In 1st and 2nd Samuel we had heard of God choosing a king for His people Israel, and we saw God’s hand working behind the events. King David is a picture of the blessed Man Whom God had in mind — our Lord Jesus. A thousand years have passed between 2nd Samuel and 1st John, and now we are reading of the Lord Jesus, having come to this world. He has given each believer that which He is Himself, “eternal life.” It is the life which was with the Father from a past eternity, and which is in the Son of God. It is in this life that believers enjoy communion with God the Father and God the Son. So we can learn that each believer in the Lord Jesus is one of the children in the family of God. We were born into it when we believed in the Lord Jesus. We have eternal life — Jesus is eternal life. He could not sin, nor can a believer in that new life we have received from Him. Read 1 John 3:99Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? (John 3:9). Believe it and you will enjoy it. Live it and you will be a spiritually healthy Christian.
V.1-3 John wrote his Epistle long after the other writers. Modernists of that day were saying Christianity was very good as a foundation, but that it was growing old, and new ideas were needed. We hear the same today. So John is showing that the PERSON OF OUR LORD, the true manifestation of divine life itself, cancels out all such proud thoughts.
V.4 Few of us believers know fullness of joy. Yet it is for us all. Fullness of joy is spoken of at least four times in Scripture (1) Fullness of joy through obedience John 15:9-119As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 11These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. (John 15:9‑11). (2) Fullness of joy through prayer John 16:2424Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:24). (3) Fullness of joy through communion John 17:1313And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. (John 17:13) and (4) our verse. The Holy Spirit is the source of the believer’s thoughts in his life in Christ, and He cannot give thoughts different from those of the Father and the Son. God has given us the full ability to enjoy this life, but we need to realize that it is only if we live this life daily that we are happy in Him.
V.6-7 Every unbeliever walks in darkness, and every believer walks in the light, so far as his position is concerned. But a believer surely may turn his back on the light, if he is disobedient to the Word of God. Nevertheless, the light still shines on him. God wants all believers to be in one fellowship, but our life of obedience is what produces that fellowship.
V.8 A believer is mistaken if he says this.
V.9 The pride of our will is broken when we confess a sin to God. We could ask for forgiveness without the conscience being touched; this would bring carelessness and coldness into our life.
V.10 An unbeliever might say this, but a believer cannot.