1:1 That which was from the beginning,

that which we have heard,

that which we have seen with our eyes,

that which we saw,

and our hands touched,

concerning the Word of life

1:2 (and the life was revealed, and we have seen, and testify,
and declare to you the life, the eternal life,
which was with the Father, and was revealed to us);

1:3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you,
that you also may have fellowship with us
. Yes, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
1:4 And we write these things to you, that our joy may be fulfilled.

1:5 This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you,
that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness,
 

we lie, and don't tell the truth.
1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,
we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
 

1:8 If we say that we have no sin,
 

we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
 

1:10 If we say that we haven't sinned,
 

we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
 

2:1 My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin.
 

If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
2:2 And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins,
and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
{"atoning sacrifice" is from the Greek "hilasmos," an appeasing, propitiating, or the means of appeasement or propitiation - the sacrifice that turns away God's wrath because of our sin.}

Intro:

In interpreting the whole book of 1st John, one of the most important things to understand is the significance of the present tense in the greek. The present tense can have a strong sense of continuity, which John makes use of. For there there is another tense which we don't have in English, known as the aorist which tends to be used when continuity is not stressed or when on wishes to express punctilinear events (events that occur at discrete points in time). When John uses the present tense, he is using it in the sense of the "lifestyle" of the person. For example, "walking" is referring to the overall lifestyle of the person, not what the person is doing at any particular point in time.

vs 1-4 John's main purpose in writing is to provide ways to identify real Christians and distiguish them from cults. One of the cults he addresses in this letter is "Docetism". The following is taken from Zondervan's Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible:

DOCETISM Its error lay in its denial of the reality of Christ's human body. The Docetists held that the body of Christ was not real flesh and blood but only a hallucination or a phantasm, deceptive and passing; that Christ's body was purely spiritual and therefore took up nothing of true human nature. This heresy developed easily and rapidly in one form or another because of the pagan philosophic emphasis of the time that matter is inherently evil. This being so, it was blasphemous to maintain that the spiritual Christ could have, in any sense at all, a physical body.

vs 6-7 "Fellowship" is our identification with Christ and with other believers. Those who are living a lifestyle of sin are not identifying themselves with Christ, regardless of whether they claim to be Christians. Only those whose lifestyle is consistent with that of children of the light are in a right relationship with God. Though we sin from time to time, such is not the overall characteristic of our lifestyle and we are not only forgiven of sin, but God is in the process of purifying us from our sinfulness, which changes our behavior as we mature in Christ.

vs 8-9 There are those, particularly in the holiness movement, that claim to no longer sin. They deny their inherent sinful nature. They deceive themselves, overlooking their own sinfulness. Such people are not true believers. And they lack the conviction of sin necessary to redeem them. True believers are honest about themselves. We recognize and confess our sinfulness. Such confession is part of our lifestyle. Once again, we are both justified from sin and in the process of being sanctified.

vs 10 God has declared all to be sinners, as in Rom 3:10-12. To say otherwise is to call God a liar. "His word" is the Bible. Not accepting what the Bible says about ourselves is a rejection of God indicating of the unbelievers.

2:1-2 Though John is encouraging Christians to not sin at all, he wants us to be honest about our sinfulness but not to be too worried about condemnation. For though our behavior may indicate our salvation status, we do not earn the forgiveness of sins by simply modifying our behavior. But rather we put our faith in Christ's atoning work.