Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
1 John 1:5

Clarke's Commentary

Verse 1 John 1:5. This then is the message — This is the grand principle on which all depends, which we have heard of απαυτου, FROM him; for neither Moses nor the prophets ever gave that full instruction concerning God and communion with him which Jesus Christ has given, for the only-begotten Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, has alone declared the fulness of the truth, and the extent of the blessings, which believers on him are to receive. See John 1:18.

God is light — The source of wisdom, knowledge, holiness, and happiness; and in him is no darkness at all-no ignorance, no imperfection, no sinfulness, no misery. And from him wisdom, knowledge, holiness, and happiness are received by every believing soul. This is the grand message of the Gospel, the great principle on which the happiness of man depends. LIGHT implies every essential excellence, especially wisdom, holiness, and happiness. DARKNESS implies all imperfection, and principally ignorance, sinfulness, and misery. LIGHT is the purest, the most subtile, the most useful, and the most diffusive of all God's creatures; it is, therefore, a very proper emblem of the purity, perfection, and goodness of the Divine nature. God is to human soul, what the light is to the world; without the latter all would be dismal and uncomfortable, and terror and death would universally prevail: and without an indwelling God what is religion? Without his all-penetrating and diffusive light, what is the soul of man? Religion would be an empty science, a dead letter, a system unauthoritated and uninfluencing, and the soul a trackless wilderness, a howling waste, full of evil, of terror and dismay, and ever racked with realizing anticipations of future, successive, permanent, substantial, and endless misery. No wonder the apostle lays this down as a first and grand principle, stating it to be the essential message which he had received from Christ to deliver to the world.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

1:1-2:17 LIVING IN THE LIGHT

Fellowship with God (1:1-2:6)

In the opening few words of his letter, John states clearly certain facts about Jesus Christ that are basic to Christianity. Jesus Christ is the eternal God and he became a real man whom John and his fellow apostles have seen, heard and touched (1:1-2). John’s joy will be complete if he knows that he and his readers share together in the eternal life that comes to them through Jesus Christ. This life unites them to one another as well as to the Father and the Son (3-4).
God is light, meaning that he is holy, true, pure and glorious. As darkness cannot exist with light, so sinful things can have no partnership with God (5). This means that although the life God gives believers is eternal, the fellowship that believers have with him can be broken because of sin. In three short sections John gives different advice to various people, to remind them of what is required if they are to have cleansing from sin and fellowship with God.
First, if people think they can sin as they please and still have fellowship with God, they are mistaken. But if they are careful to live righteously, they will enjoy unbroken fellowship with God and his people. God sees that they are living as he wants them to, and he graciously forgives those sins that they commit unknowingly (6-7).
Second, if people forget that they have a sinful nature and think that everything they do is right, they deceive themselves. But if, after honestly examining themselves, they become aware of their sins, they should confess those sins. God gives his assurance that he will forgive them and cleanse them (8-9).
Third, if people claim they never sin at all, they are really saying that God is a liar, because he has declared all people to be sinful. They must allow the light of God’s truth to shine into their hearts and show them what they really are (10).
John is not saying all this so that people might think that sinning is normal behaviour for Christians, as if it does not matter if they sin. On the contrary he wants them not to sin. But it is inevitable that they will sin sometimes, and he wants them to be assured that when that happens, cleansing is available because of the atoning blood of Christ. On the basis of his death, Christ can ask the Father to forgive the sinner (2:1-2).

Those who know God will obey his Word. These are the true Christians. Their obedience results in assurance of salvation, greater love for God, and lives that become increasingly like the life of Christ (3-6).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

It is not merely an abstract teaching with regard to the nature of God that John presented here (though some of that is in it). His general theme regarded the fellowship mentioned in the prologue; but as Roberts said, "John’s thoughts are not arranged logically and symmetrically."Ibid., p. 28. The most practical organization of the next few verses lies in the arrangement of his thoughts around such words as "if we say," which are undeniably addressed to the prevailing errors he was exposing.

God is light … Orr supposed that a similar grand pronouncement found in 1 John 3:11, introduced by words almost identical with the introductory clause here, might indicate that we have in the words "God is light" an actual saying of Jesus Christ repeated by him at various times.R. W. Orr, op. cit., p. 609. He based this upon the fact that the statement in 1 John 3:11, that we should "love one another" was indeed an actual saying of Jesus recorded in the Gospels. It has the same authority either way. "To the Christians alone, God is revealed as light, absolutely free from everything material, impure, obscure or gloomy."A. Plummer, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, 1 John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 4. Light is a symbol of all that is lovely, beautiful, holy, good, desirable, righteous and lovable. To the pagans, God was hatred, vengeance and fear; to the ignorant, God was a God of darkness, an unknown Being to be propitiated, not a Person to be loved; to the philosopher, God was an abstraction, an idea, having no connection at all with man; to the Jew, God was a God that hideth himself and a consuming fire.

However, John had a practical reason behind this statement about God. "The apostle intended that his words should emphasize the difference between the light which God is and purely intellectual enlightenment, so-called,"James William Russell, op. cit., p. 597. which was claimed by the philosophical pretenders who were disturbing the church, and which even today has by no means disappeared from the earth.

In high is no darkness at all … Darkness, contrasting with light, is a symbol of all that is wicked, ignorant, gloomy, shameful, depraved and perverted. Paul described the deeds of the wicked as the "works of darkness." And there are several kinds of darkness. Plummer cited "physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual darkness."A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 4. Note too that John did not say that there is no darkness in God’s presence, but that there is no darkness "in him."

Now this verse has its application to the problem of fellowship because the false teachers were walking in a moral darkness of the worst intensity, while at the same time claiming to be "in God." The impossibility of their pretensions having any merit was proved by this very first sentence of the message proper. It is preposterous for one to claim fellowship with God while walking in darkness.

The message which we have heard from him … Commentators have difficulty deciding on who is the antecedent of "him," since both the Father and the Son Jesus Christ were mentioned together in 1 John 1:3. To one with John’s exalted view of Christ, this was no problem. He most likely referred to the personal instruction which he and the other apostles had received from Christ himself.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

This then is the message which we have heard of him - This is the substance of the announcement (ἐπαγγελία epangelia) which we have received of him, or which he made to us. The message here refers to what he communicated as the sum of the revelation which he made to man. The phrase “of him” (απ ̓ αὐτου ap' autou) does not mean respecting him, or about him, but from him; that is, this is what we received from his preaching; from all that he said. The peculiarity, the substance of all that he said, may be summed up in the declaration that God is light, and in the consequences which follow from this doctrine. He came as the messenger of Him who is light; he came to inculcate and defend the truths which flow from that central doctrine, in regard to sin, to the danger and duty of man, to the way of recovery, and to the rules by which men ought to live.

That God is light - Light, in the Scriptures, is the emblem of purity, truth, knowledge, prosperity, and happiness - as darkness is of the opposite. John here says that “God is light” - φῶς phōs - not the light, or a light, but light itself; that is, he is himself all light, and is the source and fountain of light in all worlds. He is perfectly pure, without any admixture of sin. He has all knowledge, with no admixture of ignorance on any subject. He is infinitely happy, with nothing to make him miserable. He is infinitely true, never stating or countenancing error; he is blessed in all his ways, never knowing the darkness of disappointment and adversity. Compare the James 1:17 note; John 1:4-5 note; 1 Timothy 6:16 note.

And in him is no darkness at all - This language is much in the manner of John, not only affirming that a thing is so, but guarding it so that no mistake could possibly be made as to what he meant. Compare John 1:1-3. The expression here is designed to affirm that God is absolutely perfect; that there is nothing in him which is in any way imperfect, or which would dim or mar the pure splendor of his character, not even as much as the smallest spot would on the sun. The language is probably designed to guard the mind from an error to which it is prone, that of charging God with being the Author of the sin and misery which exist on the earth; and the apostle seems to design to teach that whatever was the source of sin and misery, it was not in any sense to be charged on God. This doctrine that God is a pure light, John lays down as the substance of all that he had to teach; of all that he had learned from him who was made flesh. It is, in fact, the fountain of all just views of truth on the subject of religion, and all proper views of religion take their origin from this.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

5This then is the message, or promise. I do not disapprove of the rendering of the old interpreter, “This is the annunciation,” or message; for though ἐπαγγελία means for the most part a promise, yet, as John speaks here generally of the testimony before mentioned, the context seems to require the other meaning, except you were to give this explanation, “The promise which we bring to you, includes this, or has this condition annexed to it.” Thus, the meaning of the Apostle would become evident to us. ⁽⁶⁰⁾ For his object here was not to include the whole doctrine of the Gospel, but to shew that if we desire to enjoy Christ and his blessings, it is required of us to be conformed to God in righteousness and holiness. Paul says the same thing in the second chapter of the Epistle to Titus, “Appeared has the saving grace of God to all, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we may live soberly and righteously and holily in this world;” except that here he says metaphorically, that we are to walk in the light, because God is light.

But he calls God light, and says that he is in the light; such expressions are not to be too strictly taken. Why Satan is called the prince of darkness is sufficiently evident. When, therefore, God on the other hand is called the Father of light, and also light, we first understand that there is nothing in him but what is bright, pure, and unalloyed; and, secondly, that he makes all things so manifest by his brightness, that he suffers nothing vicious or perverted, no spots or filth, no hypocrisy or fraud, to lie hid. Then the sum of what is said is, that since there is no union between light and darkness, there is a separation between us and God as long as we walk in darkness; and that the fellowship which he mentions, cannot exist except we also become pure and holy.

In him is no darkness at all. This mode of speaking is commonly used by John, to amplify what he has affirmed by a contrary negation. Then, the meaning is, that God is such a light, that no darkness belongs to him. It hence follows, that he hates an evil conscience, pollution, and wickedness, and everything that pertains to darkness.

(60) Griesbach has substituted ἀγγελία for the word here used, as being most approved; but the other, ἐπαγγελία, has also a similar meaning, announcement, or message, or command, though in the New Testament it is mostly taken in the sense of a promise. — Ed

Smith's Bible Commentary

Shall we turn to 1 John.

Why did John write this epistle? In chapter one, verse four, he tells us, "These things write we unto that your joy may full." So that you might have the fullness of joy. Do you know that God wants your life to be filled with joy? Peter says that, "Though we haven't seen Jesus, still we love Him. And even though we haven't seen Him yet, yet we rejoice with joy unspeakable or indescribable and full of glory" ( 1 Peter 1:8 ). Jesus talked to His disciples about this fullness of joy, and He related the fullness of joy with their abiding in Him in chapter 15, "Abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you may ask what you will, and your joy may be full" ( John 15:7 , John 15:11 ).

In chapter 16 of the gospel of John, he relates the fullness of joy to our prayer life, "Henceforth you've asked nothing in My name: ask, that you may receive, that your joy may be full" ( John 16:23-24 ). Here, the fullness of joy is related to fellowship with God, a life of fellowship with God. Abiding in Christ is a life of fullness of joy.

Now, it is important that we make the distinction between joy and happiness, for joy is a quality of the spirit, whereas happiness is a quality of the emotion. So happiness is a variable, because it is related to the outward circumstances. Things are going great. I just got a new car. I'm so happy. I'm just whistling as you drive down the road. But I'm so preoccupied that I run into a tree, "Yikes." My happiness is gone. I'm miserable. I'm sad. I didn't have a chance to insure the thing yet. So, happiness is a variable; it can change very suddenly very dramatically.

You may come and say, "Oh, I'm just having a horrible time and I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm just loaded with debts and they are going to repossess all that I have. I don't know what I'm going to do." And so I sit down and write you out a check for ten thousand dollars and you say, "Oh, this is great." And it might make you so happy. Until you went and tried to cash the check, then you'd be sad again. So happiness is a variable related to the outward circumstances.

But joy is a thing of the heart, the spirit, and it isn't a variable. It doesn't change; it's a constant. Because it is a joy that is related to my relationship with God, which is a constant. That relationship doesn't change, things may go bad, they may be horrible, but my relationship with God is secure, therefore I have the fullness of joy.

John writes this epistle to bring you into that kind of a relationship with God, that you might have this fellowship with God. That your joy may be full.

The second reason why he wrote this epistle is in chapter 2, verse 1 John 1:1 . "These things write we unto you, that ye sin not." And so, the purpose of this epistle is to bring to you a life of victory over sin, to give you power over sin.

And then the third reason why he wrote the epistle is in chapter 5, verse 1Jo 1:13 . "These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life." Written to believers for the purpose of bringing them assurance of their salvation, "That you may know that you have eternal life." So, to bring you fullness of joy, freedom from sin, and assurance of eternal life, those are the purposes for which John wrote this epistle.

Now in Isaiah 59 , Isaiah declares, not 59, 55, Isaiah declares, "As the rain comes down from heaven and the snow and returns not thither but waters the earth and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so is My word that goes forth out of My mouth, saith the Lord. It shall not return unto Me void, but shall accomplish the purposes for which I have sent it" ( Isaiah 55:10-11 ). What is God saying? That when He sends His word with a purpose, the word isn't going to return void. There's power in the word of God, and it's going to accomplish the purposes for which God sent it.

Now that excites me, because I know that as we study this first epistle of John, God's word isn't going to return void. And by the time we have completed our study, you're going to be experiencing a greater joy in your walk with Jesus than you have ever known before. You're going to be receiving a new power over sin and you're going to be having assurance of your salvation because God's Word won't return void. It's going to accomplish that purposes for which God sent it. And John tells us very plainly these are the purposes for which he wrote this epistle. So, great times ahead as we study this epistle of John, as we develop our relationship with the Lord.

Now, man needs an example. You can tell me how to do something and I may get somewhat of a concept in my mind, but if I can see you do it, I can follow the example much easier than just a verbal command.

Jesus is our example and so he points to Jesus as our example. And, first of all, He is our example in our relationship with God. "For if we walk in the light as He is in the light, then we have fellowship with God and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, is cleansing us from all sin." So, He is our example in our walk, walking in the light as He is in the light. That is in chapter 1, verse 1 John 1:7 . Then in chapter 2, verse 1 John 1:6 , "He that says that he abides in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked." So again, Christ our example in our walk, our walk with God, our relationship with God.

Then Christ is our example in our own personal spiritual life. In chapter 3, verse 1 John 1:2 , "Beloved now are we the sons of God, but it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." And so, as He is, we will be like Him, as we see Him as He is. So verse 1 John 1:3 , "Every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as He is pure." So my example in purity, Christ is the standard. I am pure even as He is pure. And then in verse 1 John 1:7 again, "I am righteous as He is righteous." So that inward purity, that righteousness, Christ my example, pure as He is pure, righteous as He is righteous.

Then in chapter 3, verse 1Jo 1:23 , "This is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us commandment." So He is our example in our relationship with each other, as we are to love one another as He gave us the commandment.

And then the clincher of all is verse 1Jo 1:17 of chapter 4, "Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world." He is our example, "as He is so are we." He is to be the example that I follow. So Christ the example in my relationship with God, my own inner personal life, and then my relationship with others.

Now the Bible warns us about self-deception, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked." James said, "If any man seems to be religious and bridles not his own tongue, this man's religion is vain." John tells us that it is possible for us to deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. The way we deceive ourselves many times are in the claims that we make. But the claims that I make are not valid unless they are backed up by corresponding experience. So false professions, and as we look at 1 John, he tells us of many of these false professions that people make. In verse 1 John 1:6 of chapter 1, "If we say that we have fellowship with Him," and what a glorious profession to make, "Oh, I have fellowship with God. I have communion, or I'm one with God." It's a great thing to say, but if you say you have fellowship with God and you are walking in darkness, then you are deceiving yourself; you're lying and you are not telling the truth.

You cannot have fellowship with God and walk in darkness. Now, don't be deceived about this. Many people are deceived on this score; they think that they have fellowship with God but they are walking in darkness, and that is an impossibility.

Verse 1 John 1:8 , "If we say that we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Now the word sin here in singular is a reference to the root nature of sin, and unfortunately there are a lot of people trying to deny the root nature of sin. You know, "Well, I don't have a sinful nature." Well, the Bible says you do. The Bible says, "Even by one man sin entered the world and death by sin, so that death passed unto all men, for all sinned." Not, "All have sinned," as it is translated in the King James, but just "All sinned." By one man's sin, we were all made sinners. So that as Paul said in Ephesians chapter 2, "And you were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." David said, "I was born in sin."

So the denial of this sinful nature is only to be self-deceived. And that is what John is referring to here, "If we say we have no sin (no sinful nature), we are deceiving ourselves." You see, the Bible teaches that basically I sin because I'm a sinner, and sinning doesn't make me a sinner, it only proves that I am a sinner. I have a sinful nature, therefore I sin. They liken it then to a horse thief. Stealing a horse does not make you a horse thief; it only proves that you are a horse thief. If you weren't a horse thief, you could never have stolen that horse. There's no way a man can steal a horse unless he is a horse thief. It's in your heart to do. You see, if it weren't in your heart to do, you couldn't do it. And so with sin, the sinful nature. So if I say or deny that, I'm just deceiving myself, and the truth isn't in me.

Then, if we say that we have not sinned, I'm saying that this root of sin has born any fruit, then I make God a liar, because God has said, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." "There is none righteous, no not one. There is none that seeks after God." So God has declared that we are all sinners, and if I try to deny the fact my sinful root has never born any fruit, then I am denying the truth of God and making God a liar.

Now, "He that says," verse 1 John 1:4 of chapter 2, "I know Him," and that's a great thing to say, isn't it, "Oh, yes, I know Him." But, "He that says, 'I know Him' and keeps not His commandments is a liar." We will cover that a little more thoroughly as we go through tonight.

Verse 1 John 1:6 , "He who says he abides in Him," another glorious thing to say, "Oh yes, I abide in Him." A wonderful thing to say, but it's not just saying. If I truly abide in Him, then I will be walking as He walked; we become one.

And then finally, in chapter 4, verse 1Jo 1:20 , "If a man says, I love God, (and a lot of people make that claim, "I love God") and hates his brother, he is a liar." So it's not what I say that counts; what I say can be deceptive. I can even deceive myself. And to say that I love God is a glorious thing, but if I hate my brother, then that's a lie.

It's interesting how that there seems to be, so often, this inconsistency in people's lives. We say one thing and do another, or we do one thing and say another. We have one of these little girls, and I have dozens of them that I just adore, and they're always coming up to me and saying, "Hi Chuck," or whatever, and I just love these little girls and little fellows too. It's so neat and it's so cute, really the things and concepts in their little minds. And there's this one little girl, this morning, probably somewhere between two and three years old, and she told her mother, "I want to go the church and see the God Father." And she was talking about me, and she thought I was God's father, and she said, "Well, who is God's Father?" you know.

Another little girl that always has to say hi to me whenever comes to church and come up and give me a hug and a kiss. The other day the family was going off on Sunday and so they said, "Well, no, we can't go to church today because we are going to take a trip today, and we are not going to be able to go to church." And she put her hands on her hips and said, "Damn, I wanted to go to church." Inconsistencies, they show up early. It's not always what I say, it's what I am; it's what I'm doing.

Now I can know, in fact, God wants me to know, He wants me to be assured. Part of this epistle is to bring me assurance. "I have written these things unto you that believe that you may know that you have eternal life." How can we know, how do we know what we know? As we go through this epistle, we find there are many ways by which we can know certain truths.

Verse 1 John 1:3 , chapter 2, "And hereby we do know that we know Him." Now, if I say I know God and don't keep His commandments, I am a liar. But here's how I can know that I really know Him, if I keep His commandments.

Verse 1 John 1:5 , chapter 2, "But whoso keepeth His word in Him, verily is the love of God perfected and hereby we know that we are in Him." How can I know that I am in Him, because His love is being perfected in my life.

Now over in chapter 3 verse 1Jo 1:16 , "Hereby perceive we the love of God." How can I know that God loves me? Because He laid down His life for us. You know that the Bible only seeks to prove God's love at the cross. Whenever the Bible wants to declare or to prove to you that God loves, it always points to the cross, the fact that Jesus laid down . . . "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" ( 1 John 4:10 ). It always points to the cross, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" ( John 3:16 ). Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent His Son to die. So, hereby we perceive the love of God. Now, verse 1Jo 1:19 , "And hereby we know that we are of the truth." How is that? Verse 1Jo 1:18 , "Little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and truth." When I am loving by my deeds, loving deeds, that's loving in truth, and by that I know that I am of the truth. Verse 1Jo 1:24 , "Hereby we know that we have abide, or that He abides in us by His Spirit that He has given us." How do I know that He is abiding in me? The Holy Spirit's indwelling my life. How can I know the truth? Verse 1 John 1:2 of chapter 4, "Hereby know we the Spirit of God." So many churches, so many religions, how can I know? "Every Spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God and every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. This is the spirit of anti-Christ." Verse 1 John 1:6 of chapter 4, "We are of God and he that knoweth God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. And hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." Whether or not the person will listen to the truth. Verse 1Jo 1:13 of chapter 4, going back to verse 1Jo 1:12 , "No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us. And hereby know we that we dwell in Him." How? Because His love is perfected in me. Then finally in chapter 5, verse 1 John 1:2 , "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments." So, how do we know what we know? Interesting epistle, lets go back to chapter 1 and begin our study.

It's interesting to compare the first verse of this chapter with the first verse of the Bible and the first of John's gospel. The first verse of the Bible, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." You know, you have to have a starting point, might as well start at the beginning. In the beginning God. He was before the beginning; God has always existed, in the beginning God. How long ago was that? Well, our minds can't conceive or fathom that; you can go crazy trying to figure how long ago that was. But God was there, in the beginning God. Now in the gospel, "In the beginning was the Word (the Logos) and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the same was in the beginning with God." Now as He begins his epistle he said,

That which [one who] was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon [That in the Greek is gazed, transfixed and steadfastly at, I mean, really studied, analyzed], and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) ( 1 John 1:1-2 )

So, in the beginning God, in the beginning was the Word, that which was from the beginning was manifested, we saw, we stared, we heard, we touched.

John came, as did the other disciples, to the awareness of who Jesus actually was. They realized that when they heard Jesus talking they were listening to God talk. When they were watching Jesus, they were actually seeing God. And when they touched Him, they were actually touching God. Imagine what that must have done to them to realize that when I put my hand on His shoulder I was actually touching God. When He put His hand on my shoulder or patted me on the back, God was touching me. We handled, we touched, we heard, we saw the one that was from the beginning.

You remember Micah's prophecy of the birthplace of Jesus, "And thou Bethlehem, though thou be little among the provinces of Judah, yet out of thee shall come He who is to rule my people Israel, whose going forth have been from old from everlasting." The eternal life always existed. In the beginning the Word with God, was God. "But the Word was made flesh and He dwelt among us and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth" ( John 1:14 ). Jesus, the eternal Word, Jesus the eternal God, became flesh and dwelt among men and John said, "We saw Him, we stared at Him, we heard Him and we touched Him. And that which we saw, and that which we heard we now bear witness to you." The eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That eternal life, it's a, not just duration; it's a quality of life, as well as duration.

You remember one day a rich young ruler came to Jesus and fell at His feet and said, "Good master, what must I do to inherit this eternal life, or this age abiding life, this quality of life that I see that You have?" Men were attracted to that life of Jesus, that eternal life; it was manifested. John said, "We saw, we heard, and now we bear witness of it to you."

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ ( 1 John 1:3 ).

This morning we talked to concerning this Greek word koinonia which is an abstract noun. And of the difficulty of translating it into the English language, in as much as we do not have any English or single English word that is an equivalent of this Greek word koinonia. And so, you find this word translated as partaker, communion, common, one, fellowship. They had all things in common (koinonia), that is they shared everything that they had.

The root noun from which this abstract noun comes is translated partaker or partner, or partnership. So the word can be translated friend, friendship, partnership, communion, common, one, partaker, and it's all of these things. Becoming one with God, coming into communion with God, having all things in common with God, having a partnership with God, having a friendship with God, and having fellowship with God.

Partnership means a mutual sharing of resources, mutual interest in each other. That's what God wants with you, and the purpose of the Gospel is to bring man into fellowship with God. The purpose of God creating man in the beginning was fellowship. I love that poem called God's Trombone, that one phrase where God said, "I'm lonely," so He created man that He might have fellowship with man, become one with His creation.

Now, within the church we should have a fellowship of koinonia with each other. In the early church they had this sharing of resources, anyone had a need they could come to the church; there was a sharing of the resources of the people. All things in community . . . and it didn't work out because they had some lazy bums that didn't want to work and just live off the others. Ideally, you know, if we had an ideal situation it would work beautifully. If everyone of us were industrious and all and had an ideal situation it could work, if it happen to be a real work of God's Spirit of love within our hearts and all. But everyone just really sharing and concerned and giving, it could be beautiful. But as long as we are in these bodies of flesh, we're going to have those that would spoil something that was beautiful. So, it didn't work in the early church; the church went bankrupt, actually. The Gentiles had to take up offerings for those in Jerusalem after the mishap, really, of this experiment in communism in the early church. Not communism as you know it today, a forced thing, a godless thing, but a communism that grew out of a common desire to benefit everyone within the fellowship, motivated by love and totally voluntary, with Christ at the center.

You are not going to find a perfect government, a perfect form of government as long as man is ruling. It's not going to happen until Jesus comes again and establishes God's kingdom, and then it will be right, and then it will be perfect. Then we will do away with commercialism. According to Isaiah 55 , money will be done away with; we will share together the fruit of the earth in God's glorious kingdom.

So,

And these things [John said,] write we unto you, that your joy may be full ( 1 John 1:4 ).

Relating this fullness of joy to the fellowship with God. And, of course, when you come into a partnership with God, a friendship, a communion, or fellowship with Him, what a joy it brings into our lives, fullness of joy.

This then is the message [John is saying,] which we have heard of [from] him, [that which we have heard] and declare unto you ( 1 John 1:5 ),

Now, this is basically the message that he told,

That God is light, [not God is a light, but God is light, this is the essence of His nature] and in Him is no darkness at all. [Therefore] if we say that we [are one with God] have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth [we're not telling the truth] ( 1 John 1:5-6 ):

You cannot have fellowship with God if you are walking in sin, walking in darkness.

Paul said, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these]: adultery, fornication, lasciviousness, (and he goes on) drunkenness, riotings, seditions, heresies, and drug abuse and all," and he says, "and we know that they which do such things such things shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven" ( Galatians 5:19 ). You say you have fellowship with God, but if you are walking in darkness, you're only deceiving yourself, you're lying and you are not telling the truth. But in contrast,

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, [then] we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin ( 1 John 1:7 ).

And in the Greek it's present perfect tense, which should be translated, "Is continually cleansing us of all sin," and that to me is a glorious place to be walking. In the light as He is in the light, believing, trusting in Jesus, and as I do, the blood of Jesus Christ is continually cleansing me of all sin.

Now,

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth isn't in us ( 1 John 1:8 ).

But in contrast,

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

So, the way of cleansing doesn't come by denial, the way of forgiveness isn't by way of denial or by trying to hide it. There is a proverb that says, "Whoso seeks to cover his sin shall not prosper, but whoso confesses his sin shall be forgiven." So if you try to hide it, cover it, and deny it, you're only deceiving yourself. But if you will confess your sin unto Him, that's all, just confess it, He's faithful and He is just and He will forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Now, I love that word all in this particular place. It means that it doesn't matter what the past may be, how black or dark or miserable or mean, it cleanses me from all unrighteousness. The blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses me from all sin.

Doctor Finney was holding a meeting in one of the major cities in the eastern part of the United States, and if you've read of church history and of Finney's revivals, they were really spectacular as far the changes that were brought to a community. In one city in the East, one of the major cities where he had one of his revival meetings, when he left, they closed every bar in town for lack of patrons. So powerfully was the city stirred with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And in one of these meetings, as he was walking up the church steps, a man stopped him, and he said, "I want to talk to you after church tonight, may I?" And Doctor Finney said, "Yes, I'll be glad to meet you after church and talk with you." So as he came to the top of the steps the deacons in the church said to him, "What did that man want?" And Doctor Finney said, "Well, he wanted to talk to me after church." And they said, "Do you know who that man is?" He said, "No." And they said, "Well, that man is one of the worst men in the city, he's horrible, and you just dare not go with him. He has hired killers and all and he probably has it in for you and you know, don't do it." So after service the deacons met him and said, "You're not going to go with that man are you?" And he said, "Well, yes, I am." They said, "Well, you can't." And he said, "Well, I gave the man my word, I must." And so the man met him and led him down the street up an alley into a back door of a building. As Finney went in, he turned around and locked the door and he said, "Sit down." Finney sat down and the man pulled a gun out of the desk and laid the gun on the desk and he said, "I heard you say something last night and I want to know if it's true or not." Finney said, "What did you hear me say?" He said, "You said the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son can cleanse a man from all sin." He said, "No, I didn't say that, God said that in His Word." He said, "Wait a minute, you don't know me; you don't know what I've done." He said, "You are behind a bar and we have an illegal gambling room," and he said, "The gambling devices are fixed, and I have taken the last dollar from many people, and they have gone out and committed suicide. You mean God could forgive me for that?" And Finney said, "All I can tell is that the Bible says, 'The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son can cleanse a man from all sin." He said, "Wait a minute, that's not the whole story," he said, "I own the bar out in front." And he said, "Men will come in and they'll drink, and their wives will come in rags with their little children and they have begged me not to sell their husband booze. And," he said, "I throw the wives out in the streets and I sell their husbands booze until they run out of money, and then I kick them out on the street. You mean God can forgive a man like that." Then Finney said, "The Bible says that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, can cleanse a man from all sin." The man said, "That's not the whole story," he said, "this gun, it has killed several people who have gotten in my way, and I have hired men to kill others; I've paid them to kill. And you mean God would forgive me?" He said, "All I can tell you is that the Bible says, all sin." He said, "Wait a minute. Across the street in that big brown stone house," he said, "I have a wife and a beautiful little child." He said, "I haven't said a decent word to my wife in over sixteen years. I've been miserable. I've been mean." He said, "The other day when my little child came running up, I pushed her away into the stove and she was burned seriously. I have never told that little girl that I love her. You mean God could forgive me."

And at this point Finney stood up and he grabbed him and he began to shake him and said, "Young man, you've told me about as horrible a story as I've ever heard or could ever dream." And he said, "If it were up to me, I don't know if I could forgive, but all I can tell you is that the Bible says that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son will cleanse a man from all sin." He said, "That's all I wanted to know, thank you." So he went over and unlocked the door and said, "You can find your way from here."

The next morning, as the sun was coming up, he was walking from the bar over to his home, and when he came into the house, his wife was in the kitchen with his little daughter and he went on upstairs. And so the mother said, "Go tell your daddy that breakfast is ready." So she ran up, and half way up the stairs, she called and said, "Daddy, Mommy said breakfast is ready." And he answered, "Sweetheart, tell your Mommy that Daddy doesn't want any breakfast this morning." The little girl came running back down into the kitchen and said, "Mommy, Mommy, Daddy said that he didn't want any breakfast and he called me sweetheart." And the mother said, "Honey, you must of misunderstood, you know. Go up and tell him again that breakfast is ready." And again she ran halfway up the stairs and she said, "Daddy, Momma said that breakfast is ready." And he said, "Come here, honey," and she went over to him and he picked her up and sit her on his lap, and he began to tell her how much he loved her. With that, the mother, of course, wondering what was going on, followed the little girl upstairs, and standing in the door saw him holding his little daughter on his lap for the first time. With tears coming down her cheeks, he said, "Come over here, honey." And he said, "I found out something last night that is the greatest thing that I have ever heard." And he said, "It's true, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, can cleanse a man from all sin." He closed the bar and he began to be a benefactor to that community, changed by the power of Jesus Christ.

Now matter what the past is, no matter how black or bleak, the gospel of Jesus Christ holds out hope for all. All you have to do is confess your sin and He is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Oh, what a glorious thing is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, the transformation it has brought to life and can bring to man who is hopelessly lost in the power of darkness and sin. As Jesus said to Paul, "I have called you to go to the Gentiles, to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the kingdom of God." So ours is the most joyous, blessed privilege of sharing with men the power of God to deliver from the power of darkness and sin.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us ( 1 John 1:10 ).

"

Contending for the Faith

God Is Light

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.

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you: The Hebrew writer maintains that God "hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son" (Hebrews 1:2). In this highly enlightened Christian age, all truth emanates from Jesus. Even when Jesus promises the Spirit of Truth to the apostles, He says the Holy Spirit "shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you" (John 16:13-14). John confirms this fact by stating that he and other apostles had a message from Jesus that they had heard and are now declaring freely to all men. He is now "declaring" or reporting that message to his readers.

that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all: What is the message from the Lord? "God is light." The structure in the Greek indicates that, as to His nature, God is light. Barclay says that light speaks of splendor and glory, purity and holiness, guidance and revelation (30-31). It is true that we usually think of light as referring to knowledge, truth, and purity. In this context, however, we must limit the symbolism to purity or holiness because he uses it in contrast with the darkness of sin in subsequent verses. This is one more attack on the doctrine of the Cerinthian Gnostics who advocated that they could live in fellowship with God and in the practice of sin at the same time.

The heresy of antinomianism is in view as John writes the next few verses. Antinomianism simply means "against law." Some promoted the idea, and many do today, that the Christian is not amenable to law in any sense. Since he is not accountable to law, they say, sin does not affect him. These Gnostics "knew" that sin does not affect the spirit of man regardless of what the body does; therefore, law did not apply to them. Napoleon is reported to have said that laws were made for ordinary people but were not meant for the likes of him. The Gnostics felt that their position was so elevated that law was not made for the likes of them.

John’s argument is: As light is opposed to darkness, God is opposed to sin; as darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, sin cannot continue in the presence of God; as light reveals the darkness and extinguishes it, God reveals sin as it really is and abolishes it. Fellowship with God necessitates the absence of the practice of sin because in God "is no darkness at all." Maclaren comments: "To the positive statement John, in his usual manner, appends an emphatic negative one: "Darkness is not in him, no, not in any way.’ He is light, all light, only light." (248) Woods translates the Greek phrase: "no, not even one tiny particle!" (216). There is not the slightest taint of darkness, or sin, in the character of God. God is morally perfect.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

This verse provides a basis for what follows in 1 John 1:6-10 and, in a sense, the whole rest of the letter. One commentator regarded this verse as the main burden of the epistle. [Note: Yarbrough, p. 46.] It gives the standard against which the three following Christian professions fall short.

The "message" is the truth that Jesus Christ, the first "Him," revealed to the apostolic eyewitnesses.

The figure of light that John used to describe God emphasizes His ability to reveal and His ability to deal with what the light of His holiness reveals (cf. John 1:4-5; John 1:7-9; John 3:19-21; John 8:12; John 9:5; John 12:35-36; John 12:46; Revelation 21:23). John elsewhere described God as spirit (John 4:24) and as love (1 John 4:8). All three comparisons of God stress his immateriality and essence. God exposes and condemns sin (called "darkness" in John 1:5; John 3:19; John 12:35 [twice], and in 1 John 1:5-6; 1 John 2:8-9; 1 John 2:11 [twice]). The light figure emphasizes these qualities in God: His splendor and glory, His truthfulness, His purity, His self-communicative nature (cf. Psalms 27:1; Psalms 36:9; Isaiah 49:6; John 1:9), His empowering activity (cf. John 8:12; John 12:35; Ephesians 5:8-14), and His right to demand (cf. John 3:19-21). The light-darkness motif was common in both the Hellenistic and Jewish thought life of John’s day and culture. [Note: Dodd, pp. 18-19; John R. W. Stott, The Epistles of John, p. 70; Theodor H. Gaster, The Dead Sea Scriptures, pp. 46, 49-51.] For John these concepts were mainly ethical (cf. Ephesians 5:8-14).

"Whatever other qualities this metaphorical designation may include, it clearly involves the intellectual and moral-enlightenment and holiness. Just as light reveals and purifies, so by His very nature God illuminates and purifies those who come to Him. His nature determines the conditions for fellowship with Him." [Note: Hiebert, "An Expositional . . .," 145:331.]

"As darkness has no place in God, so all that is of the darkness is excluded from having fellowship with God." [Note: Barker, p. 310. See Westcott, pp. 16-17 for a good discussion of God being light.]

John frequently clarified and emphasized his propositions by restating them in terms of what they are not, as he did here.

Barclay's Daily Study Bible

Chapter 1

THE PASTOR'S AIM ( 1 John 1:1-4 )

1:1-4 What we are telling you about is that which was from the beginning, that which we heard, that which we saw with our eyes, that which we gazed upon, and which our hands touched. It is about the word of life that we are telling you. (And the life appeared to us, and we saw it, and testify to it; and we are now bringing you the message of this eternal life, which was with the Father and which appeared to us). It is about what we saw and heard that we are bringing the message to you, that you too may have fellowship with us, for our fellowship is with the Father and with Jesus Christ, the Son. And we are writing these things to you that your joy may be completed.

Every man, when he sits down to write a letter or rises to preach a sermon, has some object in view. He wishes to produce some effect in the minds and hearts and lives of those to whom his message is addressed. And here at the very beginning of his letter John sets down his objects in writing to his people.

(i) It is his wish to produce fellowship with men and fellowship with God ( 1 John 1:3). The pastor's aim must always be to bring men closer to one another and closer to God. Any message which is productive of division is a false message. The Christian message can be summed up as having two great aims--love for men and love for God.

(ii) It is his wish to bring his people joy ( 1 John 1:4), Joy is the essence of Christianity. A message whose only effect is to depress and to discourage those who hear it has stopped halfway. It is quite true that often the aim of the preacher and the teacher must be to awaken a godly sorrow which will lead to a true repentance. But after the sense of sin has been produced, men must be led to the Saviour in whom sins are all forgiven. The ultimate note of the Christian message is joy.

(iii) To that end his aim is to set Jesus Christ before them. A great teacher always used to tell his students that their one aim as preachers must be "to speak a good word for Jesus Christ"; and it was said of another great saint that wherever his conversation began it cut straight across country to Jesus Christ.

The simple fact is that if men are ever to find fellowship with one another and fellowship with God, and if they are ever to find true joy, they must find them in Jesus Christ.

THE PASTOR'S RIGHT TO SPEAK ( 1 John 1:1-4 continued)

Here at the very beginning of his letter John sets down his right to speak; and it consists in one thing--in personal experience of Christ ( 1 John 1:2-3).

(i) He says that he has heard Christ. Long ago Zedekiah had said to Jeremiah: "Is there any word from the Lord?" ( Jeremiah 37:17). What men are interested in is not someone's opinions and guesses but a word from the Lord. It was said of one great preacher that first he listened to God and then he spoke to men; and it was said of John Brown of Haddington that, when he preached, he paused ever and again, as if listening for a voice. The true teacher is the man who has a message from Jesus Christ because he has heard his voice.

(ii) He says that he has seen Christ. It is told of Alexander Whyte, the great Scottish preacher, that someone once said to him, "You preached today as if you had come straight from the presence." And Whyte answered, "Perhaps I did." We cannot see Christ in the flesh as John did; but we can still see him with the eye of faith.

"And, warm, sweet, tender, even yet

A present help is he;

And faith has still its Olivet,

And love its Galilee."

(iii) He says that he has gazed on Christ. What, then, is the difference between seeing Christ and gazing upon him? In the Greek the verb for to see is horan ( G3708) and it means simply to see with physical sight. The verb for to gaze is theasthai ( G2300) and it means to gaze at someone or something until something has been grasped of the significance of that person or thing. So Jesus, speaking to the crowds of John the Baptist, asked: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see (theasthai, G2300) ?" ( Luke 7:24); and in that word he describes how the crowds flocked out to gaze at John and wonder who and what this man might be. Speaking of Jesus in the prologue to his gospel, John says, "We beheld his glory" ( John 1:14). The verb is again theasthai ( G2300) and the idea is not that of a passing glance but of a steadfast searching gaze which seeks to discover something of the mystery of Christ.

(iv) He says that his hands actually touched Christ. Luke tells of how Jesus came back to his disciples, when he had risen from the dead, and said, "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have" ( Luke 24:39). Here John is thinking of those people called the Docetists who were so spiritually-minded that they insisted that Jesus never at any time had a flesh and blood body but was only a phantom in human form. They refused to believe that God could ever soil himself by taking human flesh and blood upon himself. John here insists that the Jesus he had known was, in truth, a man amongst men; he felt there was nothing in all the world more dangerous--as we shall see than to doubt that Jesus was fully man.

THE PASTOR'S MESSAGE ( 1 John 1:1-4 continued)

John's message is of Jesus Christ; and of Jesus he has three great things to say. First, he says that Jesus was from the beginning. That is to say, in him eternity entered time; in him the eternal God personally entered the world of men. Second, that entry into the world of men was a real entry, it was real manhood that God took upon himself. Third, through that action there came to men the word of life, the word which can change death into life and mere existence into real living. Again and again in the New Testament the gospel is called a word; and it is of the greatest interest to see the various connections in which this term is used.

(i) Oftener than anything else the gospel message is called the word of God ( Acts 4:31; Acts 6:2; Acts 6:7; Acts 11:1; Acts 13:5; Acts 13:7; Acts 13:44; Acts 16:32; Php_1:14 ; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 13:7; Revelation 1:2; Revelation 1:9; Revelation 6:9; Revelation 20:4). It is not a human discovery; it comes from God. It is news of God which man could not have discovered for himself.

(ii) Frequently the gospel message is called the word of the Lord ( Acts 8:25; Acts 12:24; Acts 13:49; Acts 15:35; 1 Thessalonians 1:8; 2 Thessalonians 3:1). It is not always certain whether the Lord is God or Jesus, but more often than not it is Jesus who is meant. The gospel is, therefore, the message which God could have sent to men in no other way than through his son.

(iii) Twice the gospel message is called the word of hearing (logos ( G3056) akoes G189) ( 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 4:2). That is to say, it depends on two things, on a voice ready to speak it and an ear ready to hear it.

(iv) The gospel message is the word of the Kingdom ( Matthew 13:19). It is the announcement of the kingship of God and the summons to render to God the obedience which will make a man a citizen of that kingdom.

(v) The gospel message is the word of the gospel ( Acts 15:7; Colossians 1:5). Gospel means good news; and the gospel is essentially good news to man about God.

(vi) The gospel is the word of grace ( Acts 14:3; Acts 20:32). It is the good news of God's generous and undeserved love for man; it is the news that man is not saddled with the impossible task of earning God's love but is freely offered it.

(vii) The gospel is the word of salvation ( Acts 13:26). It is the offer of forgiveness for past sin and of power to overcome sin in the future.

(viii) The gospel is the word of reconciliation ( 2 Corinthians 5:19). It is the message that the lost relationship between man and God is restored in Jesus Christ who has broken down the barrier between man and God which sin had erected.

(ix) The gospel is the word of the Cross ( 1 Corinthians 1:18). At the heart of the gospel is the Cross on which is shown to man the final proof of the forgiving, sacrificing, seeking love of God.

(x) The gospel is the word of truth ( 2 Corinthians 6:7; Ephesians 1:13; Colossians 1:5; 2 Timothy 2:15). With the coming of the gospel it is no longer necessary to guess and grope for Jesus Christ has brought to us the truth about God.

(xi) The gospel is the word of righteousness ( Hebrews 5:13). It is by the power of the gospel that a man is enabled to break from the power of evil and to rise to the righteousness which is pleasing in the sight of God.

(xii) The gospel is the health-giving word ( 2 Timothy 1:13; 2 Timothy 2:8). It is the antidote which cures the poison of sin and the medicine which defeats the disease of evil.

(xiii) The gospel is the word of life ( Php_2:16 ). It is through its power that a man is delivered from death and enabled to enter into life at its best.

GOD IS LIGHT ( 1 John 1:5 )

1:5 And this is the message which we have heard from him, and which we pass on to you, that God is light, and there is no darkness in him.

A man's own character will necessarily be determined by the character of the god whom he worships; and, therefore, John begins by laying down the nature of the God and Father of Jesus Christ whom Christians worship. God, he says, is light, and there is no darkness in him. What does this statement tell us about God?

(i) It tells us that he is splendour and glory. There is nothing so glorious as a blaze of light piercing the darkness. To say that God is light tells us of his sheer splendour.

(ii) It tells us that God is self-revealing. Above all things light is seen; and it illumines the darkness round about it. To say that God is light is to say that there is nothing secretive or furtive about him. He wishes to be seen and to be known by men.

(iii) It tells us of God's purity and holiness. There is none of the darkness which cloaks hidden evil in God. That he is light speaks to us of his white purity and stainless holiness.

(iv) It tells us of the guidance of God. It is one of the great functions of light to show the way. The road that is lit is the road that is plain. To say that God is light is to say that he offers his guidance for the footsteps of men.

(v) It tells us of the revealing quality in the presence of God. Light is the great revealer. Flaws and stains which are hidden in the shade are obvious in the light. Light reveals the imperfections in any piece of workmanship or material. So the imperfections of life are seen in the presence of God. Whittier wrote:

"Our thoughts lie open to thy sight;

And naked to thy glance;

Our secret sins are in the light

Of thy pure countenance."

We can never know either the depth to which life has fallen or the height to which it may rise until we see it in the revealing light of God.

THE HOSTILE DARK ( 1 John 1:5 continued)

In God, says John, there is no darkness at all. Throughout the New Testament darkness stands for the very opposite of the Christian life.

(i) Darkness stands for the Christless life. It represents the life that a man lived before he met Christ or the life that he lives if he strays away from him. John writes to his people that, now that Christ has come, the darkness is past and the true light shines ( 1 John 2:8). Paul writes to his Christian friends that once they were darkness but now they are light in the Lord ( Ephesians 5:8). God has delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son ( Colossians 1:13). Christians are not in darkness, for they are children of the day ( 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5). Those who follow Christ shall not walk in darkness, as others must, but they will have the light of life ( John 8:12). God has called the Christians out of darkness into his marvellous light ( 1 Peter 2:9).

(ii) The dark is hostile to the light. In the prologue to his gospel John writes that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it ( John 1:5). It is a picture of the darkness seeking to obliterate the light--but unable to overpower it. The dark and the light are natural enemies.

(iii) The darkness stands for the ignorance of life apart from Christ. Jesus summons his friends to walk in the light lest the darkness come upon them, for the man who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going ( John 12:35). Jesus is the light, and he has come that those who believe in him should not walk in darkness ( John 12:46). The dark stands for the essential lostness of life without Christ.

(iv) The darkness stands for the chaos of life without God. God, says Paul, thinking of the first act of creation, commanded his light to shine out of the darkness ( 2 Corinthians 4:6). Without God's light the world is a chaos, in which life has neither order nor sense.

(v) The darkness stands for the immorality of the Christless life. It is Paul's appeal to men that they should cast off the works of darkness ( Romans 13:12). Men, because their deeds were evil, loved the darkness rather than the light ( John 3:19). The darkness stands for the way that the Christless life is filled with things which seek the shadows because they cannot stand the light.

(vi) The darkness is characteristically unfruitful. Paul speaks of the unfruitful works of darkness ( Ephesians 5:11). If growing things are despoiled of the light, their growth is arrested. The darkness is the Christless atmosphere in which no fruit of the Spirit will ever grow.

(vii) The darkness is connected with lovelessness and hate. If a man hates his brother, it is a sign that he walks in darkness ( 1 John 2:9-11). Love is sunshine and hatred is the dark.

(viii) The dark is the abode of the enemies of Christ and the final goal of those who will not accept him. The struggle of the Christian and of Christ is against the hostile rulers of the darkness of this world ( Ephesians 6:12). Consistent and rebellious sinners are those for whom the mist of darkness is reserved ( 2 Peter 2:9; Jd 13 ). The darkness is the life which is separated from God.

THE NECESSITY OF WALKING IN THE LIGHT ( 1 John 1:6-7 )

1:6-7 If we say that we have fellowship with him and at the same time walk in darkness, we lie and are not doing the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with each other and the blood of Jesus Christ is steadily cleansing us from all sin.

Here John is writing to counteract one heretical way of thought. There were those who claimed to be specially intellectually and spiritually advanced, but whose lives showed no sign of it. They claimed to have advanced so far along the road of knowledge and of spirituality that for them sin had ceased to matter and the laws had ceased to exist. Napoleon once said that laws were made for ordinary people, but were never meant for the like of him. So these heretics claimed to be so far on that, even if they did sin, it was of no importance whatsoever. In later days Clement of Alexandria tells us that there were heretics who said that it made no difference how a man lived. Irenaeus tells us that they declared that a truly spiritual man was quite incapable of ever incurring any pollution, no matter what kind of deeds he did.

In answer John insists on certain things.

(i) He insists that to have fellowship with the God who is light a man must walk in the light and that, if he is still walking in the moral and ethical darkness of the Christless life, he can not have that fellowship. This is precisely what the Old Testament had said centuries before. God said, "You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am Holy" ( Leviticus 19:2; compare Leviticus 20:7; Leviticus 20:26). He who would find fellowship with God is committed to a life of goodness which reflects God's goodness. C. H. Dodd writes: "The Church is a society of people who, believing in a God of pure goodness, accept the obligation to be good like him." This does not mean that a man must be perfect before he can have fellowship with God; if that were the case, all of us would be shut out. But it does mean that he will spend his whole life in the awareness of his obligations, in the effort to fulfil them and in penitence when he fails. It will mean that he will never think that sin does not matter; it will mean that the nearer he comes to God, the more terrible sin will be to him.

(ii) He insists that these mistaken thinkers have the wrong idea of truth. He says that, if people who claim to be specially advanced still walk in darkness, they are not doing the truth. Exactly the same phrase is used in the Fourth Gospel, when it speaks of him, who does the truth ( John 3:21). This means that for the Christian truth is never only intellectual; it is always moral. It is not something which exercises only the mind; it is something which exercises the whole personality. Truth is not only the discovery of abstract things; it is concrete living. It is not only thinking; it is also acting. The words which the New Testament uses along with truth are significant. It speaks of obeying the truth ( Romans 2:8; Galatians 3:7); following the truth ( Galatians 2:14; 3 John 1:4); of opposing the truth ( 2 Timothy 3:8); of wandering from the truth ( James 5:19). There is such a thing as might be called "discussion circle Christianity." It is possible to look on Christianity as a series of intellectual problems to be solved and on the Bible as a book about which illuminating information is to be amassed. But Christianity is something to be followed and the Bible a book to be obeyed. It is possible for intellectual eminence and moral failure to go hand in hand. For the Christian the truth is something first to be discovered and then to be obeyed.

THE TESTS OF TRUTH ( 1 John 1:6-7 continued)

As John sees it, there are two great tests of truth.

(i) Truth is the creator of fellowship. If men are really walking in the light, they have fellowship one with another. No belief can be fully Christian if it separates a man from his fellow-men. No Church can be exclusive and still be the Church of Christ. That which destroys fellowship cannot be true.

(ii) He who really knows the truth is daily more and more cleansed from sin by the blood of Jesus. The Revised Standard Version is correct enough here but it can very easily be misunderstood. It runs: "The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." That can be read as a statement of a general principle. But it is a statement of what ought to be happening in the individual life. The meaning is that all the time, day by day, constantly and consistently, the blood of Jesus Christ ought to be carrying out a cleansing process in the life of the individual Christian.

The Greek for to cleanse is katharizein ( G2511) which was originally a ritual word, describing the ceremonies and washings and so on which qualified a man to approach his gods. But the word, as religion developed, came to have a moral sense; and it describes the goodness which enables a man to enter into the presence of God. So what John is saying is, "If you really know what the sacrifice of Christ has done and are really experiencing its power, day by day you will be adding holiness to your life and becoming more fit to enter the presence of God."

Here indeed is a great conception. It looks on the sacrifice of Christ as something which not only atones for past sin but equips a man in holiness day by day.

True religion is that by which every day a man comes closer to his fellow-men and closer to God. It produces fellowship with God and fellowship with men--and we can never have the one without the other.

THE THREEFOLD LIE ( 1 John 1:6-7 continued)

Four times in his letter John bluntly accuses the false teachers of being liars; and the first of these occasions is in this present passage.

(i) Those who claim to have fellowship with the God who is altogether light and who yet walk in the dark are lying ( 1 John 1:6). A little later he repeats this charge in a slightly different way. The man who says that he knows God and yet does not keep God's commandments is a liar ( 1 John 2:4). John is laying down the blunt truth that the man who says one thing with his lips and another thing with his life is a liar. He is not thinking of the man who tries his hardest and yet often fails. "A man," said H. G. Wells, "may be a very bad musician, and may yet be passionately in love with music"; and a man may be very conscious of his failures and yet be passionately in love with Christ and the way of Christ. John is thinking of the man who makes the highest possible claims to knowledge, to intellectual eminence and to spirituality, and who yet allows himself things which he well knows are forbidden. The man who professes to love Christ and deliberately disobeys him, is guilty of a lie.

(ii) The man who denies that Jesus is the Christ is a liar ( 1 John 2:22). Here is something which runs through the whole New Testament. The ultimate test of any man is his reaction to Jesus. The ultimate question which Jesus asks every man is: "Who do you say that I am?" ( Matthew 16:13). A man confronted with Christ cannot but see the greatness that is there; and, if he denies it, he is a liar.

(iii) The man who says that he loves God and at the same time hates his brother is a liar ( 1 John 4:20). Love of God and hatred of man cannot exist in the same person. If there is bitterness in a man's heart towards any other, that is proof that he does not really love God. All our protestations of love to God are useless if there is hatred in our hearts towards any man.

THE SINNER'S SELF-DECEPTION ( 1 John 1:8-10 )

1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, we can rely on him in his righteousness to forgive us our sins and to make us clean from all unrighteousness.

In this passage John describes and condemns two further mistaken ways of thought.

(i) There is the man who says that he has no sin. That may mean either of two things.

It may describe the man who says that he has no responsibility for his sin. It is easy enough to find defences behind which to seek to hide. We may blame our sins on our heredity, on our environment, on our temperament, on our physical condition. We may claim that someone misled us and that we were led astray. It is characteristic of us all that we seek to shuffle out of the responsibility for sin. Or it may describe the man who claims that he can sin and take no harm.

It is John's insistence that, when a man has sinned, excuses and self-justifications are irrelevant. The only thing which will meet the situation is humble and penitent confession to God and, if need be, to men.

Then John says a surprising thing. He says that we can depend on God in his righteousness to forgive us if we confess our sins. On the face of it, we might well have thought that God in his righteousness would have been much more likely to condemn than to forgive. But the point is that God, because he is righteous, never breaks his word; and Scripture is full of the promise of mercy to the man who comes to him with penitent heart. God has promised that he will never despise the contrite heart and he will not break his word. If we humbly and sorrowfully confess our sins, he will forgive. The very fact of making excuses and seeking for self-justification debars us from forgiveness, because it debars us from penitence; the very fact of humble confession opens the door to forgiveness, for the man with the penitent heart can claim the promises of God.

(ii) There is the man who says that he has not in fact sinned. That attitude is not nearly so uncommon as we might think. Any number of people do not really believe that they have sinned and rather resent being called sinners. Their mistake is that they think of sin as the kind of thing which gets into the newspapers. They forget that sin is hamartia ( G266) which literally means a missing of the target. To fail to be as good a father, mother, wife, husband, son, daughter, workman, person as we might be is to sin; and that includes us all.

In any event the man who says that he has not sinned is in effect doing nothing less than calling God a liar, for God has said that all have sinned.

So John condemns the man who claims that he is so far advanced in knowledge and in the spiritual life that sin for him has ceased to matter; he condemns the man who evades the responsibility for his sin or who holds that sin has no effect upon him; he condemns the man who has never even realized that he is a sinner. The essence of the Christian life is first to realize our sin; and then to go to God for that forgiveness which can wipe out the past and for that cleansing which can make the future new.

-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)

Gann's Commentary on the Bible

1 John 1:5

God is light -- On the intellectual side, God is "light," on the moral side God is "love." 1 John 4:8; God is spirit, John 4:24.

Light -- = purity, sinlessness, holiness. cf. James 1:17.

Darkness -- Darkness sums up the elements of evil. This is excluded from the nature of God.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

This then is the message,.... Of God by his Son the Word, or from Christ by his apostles. The Syriac version renders it, "this is the Gospel"; which is good news from a far country, a message sent from the King of kings to sinful men: or this is the annunciation, or declaration; that is, the thing declared, or showed. Some render it, "this is the promise", that whereas God is light, such who walk in the light shall have communion with him, and others shall not:

which we have heard of him; of Christ, who has declared him, that he is light without any mixture of darkness; that is a pure Spirit, and must be worshipped in a spiritual way; and that only spiritual worshippers are such as he seeks, and admits to communion with him. Moreover, they might hear and learn this of Christ, by his telling them that he himself was light, who is the image of the invisible God, insomuch, that he that has seen the Son, has seen the Father also. Wherefore, if the one is light, the other must be likewise; nor is there any coming to the Father, and enjoying communion with him, but through Christ; all which our Lord told his disciples. The Ethiopic version reads, "which ye have heard", very wrongly; for the words regard the apostles, who made a faithful declaration of the message they heard, and had from Christ, which is as follows:

and declare unto you that God is light; that is, God the Father, as distinguished from "him", Christ, of whom they had heard this message, and from Jesus Christ his Son, 1 John 1:7, what is declared of him, agreeably to the report of Christ, is, that he is "light"; that is, as light is opposed to the darkness of sin; he is pure and holy in his nature and works, and of such pure eyes as not to behold iniquity; and so perfectly holy, that angels cover their times before him, when they speak of his holiness: and as light is opposed to the darkness of ignorance, he is wise and knowing; he knows himself, his own nature, being, and perfections, his Son and Spirit, and their distinct modes of subsisting; he sees clearly all things in himself, all things he could do, or has determined shall be done; he has perfect knowledge of all creatures and things, and the darkness and the light are alike unto him, nor can the former hide from him: he is knowable, and to be discerned; he is clothed with light, and dwells in it; he may be known by the works of creation and providence; even the invisible things of him, his eternal power and Godhead, may be clearly seen and understood by them, and especially in his word, and most clearly in his Son; it is owing to the darkness of men, and not to any in and about God, who is light, that he is so little known as he is: and, like the light, he illuminates others; he is the Father of lights, the author and giver of all light; of the light of reason to men in general; and of grace here, and glory hereafter, to his own people, which are both signified by light; in whose light they see light; and he refreshes and delights their souls with the light of his countenance now, and with his glorious presence in the other world:

and in him is no darkness at all; no darkness of sin; nothing is more contrary to him, or more distant from him: nor any darkness of error and ignorance; what is unknown to men, as the times and seasons; what angels were ignorant of, and even Christ, as man, as the day and hour of Jerusalem's destruction, were known to the Father; in him is no ignorance of anything whatever; nor is there any variableness or shadow of turning in him, as there is in the luminous body of the sun; but God is always the same pure and holy, wise and knowing Being. It is usual with the Cabalistic Jews e, to call the supreme Being אור, light the most simple light, hidden light, and infinite light, with respect to his nature, glory, and majesty, and with regard also to his grace and mercy, justice and judgment; though, as R. Sangart says f, this is to be understood of him figuratively.

e Lex. Cabalist, p. 63, 64. f Sepher Cosri, par. 2. sect. 2. fol. 61. 2.

Mitchell's Commentary on Selected New Testament Books

FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD

WHO IS LIGHT

FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD WHO IS RIGHTEOUS

FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD WHO IS LOVE

1 John 1:5 And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

We have come now to the first main division of the book. There are three statements concern­ing the nature of God in this Epistle:

God is light; that is, God is absolute in holiness. God is righteous; that is, He is right in everything He does, and every act of His is right.

God is love; that is, love characterizes the energy of His nature toward men.

The first of these statements is that God is light and in Him is no trace of darkness. We read of our Saviour in 1 Timothy 6:16,

“Who alone possesses immortality and dwells in un­approachable light.”

This is God’s absolute holiness in character.

God, being light, must reveal Himself. Re­member that in Exodus 19:9 at the giving of the law the Lord said,

Behold, I shall come to you in a thick cloud.

The people were full of fear and trembled. But now, God has come out into the light!

The darkness is passing away, and the true light is al­ready shining (1 John 2:8).

God has revealed Himself. He has come out into the light in Christ Jesus, who has purged our sins, who has removed the barrier between God and man, who has rent the veil.

“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2).

However, we find that when He came, men refused the light. In the Gospel of John we read,

In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness; and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.

He came for a witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but came that he might bear wit­ness of the light.

There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (John 1:6-9).

Do you mean to tell me that men were in such moral darkness, such spiritual darkness, that God had to send someone to bear witness of the Light? That is true. They would not hear the witness nor would they turn to the One who is the true Light, so they remained in darkness.

The purpose of light is to dispel darkness. When light shines, the darkness is gone. Men were in darkness concerning God, but He came into the world to shine in our hearts,

“to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

He came that we might know Him; that we might know truly who He is and what we are; that we might know His person, the One who is “full of

grace and truth” (John 1:14); that we might know His purpose in redeeming us, in giving us the gift of eternal life and bringing us into relationship and fellowship with Himself; that He might bring us “out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

We are not now in darkness, but we are in Him in whom is no darkness at all.

“For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8).

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      5 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.   6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:   7 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.

      The apostle, having declared the truth and dignity of the author of the gospel, brings a message or report from him, from which a just conclusion is to be drawn for the consideration and conviction of the professors of religion, or professed entertainers of this glorious gospel.

      I. Here is the message or report that the apostle avers to come from the Lord Jesus: This then is the message which we have heard of him (1 John 1:5; 1 John 1:5), of his Son Jesus Christ. As he was the immediate sender of the apostles, so he is the principal person spoken of in the preceding context, and the next antecedent also to whom the pronoun him can relate. The apostles and apostolical ministers are the messengers of the Lord Jesus; it is their honour, the chief they pretend to, to bring his mind and messages to the world and to the churches. This is the wisdom and present dispensation of the Lord Jesus, to send his messages to us by persons like ourselves. He that put on human nature will honour earthen vessels. It was the ambition of the apostles to be found faithful, and faithfully to deliver the errands and messages they had received. What was communicated to them they were solicitous to impart: This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you. A message from the Word of life, from the eternal Word, we should gladly receive: and the present one is this (relating to the nature of God whom we are to serve, and with whom we should covet all indulged communion)--That God is light, and in him is no darkness at all,1 John 1:5; 1 John 1:5. This report asserts the excellency of the divine nature. He is all that beauty and perfection that can be represented to us by light. He is a self-active uncompounded spirituality, purity, wisdom, holiness, and glory. And then the absoluteness and fulness of that excellency and perfection. There is no defect or imperfection, no mixture of any thing alien or contrary to absolute excellency, no mutability nor capacity of any decay in him: In him is no darkness at all,1 John 1:5; 1 John 1:5. Or this report may more immediately relate to what is usually called the moral perfection of the divine nature, what we are to imitate, or what is more directly to influence us in our gospel work. And so it will comprehend the holiness of God, the absolute purity of his nature and will, his penetrative knowledge (particularly of hearts), his jealousy and injustice, which burn a a most bright and vehement flame. It is meet that to this dark world the great God should be represented as pure and perfect light. It is the Lord Jesus that best of all opens to us the name and nature of the unsearchable God: The only-begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, the same hath declared him. It is the prerogative of the Christian revelation to bring us the most noble, the most august and agreeable account of the blessed God, such as is most suitable to the light of reason and what is demonstrable thereby, most suitable to the magnificence of his works round about us, and to the nature and office of him that is the supreme administrator, governor, and judge of the world. What more (relating to and comprehensive of all such perfection) could be included in one word than in this, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all? Then,

      II. There is a just conclusion to be drawn from this message and report, and that for the consideration and conviction of professors of religion, or professed entertainers of this gospel. This conclusion issues into two branches:-- 1. For the conviction of such professors as have no true fellowship with God: If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. It is known that to walk, in scripture account, is to order and frame the course and actions of the moral life, that is, of the life so far as it is capable of subjection to the divine law. To walk in darkness is to live and act according to such ignorance, error, and erroneous practice, as are contrary to the fundamental dictates of our holy religion. Now there may be those who may pretend to great attainments and enjoyments in religion; they may profess to have communion with God; and yet their lives may be irreligious, immoral, and impure. To such the apostle would not fear to give the lie: They lie, and do not the truth. They belie God; for he holds no heavenly fellowship or intercourse with unholy souls. What communion hath light with darkness? They belie themselves, or lie concerning themselves; for they have no such communications from God nor accesses to him. There is no truth in their profession nor in their practice, or their practice gives their profession and pretences the lie, and demonstrates the folly and falsehood of them. 2. For the conviction and consequent satisfaction of those that are near to God: But, if we walk in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. As the blessed God is the eternal boundless light, and the Mediator is, from him, the light of the world, so the Christian institution is the great luminary that appears in our sphere, and shines here below. A conformity to this in spirit and practice demonstrates fellowship or communion with God. Those that so walk show that they know God, that they have received of the Spirit of God, and that the divine impress or image is stamped upon their souls. Then we have fellowship one with another, they with us and we with them, and both with God, in his blessed or beatific communications to us. And this is one of those beatific communications to us--that his Son's blood or death is applied or imputed to us: The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. The eternal life, the eternal Son, hath put on flesh and blood, and so became Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ hath shed his blood for us, or died to wash us from our sins in his own blood. His blood applied to us discharges us from the guilt of all sin, both original and actual, inherent and committed: and so far we stand righteous in his sight; and not only so, but his blood procures for us those sacred influences by which sin is to be subdued more and more, till it is quite abolished, Galatians 3:13; Galatians 3:14.