Fellowship With God

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  • This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we 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 his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say 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 we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. – 1 John 1:5-10

    Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” In six days, God spoke the land, air, and sea into existence. Then God created mankind. Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” God created us in his image so that we might fellowship with him. God was not lonely. Before the beginning, the Godhead enjoyed perfect fellowship. It pleased God to create man to fellowship with him. 

    Sin broke man’s fellowship with God. God’s desire to fellowship with man did not change. Before Adam and Eve were deported from the Garden of Eden, the Lord began to work to restore fellowship with man. God’s redemptive plan is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3 says, “That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

    1 John was written to give assurance of salvation. It records a series of tests to know that you have eternal life. The tests fall into three categories: 

    • The test of doctrinal truth. 
    • The test of godly living.
    • The test of mutual love. 

    1 John 1:1-4 is the first test. You cannot be saved if you do not know and believe the truth about Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:5-10 is a moral test stated in terms of fellowship with God. Fellowship with God happens on God’s terms, not ours. How can I enjoy fellowship with God? 1 John 1:5-10 teaches two requirements for fellowship with God. 

    Affirm the Truth about God. 

    Verse 5 says, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that god is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” This verse states the theme of the text. It is arguably the theme of the letter. It proclaims the theme of the Christian message.

    The Source of the Christian Message. 1 John 1:1 says, “That which was from the beginning.” John’s message was not new or novel. He proclaimed the message from and about Christ. Verse again states that John’s message was not original: Verse 5 says, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you.” There is no chapter-and-verse where Jesus makes the statement recorded here. This may be John’s summary of the message of Jesus. John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” 

    • Jesus did not come to start a religion. 
    • Jesus came to reveal God the Father. 

    John heard the message of God from Jesus. He proclaimed what he heard from Christ. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 says, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” Faithful preaching does not proclaim anything new. It is gloriously monotonous.

    The Substance of the Christian Message. Verse 5 says, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.” The Christian message is about God, not us. John begins by proclaiming the truth about God, not rebuking the error about sin. Verse 5 says, “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.”

    God is uncreated light. John makes three big statements about the nature of God. 

    • John 4:24 says, “God is spirit.”
    • 1 John 4:8 says, “God is love.”
    • 1 John 1:5 says, “God is light.”

    In Greek mythology, the gods were good and evil. Our God is light. John does not say God has or gives light. God is light. “Light” is a metaphor for truth, goodness, and holiness. God is eternal and immutable. He has always been light, and it will never change. James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” 

    God is undiluted light. Verse 5 says, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” Here is the first of several times John argues by affirmations and denials in this letter. Both are essential to clarify and confirm the truth. It is what is called the law of noncontradiction. God is light, and in him there is no darkness.

    We define darkness as the absence of light. In this moral metaphor, darkness is the opposite of light. The original is an emphatic double-negative: “and darkness in him not is, not one bit.” 1 Timothy 6:16 says God “alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” 

    Acknowledge the Truth about Sin. 

    Verse 5 teaches the nature of God. Verses 6-10 teach the nature of God determines fellowship with God. 2 Corinthians 6:14 says, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” To enjoy fellowship with God, you must acknowledge the truth about sin. 

    The Sinner’s Character. Verses 6-7 contrast walking in darkness and walking in sin. 

    Walking in darkness. Verse 6 says, “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” This claim is not automatically wrong. You can have it, know it, and tell it. But we cannot have fellowship with God “while we walk in darkness.” 

    “Walk” denotes activity, direction, and progress. It is consistent conduct. If light is truth and holiness, darkness is falsehood and sin. It is one thing to step into the dark and turn on the lights. It is another thing to walk in darkness. This is the spiritual conditionof unredeemed sinners. John 3:19 says, “And this the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”

    The conflict is what one says and does. John issues a twofold indictment against those who make this claim. First, “we lie.” Saying something untrue does not make you a liar. You can be sincerely wrong. A “lie”is a known falsehood. They are not telling the truth. It is to tell a lie and live a lie. Verse 6 says, “We lie and do not practice the truth.” This is the first occurrence of “truth” in 1 John. You do not know the truth if you do not live the truth. John 8:31-32 says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set your free.”

    Walking in the light. Verse 7 says, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Your life does not have to be governed by sin and error. You can walk in truth, goodness, and holiness. John says, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light.” Fellowship with God is not mystical. It is walking in the light, as he is in the light. 

    • Verse 5 says God is light. 
    • Verse 7 says God is in the light. 

    To fellowship with God, you must walk in the light, as he is in the light. Those who have fellowship with God enjoy two benefits. First, we have fellowship with one another. The false teachers rejected the truth and abandoned the church. 1 John 2:19 says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” The evidence that we are walking in the light is fellowship with one another. 1 Timothy 3:15 calls the church “the pillar and buttress of the truth.”

    Walking in the light is not sinless perfection. But there is a divine solution for our sin problem: “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Note the Person of Christ: 

    • He is the human Jesus.
    • He is the divine Son.

    We are saved by the “blood” Jesus shed when he died on the cross. Hebrews 9:22 says, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.” The redeeming blood of Jesus that saves “cleanses us from all sin.” “All sin” is every act and kind of sin. There is no sin in your life that the blood of Jesus cannot cleanse. 

    The Sinner’s Corruption. Verses 8-9 present a contrast. 

    The Deceived Sinner. Verse 8 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Some claim fellowship with walking in darkness. Others claim to have no sin. Verse 6 speaks of walking in darkness. Verse 8 calls it sin. “No sin” refers to our sinful nature, the original sin we inherited from Adam and Eve. We all share David’s confession in Psalm 51:5: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” John issues a twofold indictment. First, “we deceive ourselves.”

    • Verse 6 refers to those who “lie” to God and others
    • Verse 8 refers to those who deceive themselves. 

    “Deceive” is to stray away from truth, virtue, and safety. It also means that “the truth is not in us.” The person in verse 6 does not practice the truth and lives in disobedience. The person here does not have the truth in him. To be saved, you must be in the truth, and the truth must be in you. If the truth is in you, you will be honest about your sin. 

    The Honest Sinner. Verse 9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” “Confess” is a legal term for a formal statement of agreement. To confess is to say the same thing God says about your sin.  It is to call sin what it is. The grammar indicates that confession is an ongoing part of the Christian life. The plural “sins” indicates that we should confess every sinful act. How will God respond?

     Verse 9 states two attributes of God: “he is faithful and just.” “Faithful” means God keeps his promises. 2 Corinthians 1:20 says, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.” God is just in forgiving our sins because of the substitutionary atonement of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 

    God forgives the penalty of sin. “Forgive” means to send away. God lifts the burden of guilt and sends it away freely, fully, and finally. God cleanses the pollution of sin. “Cleanse” is used in the Gospels for leprosy. Other miracles are called healings. Healing from leprosy is called cleansing. Like leprosy, sin is fatal, painful, debilitating, contagious, and defiling. God can cleanse you from all unrighteousness. 

    The Sinner’s Conduct. Verse 10 says, “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

    • Verse 6 claims fellowship with God while walking in darkness. 
    • Verse 8 claims fellowship with God while having no sin nature. 
    • Verse 10 claims fellowship with God while committing no sin. 

    Who would claim this? The incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus are meaningless if it is not the remedy for sin. You cannot be saved if you claim you have not sinned. John issues a twofold indictment. First, they “make him a liar.” Romans 3:23 says: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” It is one thing to lie to God. It is another thing to call God a liar. That’s blasphemy!

    Worse, “His word is not in us.” You can be under the word.  But you are not saved if the word is not in you. The word is not in you if you claim you have not sinned. This is not a license to sin. 1 John 2:1-2 says, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” 

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    H.B. Charles Jr.

    Pastor-Teacher at the Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church of Jacksonville and Orange Park, Florida.