. 

On a scale of 1-10, 1 being low and 10 high, how would you rank your level of joy in life?

On a scale of 1-10, how involved are you in communicating the gospel message of Jesus?

Conclusion

Perhaps this week you can focus on one person with whom you can share the gospel message. You could even turn them on to these Deep Daily Devotions in 1 John to come alongside of you in your efforts to communicate. In this way, may your joy be complete! Now for some prayer points from today’s devotional.

Prayer Points

If you are not certain, ask God to reveal to you the deity of Jesus as demonstrated in the historical facts of His life and ministry as recorded in the Bible.

Ask God to help you begin to communicate the gospel to someone this week.

Thank God for the joy He gives as we participate in building His kingdom.

False Claim of Spirituality: Laying the Groundwork (1:5)

Good morning or day or evening! I’m glad you’re back for another Deep Daily Devotional in 1 John. And now that we've looked at the prologue, it's time to begin studying the first main section of 1 John. I pray that you will seriously consider the essential groundwork that John lays for us in this section. Let's get going!

Introduction

In 1 John 1:5, John begins a section in which he exposes and examines three false claims of spirituality; false claims that one knows God. The first false claim is addressed in verses 5-7. In today’s devotional, we'll look only at verse 5 in which John lays the groundwork for exposing this first false claim.

(Read 1 John 1:5)

Our Devotional

Our Theological Anchor

John continues his appeal to historic revelation as the bedrock or anchor of what he believes. He begins verse 5 by writing, Now this is the message we have heard from Him… Think about it. As John exposes the false teaching of the opponents, he is, at the same time, teaching his readers to anchor what they believe objectively in the Word of God. If we are not careful to do the same, what we believe will be shaped by any number of aberrant theological or philosophical musings! We don't want that!

John's training also warns us about what we announce to others. A pool of wrong theological assumptions grows ever deeper and ever wider by word of mouth! Living in a world, as we do, proliferated with professionals and experts, crammed full of books, videos and radio programs, we must be ever more diligent not to allow popular sources to supplant Scripture as our anchor for what we believe. It's essential!

What is the true anchor for what you believe? The honest answer to that question becomes obvious when we consider the things we read the most and listen to the most. If God's Word is not the source we access most frequently, then how can we honestly say that God's Word is the anchor for what we believe? Food for thought!

God as Light

The message that John announces is this: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

What do you suppose God is Light means?

Light is a key concept in Scripture. In the Old Testament, we read of God going before the Israelites at night in a pillar of fire in order to light their way (Ex. 13:21). The Psalmist declares that God covers Himself with light (Ps. 104:2). In the New Testament, John describes Jesus as light (Jn. 1:5, 9).

Light was also a key concept in culture. Among those who were propagating this false teaching, light was an important metaphor for God. John seems to be making use of terminology common to both Scripture and culture in order to refute the false claim in verse 6. (We'll look at v. 6 in the next devotional.) John, however, infuses the common term light with distinctively Christian meaning.

Now, consider your answer to what God is Light means? Where did you get your answer? Remember, be careful not to read into the text your understanding of light. Let's allow scripture to define the God as light concept.

In Scripture, God as light has three specific implications:

God is pure, perfect, righteous

God reveals or exposes

God judges (since light exposes, it also serves a judging function)

God as light includes both a moral component (purity, holiness) and an intellectual component (reveals, exposes, enlightens). Light, then, is not merely the absence of darkness. Light has a moral quality, and to the pagans of John's day, this statement was rather profound. They had conjured up gods in their own image; gods that were good and evil, beneficial and cruel. Most of all, however, this was a refutation of the opponents' belief that all behavior was morally neutral.

The Groundwork

As I said in the introduction, in verses 5-7, John is addressing the first false claim of spirituality. The specific claim is found in verse 6, but here in verse 5, John lays the groundwork for his exposure of the false claim.

What groundwork is John laying in verse 5 that will help us uncover the false claim of spirituality in verse 6?

The groundwork that John is laying is right thinking about God; a right understanding about the nature of God. Whether we realize it or not, what we believe about God at our core determines everything. It determines our behavior, how we respond to crises, how we treat others, how we pursue fulfillment in life, our values, etc.

As we will consider more fully in the next devotional, morality matters. Morality matters primarily because God is a moral God; a God of purity and holiness by nature. Many people live under the false assumption that morality is merely what each individual determines it to be for themselves, thus morality doesn't practically matter. But if God is by nature a moral God, and if He resides in us as His people, then one's morals become an issue of reflecting the nature of the God who resides in us. To live in violation of His nature by choosing morals that do not conform to His morals, is to renounce the nature of the One we claim resides in us. Morals matter.

Conclusion

Morals matter because God is moral by nature. If we know Him and he resides in us, we cannot reject His very nature by living contradictory to that nature. John develops this argument more fully in verses 6-7, but for now, we should consider the truth that God's nature is the basis for evaluating our lives and our beliefs. All of our behavior and all of our thinking must reflect the nature of God. By way of application to our role as parents, we can say that when we attempt to call our children to a certain standard of behavior, we should appeal to the nature of God as the basis for that standard.

Prayer Points

Ask God to help you be committed to making His Word the anchor of your beliefs.

Ask God to protect your mind from beliefs that are contrary to His truth.

Praise God for His purity, righteousness and holiness.

Ask God to teach you more about His nature from Scripture.

False Claim of Spirituality: The Claim That Morals Don't Matter (1:6-7)

Good day again to you! I’m so glad you’ve chosen to go on this journey with me into the first letter of the Apostle John, and I pray that these deep devotionals will help us all learn more of God's truth and be able to integrate it into our walk with Christ. Today's devotional continues the theme presented in the previous devotional. So let’s get started!

Introduction

In the previous issue, we talked about how morals matter. The first false claim that John exposes here in verses 6-7 basically claims that morals don't matter. The claim is that what one does from a moral perspective has nothing to do with one's relationship to God. Let's see how John exposes and examines this claim.

Our Devotional

(Read 1 John 1:6-7)

The Claim

John exposes the first false claim of spirituality with the conditional statement,

If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not do the truth.

O.k. So let's define a few terms. Darkness is a clear opposite of the light mentioned in verse 5. Since light refers to the morally pure and holy nature of God, darkness implies impurity, immorality, or un-godlike behavior.

What do you think John means by walk?

We readily understand walk to mean live, but there's a little more to it. Walk refers specifically to moral conduct. It's translated from a compound verb that indicates the totality of our activities, including our thinking, our speaking and our doing. The tense of the verb implies continual action.

So now we've figured out the claim. The claim is that one can have an association with God (i.e. be an authentic Christian), while at the same time continually, habitually, living an immoral lifestyle, a lifestyle that is contrary to God's nature. John says anyone making this claim is lying and not doing the truth. They are lying whether they know it or not!

Practical Gnosticism

John's opponents were claiming that behavior was unimportant, since all physical matter was inherently evil. Therefore, they consciously and consistently lived in rampant immorality, all the while claiming to be authentic Christians. They saw no inconsistency, because the only thing that mattered, according to their view, was the spiritual realm.

John says that's false spirituality; the claim is a lie. Behavior does matter to God. Most of us would agree with John theoretically. We see the error in gnostic theology, yet often we behave as if we believe God is not concerned with our behavior? Perhaps we're just concerned with giving intellectual assent to certain religious concepts and going through the motion of certain religious commitments with little regard to purity and holiness. That's practical Gnosticism!

According to John, religious life is a way of living, not just some spiritual reflection or intellectual bent. If there is inconsistency between our conduct and our claim, it is our conduct that is telling the truth!

John also says the one making this claim is not doing the truth. That is to say, they do not reveal God's truth in their conduct or character. John Stott once summarized the idea: Religion without morality is an illusion.³

The Standard

What does John say is the correct view?

Fellowship

There's something else we can contemplate here. John does not consider fellowship to be based on a mutual purpose or cause. A relationship built around a common cause may be viewed as a type of fellowship in our culture, but that's not Biblical, Christian fellowship. John thinks of fellowship as a relationship with one another based on a relationship with God which results in godly character and conduct.

Summary

Let's summarize John's message in vv. 6-7. The first point is that it’s inconceivable that one can consistently live in a manner inconsistent with God's nature, if that one has a genuine relationship with Him. If our conduct and character are consistently inconsistent with His character, our claim to know Him is not true.

The second point is that we do not determine the standard for a life that is in the light. The nature and character of God determines the standard. As far as what is right and wrong, what is moral and immoral, what is proper conduct and what is not, our opinions do not matter. I can't tell you how often I hear Christians, when asked about any given issue, say, I think… When will we realize that what we think is not important? It’s essential that we discover what God thinks.

Conclusion

That's the first false claim of spirituality exposed by John in this section. Authentic Christians live according to the standards of holiness and purity determined by God. In the next devotional, we'll start looking at the second false claim of spirituality. See you then!

Prayer Points

Ask God to show you the ways in which your character is inconsistent with His.

Ask God to help you devalue your own opinion and value His.

Thank and praise God for His purity and holiness.

False Claim of Spirituality: The Claim of Guiltlessness Part A (1:8-9)

Hello again! It's time to think about the second false claim of spirituality addressed by John in 1 John 1:8-9. Remember, the first claim was that we have a relationship with God even while our behavior is consistently contrary to the nature of God. The second false claim is that we do not bear the guilt of sin. Let’s take a closer look.

Introduction

In verses 8 & 9, John does three things: 1) examines the claim of the claimants, 2) exposes the character of the claimants and 3) exhorts confession by the claimants. In today’s devotional we’ll consider John's examination of the claim. What is it exactly the opponents claimed?

(Read 1 John 1:8-9)

John Examines the Claim

The Claim is a Rebuttal

Do you notice in vv. 8-9 the repetition of a formula John used in 1:5-7?

This is the second problem/solution formula. The formula is If we…but if we… The same formula we saw in 1:6-7. This time, the formula introduces the claim If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin…

It’s best to consider this second claim as a rebuttal to John's response to the first claim. The issue John presented in vv. 6-7 is the inconceivability of one's behavior being consistently inconsistent with God's nature when one has a genuine relationship with God. John then addresses this second claim as if the opponents had responded by ignoring the behavior issue and simply stating that they don't bear the guilt of sin. It's an attempt to deflect attention away from the issue of the inconsistency of their behavior with the nature of God, whom they say they know.

This deflection device is a common technique. The Samaritan woman at the well employed this technique masterfully (See John 4:15-20).

The Claim is Radical

How does your translation state this claim? Take a look and see.

Some translations state this claim as, If we say we have no sin... This is not the same as the claim have not sinned in verse 10. John typically uses the verb to have with an abstract noun (i.e. sin) to indicate a general quality or principle. Furthermore, all of John's other uses of have no sin indicate that the meaning is "have no guilt of sin" (Cf. John 9:41; 15:22, 24; 19:11).

So their claim was that they weren't operating under the principle of sin, thus they were free from the guilt of sin. They were denying sinfulness.

Have you ever noticed how people have a difficult time admitting sinfulness; how people want to consider themselves as good people?

We often make the same false claim when we admit doing bad but not being bad. For instance, we might admit we told a lie, but we don't like to call ourselves a liar.

Think about it! When we deny sinfulness, we devalue at least these four things:

We devalue God's evaluation (He says we are sinful.)

We devalue God's grace (Grace is meaningless if we aren't sinful & in need of grace.)

We devalue God's holiness (The concept of sinfulness hinges on God's holiness.)

We devalue God's salvation (If we aren't sinful, salvation is unnecessary.)

I wonder how anyone can deny the sinful nature of mankind. A modern statement of that denial goes something like this: man is not inherently bad, but his environment corrupted him. We hear this denial frequently in news stories about heinous crimes. The criminal is either said to be insane or a victim of his circumstances. Both explanations deny or ignore the sinful nature of man. We can debunk this denial by asking two questions: 1) What made his environment so bad that it could corrupt him? (Remember, ones' environment includes other people); 2) What made him able to be corrupted? (If man is inherently good, how could he be so corrupted by his environment?)

The Claim is A Result

The opponents were able to make such a claim because of a skewed belief system.

They accepted a form of incipient Gnosticism, which taught that all matter was inherently evil. They then concluded that what was done in the physical realm was of no consequence to God. Spirituality, they believed, was isolated from everyday living; thus they could ignore morality and thereby claim they were not sinful. This theological assumption led to gross immorality among those claiming to know God.

So they compartmentalized their lives. There was the physical, and there was the spiritual, and the one had no bearing on the other. Most of us know very little about philosophical Gnosticism, but we’re quite good at being practical Gnostics.

In the developed world, industrialization has led to the importance of time, which has led to the compartmentalization of life. We have a specific time for most things. In underdeveloped societies, the clock is of little importance, and life is much more integrated.

My wife and I served as missionaries in an underdeveloped Tai Lue village. In that rural, simplistic setting, life was not ruled by the clock. There were very few specific time slots to do anything. Every aspect of one's life flowed together. Consequently, life in this Tai Lue village was holistic and integrated, rather than compartmentalized. The villagers' Buddhist and animistic beliefs were integrated into every facet of their lives.

In modern, developed nations, this is not the case. Stringent compartmentalization often excludes God from areas of our lives. We do our God-thing during that specified time for church, and that has very little to do with other aspects of our lives for which we have other specified time slots. Therefore, we can live inconsistent with the morality and nature of God in our everyday lives, and as long as we do our God-thing, we’re not bothered by the inconsistency. We have become practical Gnostics!

If God is our creator, nothing in our lives should exclude Him. Everything's about Him.

Can you think of areas in your life where God is practically excluded? (I.e. work, home, entertainment, parenting, school, etc.)

Prayer Points

Ask God to show you one area where you have practically excluded God.

Ask God to enable you to integrate Him into that area of your life.

Thank God that He loves you and has forgiven you in spite of your sinfulness.

False Claim of Spirituality: The Claim of Guiltlessness Part B (1:8-9)

I hope you took the opportunity yesterday to consider areas where compartmentalization may have resulted in God's exclusion from parts of your life. Hopefully, God revealed some specific areas to you, and you took measures to remedy the situation. Ready to continue? Alright, let’s go! 

Introduction

We're still looking at the second false claim of spirituality: the claim of guiltlessness. Last devotional we looked at John's examination of the claim. We saw how we compartmentalize our lives and thereby don't see the inconsistency between our behavior and the nature of God. Practical Gnosticism! Today we'll look at how John exposes the character of the claimants.

(Read 1 John 1:8-9 again)

John Exposes The Claimants’ Character

The Claimants Are Deceptive

John's words are emphatic and allow for no excuses. Those who make such a claim are practicing deception, only their deception is being perpetrated against themselves. But the point is that they don’t make such a claim out of pure ignorance. Their claim is a cover up. They are deceiving themselves.

Self-deception is a reality. We can tell ourselves something long enough that we believe it, even if it isn't true.

If you're married, think about the last time you argued with your spouse. How long did you persist in arguing your point after you