1st John 1:5-2:2

1 John 1:5-2:2
The Light Of Life

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to 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 practice 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 Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. 1 John 1:5-2:2

Light is curious stuff. It is all around us, yet we may go about much of our day unaware of its presence. It can travel through billions and billions of miles of empty space, yet we can stop it with a single blink of the eye. Painters study its effect upon pigments of myriad colors. Photographers manipulate its passage through the aperture of a lens. Plants capture it with their leaves to make glucose, while solar cells transform it into electricity. Light is the powerhouse of life and creativity. Without light, life would cease to exist.

Darkness is just as strange. Take away light and there you have it. We may not be able to see it, but it is there, nonetheless. The author Joseph Conrad writes about being at sea, far from shore on a stormy night. It is so dark on the deck of the sailing vessel that he can see absolutely nothing. He feels as if he is in a void of infinite blackness. Others have told about being in darkened caves, places where not a single photon of light exists, places where you can touch your finger to your eye and never see it. Scientists define this darkness in the simplest of terms—the absence of light.

John uses darkness and light to describe God: “…God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).” Jesus also compares Himself to light, saying “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (John 8:12).” Just as the sun is the light of the physical world, so is Christ the light of the spiritual world. And just as darkness is the absence of light in the physical world, so is the absence of Christ darkness in the spiritual world. Whenever we cross the shadow line into this darkness, we cross into the world of sin, the world of Satan and of evil and of hopelessness.

Just as we cannot be in light and darkness at the same time in the physical world, we cannot sin and walk in the light of Christ at the same time. This does not mean that a follower of Christ will never stray into the shadow land of sin. The apostle Paul, a model of Christian virtue, confesses, “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing (Romans 7:19).” What Paul is saying is that though we are unable to live sinless lives, the pattern of sin in our lives, by God’s grace, will be broken.

But what if this pattern remains in our lives? Can we still claim to be walking in the sinless light of Jesus Christ? Only if we engage in spiritual self-deception, something of which we are all capable. In the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14) Jesus provides us with a striking example of this. Call this the goodness by comparison deception. It goes something like this—if I am better than the other guy, them I am good. Or we might apply the self-comparison deception—if I am better today than I was yesterday, then I am good. Or we might try for something more absolute, such as the extreme self-righteousness deception—I am the absolute very best, the standard of comparison for all that is good. All of this, of course, is absolute nonsense, a terrible lie that separates us from Christ. Paul exposes this lie when he writes, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).”

False teachers will do all in their power to reinforce any self-deception that will keep us away from Christ. Some will tell us that a large cash donation to their cause is all that is needed to achieve spiritual goodness. Some will tell us that we must complete a series of tasks, otherwise known as good works. Some will tell us to recite a chant or to follow a detailed list of rules and regulations. Whatever their ploy, they will always turn us away from the free gift of salvation offered by Jesus Christ.

John, however, stands in the bright light of his friend and Master, Jesus Christ, calling out in a clear, unambiguous voice to those who are groping about in the dreary prison of spiritual darkness. ‘Come this way’, he beckons. ‘Only Christ can free you from your sins. Only Christ can grant forgiveness and eternal life. Jesus Christ is the one who died for you sins. Only He has the power to wash them away, for He paid the ultimate price for them when He went willingly to the cross.’

This, then, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the Good News that we have been given a choice. Do we want a life that will endure for all eternity, a life in the company of a God of infinite love and goodness? Then we must choose to follow Christ. Or do we want a life that will end in death, judgment and an eternity of infinite suffering? Then we must reject Christ and continue down the terrible path of self-deception. Only a gracious, merciful and loving God would make the right choice so extraordinarily clear to us.

Consider the decision that Joshua made so many years ago, recorded for us in Joshua 24:15: “And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”




Questions For Thought And Discussion

Fellowship with God means:
• Walking In The Light
• Confessing Our Sin
• Forgiveness
• Having Christ As Our Advocate
• Obedience





1. What is the difference between light and darkness?

Light is electromagnetic energy that is visible to the eye. We can only see that which reflects or emits light. Darkness is the absence of light. If the light of the sun were suddenly extinguished, life on earth would cease to exist.

Genesis 1:3-4: Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:16: Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.

2. What is John referring to when he uses the word “light?”

John 8:12: Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

1 John 1:5: This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

1 Timothy 6:15-16: He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.

3. Is it possible to have fellowship with God while remaining in sin?

1 John 1:6: If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

John 3:19-21: And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.

4. What, then, does John mean by “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8)?

Though we abandon the practice of sin, we are sinners nonetheless. In the book of Romans the apostle Paul gives us the example of his own struggle with sin.

Romans 7:23-25: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

Proverbs 28:13: He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

5. Who do we turn to when we fall into sin?

1 John 2:1-2: And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Romans 7:24-25: O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

6. What is meant by the word “propitiation?”

It refers to Jesus Christ having paid the price for our sins on the cross. In so doing He satisfied the righteousness of a holy God, making it possible for Him to show us His infinite mercy.

7. What is John’s stated purpose in writing this part of his letter?

1 John 2:1: My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin.