This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 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, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

1 John 1:5-10

“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” is the foundational truth of the letter of 1 John. All of the other statements in 1 John can be seen to have their foundation in this fundamental statement of the nature of God. In fact, one might apply this to all of Scripture since all creation is designed to bring glory to God. All of the other statements in 1 John can be seen to have their foundation in this fundamental statement of the nature of God. In fact, one might apply this to all of Scripture since all creation is designed to bring glory to God.

What does John mean by light and darkness? The words “light” and “darkness” are used with a few different meanings in Scripture. It is of no minor significance that the first thing God created was light. He separated the light from the darkness, a picture of the Biblical story from beginning to end. (Genesis 1:4) Paul likens this creation of light to our conversion. “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6) Paul connects the physical light of creation metaphorically to the spiritual light of the gospel.

At its most fundamental level of symbolism, light represents goodness and holiness as opposed to evil. Jesus said, “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.” God’s word, the truth, is seen as light. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

A parallel to “God is light” is found in the mouth of Jesus: “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” (John 12:46)

John makes several dogmatic statements about the light in this section from verse 5 through verse 10 and its relation to us.

If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.

One cannot have fellowship with God and continue to live a life of sinfulness. When we try to rationalize our sinful behavior and make excuses for it, John says we are lying to ourselves, and we are not living out the truth. So, here, John equates light and truth. John does not try to be “winsome” when he speaks of our lifestyle and its impact on our fellowship with God. If we want to live a life of intimate fellowship with Jesus, then we must live in the truth and not try to rationalize our sin. It doesn’t matter whether we are justifying our lust for money and power or our sexual deviancy in some dimension of the LGBTQ+ lie.

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.

To walk in the light is to live in obedience to the Word of God as we have it. We don’t know everything about righteous living immediately as soon as we are converted to Christ. As we are taught God’s standards for life from God’s word, we become responsible for living in obedience to those standards, i.e., the light. When we do that, an amazing thing happens. We have fellowship with Jesus, and those areas of sin in our life of which we are unaware are cleansed or purified even though we are ignorant of those sins. Jesus’ blood purifies us from the sins we are committing when we commit them in ignorance of their sinfulness. Amazing grace!

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

There is a spiritual arrogance that inflicts some people. They think they are perfect. They have no sin. John tells us that if we think this is the way we are, then 1) deceiving ourselves, and 2) the truth is not in us. Self-delusion is a bad place to be. A self-deluded person is a person who is living a lie. Which is essentially what John says, “the truth is not in us.”

John is dogmatic about this. There is no fudge room for holding on to some sin and enjoying it and having intimate fellowship with Jesus at the same time.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 

There is what seems to be an oversimplified solution to our sin. It is confession of sin. The word translated “confess” simply means to “say the same thing as” God. When God says our behavior is sin, to confess is to agree with God that we have sinned in that particular action or heart condition. I am including heart condition here because we can easily make the mistake of thinking that sin is only what we do outwardly and not what we long for internally. Jesus shocked his disciples when he taught this principle. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28) The sin of adultery is committed when one lusts in their hearts for someone other than their spouse, whether or not there has been any physical, sexual contact. The immediate solution to broken fellowship with God due to sin is to agree with God that we have sinned. He is faithful and just to forgive.

Why is it faithful and just for God to forgive us when all we do is agree with him about our sin? Because Jesus already paid the penalty of death and suffering on our behalf, which is what we are due as a result of our sin. It is faithful because he has already extended the promise of forgiveness on the basis of Jesus’ substitutionary death on our behalf. It is just because it would be unjust for two people to pay the price for one person’s sin. Jesus died to pay for our sin, so it would be unjust for him to require our death for our sin as well.

Confession restores purity.

 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar, and his word is not in us.

As if we weren’t in enough trouble, John tells us that if we claim that we have not sinned, we are making God out to be a liar. The last thing I want to be guilty of is claiming that God is a liar and I am correct. That is the height of human arrogance. It is also proof that God’s word is not in us. We are still operating completely under the world system from which God wants to redeem us.

This section of John’s first letter is a handbook on intimacy with Jesus. He clearly lets us know in no uncertain terms what will mess up our intimacy with Jesus and what we are to do to have that intimacy restored. It is hard-hitting and full of grace that will set us free from self-delusion and bring us into the light as he is in the light.