টীকা বর্তমানে শুধুমাত্র ইংরেজিতে উপলব্ধ। বাংলা অনুবাদ চলছে।
1 John 1 — That Which We Have Heard and Seen
John, the last apostle, writes near the end of the century to a church under doctrinal threat from early gnostic teachers denying the true humanity of Christ. He opens with the eyewitness force of the gospel: that which we have heard, seen with our eyes, looked upon, and handled. The fellowship that comes through this message is fellowship with the Father and the Son. The chapter's second half states the cure for sin: if we confess, He is faithful and just to forgive.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
— 1 John 1:9
- v.1-4 The Word of life we declare — that ye may have fellowship
- v.5-7 God is light — walk in the light, and have fellowship
- v.8-10 If we confess our sins — He cleanses
The purpose of preaching is fellowship — not information transfer. Doctrine matters because it draws the soul into communion.
Fellowship — Greek koinōnia, shared participation. Believers are brought not merely near to God but into shared life with Father and Son.
John's first declaration about God's being: God is light. (He will give two others later: God is righteous, and God is love.) Together they form a triad.
No darkness at all — the absolute is doubled in Greek. Not a single shadow. Holiness without spot, truth without smudge.
Walk in the light is not sinlessness; it is honesty before God. To walk in the light is to bring everything into His view and refuse to hide.
The promise is double — fellowship one with another (horizontal) and cleansing (vertical). The blood is the basis of both. The verb cleanseth is present-continuous: keeps on cleansing.
The first of three if we say statements (vv.6, 8, 10) — each more pointed. Here: to deny one has a sin nature is self-deception.
John refuses the perfectionist illusion. The honest Christian is not the one who claims to have stopped sinning, but the one who keeps confessing.
The most quoted verse in 1 John. Two adjectives anchor the promise — faithful (He keeps His covenant word) and just (the price was paid at the cross). His forgiveness is not leniency that overlooks; it is justice that has been satisfied.
Confess — Greek homologeō, "say the same thing." To confess is to agree with God's assessment of our sin, not to inform Him of what He did not know.
The third if we say — even sharper. To deny that one has sinned is to call God Himself a liar, since His word everywhere declares humanity's guilt.
There is no neutral ground. Either confession or contradiction of God.
Make verse 9 your evening practice. Before sleep, name to God specifically (not vaguely) the sins of the day. Faithful and just to forgive is His covenant; the receiving is yours. To carry a day's sins to bed unconfessed is to insult both the promise and the price.
Every clause is Christ-centered. The Word of life heard, seen, handled (v.1) is the Son. The Father's fellowship is mediated through Him (v.3). The blood that keeps cleansing (v.7) is His. The justice that makes forgiveness possible (v.9) is grounded in His finished cross.
A direct echo of his Gospel's opening — but here John piles on bodily verbs. Heard, seen, looked upon, handled. The gnostics were teaching that Christ only seemed to have a body; John answers that he touched Him.
From the beginning — the same phrase as Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1. The eternal Word entered the realm of the eyewitness.