A recap of sorts......in 1st John 1:1-10

John begins his letter by talking about Jesus Christ. Who Jesus is, and how he and the other apostles had interacted with Jesus Christ. 


He uses various terms to describe Jesus, such as, ( that which was from the beginning, The Word of life, Eternal life ) 1:1-2


John then states two of the reasons for writing this letter. Actually there are 4  in the entire letter. But here are two in the first chapter. 


1.That we might have fellowship with them, and with the Father, 
   Son and Spirit. 1:3      


2. That your joy may be full. 1:4


These reasons, are also the purposes, and the intentions of God through John, that is, these are the things the Lord brings to us through this letter, and wants to accomplish, and will accomplish in our lives if we let Him.  That we might fellowship with God, and that our joy ( happiness ) might be full. These are two wonderful purposes of God for us. Thank You Lord. 


Moving on then, John tells us the message they had from Jesus Christ. It's simple, but profound to say the least. Here it is. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" 1:5 Light and darkness are used in Scripture, to speak of truth and lies. Purity and sin, etc, etc. 


The remaining verses in the chapter are also the message they had from Jesus, and here's what is said in 1:6-10


1. If a person says, I'm having fellowship with God, but is walking
    in, or living in darkness, they are telling a lie, and are not 
    practicing the truth.


  2. If we walk in the light, or live our lives in the light, in Christ, 
    then two things happen....We will have fellowship with other
    christians, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, will 
    cleanse us from all sin. 

3. If a person says, "there is no such thing as sin, I don't have 
    sin etc, " that person is deceiving themselves, and the truth is
    not in them. They are void of the truth. 

4. If we will confess our sins, or admit them to God, agree with
    what God says about sin, then, God is faithful and He is just
    to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
    unrighteousness. 
   
5. If a person says, " I have not sinned" then, they are making 
    God a liar, and the Word of God is not in that person. 

This letter, this epistle as it's called, deals very clearly with the the truths of how one knows they are a christian or not. It's designed to combat the false teaching of the day, that denied all the truths John is stating. 


John, as an apostle and a pastor was contending for the faith, or holding onto the truth of God's Word, and standing against the false teaching of his day. He was refuting the false heretical teaching of the Gnostic's. 


Again, here's a quick overview of what the Gnostic's were teaching. 


1. Knowledge is superior to virtue.


2. The non literal sense of Scripture is the correct one. 


3. Only a select few can really understand the meaning of 
    Scripture. 


4. The fact of evil in the world means, there must be more then
    one creator.  


5. The teaching that God became man is not true, and could not
    be.  


6. God would not unite Himself with a human body, ( bodies are
    corrupt ) 

7. There is no such thing as the resurrection of the flesh. 


The result of this teaching was, that people were mainly concerned with knowing truth, and did not care about how they lived their lives. There was no connection between what they believed, and what they did or practiced, or how they conducted themselves. 


A person had to have special knowledge, ( gnosis means to know ) in order to understand God's Word. Thus the average person was in the dark so to speak, and had to depend on the enlightened ones to tell them the true meaning of Scripture. 


There must be many Gods, or emanations from God, or go betweens God and man, because, how could there be a creator who would allow or create evil. 


And, since matter, is evil and corrupt, then God would never had united Himself with a body of flesh. Flesh is evil. Thus Jesus did not really have a body at all. 


Lastly, since bodies are evil, they will not be resurrected from the dead. So, there is no resurrection from the dead, and Jesus would not have been resurrected from the dead.