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- This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all (v.5). What was John trying to communicate to his readers about God in this verse? It is simply that John wants his readers to picture the age-old contrast between good and evil.
- There is an excellent reason why many children and even adults are afraid of the dark. Evil loves darkness because of the distinct connection between God and light. Evil figures there's no better place to hide than in the dark. Just as Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God" (John 3:19-21).
- Evil loves darkness, but God is light. God radiates light. He is the one who is indescribably good. He is perfect, holy, righteous, just, and filled with love, mercy, peace, and faithfulness. There is no one like God. "God is light; and in him there is no darkness at all."
- John has established for his readers that God is light, he is good, and then he brings out the big guns. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. It doesn't need to be dark outside for us to be walking in darkness.
- In N. A., millions of people claim to be Christian, for many it is mainly because they're not Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu or Atheist, so they assume they're Christian. But the question is where is the evidence? That's the question John is asking of his readers: Where is the evidence? "If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth."
- The evidence that someone is a Christian, having fellowship with God and other believers, is that person "lives out the truth."
- This message is not only true of John. James tells us that our faith is a faith that works. He wrote, "faith without deeds is dead" (Jas 2:26). Paul tells us, that we are God's workmanship, his masterpiece, "created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Eph 2:10). Living faith is a lived out faith, it is truth in action.
- Echoing James and Paul, John says, "If you are not living out the truth, then your faith is a lie and you're walking in darkness."
- Am I living out the truth? Are you living out the truth? When the world looks at us, do they see the evidence of our faith? The hard news is no one can know that your faith is real unless they see you living out the truth.
- The flip side of the coin is in verse seven: 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.
- If we are working out, daily exercising the truth not only in prayer and bible study, but in love, charity, and good deeds or acts of kindness, then that's all the evidence needed to show the world that we belong to God, that we belong to the local church, and that the blood of Jesus has washed us of our sins. It is the evidence of our fellowship with each other & with God.
- Are we giving our faith a regular workout? You see, we need a workout that challenges & stretches us, making us stronger, showing the world that it's true.
- That's where true Fellowship comes into play. True fellowship goes deeper than the surface. True Fellowship cuts through the superficial, hi-how's-the-weather parts of our relationships, and goes to the very heart of life and faith.
- True Fellowship offers to everyone the deepest of friendships because only in true Fellowship do we find that we are able to live without deceit. Only in true fellowship can we be honest with ourselves, with one another, and with God about our sins and find the courage to live up to God's glorious standard, in spite of our sin, and walk in the light as he is in the light.
- Our faith must become so overwhelmingly powerful in our lives so as to reflect the very truth of the shed blood of Jesus Christ's cleansing power in us.
- Our faith needs to become a picture of the self-sacrificial love of Jesus Christ in each one of us. Do I love others like Jesus loves me? That's another one of those questions that we can rephrase as a prayer: Lord, help me to love others like you love me.
- There is nothing more important. That is what John wanted his readers to understand and that's what we need to understand.
- Why is it so important? It's important because we need to understand that we are at war against the flesh of our bodies. You see, until we receive a glorified body, we not only have a new nature because of the Holy Spirit living in us, but we still have a sinful nature. The earthly body is drawn to sin.
- John tells his readers, "Don't let anybody tell you otherwise." As he writes, 8 "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."
- You see, there were people in the first century who claimed that sin had no lasting power in their lives. I don't know about you, but I don't know how anyone could possibly think that way. All I need to do is look at my own everyday ordinary life to understand that I am in a battle against my own sinful nature. Habitually, intentionally, unintentionally, I still sin.
- What John was saying to his readers is simply this: "If you think that sin has no power over you, then you are deceived and you don't understand the truth."
- John again gives to his readers the flip side of the coin in the next verse, verse nine: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
- You know, the culture of John's day was so very similar to the culture of our day. Both cultures repress, ignore, and deny the reality of sin. But the truth of the matter is sin is real, and the message of God's forgiveness in Jesus Christ when we confess our sin is as relevant today as it was in the first century.
- Try as we might, we cannot bury our sin. It's going to come out. It will find us out. It will expose us for who we really are. Like it or not, all of us need our lives exposed to the light of God. We need to stop living with deceit and start being ruthlessly honest with ourselves about our sin before God.
- For many of us that means we're going to have to have an accountability partner with whom we can share our deepest, darkest secrets, someone whom we can trust completely. Why? Because that's where true Fellowship enters. When we don't have someone in our lives who can hold us accountable for our actions then we are heading toward failure. One or a few people whom we can trust with the nitty-gritty details of our lives will spur us on toward love and good works.
- Of course, one of the truly hard things about confession is not only this idea of accountability, because we are ultimately accountable to God, but also that there will be times when there may be difficult consequences to our sins.
- As a parent, when I look at my daughters and the behaviours that they copy from my life that I find undesirable, I'm reminded of the consequences of my sin. God has put children in my life for many reasons and one of those reasons is corrective. He wants me to see the error of my ways and correct them before it's too late so that my children will grow up modeling the new me, which is growing in Christ-likeness.
- God allows consequences like this not to punish us, but because he loves us and he disciplines those whom he loves.
- I am thankful that God offers his forgiveness to us on the basis of his faithfulness and justice. It is because he is faithful and just that he extends to us his mercy. It is because he is faithful and just that he has provided Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for our sins and through whom we become righteous.
- But it is not a righteous judge who declares the guilty to be justified without someone paying the price of guilt. That's not justice but a miscarriage of justice. When the guilty get off Scott free it is a mockery of justice. But God sent Jesus Christ who paid the price for the guilty.
- John declares to his readers in verse 10, "If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives." The culture of our day again is a reflection of the culture of John's day. We live in a society that says I'm okay and you're okay but if I'm okay you're okay then why do we need forgiveness? If I'm okay and you're okay, then there's nothing to forgive because only sinners need forgiveness.
- The idea that human beings are basically good flies in the face of the Bible's message and makes a mockery of the gospel. It says to God, "You're a liar." If we deny the reality of our fallen sinfulness, then we deny ourselves of the opportunity to hear God speak, to receive the forgiveness which God offers to us, and to be transformed by the indwelling power of his Holy Spirit.
- I want to take a moment and literally go back to the center of this passage which is verse seven: "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."
- True Fellowship with God and one another begins and ends with Jesus Christ. The gospel of John records Jesus as saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”(John 8:12).
- It is the goodness of God available to us through both the sacrifice and the person of Jesus Christ which brings light and goodness to our lives. It is by living out the truth, that God enables us to have fellowship with him and with one another. And it is in our honest confession of sin that we are forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ and receive his purity, goodness, and light.
- True fellowship means honesty about our sins and true fellowship means living by the light of God's truth.
- True fellowship is lived out in God's light!
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