Light and Darkess

1 John 1:6-10




John stresses the importance of sin to refute what the false teachers were teaching. Either they denied the existence of sin or the importance of sin, john is stressing the seriousness of sin. Also, John speaks of the fellowship that we have with Him, being God, and with each other. This fellowship isn’t a social gathering that he is speaking of but more like “partakers” of salvation.

The “we”: John speaks of we in 2 ways in verses 6-10.
1) The first “we” is not to general Christians, but it is to those who claim to have fellowship, or are partakers, of Christ yet deny sin or the seriousness of sin in the life of a believer. To those people or false teachers, which we find in verses 6,8,10, John calls them liars, deceivers of self. They claim to have something they truly do not.

6= If we say that we have fellowship with Him (God), and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Three things we are going to look at.
A.) we make the claim: To all those who claim to be Christian and yet do not walk in the light you are liars. You lie because you refute the very statement you claim. John in verse 5 speaks of the Light, which is God. God is light, which signifies purity, holiness, transparentness, God’s nature is light. He is the light that shines in the dark hearts of men, He is the light that illuminates our dark minds, He is the light that has come into the world in which the darkness tries to snuff out. But, if He is light, and we claim fellowship with this light then we will have the same attributes as He does. Now, I am not speaking of sinlessness, because as a Christian we still battle with the flesh, but in your life there will not be a habitual, continuous, periodic walking of sin. So those who are saying, “we are followers of Christ” and yet not teaching the severity of sin are not followers of Christ.
B.) Walking in darkness: Darkness is not an attribute of God, it is not in line with His character. As we just spoke of, God is light. Darkness here is spoken of as sin, evil, or ungodliness. Since the false teachers dumbed down sin and its severity, those who were claiming to have fellowship with God were living in utter darkness. They knew nothing of the truth and lived a life still captive, enslaved, and under bondage to the flesh. They did not know true joy (vs. 4) which only comes from the knowledge of the truth of the Gospel. Also, the act of walking in darkness can speak of the place in which they are living in or having their being. We walk in the room we are in, they very place that is our context, and John is saying here that you are walking, living, or in the context of darkness (sin) as the realm of your existence.
C.) Liars without practice of truth: As we stated before, those who claim light and live darkness lie. They are like a man who claims to be an Olympian yet he lives eating junk food all day, watching TV, and adding to his 300 lb stature, but never practicing for that which he claims, as so, those who make a false claim of being a Christian. They do not practice truth. Either they are comfortable living a lie or they have no knowledge of the truth, in which both instances hinders their ability to practice that which they do not know. They are either liars who love their lie better than the truth, which the false teachers did, or they are people who were told a lie and have no knowledge of the truth, in which those who were taught by the false teachers were. Practicing truth is only a trait of a Christian. I say this with this in mind; the carnal man practices that which he either thinks is true, or practices a form of truth for his own gain. The Christian practices truth, in which is light, for two reasons.
1.) they want to glorify the God of their salvation
2.) that is what they know and what has been revealed to them, so because they are part of the True Vine then truth is something they begin to do because it is apart of their nature.
Also the practice of truth shows that it is not our natural nature. My natural self is to lay in bed, be lazy, and watch TV, but I practice, daily may I add, to get off my bed and workout, or to turn the tv off and read. That which we practice is not our natural ability, but the more we do it, the more it becomes apart of us. As so it is with truth. Truth is not in our nature, after the fall all we know is a life. Our natural inclination is to sin, and live a lie. So to those who are making such a claim of knowing Christ, which is truth, and do not practice truth but live a lie, they are not truly in fellowship with Him. But, those who claim to fellowship with Him, will do the practice of truth, because we fellowship with Him who is truth.

8= If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
John in verse 7 ends with something beautiful, he writes “..and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” now I verse 8 he attacks, again, the false teachers or the unlearned believer. He starts, “IF we say we have no sin.” John is now refuting the argument of sinlessness, as antinomians believe, If we say “we have no sin” we deceive ourselves. The Christian knows of his sin, he as come in contact with the Light and has seen his sin. When living in darkness, we do not know the sin we are in, we do not know the filth we are in, nor can we know. It is like a man in a room with snakes, and is paralyzed from the waste down and all the lights are off. He does not know the doom he is in, nor does he care, he can not see what is around him. But once someone were to turn the light on and he sees the vipers crawling on his ankles, legs, and thighs, he begins to scream for help because he has come to the knowledge that he is in utter danger. So it is with the Christian. In the darkness of our sin, we do not know the death we are in, we do know care about the death we are in, we enjoy it; But once Christ has came in our lives and truly shined His light in our darkness, we have no choice but to yell and for help. Like the man in the room of snakes, if they were to turn the light on and he were to lay there and tell himself “there is no such things as snakes, I am in no danger. I will just lay here,” he does not have truth in him, any sane person would call him a fool for such a claim. And so it is with these false teachers and all those who claim to have the light of Christ shine in them and live in utter darkness claiming that they have no sin but the truth tells other wise. The truth of the Gospel brings forth our sin, it turns the light on shows us death pulling at our bodies, but if we confess our need of a Savior and cry out to Christ in repentance and faith, as we read in verse 9, “He is faithful and just to forgive us.”

10= If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Now we see who the claim of sinlessness ultimately is against, it is against God. God and the Word of God do not bicker when it comes to sin, both state the same thing, man is a sinner. If you claim that you have not sinned, as many do, if you claim to be a believer, but do not claim your sin, you do not have the Word of God in you. Over and over again the word of God calls us sinners, transgressors, and if we do not claim that which God has called us Himself, we are calling God a liar. Now, we are beginning to see the true terror of the claim of not having sin. God is the epitome of truth, He does not submit to the standard but is the standard of truth, and when we say “God I don’t have any sin,” we are not only disregarding our need for a Savior, we calling God a liar and making Him a sinner. In John 3:33 he writes “he who receives His testimony has certified that God is true.” When we are told the testimony of Christ, that He became a man and lived a perfect and sinless life; that He died on the cross to save sinners and rose on the third day and is not seated at the right hand of the Father to make everlasting intercession for the saints; when we are confronted with that, we can do one of 2 things. Say, yes, that is true, I believe, and certify that God is true. OR we can say, that’s a bunch of garbage, I have no sin, and in doing so, make God a liar.


The Next 2 “we’s” is a specific reference to the genuine, repentant, godly believer.

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 Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Again, we come back to the state that we are in. Walking. In verse 6, as we stated, those who walk in darkness do not fellowship or partake with those who walk in light, because light does not abide in darkness and once light shines in darkness then the darkness is no longer dark but now light. So if one has truly come into contact with light then he is no longer dark. Now, it seems a little weird that John writes “…and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin,” at the end of this passage, but I think it is perfect for the argument that he just ended and will begin in verse 8. Now, How are we light? Remember, light signifies the purity, and holiness of God, and how do we become pure and strive for holiness? Only through the cleansing of the blood of Jesus. As the gospel shows us our filthiness, vileness and darkness it also gives us the cure for it. The only way to become light is through the cleansing blood of Christ.

9=If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we confess… If we are on the same page with God. If we deny that we sin we call God a liar, because He has said all through out His word that man is a sinner. So, our confession is us acknowledging our utter dependence on God, and admitting that He is right in making such a claim to call us sinners. Now, His faithfulness and justice comes from the cross. God is only faithful to save us from our sin because He is faithful to the Son who bought our redemption. The faithfulness of God never fails. God promised us a Son who would die on the cross and atone for the sin of man, and in His faithfulness He has provided for us, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So the faithfulness of God forgiving our sins is found in the cross. Not only that, His justice also finds itself in the cross. Because, If Christ paid once for all our sin, it would be unjust for God to have us pay for the sin that which was already paid for. So, the justice of God also finds itself in the cross of Christ.