by Steven Chan
1 John 1:5-10: “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. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 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. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
1. John wrote the letter to the Christians about fellowship with God and he said that because is light, if we walk in darkness, we do not practice the truth and we will not have fellowship with Him.
We should not deceive ourselves into thinking that we can have fellowship with God while we walk in darkness (i.e. continue in sin) because that is an impossibility.
2. On the other hand, if we walk in the light as God is in the light, then we will have fellowship with fellow Christians; the implication is that if some of us do not walk in the light then we will not have fellowship with them as they walk in darkness and do not practise the truth.
This means that fellowship among brethren is contingent upon all of us continuing to walk in the light. This does not mean that we are perfect or without sin – as after all John said that if we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar – and in 1 John 2:1, he said: “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.”
But it does mean that we cannot continue to live in our sin and not repent from our sins.
3. When we walk in the light of God’s Word, not only will we have fellowship with one another, the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from our sins. God’s grace is abundant towards us all – if we walk in the light.
4. Whenever we sin, we need to confess our sins to our Lord, and He is faithful and just to forgive us of all our sins and also to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We cannot expect forgiveness from God for the sins that we commit when we are unwilling to confess our sins to Him and repent there from.
God has been gracious to bless us so abundantly by letting the blood of Jesus continue to cleanse us from our sins, and allowing Jesus to be our advocate. But we should not abuse God’s love and grace. When we have been baptized, we have died to our sinful ways, and have been raised to walk in newness of life:-
”What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” ( Rom 6:1-4)
