1Jn 1:5-7 “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
This is the message (the divine assurance of good) we have heard of (from) Him: God is light! God does not just offer light; God does not just bring or give light; God is light. This is the message that we need to be declaring to all who claim to seek Him. God is light, and there is no darkness at all in Him.
If we have fellowship with God, then we walk in His light. Knowing the truth is not enough for us to claim fellowship with Him. To have fellowship with Him, we must do the truth! It is entirely possible for men to know the truth and still not do the truth. If we are not doing the truth, then we are walking in darkness and any claim we make to having fellowship with God is a lie. This scripture is not talking to people who do not know God, who we might sometimes refer to as being spiritually dead: dead men don’t lie. All those under consideration in this scripture are active. We are doing the truth (and therefore walking in the light), or we are liars (and therefore walking in the darkness). Either way, we are walking (something else dead men don’t do).
But! But if we walk in the light it not only manifests our fellowship with God, it also produces fellowship with one another. If I am walking in the light, then I have fellowship with God’s people. I am not called on to have fellowship with all their ways or ideas, but I do have fellowship with them. We have fellowship, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
Fellowship with one another does not cause the blood of Christ to cleanse us from all sin. However, it does show that, in His light, I am able to recognize it is He that has cleansed us from all sin. My fellowship with God’s people causes me to recognize that the blood that cleansed me from my sin is the same blood that cleanses you from your sin. If His blood is sufficient to cleanse me, then it is certainly sufficient to cleanse you.
May we walk in the light as He is in the light and rejoice in our fellowship with God and with one another!
