4/12 Sunday School "God Is...Light"

Introduction

Let’s begin by noting that there is no way that someone could do a series called “God is…” and have all the names and attributes of God listed. It is impossible. So what we are going to look at over the next three weeks are not a complete summary of God, rather it is a look at three attributes of God that the writer of 1 John wants to highlight. We are going to look at the three L’s: Light, Love, and Life.

Bible Study/Exegesis (What it meant then)- 1 John 1:1-2:27

Everyone turn to 1 John 1. While we are turning there here is a little background. While some say this book was written by John the beloved the disciple, others say it was John the Elder, and others someone else, we know fairly certain that this was written by the same person as the person who wrote John the Gospel. The word structure and some of the same themes are present in these letters as in the Gospel.

Also, the reason for the writing of this letter is to address the problem of declining commitment to the cause of Christ. This is after the Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem and the Christians, as well as Jews, were dispersed throughout the land. Along with declining commitment, there was the problem of false teachers who were coming and leading the people astray. So we need to see this letter as an apologetic letter, standing up for the Christian faith and correct teaching.

Read 1 John 1:1-4

·      Starts very similarly as the Gospel (Read the first few verses of John)

·      Think about our series on evangelism, what is John trying to do here in the introduction? He is trying to show his credibility and showing that he knows this Jesus that he is writing about.

Read 1 John 1:5

·      This is one of the eternal truths that no one will dispute. Light and dark cannot coexist. What this statement says is basically this, as a human, you have a public life, but some of us have lives that we live in secret that are in stark contrast to who we are in front of others. God is not like that. He does not put on a mask, and He does not change. He is the same God all the time and in every situation.

Read 1 John 1:6-2:17

·      It is almost like John talks about God and has everyone nodding their heads, and then very abruptly he turns it into, “But you aren’t acting like that is the God you are following”.

·      These verses highlight a hypocritical life. It is not just the life lived by what we like to label as “Sunday Christians” but all Christians. In a very simplistic way it is like saying don’t work at McDonalds but eat on your breaks at Burger King.

·      Remember, the epistle was written to combat the decline in commitment. What do these verses say about our commitment to God?

·      What was the other reason for writing this letter? To combat false teachings. There was a teaching (how quickly people twisted Christianity to be easy to do) that there actually was no one thing called “sin”.

Application/Hermeneutics (What it means now):

Is there a thought in people’s lives that God has a secret life?

What do you derive from 1 John 1:6-10, when he discussed the Christian walk?

What is one thing you learned today?