I DON’T REMEMBER now where I first heard or read the story, but it’s one to which I’m sure many preachers can relate. A pastor had a somewhat challenging relationship with a member of his church, who held some beliefs that were more New Age than biblical. One morning, the pastor preached a sermon on how we all belong to God, using the punchline, “We are all God’s.” The man met him at the door and shook his hand, thanking him for the sermon. “Finally,” he said, nodding with approval. “You see what I’ve been saying all along. We are all gods.”

Oops. It never occurred to the pastor that his words would be understood that way. The man seemed to have taken the one key phrase completely out of context, ignoring everything else the pastor said in the sermon. He heard what he wanted to hear.

Imagine, then, that the man hadn’t said anything to the pastor after the service. Instead, he enthusiastically posted his interpretation of what the pastor “said” on social media — and the post garnered an unusual number of likes. What would happen after the pastor discovered how his words had been misrepresented? Personally, I can easily imagine how things might go wrong from there, even leading to a splinter group that breaks off from the congregation, believing that they have the “real” truth.

This is not pure fiction. From the very first days of the church until now, there have been strong disagreements over the right way to understand the teaching of Scripture. Indeed, much of the history of the Christian church is an ongoing saga of dissent and division, controversy and councils. Congregations split over unresolved conflicts and form new congregations; denominations do the same. Some of the splits are amicable; people agree to disagree and calmly (more or less!) go their separate ways. But many splits leave anger, resentment, and a sense of betrayal in their wake.

The process of how things come to that point is an important one. Everyone, presumably, wants to hold to what they believe to be the truth. But will they do so in a way that honors God, especially a God whose character is the very essence of love?

THIS IS THE kind of situation with which the letters of John seem to deal. Try imagining a situation like the one I just described, and then read 1 John with that background in mind. You can hear something of the controversy that lies behind his words; you can hear John taking a stance, wanting to make sure that the church doesn’t fall into error. In 1 John 2:26, for example, he explicitly says,

I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. (NIV)

Reading between the lines of chapter 1, the theological controversy seems to be about sin, or more specifically, about the possibility of sinlessness. In response, John makes an emphatic statement whose meaning can’t be mistaken:

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8)

You may have read that verse before and scratched your head: Really? Would anyone truly claim to be without sin? Why would John have to say such a thing? But apparently, some were claiming this.

And unfortunately, it may have been because some folks within the church were misreading what John had written in his gospel. The Fourth Gospel makes much of the contrast between light and darkness. We can hear it right from the opening lines. Speaking of God’s eternal Word, who was with God from the beginning of all things, John writes:

In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. (John 1:4-5,9)

Remember, too, that it is only in John’s gospel that Jesus claims directly to be the light of the world, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). You can hear the echo of the words we just read from chapter 1.

But suppose that someone were to take these words and turn them into a statement about some kind of divine enlightenment. We can have the light of God’s truth within us, some might teach, and because of this, it’s possible to be sinless. How would John respond? Here again is the verse about claiming to be without sin, this time with the verses just before it:

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 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, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:5-8)

Yes, John says, God is light. If we have true fellowship with God, we should live out the truth and not live in a way that reflects the darkness of the world instead. But this isn’t about having the light as some kind of individual possession. It’s about continually walking in the light, having fellowship with God and with one another. Only the blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin. So if we claim to be somehow sinless, that’s evidence enough that God’s truth isn’t really in us.

We will, of course, come back to these verses in more detail later. And there are other controversies: at one point, John’s words suggest that people were also denying the Incarnation, denying the very idea that Jesus was God in the flesh.

For now, though, it’s enough to remember, as we work our way through the letters of John, that the letters were written by a pastor who was worried about his beloved people falling into theological error that was prompting some to break off from the church. His words were being twisted, and he needed to put pen to paper to correct what was being said. But ever and always, the challenge was to give such correction in love, so that he himself embodied the truth of what he wrote.