Dialogue With The Apostle John

I was studying the first chapter of 1 John this morning and found it helpful to make an imaginary dialogue between the apostle John and some random Joe to help me understand John's point in verses 5-10. Obviously this passage isn't written in dialogue form and what I have written below is very heavily paraphrased. But I do think that the sense of what John was saying is there, and I hope that it will be helpful for those who read it.

Imaginary Dialogue in 1 John 1:5-10:

Joe: "I have fellowship with him."

John: "But you walk in darkness, and God is light, so you are lying and do not practice the truth. If you would walk in the light as he is in the light you would have fellowship with other brothers and the blood of Jesus his son would cleanse you from every sin."

Joe: "But I don't have sin."

John: "Then you are deceiving yourself and the truth is not in you. If you would confess your sin (instead of walking in darkness), then, since he is faithful and just, he would forgive your sins and cleanse you from every unrighteousness."

Joe: "But I have never sinned!"

John: "Then you are making him out to be a liar and his word is not in you."


John uses a lot of cryptic language in this passage like, "walk in darkness," "walk in light," "the truth is not in us," and "his word is not in us." I hope that my dialogue above has helped to shed some light on what those things mean. But just in case it hasn't, here is a quick run-through of what I think the phrases mean. I am persuaded "walk in darkness" means that we conceal our deeds and live a secretive life. It seems to be set in opposition to confessing sin. If this is right, then obviously "walk in light" refers to a transparent and honest way of living in which you confess your sins instead of denying that you have them. As to the other two phrases, I think they refer to very similar concepts. Not having the truth in us seems to be either an emphatic way of saying that we are liars, or a slightly cryptic way of saying that the truth of the message which John mentioned earlier is not in us (meaning that we are not Christians). Not having God's word in us is a little clearer. When John mentions "the word" it is usually safe to say that he is referring to Jesus (see the John 1:1-18 for an example). If this is the way in which he is using "the word" here, then this is another way of saying that we are not believers. These definitions are by no means perfected and I may be misguided. I would love to hear others' input and welcome any corrections.

I hope that the above dialogue has helped you understand the point of what John is saying. This passage is a refreshing encouragement for believers to confess their sin, a brutally honest dose of truth for those who think they can play games with God, and hope for those who seek forgiveness in Jesus. If you haven't understood this passage and its interpretation, or if you think I have misunderstood it, please leave me a comment and give me your thoughts.

P.S. - I apologize if your name is Joe. There was no harm intended.

of Peter

Lately, I have been trying to come up with an answer to the question, "What are the essential characteristics or qualities of being human?" For instance, a red ball has essential characteristics and it has non-essential characteristics. An essential characteristic is that it is round (with the exception of maybe a football, but for the sake of argument lets ignore that for now). However a non-essential characteristic is the fact that it is red. The ball would still be a ball if it weren't red and was instead blue, but the ball would cease to be a ball if it had a pyramid shape or if it was a cylinder. Taking that same concept over to human beings, what makes a human a human? What are the essential characteristics of being human? I think that this is an important question to ask for a number of reasons. Unfortunately though, because of time I have to neglect the reasons and leave this post at just the mere question for now. I would appreciate any comments that would help me think clearly about this question. I don't think that I have an answer to it myself at the moment so I could use all the help I can get.