Fellowship of Light
“Fellowship of Light”
1 John 1:5-10
Do you know God? Do you belong to Him? Do you have the Son? Does the Son have you? Are you a Christian? Have you been born again? Do you have eternal life? Are you forgiven of your sins? Will you go to heaven when you die? Are you washed with the blood of the Lamb? Are you saved from God’s wrath? Are you a new creation? Are you united with Christ? Have you confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord and believed in your heart that God raised Him from the dead? Are you right with God? Do you know God?
Every one of those questions is asking the same thing. To know God is to belong to Him. To have the Son is to have your sins forgiven and be a recipient of the promised Holy Spirit. Salvation is described in many ways throughout the New Testament. In John’s day, there was a competing claim on who belonged to God and how one belongs to God. There were certain people in the church of Ephesus who taught things contrary to the teaching of the apostles. These teachers left the recognized church of Ephesus and moved down the road with new teaching on salvation. Therefore, the church had to decide who and what was right. This decision still lingers today for the Church of Jesus Christ. There are many different truth claims regarding how one is saved and what one must believe to be saved. We have to ask the same question: “Who and what is right?”
We do not answer this question alone, but we look to the apostles and the faith once for all delivered to the saints. What does the Bible say? We do not want to convince ourselves by ourselves. We want to stand on God’s word and judge ourselves by what he has said and not by how we feel. There will always be competing truth claims, and we will always have to ask, “Who and what is right?” My prayer is that you are seeking to ask and answer this question regularly by examining the word of God. Do you belong to the fellowship of the saints?
Fellowship of Light (v. 5-6)
John begins at the beginning. He opens his letter by testifying with his own personal experience to what he has heard and seen and touched. Jesus Christ was made manifest to the apostles so they and we could have fellowship with God. Fellowship with the apostles was fellowship with God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. This was made possible by believing in the gospel. To know God must begin with knowing who God is. 1 John 1:5 says, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” The message was not John’s message; it was God’s message. John heard the message and then proclaimed it. We do the same every week. We do not proclaim our message; we proclaim God’s message. We want God’s Word to be the foundation of every service because we want God’s message to be taught and not our own opinions.
The message is a declarative statement of who God is and what God does. God is light and in him is no darkness at all. John speaks of the character of God. Light and darkness are themes throughout the Bible. Light is a sign of moral perfection and the source of life. When reading 1 John, we must read it alongside the gospel of John to properly understand his meaning. John 1:1-9 states:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
God is light in the Old Testament, and Jesus is the light in John’s Gospel because John’s primary aim was for people to believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, they would have life in his name. Life and light are intimately connected in John’s mind. John 8:12 declares, “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’ ” God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. God is life, and in him is no death at all. Light and life are found in the person of Jesus Christ.
There are no imperfections, no evil, and nothing false found in God. Habakkuk 1:13 says, “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong.” Deuteronomy 32:4 states, “The Rock, his work is perfect for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.” Exodus 34:6 says, “The LORD passed before Moses and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.’ ” To say God is light is to speak of his beauty, grace, love and perfection. John is saying God is light, and therefore, he is the opposite of darkness. God is good, and therefore, he is not evil.
Do you know God? Do you know that he is morally perfect? Do you know he is the source of life for all men? Do you know that Jesus Christ is the light of the world and that whoever follows him will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life? It is interesting that as soon as John defines God, he then defines ethical implications for those who belong to God. To belong to God is to belong to the light. And if we belong to the light, we do not walk in darkness. John 1:6 says, “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” It is not enough to merely say we have fellowship with God. Our lives must look like we have fellowship with God. The false teachers were claiming to know God, but they were not living for God.
If God is light and in him there is no darkness at all, then to have fellowship with God and fellowship with darkness is lying about one’s relationship with God. Paul asked: “For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God? (2 Cor 6:14b-16a) James uses the same logic in referencing the tongue:
With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. (James 3:9–12)
It is inconsistent to call oneself a Christian if one does not walk with Christ. It is a lie. John is speaking to Christians, warning them about misrepresenting the truth. If we claim Christ and live for the world, we lie and do not practice the truth. To practice the truth is to literally do the truth or to do righteousness and to not do evil.
We want our words to match our lives. We are either walking with God or walking in darkness. The walking language is wonderful imagery that helps us think through our lives. You can ask yourself when you are confronted with a situation: “Am I walking with God in this? Is the Lord leading me here? Do my words and tone reflect Christ? Am I displaying or obscuring the light?” It is impossible to be walking in two different directions. We cannot be walking with God while we are walking with darkness because God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
John is helping to pastor us. He is trying to show us it is inconsistent to claim to know God while walking in sin. Notice, he is not speaking to the world, who is not claiming to know God, but to the community of saints. “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and (we) do not practice the truth.” Let us take stock of our own lives and ask ourselves how we are living. Beloved, we do not want to lie about who God is by how we live. We want to show the world that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. So we, as his people who reflect his character, must walk in the light.
Fellowship of Cleansing (v. 7)
The false teachers in John’s day were teaching a disconnect with their lives and their doctrine. Our lives display our doctrine. Our doctrine drives our lives. How we live reveals what we believe. Our stated doctrine plus our actual actions reveal our real doctrine. 1 John 1:7 says, “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 cleanses us from all sin.” Jesus does not want us to talk about walking with him but to actually walk with him. Talk is cheap. John provides the negative implications for walking in darkness in the previous verse by saying we lie and do not practice the truth. We should be stirred to not walk in darkness because we do not want to lie and practice evil. In verse seven, John provides two glorious positive encouragements for us to walk in the light.
First, if we walk in the light as God is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. I find it fascinating that John continues to show the importance of the fellowship of the saints. In 1 John 1:3, he says, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” If we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another. To walk with God is to walk with God’s people. As one scholar notes:
This is not to say that those who walk in the light do not have fellowship with God, but rather to assert that those who do have fellowship with God as they walk in the light will also have fellowship with one another. Or, to put it another way, there is no real fellowship with God that is not expressed in fellowship with other believers. [1]
God’s mission was never about saving individuals but saving a people for himself. Titus 2:13-14 declares, “Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness (darkness) and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” Throughout the Old Testament, God promised this to his people saying, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” And this culminates in the dramatic conclusion seen in Revelation 21:3: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” There is no real fellowship with God that is not expressed in fellowship with other believers.
To walk in the light is to walk with God and with God’s people. Do not underestimate the importance of the fellowship of the saints. The church too often looks like a byproduct of our individualized American culture rather than a community of blood-bought sinners laying down their lives for one another. We cannot care more about our own needs over and above the needs of the body. We are called to live out our faith together as the people of God.
The second encouragement for walking in the light is that the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from all sin. First, we are not saved from our sins and the wrath of God because of our works. Ephesians 2:8-10 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” And Titus 3:4-5 states, “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” Rather, our works reveal that we have been saved. Our works are the fruit, not the root, of our salvation. Our salvation was purchased for us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are saved because of what God has done for us in Christ. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. We were under God’s wrath and judgment. We were alienated from God and hostile toward him. But God, through the precious blood of Jesus, like a spotless lamb, paid for our sins. He died for all those who would repent of their sins and trust in Christ. His blood was shed in our place so we could be forgiven.
The cleansing that happens with the blood of Christ is both a one-time act as well as an ongoing process. We can say of our salvation: “I was saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved.” Salvation is having our sins forgiven once and for all through the sacrifice of Christ. Salvation is being declared not guilty in God’s eternal throne room and being born again to eternal life. And yet, salvation is also described as sanctification, or the process of one becoming holy. 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 says, “Not I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the world I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.” God is saving us. God is cleansing us. He is moving us from one degree of glory to the next. He is transforming us into the image of his Son. God begins the good work in us, and he will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
When we walk in the light as God is in the light, the blood of Jesus continues to cleanse us from all sin. We are cleansed by the blood, and we are being cleansed by the blood of Christ. If that happens when we walk in the light, why would we not choose that?
Fellowship of Confession (v.8-10)
Because of our sin, we do not choose Christ. Sin deceives and blinds us to the truth, hindering us from coming to the light. 1 John 1:8 states, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Every single one of us has sin. Every single one of us has to confess our sin. Every single one of us would prefer to hide our sin. John 3:19–21 says:
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.
After Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they hid from God. They hid because they knew they did evil. Have you ever been there? Have you done evil and were afraid of being exposed, so you hid? You hid from God, and you hid from God’s people.
Friend, if you are not a follow of Christ, let me encourage you today to no longer hide from God. The Bible says we all have sinned. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We all have deceived ourselves, thinking our way was better than God’s way. 1 John 1:10 says, “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” God says all have sinned. So in saying we have not sinned against God, we call him a liar. At the beginning of this message, I asked several questions: “Do you know God? Are you forgiven? Will you go to heaven?” The answer to all those questions first begins with an honest assessment of yourself before God. Are you a sinner? The Bible makes it clear that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
And it is not only the Bible that confirms this reality. Our own heart does as well. The question is “What do we do with our sin?” The Bible gives us the answer. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We fall on the mercy of God. We admit and confess our sins to God. We come to the light. We expose our deeds done in darkness. We agree with God against ourselves and our sin. It is a scary thing to step out of darkness into the light. It is scary because we are focusing more on our own darkness than the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God is faithful and just. We rest on the character of God. We rest in Christ. God’s name reveals how he will handle us when we come to him. Exodus 34:6–7 states:
The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (ESV)
God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us. He is faithful to forgive iniquity and transgression and sin because he is merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. He is just because he will by no means clear the guilty. God will be faithful to forgive us by cleansing us with the blood of his Son. God is just, so he must punish sin. God is love, so he became sin for us. God wants us to come to the light. He wants us to confess our sin. He wants to be our Savior. God is just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. If you are not a follower of Jesus, please confess your sins to him. If you do, he who is faithful and just will forgive you and cleanse you from your sin through faith in Jesus Christ.
Beloved, confession is not only for those who have yet to follow Christ. It is for us. For us who are being saved, we confess our sins to God and to one another as an act of continued trust in our forgiveness and our cleansing. We do not have to hide from our sin. We must confess it. If we say we have fellowship with him, yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not have the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all our sin. God is faithful and just. He is gracious and merciful. He is kind and compassionate. Come to Christ and confess your sin. And let us reflect that light to one another. Let us be gracious and merciful. Let us be kind and compassionate. Let us be generous with forgiveness. We belong to the light, so let us reflect the light of God to one another.
I pray that we take God’s word seriously. I pray we live in light of God’s commands. I pray we run from darkness. I pray we confess our sins to God and one another. Simply put, I pray we walk in the light as he is in the light so we may have fellowship with one another. When we do that, God has promised us that the blood of His Son will cleanse us from all sin. Will you walk in the light?
[1] Kruse, C. G. (2000). The letters of John (p. 64). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans Pub.; Apollos.