If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don’t tell the truth.
Parallel Translations
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If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don’t tell the truth.
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yf we saye that we have fellishippe with him and yet walke in darknes we lye and do not the truth:
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If wee say that wee haue fellowship with him, and walke in darkenesse, we lie, and doe not truely:
Cross-references (24)
Passages linked to 1 John 1:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 John 4:20 If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
- 1 John 2:4 One who says, “I know him,” and doesn’t keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn’t in him.
- 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 works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”
- Proverbs 4:18-19 But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light that shines more and more until the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don’t know what they stumble over.
- John 8:12 Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”
- Proverbs 2:13 who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness,
- 1 John 1:10 If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
- John 12:35 Jesus therefore said to them, “Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn’t overtake you. He who walks in the darkness doesn’t know where he is going.
- 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what portion does a believer have with an unbeliever? What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they will be my people.”
- John 12:46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in the darkness.
- Psalms 5:4-6 For you are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness. Evil can’t live with you. The arrogant will not stand in your sight. You hate all workers of iniquity. You will destroy those who speak lies. Yahweh abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
- John 11:10 But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn’t in him.”
- James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him?
- 1 John 1:3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. Yes, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
- James 2:18 Yes, a man will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
- Revelation 3:17-18 Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked; I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.
- John 8:44-45 You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you don’t believe me.
- 1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
- 1 John 2:9-11 He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness even until now. He who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no occasion for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
- Psalms 82:5 They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
- Psalms 94:20 Shall the throne of wickedness have fellowship with you, which brings about mischief by statute?
- Matthew 7:22 Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’
- 1 Timothy 4:2 through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron,
- James 2:16 and one of you tells them, “Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;” yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it?
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 6 If we say It is, indeed, an argument…
6 If we say It is, indeed, an argument from what is inconsistent, when he concludes that they are alienated from God, who walk in darkness. This doctrine, however, depends on a higher principle, that God sanctifies all who are his. For it is not a naked precept that he gives, which requires that our life should be holy; but he rather shews that the grace of Christ serves for this end to dissipate darkness, and to kindle in us the light of God; as though he had said, “What God communicates to us is not a vain fiction; for it is necessary that the power and effect of this fellowship should shine forth in our life; otherwise the possession of the gospel is fallacious.” What he adds, and do not the truth, is the same as if he had said, “We do not act truthfully. We do not regard what is true and right.” And this mode of speaking, as I have before observed, is frequently used by him.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 6 If we say that we have fellowship with…
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
Ver. 6. If we say that, &c.] As they do that profess to know God, but in works do deny him, Tit 1:16. {See Trapp on "Tit 1:16"}
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And walk in darkness] There is a child of light that walks in darkness, Isa 50:10, but that is in another sense. The wicked also that are here said to walk in darkness have their sparkles of light that they have kindled, Isa 50:10, but it is as a light smitten out of a flint, which neither warms nor guides them, but dazzleth their eyes, and goes out, so that they lie down in sorrow.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Light and darkness are frequently put for holiness and…
Light and darkness are frequently put for holiness and wickedness, Luk 16:8; Rom 13:12; Eph 5:8; 1Th 5:5. The sum then is: That if any pretend to friendship with God, or to have received holy and gracious influences from him, and do yet lead wicked lives, they are liars, even guilty of a practical lie, doing what makes their profession false and insincere.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Observe here, 1. What great plainness of speech St.…
Observe here, 1. What great plainness of speech St. John uses with and towards such persons as call themselves Christians, and pretend to fellowship with God, but yet hold communion with sin, he says, they lie.
O how well does fervour, vehemency, and impartiality, become the ministers of Christ in reproving sin! Health is found in those smart wounds which ministerial reproof makes.
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Observe, 2. St. John speaks in the first, not in the second person plural; if we say, not if you; if we apostles and ministers, as well as if you disciples and members of Christ, be guilty of this hypocrisy, we lie, and do not the truth; he does not say, and speak not the truth, but do it not; there is a twofold lie, the lie of the lip, and the lie of life, and the latter is the louder of the two; they lie, because they do not the truth. The sum is, that a profession of piety and religion, accompanied with sin and unsuitable walking, is odious hypocrisy abhorred by God and man.
Observe, 3. The practice of the sincere and serious Christian, he walks in the light; that is, in the clear knowledge of the gospel, and in the exemplary and exact performance of his duty. Walking implies motion, it is a voluntary motion, an uniform and even motion, a progressive motion, a constant motion. To talk of religion is easy, but to walk wisely before God and man in the practice of our whole duty, requires diligence and circumspection.
Observe, 4. The pattern after which the Christian walks, and that is God; he walks in the light, as he is in the light; God is in the light, that is, all his actions are exactly pure and holy, and our walking must for the quality of it, be holy, though for equality it cannot be so holy as God is holy.
Observe, 5. A double privilege secured to such as walk in communion with God, we have fellowship one with another; justification by Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ, cleanseth from all sin.
Note, 1. Such as walk in the light have a certain fellowship and communion one with another,.
Oh! How great is our dignity! How gracious Christ’s dignation! How high are we exalted! How low is he abased! The second privilege follows:
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain If we say that we have fellowship with him,....…
If we say that we have fellowship with him,.... The Alexandrian copy reads, "for if we say": that is, if any profess to be partakers of the divine nature, to be like unto God, and to have communion with him, to have the light of his countenance, and the discoveries of his love:
and walk in darkness; in the darkness of sin, ignorance, and unbelief, or are in a state of unregeneracy and blindness; whose understandings are darkened, and they know not God in Christ, nor have any true sight and sense of themselves, their sin and danger; and are ignorant of Christ and his righteousness, and the way of salvation by him; and are strangers to the Spirit of God, and the work of his grace; and are unacquainted with the truths of the Gospel; and not only so, but go on in darkness more and more; prefer it to the light, love it, and the works of it; have fellowship with them, and choose them; take pleasure in the ways of sin and wickedness, and continue, and walk on in them; if such persons pretend to fellowship with God, they are liars:
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we lie; it cannot be, it is a contradiction, the thing is impossible and impracticable; what communion hath light with darkness? or what fellowship can the throne of iniquity, or those in whom sin reigns, have with God? for God is light, and were they partakers of him, or like unto him, or had communion with him, they would consequently be in the light, and not in darkness, and much less walk in it; wherefore they are liars,
and do not the truth: they do not say the truth, nor act according to it; they do not act uprightly or sincerely, but are hypocrites, and pretend to that which they have not; and if they did the truth, they would come to the light, and not walk in darkness; see Joh 3:21.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain If we say - Either with our tongue, or…
If we say - Either with our tongue, or in our heart, if we endeavour to persuade either ourselves or others. We have fellowship with him, while we walk, either inwardly or outwardly, in darkness - In sin of any kind. We do not the truth - Our actions prove, that the truth is not in us.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 6. If we say that we have fellowship]…
Verse 6. If we say that we have fellowship] Having fellowship, κοινωνια, communion, with God, necessarily implies a partaking of the Divine nature. Now if a man profess to have such communion, and walk in darkness-live an irreligious and sinful life, he lies, in the profession which he makes, and does not the truth-does not walk according to the directions of the Gospel, on the grace of which he holds his relation to God, and his communion with him.
The Gnostics, against whose errors it is supposed this epistle was written, were great pretenders to knowledge, to the highest degrees of the Divine illumination, and the nearest communion with the fountain of holiness, while their manners were excessively corrupt.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain If we say that we have fellowship uith him…
If we say that we have fellowship uith him - If we reckon ourselves among his friends, or, in other words, if we profess to be like him: for a profession of religion involves the idea of having fellowship with God, (compare the notes at 1Jo 1:3), and he who professes that should be like him.
And walk in darkness - Live in sin and error. To “walk in darkness” now commonly denotes to be in doubt about our religious state, in contradistinction from living in the enjoyment of religion. That is not, however, probably the whole idea here. The leading thought is, that if we live in sin, it is a proof that our profession of religion is false. Desirable as it is to have the comforts of religion, yet it is not always true that they who do not are not true Christians, nor is it true by any means that they intend to deceive the world.
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We lie - We are false professors; we are deceived if we think that we can have fellowship with God, and yet live in the practice of sin. As God is pure, so must we be, if we would be his friends. This does not mean necessarily that they meant to deceive, but that there was an irreconcilable contradiction between a life of sin and fellowship with God.
And do not the truth - Do not act truly. The profession is a false one. Compare the notes at Joh 3:22. To do the truth is to act in accordance with truth; and the expression here means that such an one could not be a Christian. And yet how many there are who are living in known sin who profess to be Christians! How many whose minds are dark on the whole subject of religion, who have never known anything of the real peace and joy which it imparts, who nevertheless entertain the belief that they are the friends of God, and are going to heaven! They trust in a name, in forms, in conformity to external rites, and have never known anything of the internal peace and purity which religion imparts, and in fact have never had any true fellowship with that God who is light, and in whom there is no darkness at all. Religion is light; religion is peace, purity, joy; and though there are eases where for a time a true Christian may be left to darkness, and have no spiritual joy, and be in doubt about his salvation, yet still it is a great truth, that unless we know by personal experience what it is to walk habitually in the light, to have the comforts of religion, and to experience in our own souls the influences which make the heart pure, and which bring us into conformity to the God who is light, we can have no true religion. All else is but a name, which will not avail us on the final day.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain 2. First Inference: The True Fellowship.
2. First Inference: The True Fellowship.
1Jn_1:6-7
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6If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness,12 we lie, and do not the truth: 7But if we walk in the light, as he13 is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,14 and the blood of Jesus15 Christ his Son cleanseth16 us from all sin.17 18
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The sequence is clear: the Apostle concludes from the Being of God the nature of their life who are and live in fellowship with God. He postulates that spiritual fellowship necessitates an affinity among persons in fellowship with one another, and that this internal fellowship must manifest itself externally in their life, so that fellowship with God is impossible without a corresponding godlike life as exhibited in the walk and conversation of men.
1Jn_1:6. The negative part of the inference stands first, connecting with the last clause of the preceding verse (“and darkness in Him is none whatsoever”).
If we say.—John is very fond of this phrase, 1Jn_1:7-10; 1Jn_2:1; 1Jn_4:12; it is similar to ἐάν τις, 1Jn_2:1; 1Jn_2:15; 1Jn_4:20, or ὂς ἂν, 1Jn_3:17; 1Jn_4:15. As to the sense, the following phrases present parallels: πᾶς ὁ ἒχων, 1Jn_3:3; πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν, 1Jn_3:4; πᾶς ὁ μένων, 1Jn_3:6; πᾶς ὁ ἀρνούμενος, 1Jn_2:23; without πᾶς, 1Jn_2:4; 1Jn_2:6; 1Jn_2:9-10. The Apostle is thus wont to describe an objective possibility (Winer, p. 308), i.e., he assumes that it may be so, and that the event would show whether it will be so. The Apostle renders this hypothesis general by the use of the communicative Plural, and thus makes his speech more lively; if we,—not excluding myself and the Apostles, beginning with myself down to the most humble reader of this Epistle, or to any individual Church-member,—should say. Thus John combines in the communicative and hypothetical form generality of application and considerate delicacy (Lücke). Saying does not denote here the inaudible language of the heart, that is thinking, but articulate utterance and assertion induced by the force of conviction. But it is not on that account nos gerere (Episcopius), as if the reference were to a testimony of our walk and practical conduct, although this saying and alleging must be taken as equivalent to an act, a fact or an action. [Wordsworth suggests that ἑὰν εἲπωμεν contains a reference to the saying of the Gnostics, who alleged that by reason of the spiritual seed in them, and of their superior spiritual knowledge, and communion with the light, they were free to act as they chose, and were not polluted thereby, and were not guilty of sin (Irenæus, I., 6, 20). Some of them even ventured to extol the workers of the most audacious acts of darkness, such as Cain, Korah and Judas, as persons gifted with superior freedom of thought and intrepidity of action, and to affirm that, since the soul could not attain unto perfection except by knowledge, it was even requisite for men to make themselves familiar with all manner of evil, in order that by a universal empiricism of evil they might arrive the sooner at their ultimate consummation. See Irenæus, I., 25, 4, ed. Stieren; p. 103, ed. Grabe; II., 32, ed. Stieren; p. 187, ed. Grabe, and cf. Blunt on the Heresies of the Apostolic Age, Lectures, 1John 9, p. 179.—M.]
That we have fellowship with Him.—See the notes on 1Jn_1:3. Here the Father only is mentioned, of whom it was said above that He is Light, in order to draw therefrom a conclusion bearing on the nature of the Christian life. [Fellowship with God is the centre and foundation of the Christian life.—M.]
And walk in the darkness.—And combined with say makes one sentence.—Walk, περιπατεῖν, 1Jn_2:6; 2Jn_1:6, occurs also Rom_6:4; Rom_8:4; its synonymes are πολίτευμα, Php_3:20, ἀναστροφὴ and ἀναστρέφειν, Eph_4:17, sq., 1Jn_2:2, sq.—Bengel: “actione interna et externa, quoquo nos vertimus.” It embraces all our actions, not only those perceptible to men (Ebrard), but also that on which these depend, whereby they are caused, the inward actions of our life.
In the darkness indicates the sphere and element in which that walking takes place, cf. Joh_8:12. Darkness, which is not at all in God, does not in any way belong to Him, is the undivine, the unholy, that which is separate from Him—sin, evil. It is therefore not: to have still adhering to one sin or evil, or failure and falling through haste or weakness in temptation, in the struggle; but as the walk does not denote gross and common sin only, so walking in the darkness does not imply the presence of satisfaction with sin, or the entire passing through the whole territory of sin in all directions; the reference must be to one particular phase of life; some want to be Christians and make good their profession in every thing except honour; others are not severe with themselves or unfaithful to God and His Word in matters of worldly possession or in some master-passions, although in other respects they are strict and faithful. Such men walk, nevertheless, in the darkness, and the words “we lie” apply also to them. It is a contradiction and opposition, cf. 2Co_6:14, sqq. Not exactly intentional lying and conscious hypocrisy, but actual contradiction between Christian principle and the Christian sphere of life, and the real exhibition of life, certainly not without personal guilt; it is our guilt and our sin, our own lie, we ourselves are liars. Whenever, under those circumstances, we say that we have fellowship with Him, we lie; we lie to ourselves, if we say it only within ourselves, in our heart, think or imagine it, or we lie to others, if we say it to them in our words or our works. Such lying consists, therefore, in thoughts, words and deeds.
And do not the truth.—This is not the same as ψεύδεσθαι, as if ποιεῖν τὴν ἀλήθειαν were identical with ἀληθεύειν, Eph_4:15. It is neither the same as agere recte (Socinus), nor sincere (Beza, Grotius, Carpzovius), nor veraciter (Calvin). The truth consists not only in words, but also in thoughts and deeds; its sphere embraces the whole life, the whole man. The truth, according to John’s view, must be done; saying with him implies acting; not to do the truth is here parallel with walking in the darkness, while to do the truth corresponds to walking in the Light. “It is one and the same truth, which is apprehended in faith and confessed with the mouth, which, as a holy, Divine power, recreates the life of the new man and manifests itself in internal and external deeds.” (Düsterdieck), cf. Joh_3:19-21 [where ποιεῖν τὴν ἀλήθειαν is opposed to φαῦλα πράσσειν, and where special reference is made to the ἒργα.—M.]—Thus the Apostle raises his powerful protest against every form of show-, word- or lip-Christianity, but his reference is to Christians, and therefore he passes on to 1Jn_1:7, to the positive part of the inference. But if we walk in the Light.—δὲ marks an antithesis. In the Light is explained by the antithesis ἐν σκότει, and by the additional clause, as He is in the Light, with reference to 1Jn_1:5. [But this, it seems, is not the only antithesis, for it is also antithetical to ἐὰν εἲπωμεν, ὂτι κοινωνίανἒχομεν μετ̓ αὐτοῦ, 1Jn_1:6, viz.: if we not only say that we have fellowship with God and not walk in the darkness, but if we really walk in the Light; so Huther, Ebrard.—M.].—Our walk in the light embraces, therefore, the holiness of our inner and outer life, a holiness which in its consequences operates a communion among the brethren, and fully corresponding to the Light-Being of God, which is also Love, exhibits its essential strength in the formation and preservation of fellowship. As He is in the Light is only formally different from God is Light; the latter phrase denotes Light as the Being of God, the former designates the element in which He is and lives.—ὡς indicates the oneness of element [in which Christians walk and God lives and moves—M.] and ground in God and ourselves; His holiness must be traceable in us if we have fellowship with Him. He indeed is in the Light, while we walk in the light, it matters not how poor and defective our efforts may be. The sense is very similar to 1Pe_1:14-16; 2Pe_1:4. [Cf. ἐστι and περιπατῶμεν. God is infinite—man finite.—M.]
We have fellowship one with another.—The reading μετ̓ αὐτοῦ cannot be right; for to walk in the Light and to have fellowship with Him coincide. But we naturally expect an advance in the argument. It is, therefore, not right to take μετ̓ ἀλλήλων as ἡμῶν τε καὶ τοῦ φωτός (Theophrast., Oecumen.), especially because God and men, the Creator and His creatures, are not of sufficient equality to be comprised in μετ̓ αλλήλων. Equally inadmissible is the construction of Beza (cum illo mutuam communionem), and that of de Wette, who renders our fellowship with God. It is the fellowship of Christians one with another, as 1Jn_1:3, μετ̓ ἡμῶν, cf. 1Jn_3:11; 1Jn_4:7; 1Jn_4:11-12. To have (see note on 1Jn_1:3) and to keep this fellowship is not a light matter; it is the fruit of the walking in the Light, of the fellowship with God, of a holy life and of holy aspirations. For sin separates, impedes and constantly destroys that fellowship. [This passage shows that the fellowship of Christians, or the “communion of Saints,” as it is expressed in the Apostles’ Creed, rests on a truly Catholic basis, and that its restriction to the narrow limits of a sect is at once un-evangelical, un-Apostolic and un-Christian.—M.] Hence the Apostle continues:
And the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us.—The copula καὶ establishes a parallel with the preceding words, and points consequently not to fellowship with God and the brethren to be established, but to a fellowship already existing, and so well established that the first, viz.: fellowship with God, has already yielded the fruit of the second, viz.: fellowship with the brethren. It is impossible to take and interpret καὶ = γὰρ, as alleged by Oecumen., Bede, Calov, Semler, al. The question is not to supply proof of the fellowship with the brethren, but to state a consequence of walking in the Light. The only question is whether the cleansing through the blood of Christ takes place alongside or inside the fellowship of the brethren with one another. The work of redemption is a whole, and not mechanical, but organic and moral, so that this cleansing takes place inside the fellowship of the Church, of the fellowship essential to and established for redemption. Exegetically important is, moreover, the meaning and the Present form of καθαρίζει. This word cannot be the same as ἀφιέναι τὰς ἀμαρτίας, because it recurs, 1Jn_1:9, by the side of and after that phrase. The reference is, therefore, not to the remission of sins, to exemption from punishment or the pardon of guilt, but to the cancelling of sin and redemption from it. The Apostle does not advert here to justification, regeneration, conversion, the actus judicialis or forensis concerning the sinner, but to sanctification. The Present may suggest the idea of daily repentance and forgiveness of sins, but the meaning of the verb forbids also this reference. But wherein that cleansing consists is defined by the cleansing subject: the blood of Jesus His Son. It is said αἷμα, consequently not: God’s new covenant with us established by the blood of Christ (Socinus), not: our faith in the sufferings of Christ (Grotius), not: Jesus Christ who shed His blood for us, not: the contemplation of the death of Jesus (Paulus), not: the reasonable belief of the moral end of the crucifixion of Jesus (Oertel); τὸ αἶμα Ιησοῦ is the blood shed upon the cross, the bloody death of Jesus on the cross, as in 1Jn_5:6, sqq. [The blood which Jesus, so-called because of His incarnation, shed as a sacrifice at His Crucifixion, or the bloody sacrificial death of Jesus, so Huther, Düsterdieck, Ebrard.—M.]. This indicates the historical fact when the man Jesus died upon the cross at Golgotha, the sufferings of the Lord when He made experience of the sins of men, suffered for them, carried them also, assumed them (ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ αἲρων, etc., Joh_1:29), and took them away as Reconciler, but takes them away also as our Saviour, having died for us, but now lives and works in us, cf. 1Jn_3:5. [Wordsworth: “No less a sacrifice than the death of the Son of God was required to propitiate the offended justice of God for sin; and no less a price than His blood, to ransom us from the bondage of Satan, to which we were reduced by sin.”—M.]. The addition of τοῦ υἲου αὐτοῦ points to His relation to God the Father, consequently to His Divinity, where two things are to be considered, first, the exaltation and glory, secondly, the humiliation and servant-form of the Crucified One; the blood of the God-Man is the subject which cleanses. Now the death of Jesus is a sacrificial death, His blood sacrificial blood, shed for the atonement of committed guilt, for reconciling the offended majesty of God and the inimically disinclined sinner, a ransom for mankind doomed to death and condemnation. See 1Jn_2:2; 1Jn_3:5; 1Jn_4:9; 1Jn_5:6, sqq. He creates to believers justification before God, but the power that creates preserves also that which it creates. The redeemed congregate at the cross of Jesus; sin is forgiven, the debt remitted, sin must now be cancelled and fresh guilt avoided; in believers pecatum manet but non regnat. Thus in the Church congregated at the cross and preserved in unity, sanctification continues in operation, after having begun its operativeness in justification. It is not our walking in the Light, not our own efforts in sanctification, but the blood of Jesus which cleanses us. (See Doctrinal and Ethical, No. 3).
[The whole doctrine of this verse is very fully and admirably set forth in Düsterdieck. The sum of what he says we give in the language of Alford: “St. John, in accord with the other Apostles, sets forth the Death and Blood of Christ in two different aspects:
1. As the one sin-offering for the world, in which sense we are justified by the application of the blood of Christ by faith, His satisfaction being imputed to us.
2. As a victory over sin itself, His blood being the purifying medium, whereby we gradually, being already justified, become pure and clean from all sin. And this application of Christ’s blood is made by the Spirit which dwelleth in us.
The former of these asserts the imputed righteousness of Christ put on us in justification: the latter, the inherent righteousness of Christ wrought in us gradually in sanctification. And it is of this latter that he is here treating.”—M.]
From all sin—whether sins of thought, word or deed, sins of rashness or sins of ignorance, sins of malice, sins of omission or sins of commission, sins in affectu or sins in defectu, sins of pleasure or sins of pain, sins committed at our work or during our recreation, sins against the first or the second table of the decalogue. Bengel: originale, actuale.
[Wordsworth notices the completeness of this doctrinal statement, which declares that Jesus is the Christ, against the Cerinthians (but this rests on the doubtful reading χριστοῦ, see App. Crit., 1Jn_5:7; 1Jn_5:4), that He is the Son of God, against the Ebionites, that He shed His blood on the cross, against the Simonians and Docetæ, that it cleanseth from all sin, against those who deny pardon on earth to deadly sin after baptism, and that it cleanseth us if we walk in the Light, against the Antinomian Gnostics, who changed the grace of God into lasciviousness (Judges 4), and alleged that a man might walk in darkness and yet be clean from all guilt of sin.—M.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. As He is in the Light, 1Jn_1:7—is not a Gnostic dogma simply required to be known and understood, but an ethical principle for the governance of our walk. Light, as it is the Being of God (1Jn_1:5), so it is also the element of God, and because it is the Being of God, therefore it is also His element, wherein He dwells and lives. Light must become our element in order that it may also become our Being; we must live in Him that He may more fully live in us, for we are destined to become θείας κοινωνοὶ φύσεως, 2Pe_1:4. To strive after resemblance of God (Lücke) is saying too little. Nor is Bengel altogether right in saying: “imitatio Dei criterium communionis cum Illo.” For if the Lord says (Mat_5:48): “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (cf. Luk_6:36), perfection or compassion is not set down as a foreign and distant goal, or held up as an ideal rule, but the experience and enjoyment of the perfect compassion of God is to become an impulse for receiving and appropriating it, in order that we, in our turn, may exhibit it. 1Pe_1:15-16 is similar. Even Paul says (Eph_5:1): γίνεσθαιοὖν μιμηταὶ τοῦ θεοῦ ὡς τέχνα ἀγαπητά. As children they are in their converse with the Father to inhale and receive what they experience at His hands, in order that they may have within themselves a living fountain, causing in its turn the streaming forth of Divine life, and to do as the Father doeth. The reference is not to an artificial imitation, but to a filial following the Father in ardent attachment to Him. The child is not so much literally to imitate as to cleave to the Father, to receive Him, and as the Lord so often requires it, to follow Him. Such a life in converse with God, in the life-sphere of God, John emphatically demands as the chief requirement of individual Christians, as well as of the whole Church.
2. The Person of Jesus is again taken as uniting the Godhead and Manhood, when His blood is spoken of as αἶμα τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ (of God). The word αἶμα testifies against Docetism, because it is operative as a real power, and against Ebionism the words “His Son,” whose the blood is: the Godhead, in brief, is a factor in the work of redemption. This combined expression opposes as much Nestorianism, which separates the two natures, as Eutychianism, which confounds them, and testifies for the Lutheran doctrine with its communicatio idiomatum, and against the Reformed principle: finitum non capax infiniti. Luther, in his Confession of Faith, A. D. 1528–29 (Guerike: Symbolik, p. 666), says: “Again I believe and know that the Scripture teaches, that - - God the Son - - did assume a whole, full humanity, and was the true seed or child promised to Abraham and David, and was born as the natural son of Mary, every way and in every form a true man, as I am myself and all others; but that He came without sin, of the Virgin alone, by the Holy Ghost. And that this man is truly God, and became (other reading: was born) one inseparable Person of God and man, so that Mary the holy Virgin is a very and true mother not only of the man Christ, as the Nestorians do teach, but of the Son of God.” But if Luther in a Trinity Sermon (Erlangen edit., 9, p. 25), on the ground of Act_20:28, calls the blood of Christ straightway the blood of God, it is to be borne in mind that in that passage κυρίου and not θεοῦ is the best authenticated reading, and that such an oxymoron must not be pressed beyond seeing in it the doctrine of the inseparable God-Man. Calov’s following Luther cannot be regarded as a precedent of great moment, since the Scripture, with its wisdom in the choice of terms, does not require us so to do.—Cf. Doctrinal and Ethical, on 1Jn_1:3, No. 3. [Also the last note on 1Jn_1:7, in Exegetical and Critical.—M.]
[Article II. of the 39 Articles of the Church of England and the Prot. Episc. Church in the U. S. states thus briefly the doctrine of the Person of Christ: “The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead and buried, to reconcile His Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of men.” And the Athanasian Creed, 1:28–35, thus defines:
28. Est ergo Fides recta, ut credamur et confiteamur, quia Dominus noster Jesus Christus, Dei Filius, Deus pariter et Homo est.
29. Deus ex substantia Patris ante sæcula genitus: Homo, ex substantia Matris in sæcula natus.
30. Perfectus Deus, perfectus Homo, ex anima rationali et humana carne subsistens.
31. Æqualis Patri secundum Divinitatem: minor Patre secundum Humanitatem.
32. Qui licet Deus sit et Homo, non duo tamen, sed unus est Christus.
33. Unus autem, non conversione Divinitatis in carnem, sed assumptione Humanitatis in Deum.
34. Unus omnino, non confusione Substantiæ, sed unitate Personæ.
35. Nam sicut anima rationalis et caro unus est Homo; ita Deus et Homo unus est Christus.”—M.]
3. The work of Jesus is strongly characterized in one direction: “His blood cleanseth from all sin.” This statement involves the following particulars:
1. We can nevermore cleanse ourselves, our cleansing remains the work of Christ.
2. It is just the death of Christ that effects and accomplishes our cleansing; dying for sin, He conquers it; the victory of sin is its defeat, and the defeat of Christ is His victory; fighting unto death, He acquires the life of His own, and sin in its triumph over Him on the cross is discomfited. For His sake God turns to the world His reconciled countenance, and through faith in the Crucified One the world abandons sin, which is enmity against God. The cross, the death upon the cross, possesses an overwhelming power of attraction, and the life of the Son of God shut up in the life of the body breaks through in the life of the Spirit, in the working of the Spirit sent by Him and the Father, who now becomes operative in believers (Joh_7:39; Col. 16:7; Act_2:33).
3. Sin still cleaves to the justified; justification does not miraculously or magically cancel sin by a judicial decree, it only absolves us from punishment, guilt and condemnation, but requires the carrying on of the work of redemption (of which it is the beginning), and of its consummation in sanctification; justification does not end, but it does begin redemption.
4. Justification does not even effect the independence of the believer, but merely introduces him into the walk in Light, to the fellowship of the brethren one with another, as into the sphere within which redemption may be carried on and consummated, and also in the individual; redemption, like the knowledge of infinite Love, is a common experience (Eph_3:18, sq., σὺν πᾶσιντοῖς ἁγίοις).
5. Sanctification is the continuation of justification, it must ever return to it and recur to its power and might.
6. Sanctification is a work gradual in its growth.
7. It has respect to all sin, not only to its manifestation, but to its seat and origin.
8. Justification and sanctification, the power of the death upon the cross and the fellowship with the brethren, the walk in the Light and the cleansing from all sin, all these reciprocally operate on and promote each other; this holds more particularly good of brotherly, of Church-fellowship, and of the hallowing power of the Saviour’s death upon the cross, so that we are reminded of the words of Cicero: “Nisi in bonis amicitia esse non potest.” Or, we must distinguish, but not separate Christ for us, before us, and in us.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Every thing depends on the reply you give to the question whether sin rules you or as yet only adheres to you. If sin reigns over you, you belong as yet to the darkness, but if the reign of sin is broken in you, though there be still sin in you, you belong to the children of light.—It is not with pride, but with gratitude to God, that the Christian contemplates his being in the light. —Love of God and of the brethren is the power of sanctification, and this is the life of love.—It is just the sanctified who see even the smallest sins with painfulness and perceive that they stand in need of cleansing through Jesus Christ.—If thy sin troubles thee in its deep motions, know that in the cross thou hast a well, whence thou mayest and must draw consolation. It is not sufficient that thou art a Christian who is shone upon, thou must become an enlightened Christian.
Starke:—The ungodly are children of darkness without admitting it, they walk in the darkness without perceiving it, they commit the works of darkness without believing it. O, terrible blindness! Lord, open thou their eyes that they may see, tremble and return from their evil way.—How busy are people during the natural day! O, that they would not suffer the acceptable time and the day of salvation to pass by idly and without profit! Walk in the Light!—The virtue of the blood of Jesus Christ effects not only our first cleansing from dead works, but also our daily cleansing.
Spener:—We may say it and glory that we have fellowship with God; nor is it spiritual pride to acknowledge the grace of God which we nave received, provided we do not ascribe it to ourselves.—Light is impatient of darkness, and God of sin. By this test thyself, whether thou art God’s. Moses shone beautifully through long converse with this light; why should not the soul wherein He dwelleth do likewise? Let thy light shine, and do not deceive thyself by false conceits.
Neander:—To those who sincerely strive to walk in the Light, yet make daily experience of the still remaining influence of sin, and are disquieted in their conscience on hearing that fellowship with God, who is Light, can only be had by those who walk in the light,—to such is offered the comfortable assurance of entire cleansing from the sin as yet adhering to them. But the self-deception of those is also met, who trust to cleansing through the blood of Christ, without a corresponding course of life. The close connection between Christ in us and Christ for us is here indicated.
Heubner:—Only among the pure is fellowship, i.e., true concord, love, confluence of the hearts. Evil separates, and is the source of discord.—The kingdom of God is the kingdom of love and peace; that of Satan the kingdom of discord.
Ahlfeld:—Which are the seals and evidences of true fellowship with God? 1. That we walk in the light; 2. that we have fellowship one with another; 3. the humble confession that we owe the cleansing from our sins solely to the blood of Jesus Christ.—Providence moves pari passu from the first creative fiat to the last judgment.—Thou knowest that every transgression enshrouds thy heart in night.—True fellowship does not flow from our natural life, not from leagues for the commission of common sin, not from common pleasure or common profit, but only from the walk in Light.—First His passion, then thy passion; first His dying, then thy dying.—As long as Christ is our Righteousness, you also must go with Him into the walk in Light. As long as He is truly your Surety and Sacrifice, you also must with Him present to God your heart and will as a sacrifice of sweet savour. But he that learns to sacrifice himself, remains also in the fellowship with the brethren.
Besser:—But how many, who, perchance, do not know the school-name of the modern Nicolaitanes, the Pantheists, yet do their works, while from the fear of a separateness from sin, grievous to the flesh, they change the frontier-line between good and evil, put light for darkness and darkness for light, and then spread a figment of their own thoughts, which they call God, as a pillow for their worldly-mindedness.—Our fellowship with God, whom we do not see, is evidenced by our fellowship with one another, where one sees the other.—There are also will-o’-the-wisp-fellowships, and the mere saying of any Church-fellowship that it has fellowship with God is not sufficient.—Anna, the electress of Brandenburg, ordained in her will: “Our text shall be 1Jn_1:7 : The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Steinhofer:—“A soul washed in the blood of Jesus Christ has very delicate perceptions. The light which has risen in her shows her the smallest dust-particle of sin and the most subtle motions of the flesh, and makes her perceive whatever accords with her happy frame in gladsome converse with God and the Saviour, and whatever disturbs it.”
[Rieger:—The Bible-verse of the blood of Jesus Christ and its cleansing virtue is a verse for the children of God, for the children of the Light, and says to them: your love of the light, your hatred of darkness with its unfruitful works were insufficient to warrant your access to God, your joyous appeal to His Love; with these only your approach of the Light would have caused you to melt away as wax exposed to the heat of fire; but it is the blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God, that is, God’s sending His Son into the world to make atonement for your sins, whatever He did and suffered, especially His sacrificial blood-shedding in the voluntary surrender of Himself, and His present priestly appearance before the face of God with His blood and the treasure of all His merits contained therein, it is this which must be of avail to you. The design of this blood-shedding was the cleansing of your sins; and thus we find it declared in the Gospel, for our use in penitence and faith; thus it was sprinkled over us in Holy Baptism; and thus the Holy Ghost applies it in our daily renovation, bestowing upon us the double benefit of the forgiveness of our sins and the cleansing from all unrighteousness. At every motion of sin in our conscience or in our members, we may, under the influence of the Spirit, apply to this blood and its cleansing virtue, and thus prevent the calling into question or the sundering of our fellowship with God, and that in the power of the power of the high-priesthood of Christ we may ever become and remain nearer to God.”—M.]
[Bp. Hall:—As He is Light, so every aberration from Him is darkness; if we then say that we have fellowship with this pure and holy God, and yet walk in the darkness of any sin whatsoever, we belie ourselves, and do not according to that truth which we profess.—M.]
[Sermons:—
Griffith, M.:—The spiritual antidote to cure our sinful souls.
Charnock, Stephen:—The virtues of the blood of Christ.
Earle:—The Popish doctrine of purgatory repugnant to the Scripture account of remission through the blood of Christ.—M.]
Footnotes:
[12][1Jn_1:6. ἐν τῷ σκότει, in the darkness; so German, Lillie, al., Dutch, Ital., French verss.—M.]
[13][1Jn_1:7. ὡς αὐτὸς ἐστιν, as He Himself is, etc.; so Meyer, Lillie, Wordsworth, al. Winer: “Among the Greeks, as is well known, αὐτός in the casus rectus does not stand for the mere unemphatic he, nor could any decisive examples of this be found in the N. T.”—M.]
[14]μετ̓ ἀλλήλων. The best Codd., also Sinait., have this reading; μετ̓ αὐτο͂ν is substituted chiefly by Latin Codd., but the less authentic reading, and clearly a correction designed to conform 1Jn_5:7 to 1Jn_5:6.
[15]After ̓Ιησοῦ A. G. K., al. read χριστοῦ, probably on account of 1Jn_5:3. [It is omitted by B. C. Sin., al., Lachm., Tischend., Buttm.—M.]
[16] καθαρίσει or καθαριεῖ lacks sufficient authority.
[17][Sin. reads ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν.—M.]
[18][German of the last clause:—“and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.”—M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain have fellowship with him-- (Jo1 1:3). The essence of…
say--profess.
have fellowship with him-- (Jo1 1:3). The essence of the Christian life.
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walk--in inward and outward action, whithersoever we turn ourselves [BENGEL].
in darkness--Greek, "in the darkness"; opposed to "the light" (compare Jo1 2:8, Jo1 2:11).
lie-- (Jo1 2:4).
do not--in practice, whatever we say.
the truth-- (Eph 4:21; Joh 3:21).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 6. If we say—The errorists who say this are…
6. If we say—The errorists who say this are never, in this epistle, far out of John’s sight. Thrice in this brief summary does he allude to them with an if we say.
Fellowship with him… walk in darkness—The vital heresy of the errorists; claiming that divine communion is perfectly compatible with wicked conduct; professing that they “know God,” and are thereby relieved from all obligation to do right.
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We lie—It is a guilty error, not a mere mistake. We say it in order to claim holiness, and yet indulge in sin.
Do not—Practise not.
The truth—The moral truth of the divine commandments reproduced in the gospel.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 6. An inference from the first principle just laid…
6. An inference from the first principle just laid down. God is light, utterly removed from all darkness: therefore to be in darkness is to be cut off from Him.
If we say] With great gentleness he puts the case hypothetically, and with great delicacy he includes himself in the hypothesis. This ‘if we’ continues in almost every verse until 1Jn_2:3, after which it is changed into the equivalent ‘he that’, which continues down to 1Jn_2:11; after that neither form is used. This is one of several indications that from 1Jn_1:6 to 1Jn_2:11 is a definite division of the Epistle, based upon the introductory verse, 1Jn_1:5. With 1Jn_2:12 there is a new departure.
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walk in darkness] This ‘walk’ (περιπατεῖν) is the Latin versari and signifies the ordinary course of life. The word in this sense is frequent in S. Paul and in S. John. Comp. 1Jn_2:6; 1Jn_2:11; 2Jn_1:4; 2Jn_1:6; 3Jn_1:3-4; Rev_21:24; Joh_8:12. It expresses not merely action, but habitual action. A life in moral darkness can no more have communion with God, than a life in a coal-pit can have communion with the sun. For ‘what communion hath light with darkness?’ (2Co_6:4). Light can be shut out, but it cannot be shut in. Some Gnostics taught, not merely that to the illuminated all conduct was alike, but that to reach the highest form of illumination men must experience every kind of action, however abominable, in order to work themselves free from the powers that rule the world (Eus. H. E. IV. vii. 9). ‘In darkness’ should probably be in the darkness: in 1Jn_1:6-7, as in 1Jn_2:8-9; 1Jn_2:11, both light and darkness have the article in the Greek, which is not merely generic but emphatic; that which is light indeed is opposed to that which is darkness indeed. In 2Co_6:14, ‘What communion hath light with darkness?’, neither word has the article.
we lie, and do not the truth] Antithetic parallelism, as in 1Jn_1:5. The negative statement here carries us further than the positive one: it includes conduct as well as speech. See on Joh_3:21, where ‘doing the truth’ is opposed to ‘practising evil’. It is also the opposite of ‘doing a lie’ (Rev_21:27; Rev_22:15). In LXX. ‘to do mercy and truth’ is found several times. So also S. Paul opposes truth to iniquity (1Co_13:6); shewing that neither does he confine truth to truthfulness in words. In this Epistle we find many striking harmonies in thought and language between S. John and S. Paul, quite fatal to the view that there is a fundamental difference in teaching between the two Apostles.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain A corollary from verse 5. If God is Light…
A corollary from verse 5. If God is Light to the exclusion of all darkness, then fellowship with darkness excludes fellowship with him. If we say ejan ei]pwmen; "if any of us, no matter who he be, at any time say." The construction marks the supposed action as one likely to occur. The apostle includes himself in the possibility, and of course he and his readers did say that they had communion with God. By" walking" peripatein versari is meant our daily life, our movement and activity in the world (Joh_8:12 Joh 11:9, 10 12:35 21:18; Rev_21:24) this activity will inevitably express the koinwnia in which we live. To have communion with him who is Light, and be continually exhibiting a life of darkness, is impossible. The Carpocratians and other Gnostics, who taught that to the enlightened all action is indifferent, because neither purity nor filth can change the nature of pure gold, are perhaps here aimed at (Mansel, "Gnostic Heresies," pages 117-121). We lie, and do not the truth. As in verse 5, St. John enforces a statement by denying the opposite. But the negative is not a mere equivalent of the positive: the two together mean, "we are false both in word and deed." Truth with St. John is not confined to language; it is exhibited in conduct also (cf. poiein yeudov. (Rev_21:27 Rev_22:15)
Vers. 6-10.
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If if:" which shall it be?
Connecting link: The purpose of God in revealing himself to us as Light is that we may come into fellowship with him; and that in this fellowship we ourselves may become sons of light, which by nature we are not. Topic
The only way in which the purpose of this Divine message about God himself can be accomplished in us is by our first recognizing truly and fully what we are, and then acknowledging our state before him.
I THE ENDS OF GOD IN THUS DECLARING HIMSELF MAY BE FRUSTRATED IN ONE OR OTHER OF THREE WAYS.
1. If we maintain that our fellowship with God follows as a matter ofcourse, independently of moral considerations; e.g., if we
(1) say that we have fellowship with him (verse 6), and if we
(2) walk in darkness. In that case we are
(a) false in word: "we lie;
(b) false in practice: "we do not the truth.
The truth is not merely to be objectively perceived by the understanding, but is also to be transmuted into life. Men would soon go on to know more of objective truth if they would but put in practice what they already know. A fellowship in the Light, and a living and walking in the darkness, are far asunder as the east is from the west.
2. If we maintain that there is no wrong in not being in fellowship withGod, or if we deny that sin is the great barrier to fellowship, i.e., " if we say that we have no sin" (verse 8), in that case
(1) we are self-deceived;
(2) "the truth is not in us," i.e., as an informing guide, or as a regulating power. Note: To take a true view of sin its evil, its guilt, its subtlety, its destructiveness is an imperative condition of understanding the value of the gospel message and of the Redeemer"s work.
3. If we maintain that sin, albeit it may be located in us, has never brokenforth into act; i.e., " if we say that we have not sinned" (verse 10), in that case
(1) we are putting the lie on what God has said; for certainly God himself and we are in violent moral contrast. But if so, and we say we have not sinned, then we charge the sin on God; and since the revelation of God as Light is meant to throw up our sin in its darkness and enormity, if we deny our darkness, we thereby deny God"s light.
(2) God"s Word is not in us, i.e., as the moving power or the enlightening force. It is outside us; but we close the eye, and will not let it shine within. It may be, it is, true that in God we live, and move, and have our being: that we cannot flee from his presence: that he has beset us behind and before, and laid his hand upon us; and yet we may, like Cain, "go out from the presence of the Lord," and be out of fellowship with him; we may, yea, we shall, remain unillumined by his brightness, and unsaved by his revelation of himself, unless we first learn to own our guilt, to take our right place as sinful men before a holy God. To this the Apostle John urges. Hence observe
II THERE IS ANOTHER AND A BETTER COURSE, IN OUR ADOPTION OF WHICH THE ENDS OF GOD IN REVEALING HIMSELF MAY BE ACCOMPLISHED IN US. A double duty and also a double issue are here pointed out.
1. Confession. "If we confess our sins" (verse 9); "not only acknowledge them, but acknowledge them openly in the face of men" (so Westcott). Unquestionably, open confession forms an essential part of our duty. (cf Rom_10:9) The open confession before men of Jesus as our Saviour from sin, obviously includes as its basis the acknowledgment of the sin from which we are to be saved. Certainly there must be
(1) confession before God, (Psa_32:5) and
(2) confession and restitution before man where the wrong has been to man. (Luk_19:8 Jam_5:16) This first duty will have a twofold issue. Where sin is thus confessed, there will be
(1) forgiveness,
(2) cleansing; and both these are guaranteed to the penitent by
(a) the faithfulness and
(b) the justice of God.
Faithfulness in the fulfillment of the promise; and justice, in that, when the penitent puts away sin by forsaking it, God puts it away by forgiving it, through his method of mercy in Jesus Christ.
2. Walking in the light is the second duty. We walk in the light, and God is in the light. Ours is to be constant advance; God"s is permanent being. When once a penitent has by confession avowedly quitted the realm of darkness, he at once begins to move on in light, and towards fuller light. This second duty will also have a twofold issue.
(1) Fellowship. Sin is the great separator of man from God, and of men from one another. We "turn every one to his own way." Jesus is the great Reconciler, and thus the Restorer of the ruptured fellowship.
(2) The efficacy of the blood of Christ will then be fully realized. Few verses in Scripture have suffered so much as this seventh verse, by being first halved and then isolated. It must be read as a whole, and the full force of" the elongated present" must be given to each verb. "If we are walking in the light, as he is in the light, we are having fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son IS CLEANSING US from all sin;" i.e., the redeeming efficacy of the work of the Son of God is disclosing itself as a practical power, by removing the estrangement and the foulness which sin had brought. It can no longer be a question Is Christ a Redeemer? for there will be the living, the manifest proof that he is so, in our being cleansed through him from guilt and sin, and restored to communion with God and to loving fellowship with our brother. Then, then, he who is the Light will not only have transferred us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, but will actually have transformed us from being darkness to becoming light in the Lord. Then will the light and purity of heaven be reflected in us on earth, and we, while living on earth, shall be steadily moving toward the brighter light above.
Vers. 6, 7.
The condition and consequences of fellowship with God.
"If we say that we have fellowship with him," etc.
I THE CONDITION OF FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD. St. John states this condition both negatively and positively.
1. Negatively. "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.
(1) There may be a profession of fellowship with God, while the practice is utterly opposed to his character and will. We have spoken of this fellowship in our treatment of the third verse. To "walk" is an expression frequently used in the sacred Scriptures to indicate the entire life, with special reference to its outward aspects. To "walk in darkness" is to live in the practice of sin. In St. John"s time there were persons who claimed to have communion with the Light, but walked in the darkness. The Gnostics professedly devoted their souls to the pursuit of the highest knowledge, and yet were guilty of the vilest sins with their bodies, alleging "that the flesh was so corrupt that no filthiness of life could affect it.
(2) That such profession, joined with such practice, is a twofold lie. "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in the darkness, we lie." Here is the lie of the lip. The profession is untrue. "And do not the truth." Here is the lie of the life. The practice is opposed to truth. Truth is not only to be spoken, but acted. Life should be brought into harmony with the eternal verities. The truth acknowledged in the creed should be expressed in the conduct. But in this case supposed truth is neither spoken nor acted.
2. Positively. "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another." "This walking in the light, as he is in the light," says Alford, "is no mere imitation of God, but is an identity in the essential element of our daily walk with the essential element of God"s eternal Being; not imitation, but coincidence and identity of the very atmosphere of life." "The light" denotes "the sphere of the manifestation of the good and the God-like." The words of St. Paul, in." Eph_5:8, Eph_5:9, considerably elucidate this verse: "Ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth) As Meyer says, the "whole of Christian morality is here presented under its three great aspects the good, the right, the true." If we would express the meaning of the apostle"s phrase, "walking in the light," in a single word, "holiness" is the word best suited to that purpose. We discover three ideas in this expression of St. John.
(1) Life in sympathy with holiness. The heart beating in harmony with the light.
(2) Life in the practice of holiness. The inward principle expressed in the outward conduct. The light of the heart shining in the life.
(3) Life progressing in holiness. He who walks is not stationary, but advancing. The godly soul "follows on to know the Lord;" "presses on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." This, then, is the condition of fellowship with God walking in the light; holiness of heart and of life.
II THE CONSEQUENCES OF FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.
1. Fellowship with the saints. "We have fellowship one with another." The reality of our communion with God is attested by our communion of love with those who are his. Walking in the sphere of truth, righteousness, and love, we have fellowship with all those who walk in the same sphere. All who walk in the light are one in their deepest sympathies, in their most steadfast principles, in their most important aims, and in their highest aspirations; they are one in character, in service, and in destiny. Hence their communion with each other is genuine, vital, and blessed.
2. Sanctification through the Saviour. "And the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin." This implies that even they who walk in the light need cleansing from sin. "The requirement that we walk in the light, is confronted by the fact that in us there still is sin and darkness." Notice:
(1) The power by which we are cleansed. "The blood of Jesus his Son." Not the material blood of Jesus, but his blood in its moral significance and strength. "The life of the flesh is in the blood"; (Lev_17:11) "The blood is the life". (Deu_12:23) The blood of Jesus denotes the sacrifice of the life of Jesus for us. The power of that sacrifice is chiefly the power of holy and purifying love. It is the fullest and mightiest expression of the infinite love of God the Father toward us, who "spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all;" and of the infinite love of Jesus his Son toward us in his voluntary self-sacrifice. "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works." Holy love received into the heart, by its own essential nature, is cleansing in its influence. In proportion as the love of God in the death of Jesus Christ is heartily believed, will sin be hated and holiness loved and cultivated.
(2) The progressiveness of this cleansing. "The blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us." The apostle uses the present tense. He does not write "cleansed," or "hath cleansed," but "is cleansing us." The cleansing is not accomplished at once and for ever. It is a continual process. The precious blood of Christ exerts its purifying and sanctifying influence until the heart and the life are thoroughly cleansed from all sin.
(3) The thoroughness of this cleansing. "Cleanseth us from all sin." No sin-stains are so deep as to defy its power. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow," etc. (Isa_1:18; cf. Eze_36:25; Heb_9:13, Heb_9:14)
Let our earnest endeavour be to walk in the light, and to trust in the great and gracious Saviour. W.J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 6. If we say … and walk in darkness.…
6. If we say … and walk in darkness. To claim a fellowship with him who is Light and to walk in the darkness of error, of ignorance, and of sinfulness are utterly inconsistent. Do not the truth. He who obeys not the truth walks in darkness.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 1:6 This is the first of several instances in…
1:6 This is the first of several instances in which John challenges the claims of the Gnostics, who had broken away from the apostolic fellowship and were thus living in spiritual darkness. They claimed to have fellowship with God but did not express his character, which is light. Jesus had warned the Jewish leaders of his day not to let the light they thought they had be darkness (Matt 6:23)—their religious beliefs had blinded them to the spiritual illumination they could have received from Christ. In like manner, these Gnostic teachers thought they were enlightened but were actually darkened by their so-called illuminations. They claimed to have spiritual experiences from God, yet they rejected fellowship with the ones who had actually seen God in the flesh, namely, John and the other apostles.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.