First John is very difficult to outline. If you look at commentaries, you will not find agreement. They are all over the map on the outlines of 1 John. We were given the assignment when I was a student at DTS of outlining 1 John and to be completely honest, it was extremely difficult. You must understand that I knew a lot more when I was a student than I do now. I looked at 1 John and I tried to outline it but I struggled so much. Sometimes it seemed like this book captured the musings of a senile old man. It’s all over the place. But there is a pattern.
You will find that it says, “God is light,” chapter 1 verse 5. “God is Love,” chapter 4 verse 8. Then, John talks about the whole new life that we have in Christ. Around these, he has almost a spiral concept. If God is light and you are walking in the light, there will be fellowship, there will be love, and you will not be walking in sin. If God is love, you would be loving one another, you will not be walking in sin. He goes through not in the same sequence, but the same ideas revolve around that. If you are born again, the same story. So, they are not musings of a senile old man but they are profound deep in their implications. If God is light, what is the result? If God is love and if you are born again, how do you live?
Verses:
5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. (NASB)
Key Takeaways:
- If God is light and in Him there’s no darkness at all, you are overwhelmed with the holiness of God and that is where John starts
- Because God is light, his children must walk in light
- When it comes to doctrine, theology, and your spiritual life, you must always begin with God and His attributes. God never contradicts His attributes. Everything He does is a reflection of His attributes.
Closer Look:
Verse 5: In 1:5-2:29, we can see evidence of a walk in light, and the first is holiness. If you are walking in the light, it is going to be holiness. We start with a foundational proposition.
In the prologue, the author asserted that he was writing about things he had heard, seen, and touched. Here John began with something he had heard. He said, “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you.” This is a very profound statement by the way. Also, notice he does not begin with, what are your felt needs? Or how do you feel about that? He does not begin with that. Do you know what John begins with? God. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not condemning counseling cause there obviously is truth to that. It is something I have done and something I recommend. But when it comes to doctrine, theology, and your spiritual life, you must always begin with God and His attributes. God never contradicts His attributes. Everything He does is a reflection of His attributes. So John starts with God. All theology students begin with God. If you do not begin there, you are all over the map, there is no foundation. The one secure point is God. God is light.
By the words “from Him,” John undoubtedly means from the Lord Jesus Christ whose Incarnation he had just referred to (vv. 1–2). The content of this “message,” as John expressed it, is “that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” This precise statement is not found in the recorded words of Jesus, but the author was an apostle who heard much more than was “written down” (cf. John 21:25). There is no reason to think that John did not mean just what he said. This is a truth he had learned from the Lord.
Now there is a real problem. What do you mean? What is that saying, God is light? It could have two thoughts. One is that God reveals Himself and that is all that this phrase is saying. That is true, God reveals Himself. You read Francis Schaeffer and that is one of his strong points, God has revealed Himself, He has manifested Himself. But in the passage, there is so much about sin that I think that John is emphasizing a second point. When he says, “God is light” it is not just that God reveals Himself, but additionally, God is holy. That is what he is really driving home. God is holy. Here is what he says, “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”
By the way, that also explains that he is talking about holiness. “In Him there’s no darkness.” If you look at the Greek, it says oudemia, not one speck of darkness. Now if God is light and in Him there’s no darkness at all, you’re overwhelmed with the holiness of God and that’s where he starts – the holiness of God, no darkness at all. In describing God as Light, which John frequently did (John 1:4–5, 7–9; 3:19–21; 8:12; 9:5; 12:35–36, 46; Rev. 21:23), he was thinking of God as the Revealer of His holiness. Both aspects of the divine nature figure in the discussion of sin and fellowship in 1 John 1:6–10. As Light, God both exposes humankind’s sin and condemns it. If anyone walks in darkness, that person is hiding from the truth which the Light reveals (cf. John 3:19–20). Thus revelatory terms such as “the truth” and “His Word” are prominent in 1 John 1:6, 8, 10.
It is important that the “message” John had heard is the one he directed to his readers (“we … proclaim to you”). Some scholars have maintained that the false assertions which are condemned in verses 6, 8, and 10 are those of the false teachers, or antichrists, about whom John wrote later.[1] But there is no proof of this. The writer continued to use the word “we” throughout as though both he and his readership were in view. When carefully considered, the kind of claims which John refuted is precisely the kind that may be made by Christians who lose touch with spiritual realities and with God. Some scholars say that the effort to find in verses 6–10 the doctrinal beliefs of heretical teachers lacks an adequate exegetical foundation.[2]
Verse 6: Since “God is Light,” it follows that a Christian cannot truly claim communion with Him while living in the darkness. As John warned, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” John knew, as does every perceptive pastor, that Christians sometimes feign spirituality while engaging in acts of disobedience. The Apostle Paul had to deal with a case of incest in the Corinthian assembly (1 Cor. 5:1–5) and laid down a list of sins for which church members should come under church discipline (1 Cor. 5:9–13). Spurious claims to fellowship with God have been a tragic reality throughout the history of the church.
A Christian who says he is in fellowship with God (who “is Light”) but who is disobeying Him (walking “in the darkness”) is lying (cf. 1 John 2:4). Ten times John used “darkness” to refer to sin (John 1:5; 3:19; 12:35 [twice]; 1 John 1:5–6; 2:8–9, 11 [twice]). The truth in John’s writings looks probably at the revelation of God as seen in the Gospel We see this in John 8:32 (“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,” and that quite clearly is looking at the Gospel), 8:44, 18:37; 1 John 1:8; 2:4.
When he says, “If we say” – and he is probably talking here about the dualist, this is what a dualist would say – “I’m walking in the light and keep sinning and sinning and sinning.” John seems to be saying, “ I’m walking in the light but you’re really not walking in the light, you’re just lying. You’re deceiving others is what that’s saying.” But some will say, “Wait, John cannot be talking about a dualist, he cannot be discussing a heretic because there is a ‘we.’” I have heard argued over and over again, “If we” – since he uses the first plural, he must be talking Christians. Some call this the “Preacher’s we” and seems to make sense. For instance, you find it in Galatians 1:8: “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you,.” Paul wouldn’t be preaching any other gospel; he’s just using the ‘preacher’s we’. Or, you know this one, Hebrew 6:1: “Let us press on to maturity.” Is the writer saying, “I’m immature like the rest of you?” no of course not. It is a ‘preacher’s we.’ Similarly, Acts 4:12: “there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved.” So John is just using this as a literary device. He’s not saying, “I am one of these people.” If we say we have a fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not do the truth. It’s just the way of identifying it. That’s a false result, a false profession. We cannot think, “yeah I’m walking in the light and there’s sin all over the place.” This is a lie. It’s a false profession.
Verse 7: verse 7 is about a profitable response. There can be only one sphere of real communion with God—the light itself. Thus John insisted that this is where a Christian will find that communion: “But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another.” It is strange that many commentators have understood the expression “with one another” as a reference to fellowship with other Christians. But this is not what the author is discussing here. The Greek pronoun for “one another” (allēlōn, it is a reciprocal pronoun) may refer to the two parties (God and the Christian) named in the first part of the statement. John’s point is that if Christians live in the light where God is, then there is mutual fellowship between Himself and them. That is, they have fellowship with Him, and He has fellowship with them. The light itself is the fundamental reality that they share. Thus, true communion with God is living in the sphere where one’s experience is illumined by the truth of what and who God is. It is to live open to His revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. As John states in verse 9, this entails believers’ acknowledging whatever the light reveals is wrong in their lives. Interestingly, in John’s Epistle, one another the reciprocal pronoun is only used for believers. So he’s saying, “I’m writing these things that you may have fellowship with one another. If you walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another and besides that the blood of Jesus His son cleanses us from all sin.” It seemed to be turned around in our thinking; I would’ve said, “The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin and we have fellowship with one another,” but right now His purpose is to have fellowship with one another because when there is that fellowship, there is joy. He says that is what happens, that “the blood of Jesus His son cleanses us from all sin.”
It is significant that John talked of walking in the light, rather than according to the light. To walk according to the light would require sinless perfection and would make fellowship with God impossible for sinful humans. What does it mean to walk in the light? Well I think John is talking about a lifestyle. The reason I say that is because he uses the verb walk – peripateo.[3] If we walk about is what that’s saying. Secondly, it’s present tense. He’s talking about a lifestyle, this is what we are supposed to be doing, a lifestyle, walking in the light. This is what we are doing everyday moment by moment, to walk in the light. Still, we have not explained what he means to walk in the light. I take it what he is saying means, to expose your heart to the holiness of God. To expose your innermost being to the holiness of God. To walk in it, however, suggests instead openness and responsiveness to the light. John did not think of Christians as sinless, even though they are walking in the light, as is made clear in the last part of this verse. For John added that “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” This statement is grammatically coordinated with the preceding one, “We have fellowship with one another.” The statement of verse 7, in its entirety, affirms that two things are true of believers who walk in the light: (a) they are in fellowship with God and (b) they are being cleansed from every sin. So long as there is true openness to the light of divine truth, Christians’ failures are under the cleansing power of the shed blood of Christ. Indeed, only in virtue of the Savior’s work on the cross can there be any fellowship between imperfect creatures and the infinitely perfect God.
Have you ever noticed what happens when people expose their innermost being to the holiness of God? What’s the first thing they see? Their own sin. If you want some illustrations, see Job 1:8 where God essentially says to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? I have nobody like him, he’s the best person I’ve got on planet Earth, he loves righteousness, he hates evil, wonderful man, the best I’ve got.” And Satan says, “Let me at him,” and you know what happens, he loses everything. Finally, his wife just says to him, “Curse God and die.” Job responds, “Though He slay me, yet I’ll trust Him.” And then his so-called comforters come along and all the way through the Book, Job, there is something wrong someplace. Fess up, you know there’s some sin in your life. All the way through, Job is defending himself. In fact, he says, “If I could just talk to God, I’d defend myself” and that’s the end of the Book. What do you mean that’s the end of the Book? Look at Job 42:5-6. The reason I said that is because at the end of the Book, Job says, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent, sitting on dust and ashes.”
Remember, Isaiah 6:1-7. the sight was so awesome; the very doorposts of the temple were trembling. What did Isaiah say? “Good morning, God!” No, no, no; he said “Woe is me, woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” And then you know what happened? One of the seraphim, took the coal and touched his lips and cleansed him. Then God said, “Who will go for us? Who will be a messenger?” And Isaiah became the messenger because he was the cleansed servant. But do you see what he’s saying here? To walk in the light means you expose your heart to the light and the first thing you do is acknowledge sin and when you acknowledge sin there’s cleansing. That’s the point of it, if you walk in the light, their sin is exposed, you confess it, you acknowledge it and there’s cleansing. That’s all assumed, that’s why he says, “The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
[1] Zane Hodges, “1 John,” John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 884.
[2] Zane Hodges, “1 John,” John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 884–885.
[3] behave, live, conduct one’s life. DBL Greek