“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.” (1 John 1:5-7)
These days there are many who have rejected the Jesus revealed in the Scriptures. In its place they have constructed a false Jesus one who is tolerant of all sinful lifestyles, one who judges according to the current cultural norms and values. As the Apostle John points out here in his epistle, such people walk not in the light of truth but in the darkness of sin. They believe the lies of the devil who has taken hold of our media and our culture. This group would also include people who call themselves Christians. These do not know that sin is a real barrier that separates them from God even though they may redefine it or deny its existence.
The Apostle John wrote these words to address a similar type of belief back in the first century. Some false teachers were claiming that Jesus had not come in the flesh but was only a spiritual entity. These maintained that believers need not live a pure and holy life. They denied the serious nature of sin claiming that it affected only the flesh not the spirit and therefore was not evil nor a sign of corruption. They alleged that they could make such claims because they were enlightened beings.
John asserted that this was a lie. He knew and taught the truth about Jesus because he knew it firsthand. He was an eyewitness to Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection. He was present when Thomas made his great declaration “My Lord and my God!” John could, therefore, state with great emphasis and confidence that those who deny the reality of sin and the reality of Jesus walk in darkness and have no fellowship with God who is light. Those who refuse to admit their own sin and repent of it have no fellowship with God no matter how many charitable works or good deeds they perform. They are walking in rebellion. Their claim to faith without righteousness and compassion for others is worthless and false. Only when we admit the reality and heinous nature of sin as well as our inability to overcome it without God’s help can we enter into fellowship with the Lord. We in the church of Jesus Christ today must use the truth of the Word of God to instruct and convict all such so that they will come to the light of Christ and receive the mercy and forgiveness He has won for us all.