We continue our journey through 1 John in the section that many Bibles title: “Walking in the Light.” John wants to ensure that his readers will know the connection between compete joy and walking in Christ, that is, living in His righteousness and not sin. This is the message that John is sharing, that God is light and we must, therefore, walk in the light if we say we have fellowship with Him. We begin our understanding of God here with this message. John declares this on the simple understanding that God Himself is light; and light has no darkness at all in it; for there to be darkness, there must be an absence of light. A good definition of God is: God is the only infinite, eternal, and unchangeable spirit, the Perfect Being in whom all things begin, and continue, and end (Romans 11:36). Another way of saying that God is perfect is to say that God is light. One commentator stated, “LIGHT is the purest, the most subtle, the most useful, and the most diffusive of all God’s creatures; it is, therefore, a very proper emblem of the purity, perfection, and goodness of the Divine nature.” Therefore, if there is a problem with our fellowship with God, it is our fault, our sin is darkness. It is not the fault of God because there is no sin or darkness in Him at all. Any approach to relationship with God that assumes, or even implies, that God might be wrong, and perhaps must be forgiven by us, is at its root blasphemous and directly contradicts what John clearly states here.
John first deals with a false claim to fellowship. Based on this, we understand that it is possible for some to claim a relationship with God that they do not have. We can also say that it is possible for someone to think they have a relationship with God that they do not have. Many Christians are not aware of their true condition apart from God. They know they are saved, and have experienced conversion and have repented at some time in their life. Yet they do not live in true fellowship with God. Walking in the light, or darkness, is meant to say there is a pattern of living to be seen. The issue here is fellowship, not salvation. The Christian who temporarily walks in darkness is still saved, but not in fellowship with God. John sees things much more clearly than our sophisticated age does, which doesn’t want to see anything in black or white, but everything in a pale shade of gray, flexible based on the individual. The modern world often thinks in terms of “my truth” in an individualistic sense. John is focused on the reality of God’s truth, ultimate truth, absolute truth. The Christian life is described as walking, which implies activity. Christian life feeds upon mediation, but is displayed in action. “Walking” implies action, continuity, and progress. Since God is active and walking, if you have fellowship with Him, you will also be active and walking, washed clean by the blood of Jesus (vs 7). Charles Spurgeon is helpful here, saying, “Does my walking in the light take away my sins? Not at all. I am as much a sinner in the light as in the darkness, if it were possible for me to be in the light without being washed in the blood. Well, but we have fellowship with God, and does not having fellowship with God take away sin? Beloved, do not misunderstand me – no man can have fellowship with God unless sin be taken away; but his fellowship with God, and his walking in light, does not take away his sin – not at all. The whole process of the removal of sin is here, ‘And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” John has introduced the ideas of walking in the light and being cleansed from sin. But he did not for a moment believe that a Christian can become sinlessly perfect.
Therefore, John speaks about confession of sin because Christians will still sin and we must be reminded that since our sins have been forgiven in our repentance, therefore we have fellowship with God Almighty as we confess those sins, knowing they’ve been paid for and we can be set free from them. When we confess our sin, we are willing to say (and believe) the same thing about our sin that God says about it. Jesus’ story about the religious man and the sinner who prayed before God illustrated this; the Pharisee bragged about how righteous he was, while the sinner just said God be merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18:10-14). The one who confessed his sin was the one who agreed with God about how bad he was. So, then confessing sin and walking in the light increases our fellowship with God and with other believers, knowing that we walk can with clarity as we keep his commandments (2:3-6).
So What?
John means to help the follower of Jesus to walk with clarity, joy, and grace which has been given through Jesus. We all go through ups and downs in our Christian faith. Whatever the struggle, whether external or internal, we often feel ourselves on changing ground of emotion or circumstance. Yet God calls us to lives of increasing consistency, stability, with the evidence of our inner transformation becoming more and more apparent as time passes. This occurs when we place complete trust in the work and grace of God, believing that He will certainly conform us to the image of His Son, Jesus. So often, people think Jesus is off in some faraway place and that He doesn’t really concern Himself with our daily struggles, issues, and concerns. But John is telling us that Jesus is right here with us in both the simple, mundane parts of our lives and in the complex, soul-wrenching parts. John testifies as a witness of his personal experiences that God became flesh and lived among men to save, redeem, and be worshipped by us. That means Christ came here to live with us and He still lives with us. As He walked the earth alongside John, so does He walk every day with us. We need to apply this truth, this reality, to our lives and live as if Jesus were standing right next to us every second of the day. If we put this truth into practice, Christ will add holiness to our lives, making us more and more like Him and bring Him the glory due His name.
Next month we will walk through Chapter 2, verses 7-14. Until then, brothers and sisters, walk in the grace of Jesus Christ as He has called you to be light to the world! As always, if you have questions, need prayer, a word of encouragement, or a cup of coffee, please contact me via my personal email: niloc1214@gmail.com
