Trustworthiness 1 John:1-10

A text – 1 John 1:1-10

1 We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— ² this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— ³ what we have seen and heard we also declare to you so that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; ⁷ but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

A reflection:

The letter entitled 1 John seems to be a sermon or essay. The author remains unknown, though many early church teachers believed it must have been Jesus’s disciple John because of the claims made in these first verses to have seen Jesus and touched him with his hands.  The beginning verses are written so that the author’s eyewitness testimony could be passed along to both current believers and those new to the faith, expanding the believing fellowship both among other humans and between those believers and the Triune God.

The second section starts with the idea of light – God is light, and in God there is no darkness. And then it admits that humans do walk in darkness, and that when we do, we need to admit it and seek to walk in the light as best we can, which will then be in fellowship with God and one another.  If we want to walk in the light of God, we must be honest and fess up and embody what it means to trust Jesus to save us over and over again. And the good news is, Jesus does that. Many of the verbs about Jesus’s saving grace to human beings are in the present continuous tense in this letter. Jesus is continuing to save us. Jesus is continuing to speak up for us, over and over again.

Believing and trusting are a continuous process, not something we acknowledge once and then forget about. We live our human lives every day and choose what we do or don’t do every day. We wake in the morning acknowledging that Jesus is Lord, and as we walk through the day we sometimes forget to live out the love and sacrifice of God for us. Then we repent and are defended and re-welcomed into the fellowship of the Triune God and also the fellowship of our Christian community. We are beloved and cared for. Every day. By a human/divine person of the Trinity – Jesus Christ. That is what we believe. And even more, that is what we trust in. Our God is trustworthy. Amen.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for being as you are, trustworthy and heroic for us. Help us to remember that although we often fall short of your kind of trustworthiness, we can trust you to catch us and be good to us. Help us to remember that, especially when we need to be trustworthy and catch others and be good to them. Amen.