1 John 1:5-10

Introduction:

Fellowship can be difficult to describe. John has written his letter so that we can know fellowship with God the Father and Christ the Son--as well as with other believers--but our fellowship often feels severed. Sin greatly effects the quality of this fellowship. So how are we to evaluate our current condition? Is fellowship with God such a reality that we must conclude we have no sin? If sin gets in the way of our fellowship, can we claim to have fellowship with God while sinning? And if sin severs our fellowship, can I have fellowship with God once I've sinned? John immediately addresses these questions for the reader.

Commentary

v 5
John's testimony is clear. He saw, heard, felt and witnessed the works of Christ. He can give us an eyewitness account of this. However, John has also said their is a message he wishes to proclaim. As mentioned earlier, a proclamation is a message from someone else. John is now going to present this message.

The message can be trusted.
John is not presenting rumor or inference. He is presenting a message that can be relied upon. This "message" (ἀγγελία) is an announcement or promise, as if from an angel himself. His message can be trusted for it comes from an eyewitness, who heard the message directly from Christ. He is going to directly convey the message he heard. Like a herald making an announcement for the king, John is prepared to relay (without distortion) the message to his readers.

The message is about God.
John's message begins theo-centric. He does not begin with man or his condition, but with God and His condition. John begins his message by stating that God is Light. This should remind us of John 1:4-8:

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.

Just as John affirmed that Jesus is divine, in John 1, he makes the same claim here in his letter. In John 1, he showed that the Word was God, affirming that Jesus is God and then called Jesus the Light. Now, in his letter, he calls God the Light, a description he has attributed to Christ.

But what does John mean when he says God is Light? Previously, John has intended a moral purpose. Consider John 3:19-21:

This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

John uses the Light to describe Christ and contrasts Him with the world. The world loves darkness rather than the Light because the world loves evil. Therefore, when John states here that God is Light, we can understand that he is speaking to the moral perfection of God and Jesus Christ. John's first message is that God is perfectly righteous.

Certainly, any illustration falls somewhat short in describing God. John is not speaking of muted light, filled with shadows and distortions. John is speaking of perfect light, not tainted by a single shadow. To make sure John is understood, he further describes the Light. Literally, he states, "And in Him there is no darkness...none at all!"

The Light which is God is a perfect light without any darkness or flaw. There is not corner shadow in God's character. There is no area which can be unmasked that shows moral decay. He is perfectly enlightened as well, having no area outside of His knowledge.

John begins his message to us with the declaration that God is perfectly holy and all knowing.

v 6
After presenting objective truth about God, John then moves this message to our own application. John now turns the attention to our fellowship with God, for that is his goal in writing. God is holy and perfect and we desire to have fellowship with him. He is Light without any darkness, but are we?

John presents the obstacle to our fellowship with God. God does not love us more than His own character, therefore He cannot violate Himself for our sake. If God is perfect light with no darkness, how can we claim to fellowship with Him if we walk in the darkness?

Yet, there are some who make this claim. They say they already have fellowship with God, though they walk in the darkness. While being active in evil and seeking fellowship with God, there are only two options. 1) Either God fellowships with us in the midst of our darkness and violates His character, or 2) We are not accurate when we say we have fellowship.

Certainly, God character is not compromised, so we must be the ones mistaken. In fact, John says we speak falsely when we claim to have fellowship while walking in sin. We are not proclaiming the message we have heard and are certainly not proclaiming truth, but instead are making a false statement. When we such fellowship, yet retain our evil deeds, we present a message that God tolerates sin, and thus contains shadowy areas. Such a statement is false to make. But the error is not only in statement, but our life is a lie as well. We not only send a false statement about God, but we ourselves practice that which is false. We are not living in truth.

v 7
Left with verse six, we could conclude that fellowship with God is not possible. However, John lets us know it is conditionally possible. However, we must read the verse carefully to catch the condition...

No, not here... If we walk in the Light is not the conditional statement to fellowship with God. John is not telling us that our works are necessary to obtain salvation, though our works will be an evidence of salvation. Therefore, his is exposing to us that we need to pursue righteousness and to be morally pure. This standard should be none other than that of Christ. Walking in the Light must not simply mean "walking with less darkness" but our standard is to be blameless.

Still not here... We have fellowship with one another. Again, this is not the condition for our fellowship with God, but is the result of walking in the Light. John conclusion should not surprise us. If we walk in the Light, we will not be sinning against one another, therefore there will be no offense between relationships. If one man sins against another their fellowship is strained. If two men sin against one another, fellowship is about impossible. If both men pursue righteousness, there is not point of stumbling between them. Again, John is not stating that fellowship with other men will earn you favor with God, but that walking in the Light, which will come after finding favor with God, will enhance our fellowship with other brothers.

Here... and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all unrighteousness. If we must walk in the Light to the standard of Jesus, we will never see fellowship with God, for we cannot attain Jesus' perfection. Walking in the Light is only possible if we have entered into fellowship with Christ through His blood. And as John has already established, fellowship with one another starts in fellowship with God the Father and Jesus His Son. Sin must be dealt with for fellowship to occur and sin must be dealt with through the cleansing blood of Jesus His Son.

v 8
If sin severs fellowship with Christ, then there are four options: 1) Ignore the need for fellowship with God. 2) Claim that our fellowship remains despite our sin. 3) Have our sin cleansed by Jesus' blood, thus making fellowship possible. 4) Deny the need for the blood of Jesus by claiming to be sin free.

John has already dealt with the other arguments and now turns to our current condition. For the person who claims to have fellowship with God because they are sin free, John comes out with pretty strong words. It is interesting to note that John does not first turn to the past, but instead looks at the present. If, right now, you look at your life and believe you are sin free, you are deceiving yourself and the truth is not in you. In essence, you are deceived because you have bought a lie.

But how can this be? Isn't it possible to be without sin for at least a moment? What if I'm in a church service, encouraged to confess my sin, which I do and am cleansed, and spend the next 15 minutes in whole-hearted praise and worship? Could I at that point say I am sin free? Only if John's words could be considered false. So, how does this work? Consider words from John Piper:

The reason people are not stunned by the grace of God and their own salvation is because they have never felt how inveterately sinful they are everyday because they have not been taught well what sin is. They've grown up in Christian homes, they've never committed adultery. They've never stolen anything, they've never killed anybody. They're scratching their head, saying, "When have I sinned last? I can't remember when I sinned last."

We've all been there. We've all been there. Everybody says, "Let's have a five or ten minute time here of confession." And you're thinking, "Uh, let's see..."

Listen, if you catch on to what I've said...3 seconds ago you were sinning. Did you love Him, did you prefer Him in proportion to His worth? His infinite worth?--The Nature of Our Depravity

If we think that sin is only an action of commission (or even a moment of omission) then we neglect much of the offense of sin. Our sin is not just and action, but the action is a display of our condition. If you think you've reached a point of sinless perfection, you are deceiving yourself as to the definition of sin, and the condition of your heart.

v 9
Our sin separates us from God. If we have sin, we cannot have fellowship. Yet, John wrote this letter so that we could have fellowship with God. So how can these truths be reconciled?

Confession (ὁμολογῶμεν) literally means "same word." To confess our sin means to come to the same word as God about sin. It means to admit we have sin. It means we admit that our sin separates us from God. It means that we admit that our sin is deserving of eternal torment. It means that we realize our condition of sin is completely irreversible apart from the work of Christ. No more denying. No more justifying. No more minimizing. We, by faith come to complete agreement with the Word of God regarding our sin.

He is faithful and just. Since the truth about sin is not exclusively the bad news, but also includes the news that Jesus can pay the penalty for our sin, when we confess these truths God will be faithful to His word. John has already reminded us that the message he received is that God is Light. The beauty and glory of the gospel must reside within the truth of God's character, not ours. Therefore, if God has promised salvation, he cannot change the conditions or deny a repentant person. He must remain true to His Word and to His Son. His righteousness demands that He cannot punish both me and His Son for my sin. He cannot require double payment. Therefore, the security of our forgiveness does not rest in our works, or even our confession. The security of our forgiveness rests in the faithfulness and justice of God.

Forgiveness and cleansing. Since Christ is our payment once for all (Hebrews 10:10), our forgiveness if promised for past, present and future sins. Therefore, God not only forgives our sins we have committed, He cleanses us from the sin we bear. The righteousness of Christ becomes imputed to us and we are clean before God.

v 10
The person may protest, "Well sure, if you've sinned before, there is no way to remove the stain. But I've never sinned before." John has a word for that claim.

John explains that the stakes are even greater if we claim to never have sinned. Not only do we deceive ourselves, we deny what the Word of God clearly says. We say that Christ has lied and has not told the truth. He has said that every man stands condemned before God by default and must obtain forgiveness through Him (John 3:18). If we claim we have not sinned, we are saying we are not condemned and therefore assert that He is a liar.

Obviously, if our claim makes Christ a liar, then we cannot say we are saying the same word (confessing). Therefore, the word is not within us.

Exposition

This passage could be summarized by six statements, three true and three false:

God is Light. (He is perfect and pure.)

We cannot walk in darkness and claim fellowship with the Light.

If we walk in the Light we can have fellowship with Him.

If we claim we are sinless, we deceive ourselves.

It is possible to be cleansed of our sin through the blood of Christ.

If we claim we have never sinned, we say that He has lied.

Verse Nine is often used in evangelism...and rightly so. It clearly communicates that Christ blood can cover our sins when we confess our need for His payment. However, we make a mistake when we think it is only an evangelism verse.

John is writing this passage for all of us. Certainly, the nonbeliever needs to confess his/her sins immediately and call upon the grace of God for salvation. He/She needs to see their sins, and the need for Christ's atonement. Equally, the believer must keep these things in mind. We must continually confess our sins to God. We must be mindful that we have sinned and also that we have sin within us. We must be careful not to claim we have fellowship with God when we are not walking in the Light.

Conclusion

Every personal relationship has experienced the pain of sin. When two people interact, sin will inevitably show up. When it does, it always creates disharmony. The more you are around the person, the more obvious the tension becomes. Since we don't see God physically, we may be tempted to ignore the condition of the relationship. Like Adam and Eve, when we consider the relationship, our best option seems to be hiding our sin and denying there is a problem. However, this simply causes more tension, deception and blame-shifting. The quickest way (and only way) to restoration is not found in coving up our sin, but confessing our sin and asking Christ to cover it with His blood.