My Day, and Mussing on 1 John 1

Hi Somebody Somewhere,

So my day is going interestingly so far. Long story short, It’s spring break for me (yes, I am still in college in my mid-twenties, and that is several stories in and of itself), but I’m working part-time, so I didn’t go anywhere but a lot of my friends are out of town, so I am spending a fair bit of time by myself on an almost deserted campus…

Life this far hasn’t always been easy for me and I have accumulated a fair number of scars. I’m an intuitive introvert, so I like spending time in my own head (my Myers-Briggs type is INFJ), but if I am allowed too much uninterrupted time in my head, it tends to aggravate old scars.

So combine the large amounts of time I am getting to spend alone, with old scars (and the fact my spring allergies are just starting to kick in), and I’m not having a wonderful day, even though there is nothing actually “wrong”….

In light of my not so great day, I decided to try reading the Bible some (since I have honestly been slacking on it the last few days), and I got through a grand total of 4.5 verses before I decided to share what I was readying and some thoughts on it. (Please note: These are just my thoughts on the passage, and I am in noway claiming to be an end-all authority on scripture. These are just the musings of me having a bad day.)

For sake of clarity, the Scripture passages will be in Blue and my notes in [square brackets and black]. (I recommend only reading the passage first, then the second copy of the passage, which has my thoughts inserted, and finally coming back and reading only the passage again, so you can see if you agree/disagree with my assessment. I would also love if, after reading it, you left a comment with your thoughts on the scripture.) Here is the passage by itself, followed by the passage with my thoughts

1 John 1 (ESV)

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— ² the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— ³ that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, 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 with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John 1 (ESV) [with my thoughts]

[A lot of the books at the end of the New Testament, including this one, are letters, and as such they start off with a greeting of some kind, but John doesn’t seem to start this one off quite that way.]1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life [so he is talking about something that has always been, but he has interacted with]— ² the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us — [verse 2 is enclosed in dashes, and is therefore a side note (like my use of parenthesis). To follow the thought, you have to realize that the thought started in verse 1 is finished in verse 3, and the first part of verse 3 goes over some of what was said in verse 1. ]³ that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. [So what he seems to be trying to say in verse 1-3, is his purpose for writing, to proclaim what he has seen and heard…] ⁴ And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. [This I found interesting. He is writing to tell them what he has seen and heard, but he is telling them “so that our joy may be complete” which means his joy is also effected by him writing to them.]

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.[This whole concept of God being light, may or may not play into the title and tag line of this website…] ⁶ If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, 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 with one another,[Our “walking in the light” … effects not only our relationship with Him, but also with each other.] and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves[…Humanity seems to have a special knack for deceiving ourselves… ], and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

So pretty much what I got from this is that I am supposed to keep doing what I am doing right now (writing on here/to you/blogging/whatever you want to call it)…

Honestly, I think this is part of God’s will for my life right now, and even though I don’t understand why He would want me to do it (especially since, no one is actually reading it yet) I’m going to keep writing the things I have seen and heard “so that our joy may be complete”… (I can only do my part by writing it, whether or not you read it and get any joy, is completely on you.)

… Anyway, if someday, somebody somewhere is reading this, I hope it was encouraging… It has been for me, even if in a really weird way.

P.S.

Just so you know, I actually started writing this yesterday, and had to stop for work. I picked up and finished it this afternoon, but left the … in the middle so you could tell what I wrote when.