The first conciliar letter of the holy Apostle John the theologian. First Epistle of John 1st Epistle of John theologian

27.11.2023

1 My children! I write this to you so that you will not sin; and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for sins all over the world.

3 And we know that we know Him by this, that we keep His commandments.

4 Whoever says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 But if anyone keeps His word, in him is truly the love of God perfected: by this we know that we are in Him.

6 Whoever says that he abides in Him must do as He did.

7 Beloved! I am not writing to you a new commandment, but an ancient commandment which you had from the beginning. The ancient commandment is the word that you have heard from the beginning.

8 But moreover, I am writing you a new commandment, which is true both in Him and in you: because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

9 He who says that he is in the light, but hates his brother, is still in darkness.

10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no offense in him.

11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

12 I am writing to you, children, because your sins have been forgiven for His name’s sake.

13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you knew Him from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I am writing to you, youths, because you have come to know the Father.

14 I have written to you, fathers, because you have known the One without Beginning. I wrote to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

15 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world: whoever loves the world does not have the love of the Father.

16 For everything that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but from this world.

17 And the world passes away, and so does its lust, but he who does the will of God abides forever.

18 Children! Lately. And as you have heard that the Antichrist will come, and now many antichrists have appeared, then we know from this that the last time.

19 They went out from us, but they were not ours: for if they had been ours, they would have remained with us; But They came out And through that" it was revealed that not all of us were ours.

20 However, you have the anointing of the Holy One and you know everything.

21 I wrote to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, equals How and that" that every lie is not from the truth.

22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, rejecting the Father and the Son.

23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; and he who confesses the Son also has the Father.

24 Therefore whatever you have heard from the beginning, let this abide in you; If that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you, then you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.

25 And the promise which He promised us is eternal life.

26 These things I have written to you about those who deceive you.

27 However, the anointing that you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you; but just as this very anointing teaches you everything, and it is true and not false, whatever it has taught you, abide in it.

1. The love of the God-man Christ is an exclusive, the only type of love. Love is, first of all, Divine, perfect, but also incarnate, obvious (i.e. accessible to sight), visible reality: see. This love is seen, observed, heard, described. Its essence is as follows: God the Father, through His Only Begotten Son, has given us the strength to become, to be called “children of God.”

However, we, being sinners, become children of the devil, doing the works of our father (cf. John 8:41-48). In other words, we have been granted "Adoption of God." For the sake of this adoption of ours, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, acts in God. He is by nature the Son of God, who became the Son of man so that we might become children of God by grace. The power with which He does this is mainly and primarily Divine love, holy love, gracious love.

She completely regenerates the human being and gives birth to him from God. If there is a thought, then it is reborn by love in God and appears as God’s thought. If there is a desire, then it is reborn from love in God and appears as God's desire. After all, whatever God wants, love also wants. If there is a feeling, mood, soul, mind, the same thing happens. In this way we become "children of God." This love is a creative Divine power, it is the fulfillment of the first and greater commandment, that is, to love with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength (Matthew 22:37). Therefore, “fulfilled,” the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole mind, all the strength is filled with God, and God regenerates all this, cleanses, transforms, gives birth in a new way, and then the whole person becomes a child of God.

In a word, God “deifies” (idolizes) man with the god-creating power of His Divine love. Man strives with his whole being towards salvation: from self-denial he reaches deification, from “birth of God” to “deification of God.” This deep and comprehensive life of God in man, life in God, life with God. The world does not see this and does not know, and cannot do anything like that. And all this because “he doesn’t know Him.” He is known only by the personal perception of His love as one’s own, life by His life, soul by His soul, heart by His heart, conscience by His conscience.

In other words, Christ is known only by life in Christ. Man, mainly and above all, through the Divine sacraments and holy virtues, is led to Christ, “becomes Christlike,” constantly lives in Him, and for this sake “becomes Christlike.” And Saint John the Theologian rightly says: That is why the world does not know us because it has not known Him.

2. And every child of God grows with the age of God(Col. 2:19) c a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of Christ(Eph. 4:13) and increases the Church, increases the body of the Church with all the saints(Eph. 3:18, 4:11-16,18, Col. 2:19).

The Savior gave us in His Theanthropic body the Divine life-giving powers that we need for “Christ-making” and “Christ-making,” for “Church-making” and “Christ-Churching,” so that we may be like Him. This Christ-creation and Christ-likeness gives man a comprehensive idea of the God-man, in the full radiance of His Theanthropic perfections, since let's see Him as He is. The deepest and truest, only and true knowledge of Christ can be achieved only with “Christ-giving” and “Christ-making,” since we become, like Him, like Him.

3. Whoever has the goal of Christlikeness and Christ-creation becomes pure with the help of Divine powers, sacraments and holy virtues, since he has one single goal - to become what He is. And this can only be realized if he places all his hopes on Him, the eternally Humane and Condescending.

Only then can he purify himself, how pure He is, only then will he sanctify himself, “as He also is holy” (1 Pet. 1:15-16). Only then will he become love, just as He is love, and will become merciful, just as He is merciful. Because He became like us, so that we could become like Him. He is for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily(Col. 2:9) so that we become the fulness (fulfillment) of the Godhead spiritually, by grace. He became human to deify us. He cleanses us of all sin(1 John 1:7) so that we may become pure like Him. This purity is bestowed and required of us by the Lord. The human being was not created for sin and sinful filth, but for God and His purity.

4. Sin plunders man, the God-givenness and God-likeness of his essence. Sin is the main abomination, all abomination and the source of all abomination. “Pure” is actually clean from sin and its filth, and this is what holiness consists of. After all, only with the Divine powers that a person acquires from the sacred sacraments and holy virtues does he manage to keep himself away from sin. This purity, holy purity, is the Divine law that is given to the human essence. This purity is created and preserved by a life of good nature, love, prayer, truth, meekness, fasting, abstinence and other gospel virtues, in a word, by a life of holiness as a combination of all virtues and God-given powers.

In contrast to purity and holiness, as the Divine law for the human essence, lies sin, as the first and main lawlessness. Sin loudly proclaims to God with all its strength: I don’t want Your law, I don’t want to know about it or about You. I want to be far from You and to be outside of everything Yours. By committing sin, a person transgresses all the laws of God and is led through lawlessness and from lawlessness into anarchy, disorder, and chaos.

Sin is lawlessness, rebellion against the laws of God. Law is from God, sin is from the devil. The law of God is the gospel, while lawlessness is sin. One law of lawlessness is the struggle against the law of God, so that the law of God does not exist. In essence, the law is that which is Divine, the Gospel, while lawlessness is the opposite of it (the law), the opposite of the Divine and the Gospel. And such is sin and its father is the devil, who is the only and true lawless one. Lawlessness among people came from sin and through sin. What is the law for the One and Only God? Holiness, love, wisdom and other perfections. The same law applies to people, since they are god-like beings. There is one law for both God and people - the Gospel. He who does not live by this law is a wicked one. Sin is lawlessness, and virtue is law. Therefore St. John writes: Whoever commits sin also commits iniquity: and sin is iniquity.

5. One purpose of the incarnation of God the Word is take our sins to free us from lawlessness and its terrible forces. What is inside us is not from God, it is sins. And they prevent us from connecting with God, seeing God, knowing God. God the Word appeared among us, to take away our sins, and will make us capable of knowing, seeing God and uniting with Him. Sins are homicidal forces, and without them, and if they did not exist, man would be immortal. They (sins) interfere with life and kill everything human. The Lord Jesus Christ can “take away” these sins without Him Himself sinning or dying. Therefore He is without sin, and there is no sin in Him. After all, sin cannot realize in Him its murderous power, death. Sin is a poisonous snake that bites a person and introduces the poison of death into him. But sin cannot do this to the God-man, since His perfect Lordship is stronger than any sin and its powers. In the God-man there is no lawlessness, since there is no sin. He is Righteous. He is all in the law of God, all in Divine love, truth, justice, kindness, wisdom and all other Divine perfections.

6. Since he who abides in Him receives His Divine powers, they preserve from sin.

He came into our world, became a man, not to remain Alone, but to make man, people partakers (commoners) of His Truth and Holiness and to spread His perfections in His creation. He became the Body and the Divine-Human Body, which is the Church, to embody everything, to bring everyone to Himself and make them His members, to graft them in, like branches to a vine, to Himself (the Divine Vine). And you, faithful one, like life-giving streams, accept all the Divine powers of holiness, love, kindness, truth, wisdom, humility that emanate from Him and spread to all living branches, to all who abides in Him.

Who abides in Him, he abides in Divine love, in Divine kindness, in His Gospel. He who abides in Him abides, stands, lives in Him and with Him, since he does not sin. After all, whoever abides in Him lives in His holiness, which does not want sin, drives out and mortifies sin. And holiness is nothing other than life in faith, in love, in prayer, in fasting, in truth and in other virtues.

Everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him.

Sin is living darkness, a living dark force that does not allow a person to see God and everything of God, Christ and everything of Christ and to know Him.

Sin keeps a person in ignorance of God, in wickedness. This is a certain force that destroys a person’s godlikeness and removes him from God. She does not know God, even if she recognizes Him, she is still without God. God does not exist in it. Yes, there is no God in sin. Therefore, sin fights with all people, trying to show that there is no God and to impose this conviction on them.

God is seen by the pure heart, but He is not known or recognized by the unclean. Sin corrupts, destroys, kills the soul, mind, heart, the whole person. In the conviction that there is no God, a person does not feel God, does not see Him, does not know Him.

Knowing God is a purely moral fruit, moral achievement and education. Because a person lives in sin, he does not see God, does not know Him. The wicked is one who does not know God, one who sins, who does not see or know either God or God’s things, and this means that for pure and healthy knowledge and feeling and judgment, moral treatment and recovery are necessary first of all. And a person recovers when, with the help of holy virtues, he is cured of comprehensive moral corruption, of sin. Moral purity is necessary for correct and natural thinking, how pure He is, and this is achieved only by the Gospel life.

7. The measure of righteousness is the God-man, the Perfect Righteous One, since He is “He who exists.” Without Christ, human thought and conscience cannot have the right to know or possess righteousness.

Without Him and outside of Him, human thought exists only as a simple concept, as a theory, as a metaphor. Only in Him do we see the face of Righteousness, the personification, the embodiment of perfect Righteousness. What is righteousness? - God-man Christ, since He is Truth God's And His Gospel, since the Gospel makes the righteous, like He is righteous. Only with righteousness can we know righteousness. People become righteous, just as He is Righteous, because He gives them the necessary strength for this purpose. And a person brings and adds to this feat and everything else that he has, that is, heart, soul, mind and other arbitrary forces. But the main, primary power was granted to him by the Lord Jesus Christ. This power, through the Gospel of Christ, makes man related to Christ, Who is the only Righteous One, since everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. Yes, spiritual kinship with Christ and mental, spiritual birth and rebirth from Him occur only with Gospel righteousness.

8. In this world, a person is in a spiritual relationship either with God or with the devil, is in spiritual origin either from God or from the devil. The “creation” of righteousness, the feat of righteousness, righteousness is nothing more than the totality of the gospel virtues. By the feat of righteousness, man demonstrates his origin from God. By "struggling" in sin, he reveals that he was born of the devil . Whoever commits sin is of the devil, because the devil sinned first.

And when a person sins, he actually sins with the devil, since there is no sin that does not come directly or indirectly from the devil. Through every sin, a person is directly united spiritually with the devil, born from him, since there is no sin that is not from the devil. Every human sin is always a devilish one. Man commits sin because of his partnership with the devil. After all, the entire essence of committing every human sin is in the devil. And man is only his collaborator in this. The devil commits, man participates. The most obvious example is Judas Iscariot. After all, from the moment when the devil prevailed over him, the two of them committed the most terrible sin in the history of this world. Therefore, Saint John the Theologian says euphoniously: For this reason the Son of God appeared, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

The works of the devil are evil, envy, hatred, fornication and other sins and vices, from the greatest to the smallest. Through them, the devil directly makes a person his accomplice, that is, the devil’s collaborator in his evil deeds. However, the Savior Christ destroyed all the “centers of action” of the devil in man, destroyed all the devil’s works and saved man.

9. By creating virtues, a person is “born” of God. Does a person strive in love? If yes, then he born of God, because love drives out hatred from him, so that he does not commit sins. Thus, man is born of God and through the Divine sacraments and holy virtues, which cast out the demons of sin, destroy sins, so that man does not create them. The original "seed of God" is in God-like souls, in minds, in thinking, in desires. But basically, many seeds of God develop in man through the sacred sacraments and holy gospel virtues. The sacred sacraments and holy virtues are the “seed of God” in man, which increases and matures with age. For example, the “seed of God” is the Holy Communion, in which the whole God-man is present. This is the feat of man, to develop this seed into his whole being, through all thoughts, all feelings, all his nature, and so that it penetrates into his soul, into his whole heart, into all his mind, into all his strength through zeal and continuous evangelistic activity. A person healed by holy virtues leads these seeds of his from growth to full maturity to the “genus of virtues.” He then destroys all sin and sinful powers and thus cannot sin. And he can't, because born of God, all belongs to God. And he is so comprehensive and continuous born of God that his every thought is born from God and is transformed into God’s thought, every feeling into God’s feeling and every deed into God’s deed. He cannot sin because he does not want to, and he does not want to sin because protects himself(1 John 5:18).

His entire will and every desire is born, formed, comes from God and is transformed into God’s will and God’s desire. For a God-born person, it is reasonable and natural to do what is God’s, what is “according to God.” And also for one who is born of the devil, it is natural and reasonable to do everything devilish.

10. Truth and love are recognized children of God. And the “children of the devil” are known from untruth, hatred, sin and lawlessness. In reality, there are two families in the world - one of God and the other of the devil. Every person must belong to one of them. If he is truthful, then he belongs to God; if he is sinful, then he belongs to the devil; not to eat from God not only the one who labors in evil, but also the one who “does not do righteousness,” not only the one who hates his brother, but also “who does not love his brother.”

This is the eschatological evangelical God-human measure, which unconditionally shows which of the two families a person belongs to: God’s or the devil’s. Truth and love. Truth (truthfulness) as the totality of all the gospel virtues, but love as the Divine power realizes them and is a characteristic feature of the “children of God,” “sons of God” in this world. For them (these virtues) and in them, the children of God live and through them find peace.

Untruth and hatred are the characteristic features of the children of the devil in this world. For them and in them they live and through them they find peace. The human essence enters into the family of God, into the Kingdom of God, only if its righteousness “exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees” (Matthew 5:20), and this means that it is God’s, theanthropic, and not human, “humanistic” righteousness.” homo," only human.

Authorship of the First Epistle of John the Theologian.

John the Theologian

Despite the fact that neither the title nor the text gives a direct indication that the author of this New Testament book is John the Theologian, the Christian Church has no doubt about this and never has had one. At the beginning of the message, we only learn that the author of the book is a witness to the life of Jesus Christ. The Church's confidence in the authorship of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian stems from the similarity of the text of the Epistle and. However, if we remember that a large number of modern researchers believe that the author of the Gospel of John was not John the Theologian, but perhaps John of Jerusalem, Prester John, or a group of followers of the Apostle John, the question of the authorship of the First Epistle of John can be considered open.

Time to write.

We know that the First Council Epistle of John the Theologian was familiar to Justin Martyr, who lived around 100-165 AD. Therefore, the Epistle could not have been written later than 165, no matter who the author was. By the beginning of the 3rd century, the book was already considered canonical and authentic. There were no questions about the authenticity and canonical dignity of the book for the same reason - there was no doubt that the text belonged to the author of the Fourth Gospel. Here we encounter the same images and thoughts, the same sublime Christian contemplation, the same living memories of an eyewitness to the life of the Son of God. Even the lexical set of words is the same.

The time of writing in the Church Tradition is usually attributed to the end of the 1st century (97-99) - the last years of the life of the Apostle John. In the text, John the Theologian speaks not about the structure of Christian communities, but about their functioning and growth, which, of course, was characteristic of the later period of the life of the Holy Apostle. The text does not reflect the Jewish disputes characteristic of the earlier apostolic epistles. The author, however, tries to confront the false teachers operating within the Christian community itself.

Place of writing: Ephesus in Asia Minor.

Interpretation of the First Epistle of John.

The First Catholic Epistle of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian is often perceived as additional reading to the Gospel of John. The gospel is seen as theoretical, while the message is more practical and even polemical.

The first letter is addressed primarily to the Christians of Asia Minor. The main purpose of the Epistle is to warn against false teachers. The nature of the book is accusatory, exhorting. The author warns Christians about the dangers of false teachings about the Lord.

Most likely, by the word “false teachers” the author of the message meant Gnostics, who in their philosophy clearly distinguished between the earthly and the spiritual. It is also possible that the letter is directed against the theory dosetikov who did not consider the Son of God to be a real person. It is likely that the author also meant heretical views of Sirentia, who believed that the divine principle descended on Jesus during baptism and left him before the crucifixion.

It is worth saying that at that time the Greco-Roman world was distinguished by many ideas and philosophies, it is only clear that John the Theologian fought against those ideas that denied the fact that Jesus was the Son of God. The message is even more directed to the leaders of the church than to the congregations as a whole. It is the community leaders who must be faithful in their spiritual views.

The language, style and teaching of the Epistle are so close to the fourth Gospel that it is difficult to doubt that they belong to the same author. Tradition, which can be traced back to the century, believes that he is the ap. John the Theologian. The earliest quotation from the First Epistle of St. John refers to (St. Polycarp of Smyrna. Philippians, 7). Papias of Hierapolis, Clement of Alexandria, Origen and other writers of the 3rd century refer to it as a work of the apostle John. St. Dionysius the Great, who had a keen critical sense, definitely identifies the writer of the Gospel of John and the First Epistle of John. Expressions like 1 John. 2:7 indicate that the Epistle was written many years after the events of the Gospel. Apocalyptic motifs (“the last time,” “Antichrist”) distinguish, however, the Epistle from the fourth Gospel. In this regard, it has been suggested that the epistle precedes the Gospel of John in time. The question remains open about the false teachers mentioned in the message. The most widespread is the opinion substantiated by the archbishop. Vasily (Bogdashevsky), according to whom these false teachers were early Gnostics. The apostle himself often uses words associated with the concept of gnosis - knowledge (2:3,5; 3:10,14,16,24; 4:2,6, etc.). But even in the Old Testament the word daat- knowledge - appears as a synonym for faith.

The first epistle of John is not an epistle in the strict sense of the word. This is an inspired sermon on the essential principles of the Christian life. Unity with Christ, love for God and for people as something inseparable - these are the main themes of this Message. The apostle is speaking to beginners of all ages.

Ep. Cassian (Bezobrazov) notes: “The first epistle of the Apostle John can be learned by heart, but, strictly speaking, it is impossible to retell it. The epistle consists of individual aphorisms, often of extraordinary depth, the combination of which represents, perhaps, the most perfect example of John's “chain”. Any division of this message into its component parts must be considered conditional.”

The aphoristic nature of the Epistle gave rise to a number of exegetes (for example, Bultmann) to consider it a mosaic work, formed from different sources. But the correctness of this opinion is impossible to prove precisely due to the literary features of the Epistle. In it, the apostle’s speech flows in a single stream, in which there is no strictly logical sequence. Lohmeyer's attempt to isolate 7 parts in the Message is quite arbitrary.

Literature

Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), Works of St. ap. John the Theologian, Warsaw, 1928;
Barkley W., Interpretation of the Last. John and Jude, trans. from English, Washington, 1986;
Bogdashevsky D.I., False teachers exposed in the first Epistle. Apostle John, K., 1890;
Bukharev A.M., On the conciliar Apostolic Epistles, BT, collection 9, 1972;
[Glagolev A.], First Sobornoe Last. St. Apostle John the Theologian. - Second Council Last. St. Apostle John the Theologian. - Third Cathedral Last. St. Apostle John the Theologian, TB, vol. 10, pp. 308-350;
Glubokovsky N.N., Notes on the first last. St. Apostle John the Theologian, KhCh, 1904, No. 6; ep.
Evdokim (Meshchersky), St. ap. and ev. John the Theologian, his life and evangelist. works, Serg.Pos., 1898;
archbishop Eusebius (Orlinsky), Conversations at the First Council. St. ap. and ev. John the Theologian, St. Petersburg, 1864;
prot. Zefirov N., Public explanation of the apostolic epistles, Mogilev, 1912;
Apostle. Acts and Epistles of the Apostles with the Apocalypse. To the glory. and Russian adverbs. With a preface and details explanations of Bishop Michael, books 1-2, Kyiv, 19052;
ep. Nikanor (Kamensky), Explanatory Apostle, parts 1-3, St. Petersburg, 1904-05;
Pitirim, Archimandrite of Volokolamsk, Pastoral didactics of St. Apostle and Ev. John the Theologian, ZhMP, 1984, No. 3;
prot. Polotebnov A. (preface, notes), John the Theologian. Cathedral last. Apostle of Love St. John the Theologian I, II, III for glory. and Russian adverbs, M., 1875;
Sagarda N., First cathedral last. St. ap. and ev. John the Theologian, Poltava, 1903;
his, Cathedral Sequences. ap. and ev. John the Theologian, PBE, vol. 6, pp. 837-61;
Farrar F.V., The first days of Christianity, parts 1-2, St. Petersburg, 1888;
Kheraskov M.I., Apostolic Epistles and Apocalypse, Vladimir, 19073;
Brown R., The Community of the Beloved Disciple, N.Y., 1979;
Bruce F.F., The Epistles of John, L., 1970;
Laplace J., Discernement pour temps de crise, P., 1978;
Perkins Ph., The Johannine Epistles, Chi., 1979;
Stott J.R., Epistles of John, L., 1964;
JBC, v.2, p.404-13;
RFIB, v.2;
NCCS, p.1257-62.

Used materials

Bibliological Dictionary of Priest Alexander Men

1:1-3 About what was from the beginning, what we heard, what we saw with our eyes, what we looked at and touched with our hands, about the Word of life
Here John is not talking about Scripture as such, but about Jesus as the one who brought and fulfilled the word of God.
John writes that through human senses, which hear, examine and touch, one can tell about what has entered through them into the minds and hearts of Christ’s disciples. And everything that fits into the minds and hearts is no longer in mortal flesh, but is sown in the human spirit, in beliefs and perceptions, which is much more reliable than what is sown in mortal flesh, for internal convictions do not decay.

for life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you this eternal life, which was with the Father and was revealed to us
It was Jesus who brought eternal life to people. In what sense?

1) by the fact that with his death he redeemed us and made it possible for humanity
2) indicated the path (way of life) thanks to which we can draw closer to God and receive eternal life.

what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you, so that you also may have fellowship with us: and our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
John was a direct participant in the events and personally saw everything that happened and heard the word of Christ - from the lips of Jesus himself.

Communication with the Father and His Son means for each of us that there is an opportunity to find out what everyone needs to do in order to live forever. Through this Word of life, transmitted by Christ, Christians seem to communicate with God Himself and His Christ.

1:4-7 And we write this to you so that your joy may be complete.
5 And this is the gospel that we have heard from Him and proclaim to you: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, but walk in darkness, then we lie and do not practice the truth;
7 But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
John shares his own joy, for what is missing cannot be shared with others. And his joy is unusual, not one of those that often occurs because of the satisfaction of the flesh, but precisely because of the knowledge of God’s love in the face of Christ - the joy of John. And he writes to fellow believers in order to strengthen their joy in the knowledge gained through the gospel. The essence of the gospel is that God is light, there are no dark spots in him. And God cleanses our dark stains of sins with the help of the blood of Christ (thanks to the sacrifice of atonement).

Usually all deeds that are good and kind in the eyes of God are done in plain sight (in the light), for those who do them are sure that by doing so they glorify God. Only those deeds that are evil in the eyes of God are hidden in the darkness. Therefore, it is better for His servants not to do those things that do not glorify God:
For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed, because they are evil, but he who does righteousness comes to the light, so that his deeds may be revealed, because they are done in God - John 3:20-21.

If someone claims to communicate with God and Christ, but does dark things (does wrong), he is a liar.
And whoever does works of light, it is clear even without statement that he is in fact in close communion with the Father and His Son and that communication with the Highest has a positive influence on him in everything, if he imitates God and Christ in his righteous way life. It is precisely about THIS one who walks in the light in practice (and not who just declared this) that we can say with confidence that the blood of Jesus cleansed him from all sin and opened access to God, otherwise a Christian would not be able to be in close communion with God and mind with righteousness - to gain from Him.

1:8,9 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, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If, because we have received the opportunity to communicate with the Highest, we hasten to declare our infallibility, then we are not acting in truth, we are deceiving ourselves, for there is no righteous man from sinful Adam, not one.

If we realize that we are sinful, we do not close ourselves off, but open to God EVERYTHING that concerns us and in which we sin, then our sins are forgiven thanks to the righteousness and faithfulness of Christ, for if he had not maintained his faithfulness, his sacrifice of redemptive power would not have been possible. had.

1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, then we represent Him as a liar, and His word is not in us.
If, as servants of God, we say that we do not sin, then we show that God is lying, for He Himself says that ALL sinned in Adam (Rom. 5:12) - in contrast to what we say about ourselves. Yes, and Jesus came for this purpose, to atone for our sins (1 John 2:2).
And if we were righteous and had no sin, Christ would not be needed.