Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 John 1:5
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.
5 7. Fellowship with God and with the Brethren
5. This then is the message which we have heard of Him ] Better, And the message which we have heard from Him is this. ‘This’ is the predicate, as so often in S. John: ‘But the judgment is this’ (Joh 3:19); ‘The commandment is this’ (Joh 15:12); ‘The eternal life is this’ (Joh 17:3): comp. 1Jn 3:11 ; 1Jn 3:23; 1Jn 5:3 ; 1Jn 5:11; 1Jn 5:14 ; 2Jn 1:6. In all these cases ‘is this’ means ‘This is what it consists in, This is the sum and substance of it’. The conjunction does not introduce an inference: here, as in the Gospel, the main portion of the writing is joined on to the Introduction by a simple ‘and’. Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Rhemish all have ‘and’: ‘then’ comes from Geneva, apparently under the influence of Beza’s igitur. The connexion of thought seems to be this. S. John is writing that we may have fellowship with God ( 1Jn 1:3): and in order to have this we must know 1. what God is ( 1Jn 1:5), and 2. what we consequently are bound to be (6 10). The word for ‘message’ ( ) occurs only in this Epistle (1Jn 3:11) in N.T., but is more frequent in LXX.
Once more we have a striking parallel between Gospel and Epistle: the Gospel opens with a sentence very similar in form; ‘And the witness of John is this’ (Joh 1:19). All these similarities strengthen the belief that the two were written about the same time, and were intended to accompany one another.
from Him ] From Christ. The pronoun used ( ) is not the one ( ) commonly used for Christ in this Epistle. But here the context decides: ‘Him’ refers back to ‘His Son Jesus Christ’ ( 1Jn 1:3), the subject of the opening verses (1 3). Moreover, it was from Christ, and not immediately from the Father, that the Apostles received their message.
and declare unto you ] Better, and announce unto you: not precisely the same verb as was rendered ‘declare’ in 1Jn 1:2-3. Both are compounds of the same verb; but while the former has merely the notion of proclaiming and making known, this has the notion of proclaiming again what has been received elsewhere. The one is annuntiare, the other renuntiare. S. John hands on the message received from Christ: it is no invention of his own. It is a message, and not a discovery. So also the Spirit makes known or reveals to us truths which proceed from the Father (Joh 16:13-15): comp. Joh 4:25; 2Co 7:7 ; 1Pe 1:12, where the same verb is used in all cases.
God is light ] This is the theme of the first main division of the Epistle, as ‘God is Love’ of the second: so that this verse stands in the same relation to the first great division as 1Jn 1:1-4 to the whole Epistle. No one tells us so much about the Nature of God as S. John: other writers tell us what God does, and what attributes He possesses; S. John tells us what He is. There are three statements in the Bible which stand alone as revelations of the Nature of God, and they are all in the writings of S. John: ‘God is spirit’ (Joh 4:24); ‘God is light’, and ‘God is love’ (1Jn 4:8). In all these momentous statements the predicate has no article, either definite or indefinite. We are not told that God is the Spirit, or the Light, or the Love: nor (in all probability) that He is a Spirit, or a light. But ‘God is spirit, is light, is love’: spirit, light, love are His very Nature. They are not mere attributes, like mercy and justice: they are Himself. They are probably the nearest approach to a definition of God that the human mind could frame or comprehend: and in the history of thought and religion they are unique. The more we consider them, the more they satisfy us. The simplest intellect can understand their meaning; the subtlest cannot exhaust it. No philosophy, no religion, not even the Jewish, had risen to the truth that God is light. ‘The Lord shall be to thee an everlasting light’ (Isa 60:19-20) is far short of it. But S. John knows it: and lest the great message which he conveys to us in his Gospel, ‘God is spirit’, should seem somewhat bare and empty in its indefiniteness, he adds this other message in his Epistle, ‘God is light, God is love’. No figure borrowed from the material world could give the idea of perfection so clearly and fully as light. It suggests ubiquity, brightness, happiness, intelligence, truth, purity, holiness. It suggests excellence without limit and without taint; an excellence whose nature it is to communicate itself and to pervade everything from which it is not of set purpose shut out. ‘Let there be light’ was the first fiat of the Creator; and on it all the rest depends. Light is the condition of beauty, and life, and growth, and activity: and this is as true in the intellectual, moral, and spiritual spheres as in the material universe.
Of the many beautiful and true ideas which the utterance ‘God is light’ suggests to us, two are specially prominent in this Epistle; intelligence and holiness. The Christian, anointed with the Holy Spirit, and in communion with God in Christ, possesses (1) knowledge, (2) righteousness. (1) ‘Ye know Him which is from the beginning’ (1Jn 2:13-14); ‘I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it’ (1Jn 2:21); ‘Ye need not that anyone teach you’ (1Jn 2:27); &c. &c. (2) ‘Every one that hath this hope on him purifieth himself, even as He is pure’ (1Jn 3:3); ‘Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God’; &c. &c.
and in Him is no darkness at all ] Or, retaining the telling order of the Greek, and darkness in Him there is none at all. This antithetic parallelism is characteristic of S. John’s style. He frequently emphasizes a statement by following it up with a denial of its opposite. Thus, in the next verse, ‘We lie, and do not the truth’. Comp. ‘We lead ourselves astray, and the truth is not in us’ ( 1Jn 1:8); Abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him’ (1Jn 2:10); ‘Is true, and is no lie’ (1Jn 2:27): comp. 1Jn 2:4. So also in the Gospel: see on Joh 1:3. The denial here is very strong, the negative being doubled in the Greek; ‘none whatever, none at all ’.
Another parallel between the Gospel and the Epistle must here be pointed out. In the Prologue to the former we have these ideas in succession; the Word, life, light, darkness. The same four follow in the same order here; ‘the Word of life’, ‘the life was manifested’, ‘God is light, and darkness in Him there is none’. Must we not suppose that the sequence of thought here has been influenced by the sequence in the corresponding portion of the Gospel?
The figurative use of ‘darkness’ for moral darkness, i.e. error and sin, is very frequent in S. John (1Jn 2:8-9; 1Jn 2:11; see on Joh 1:5; Joh 8:12). These passages shew that the meaning of this verse cannot be, ‘God has now been revealed, and no part of His Nature remains unknown’; which, moreover, could never be stated of Him who is incomprehensible. S. John is laying the foundation of Christian Ethics, of which the very first principle is that there is a God who intellectually, morally, and spiritually is light.
“In speaking of ‘light’ and ‘darkness’ it is probable that S. John had before him the Zoroastrian speculations on the two opposing spiritual powers which influenced Christian thought at a very early date” (Westcott).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1Jn 1:5 to 1Jn 2:28. God is Light
1Jn 1:5 to 1Jn 2:11. What Walking in the Light involves
This section is largely directed against the Gnostic doctrine that to the man of enlightenment all conduct is morally indifferent. Against every form of this doctrine, which sapped the very foundations of Christian Ethics, the Apostle never wearies of inveighing. So far from its being true that all conduct is alike to the enlightened man, it is the character of his conduct that will shew whether he is enlightened or not. If he is walking in the light his condition and conduct will exhibit these things; 1. Fellowship with God and with the Brethren (5 7); 2. Consciousness and Confession of Sin (8 10); 3. Obedience to God by Imitation of Christ (1Jn 2:1-6); 4. Love of the Brethren (1Jn 2:7-11).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This then is the message which we have heard of him – This is the substance of the announcement ( 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 ( 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 – phos – 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 Jam 1:17 note; Joh 1:4-5 note; 1Ti 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 Joh 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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Jn 1:5-10
This then is the message that God is light
The clergy Gods messengers
All rightly ordained ministers of Christ are Gods messengers.
Our office is not merely of mans appointment; we hold it from the Lord. We are sent to remind you of Gods will, to be His witnesses unto you (Heb 2:1-4). Consider, then, the message which we bring unto you, whence it comes, and upon what authority. I have a message from God unto thee. That message began to be preached by the Lord Himself, by Him who said, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. The apostles, who were eyewitnesses of His majesty and glory, have handed down His words to us in the New Testament. To show that they were sent by God they wrought miracles (Mar 16:16). We are invested with Gods authority to warn, to teach, to rebuke, to comfort (2Co 5:20). And as our message is from God, so we must be faithful in delivering it. Christs ministers are put in trust with the gospel, and they must fulfil that trust (Eze 3:11). They who refuse to hear the messenger refuse to hear Him who sent him (Mat 10:40). It remains for me to say what my message is to each of you.
1. And, first, I speak to those who are careless, thoughtless, and unconcerned about religion. You have not known God as a Father, Christ as a Saviour, the Holy Spirit as a Sanctifier. I have a message from God to you. He says, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead. Consider your ways. Boast not thyself of tomorrow: for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Remember that word, Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.
2. Next, I speak to those who are living in known sin. I have a message from God unto you. Break off your sin by repentance, turn to God through Christ earnestly, seriously, and at once; for remember that the unbelieving must have their portion in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. We beseech you, in Christs stead, be ye reconciled to God.
3. But is there one here who is humbly desiring to learn the way of salvation, who is sorry and ashamed to have lived so long without God, and to have so grievously provoked Him by sin and folly? I have a message from God unto thee, and it is one full of love and full of comfort Be of good cheer; They that seek shall find.
4. But there may also be some who, having once known the way of righteousness, have since fallen away and gone backwards. I have a message from God to you also. If any man draw back, He says, My soul shall have no pleasure in him. Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent, and do thy first works. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you.
5. Or is there one amongst us whose heart is troubled with a sense of sin and guilt? who is asking in sorrow, What must I do to be saved? There is a message from God to you. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He came into the world to save sinners.
6. There are yet some to whom I may especially say I have a message from God unto you–you who have fled to Christ, who are living a Christian life in communion with God and hope of heaven. You are still surrounded with temptations from within and from without. Therefore be sober, be vigilant. Walk humbly with God, pray without ceasing. Abound in all good works. God expects you to attend to what He says, to give earnest heed to the things which you have heard, lest at any time you should let them slip. (E. Blencowe, M. A.)
A glorious message
I. A message.
1. How was this message obtained? We have heard it, and disclose it unto you, says John. Heard it; from whom? Unquestionably from the Lord Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the Great Teacher sent from God. He delivered it to His disciples, and they to others.
2. What does this message express? God is Light, He makes us wise unto salvation.
3. What does this light exclude? It excludes all darkness, for God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. This shows the supremacy of God, and His sovereign perfection in distinction from all orders of His creatures.
II. The awful decision. If we say we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.
1. Now men may say this by profession of it to others; and they may say it to their own souls, persuading themselves that they are real Christians, when they have no part or lot in the matter, their hearts not being right in the sight of God.
2. Congeniality must precede fellowship, and resemblance must precede fellowship. And therefore it will follow that a change of heart is necessary, for without this change we can neither enjoy God, nor serve Him acceptably.
III. The glorious privilege.
1. It takes in fellowship. We have fellowship one with another. There is a fellowship belonging to all the people of God wherever they live. But this is not the fellowship referred to here. Here the fellowship one with another means the fellowship that exists between God and us. He is their God, and they are His people.
2. The other article here is the assurance of pardon. And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
(1) Observe the procurer, the Son of God. However this term may be explained, it always in Scripture means dignity.
(2) Mark the efficacy of His death: His blood cleanseth us from all sin. It delivers us from the heinousness of it, however offensive it is in the eyes of a holy God; and from the love of sin, and make us dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.
(3) Then mark the extent of it: it cleanseth us from all sin–from original sin and actual sin; from all sin, however aggravated. His blood cleanseth perfectly from all sin, and completely from all transgression. (W. Jay.)
The conditions of Divine fellowship
I. A lesson of instruction (verse 5). Both the manner and the matter of this lesson are very impressive.
1. The apostle adopts the manner of the deliverer of Israel (Jdg 3:20). It is indeed the style of our Lord Himself (Joh 7:16). It is intended to remind us that the word and ministry are to be understood and treated as a message from God (1Th 4:8). It is observable that no mention is here made by name of the Being from whom the message comes. We have heard of him. Of whom? No doubt the glorious Being described in the previous verses. It is Jesus the Mediator.
2. Impressive, however, as is the manner of the lesson before us, its matter is of far higher moment.
(1) God is light. Its simplicity and comprehensiveness are amazing. There are three principal ideas suggested by the figure.
(a) Light is the emblem of knowledge. God is onmiscient. He sees all things as they are, in their true nature and real influence. He cannot be deceived. Matter and mind are alike plain to His perception. Our motives and feelings and purposes are as palpable to Him as our bodies.
(b) So also is light the emblem of holiness. God is the Holy One implying that none but He is absolutely and infinitely holy. All He does is in undeviating correspondence with perfect purity.
(c) Light is the emblem of happiness. Infinite knowledge and holiness must be productive of infinite happiness. He possesses within Himself all the sources of unmingled blessedness. His perfections are never-failing springs of joy.
(2) And in Him is no darkness at all. Nor is this without its meaning. It is designed to teach us that no element enters into His light to obscure it. He is intellectually and morally perfect.
II. A warning against self-deception (verse 6).
1. If we say that we have fellowship. We say it, but we may herein be uttering what is untrue. Profession is not principle. We may be self-deceived, or we may be hypocrites.
2. And walk in darkness. Darkness is the emblem of ignorance, error, and sin. And so far may the spirit of self-deception or hypocrisy prevail, that with the highest professions on our lips, our walk may be utterly inconsistent with them. It is not merely that we may be betrayed by the force of temptation into some inconsistent action, but that our habit of life is contrary to sound principle and true godliness.
3. We lie in such a case. Our outward profession is contrary to the inward reality.
4. And do not the truth. If such be our deportment, we are disobedient to the truth. The language reminds us of the words of Christ (Joh 3:19-21).
5. It is plain that the warning of the apostle is designed to stand ill contrast to the lesson which he had just delivered. Looking at it, then, in this light, how powerful is his appeal! God is light. Who, then, can have fellowship with such a Being? Is it he who is walking in darkness, which is the emblem of ignorance, and error, and sin? Impossible! And what communion hath light with darkness?
6. With these solemn words before us, let us inquire who they are that belie their profession of fellowship with God?
(1) The ignorant do so. They have no adequate conception of sin, or of themselves, or of the Saviour, or of God, or of the world, or of eternity. They are walking in darkness, yet they have no fear.
(2) The erroneous present a mole aggravated case. What a description does Isaiah (Isa 44:20) give of such! St. Paul describes the same (Rom 10:3). The forms in which they do so are very various, and sometimes the very opposite of one another. One trusts in his innocence or righteousness. He does not see anything in himself why God should cast him off, but thinks he has done much to commend himself to His fellowship. Another relics not on himself at all, but in the creed which he has learned from his youth, and which he holds tenaciously in the letter, while a stranger to its power and spirit. Many more rest in the formality of outward rites and ceremonies (Mat 15:8).
(3) Above all, they who allow themselves in sin, fall under the censure of the apostle. Nor are such always sensible of their own inconsistencies. It is to be feared many are going to the judgment with their sins without alarm.
III. The seasonable and encouraging direction which the apostle gives to those who would have tile enjoyment and advantage of real fellowship (verse 7).
1. A clear apprehension of the truth is essential to fellowship. No one can have solid and permanent enjoyment of God who does not well understand the doctrine of justification by faith.
2. The believer, thus enlightened and brought into fellowship with God, must exercise the utmost watchfulness against sin. Whatever sin is allowed, and in whatever measure, it will obscure the object of faith, and darken the evidence of his interest in it.
3. He who would walk in the light and enjoy the fellowship of God must abound in well-doing. This is the secret of religious enjoyment. He that watereth others, shall himself be watered. Exercise is essential to health. (James Morgan, D. D.)
Light the nature and dwelling place of God
I. The form of the announcement in the fifth verse is very peculiar: This, then, is the message, etc. It is not a discovery which we make concerning God, an inference or deduction which we draw for ourselves from observation of His works and ways, and which we publish in that character, and with that weight of influence, to our fellow men. It is an authentic and authoritative communication to us from Himself. And it is to be accepted as such.
1. Positively, God is light. Let these two thoughts be fixed in our minds; first, the thought of perfect openness; and secondly, the thought of perfect inviolability.
2. Negatively, In Him is no darkness at all. I connect this part of the statement with that saying of John in his Gospel (Joh 1:5). In the light itself, in Him who is the light even when shining in darkness, the darkness which comprehendeth it not–there is still no darkness at all. The light shineth in darkness. He who is the light comes, in the person of His Son, to seek and to save us who are in darkness; who, as to our character, and state, and prospects, are darkness itself. For our sakes, in our stead, in our nature, He who is light is identified with our darkness. And yet in Him is no darkness at all. In the very heat and crisis of this death struggle, there is no surrender of the light to the darkness; no concession, no compromise; no allowance of some partial shading of the light on which the darkness presses so terribly. All still is clear, open, transparent, between the Son and the Father. In the interest of light triumphing over darkness, not by any plausible terms of accommodation, but before the open face of eternal righteousness, pure and untainted, the Father gives the cup and the Son drains it to the dregs. In that great transaction, thus consummated, before all intelligences, between the Father and the Son, it is clearly seen and conclusively proved that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
II. Such being the message in the fifth verse, the warning in the sixth verse becomes simply a self-evident inference: If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. What is this walking in darkness? Our answer is simple enough. All unholy walking is walking in darkness (Eph 5:3-11; Gal 5:19-21). But the matter must be pressed a little more closely home. The characteristics of light are clearness, openness, transparency, and inviolability, retaining and preserving its own pure nature, unmodified, unmingled, unsullied by external influences. Now darkness is the opposite of this light. Instead of openness there is concealment and disguise; instead of inviolability there is facile impressibility. Ah! this walking in darkness! Is it not after all just walking deceitfully? Is it not simple insincerity, the want of perfect openness and transparent honesty in our dealings with God and with ourselves as to the real state of our hearts towards God, and the bias of our affections away from God towards selfishness and worldliness? Is it not that we have in us and about us something to conceal; something that does not quite satisfy us; something about which we have at least occasional misgivings; something that, when we think seriously, and confess, and pray, we slur over and do not like to dwell upon; something that we try to represent to ourselves as not so bad as it seems–as indeed, in the circumstances, excusable and unavoidable?
III. From the solemn message in the fifth verse, and the faithful warning in the sixth, the gracious assurance in the seventh fitly follows: We have fellowship one with another; God with us and we with God. The expression may seem to savour of familiarity. The explanation may be found in the conditional clause–if we walk in the light, as He is in the light. We walk in the light in which God is. It is the light of His own pure truth, His own holy nature. In that light He sees and knows and judges all things. And now the supposition is that we walk–as He is–in that light. To us the light in which we walk is identically the same as the light in which He is. The same lustrous glory of holiness shines on our walk and on His throne. The very same pure medium of vision is common to us both. We see light in His light. (R. S. Candlish,D. D.)
God is light
1. When the source of light is considered we have an emblem of the vastness, the ubiquity of God. How insignificant is man in his lofty aspirations and his feeble powers as he walks in the midst of this vastness!
2. The analysis of the spectrum unfolds to us the fact that a ray (called white) is made up of a number of coloured rays; and further observations show that combined with this white ray there is also a ray of heat, and the chemical ray called actinism, which gives vitality and paints the lines of life and beauty. The natural and moral attributes of God, such as His omnipresence, eternity, spirituality, and His benevolence, justice, truth, and others, form to us the only conceptions of Gods character which we can realise. Without a knowledge of these God has no appreciable relation to us, and we fail in our attempt to conceive it. But as we look to the analysis of the white light, and of the combined ray, to tell us of the physical properties of the suns rays, so we need such intermediate knowledge of Gods attributes to realise a knowledge of the perfections of His character, and of the unity of the mysterious persons in One, that God may be known to us.
3. When the diffusion of light is considered, we have the most perfect illustration which nature can afford of the immediateness of Gods communications with us. John here, when the undulatory theory was unknown, and any notion of the velocity of its influence, conceived light as emanating from the sun–shining forth, filling the heavens and pervading the face of the earth, and at times intercepted and darkness intervened. But how much higher than this are our conceptions of this diffusion raised, under more exact knowledge, when we learn that the actual velocity of light in its passage from the sun to the earth is at the rate of one hundred and ninety-three thousand miles per second, a speed which would belt the earth in the space of one-eighth of a second. Yet, quick as this velocity may appear, it is tardy in comparison with Gods communications with us. When they call I will answer! Here is no waiting, no passage through an intercepting medium.
4. With equal force does the figure unfold to us a view of Gods universal knowledge. Light is like God, inasmuch as it reveals and exposes to view every object upon which it falls. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men. For the Lord God is a sun, discovering, enlightening, and cheering the whole created universe.
5. But the most prominent feature in this analogy is the relation of light with Gods infinite purity and goodness.
6. But the teaching of the text is not all hidden under these material comparisons and contrasts; for, lifting us to a higher view, the relation in which God stands to the Christian in his daily course of spiritual life–a life of purity–is directly intimated.
(1) The Christian is here supposed to be walking before God in harmony and perfect confidence with Him, in a walk comprising the sum of his motives, his aspirations, his actions.
(2) Not only does he walk with God in the light of Divine knowledge, but also in that of Divine purity.
(3) This walk is, like light, to be constant and unvarying, as the little intruding preposition if preceding the sentence implies–if we walk in the light. (D. Smith.)
God is tight
1. In this view, are we not warranted in laying stress on the fact that light is an entirely open thing? It is the first property of light to manifest itself and all else on which it rests. It is here the direct antithesis of darkness. Darkness hides; but light lays bare everything it reaches. Moreover, its whole tendency is to expand its influence all around the source whence it proceeds. Here, I think, we have set before us, first of all, the blessed fact that God is the God of revelation. He has not hid Himself from us as in our sin we deserved. But He has unveiled Himself to us that we may know His nature and character, His method of dealing with us now, and His plans for our destiny hereafter. This was done in many different ways from the beginning of the world; it reached its climax in the advent of Christ. The sun is set on high for the illumination of the heavens and the earth. No portion of our globe is exempted from his beams. So the Lord manifestly intends to diffuse the knowledge of Himself over the whole world. It is His very nature to penetrate by His Word into the remotest corners of human existence. Yet wherever His Word does penetrate, He is found true to Himself. As Light alone, He has the power of distinguishing betwixt truth and falsehood, purity and impurity.
2. On the other hand, is not light also an inviolable thing? This tells us that the nature of God also is inviolably pure. As the light streams into contact with the world and all that is in it, so God is now by His Spirit alike in providence and redemption in the closest contact with the heart and life of men. But in this action on His creatures He never catches anything of the moral corruption by which the world is saturated.
3. But, last of all, is not light also a glorious thing? Thus it suggests to us the moral and spiritual glory of the Divine nature. (J. P. Lilley, M. A)
God is light
I. We look at the text as an illustration of the divine character.
1. Light is perhaps the nearest approach of anything with which we are acquainted to immateriality. It seems to fill all nature, to surround all worlds, and so to bear a fit resemblance to its glorious Maker, who says, Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?
2. Then, again, how fine an emblem is it of the Divine purity!
3. Does it not also portray to our minds His all-searching know ledge?
4. It is important also to observe that light is exhibited to us in the text as the emblem of the essential perfection of the Divine nature.
II. Our text may now be contemplated as containing an intimation of what God does for man.
1. Light is a revealer.
2. Light communicates enjoyment; for a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.
3. Light clothes all things with beauty. Dark providences brighten when God shines upon them, and the manifestation of His wisdom and love, His faithfulness and power, please our eyes and comfort our hearts.
4. Light purifies the atmosphere in which we live, which without it would be but ill adapted to sustain our existence in comfort.
III. The subject is adapted, to furnish us with a few serious and practical suggestions.
1. How blind are men that do not see God in all things! The light of heaven shines all around them.
2. How great are our obligations to God for the light which He has given us!
3. How great the duty which rests upon us, to pity and endeavour to enlighten those who are sitting in darkness and the shadow of death! (The Evangelical Preacher.)
The perfect light of God
It seems a very simple thing to say that God is light, etc. We almost wonder at the Bible taking so much trouble to say it. For, we might think, how could God be otherwise? How could we imagine God to be imperfect, wanting in goodness, and holiness, and wisdom, and truth? How could God be God unless He were all-perfect–light without s shade of darkness? And this is true. But how is it that we have come to have these thoughts of God? It is that the gospel has become so much a matter of course to us, that its truth has come to seem to us our own thoughts. But it was by no means so plain a truth to the world when St. John wrote his Epistle. He wrote when the world believed in idols and false gods without number. And those false gods were not thought of as we think of God. They were believed to be not more perfect, not more holy, not more good, than the men who worshipped them. But those days of idolatry and ignorance are past; and perhaps we think that we do not need to be reminded that God is light–perfectly pure and holy and true and good. We do want to be reminded that there are those still who do not in their hearts believe that God is light; for is it not so, that instead of really believing that God is light, without stain, or shade of sin, we often make Him out in our thoughts to be what we like and wish Him to be? What does the sinner wish God to be? He wishes God to be kind and indulgent to his sin; to be a God who always rewards and never punishes; who will do good to us, whether we obey Him or not. Do we never sin, hoping that after all God will not think so severely of our sin as the Bible seems to make out that He will? Do we never comfort and flatter ourselves with such general excuses as that God is merciful, and will not be hard upon us? Do we not, instead of taking the Bible, and reading there the true character of the God whom we worship, make an image according to our own imperfections and sins, and call it God? Is this the God who is light, and in Him is no darkness? Can we be said really to believe in Him when we treat Him as if He were foolish, and could not see through our cunning devices, and could be flattered into good humour with us, and be prevailed upon to treat us as favourites? Again, what a sad show of our real thoughts about God is to be found in the manner of our worship and in our prayers! If He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all, what must He think of worship which only pretends to worship and honour Him? of prayer which does not really ask in spirit for the thing it speaks about? God is what He is, whatever we may think; and earnestly ought we to strive and pray that we may know Him as He is, and always think of Him as He is. (Dean Church.)
No substitute for light
Clear and brilliant light often brings out exquisite colours, as happens among the Alps and also in the north frigid zone, where the humble little plants called lichens and mosses are in many cases dyed of the most brilliant hues, purple and gold predominating. Warmth, in like manner, will stimulate vegetable growth in the most astonishing manner, but it is growth not necessarily accompanied by the secretion of valuable substances, such as give quality and real importance to the plant. In English hothouses, for example, we have plenty of spice trees, those generous plants that yield cinnamon and cassia, the nutmeg and the clove; but although healthy and blossoming freely, they never mature their aromatic secretions. Though they have artificial heat equal to that of their native islands, which burn beneath the sun of the Indian Ocean, we cannot supply them with similar and proportionate solar light.
God the satisfying light
Suppose the case of a cripple who had spent his life in a room where the sun was never seen. He has heard of its existence, he believes in it, and, indeed, has seen enough of its light to give high ideas of its glory. Wishing to see the sun, he is taken out at night into the streets of an illuminated city. At first he is delighted, dazzled; but after he has had time to reflect, he finds darkness spread amid the lights, and he asks, Is this the sun? He is taken out under the starry sky, and is enraptured; but on reflection finds that night covers the earth, and again asks, Is this the sun? He is carried out some bright day at noontide, and no sooner does his eye open on the sky than all question is at an end. There is but one sun. His eye is content: it has seen its highest object, and feels that there is nothing brighter. So with the soul: it enjoys all lights, yet amid those of art and nature is still inquiring for something greater. But when it is led by the reconciling Christ into the presence of the Father, and He lifts up upon it the light of His countenance, all thought of anything greater disappears. As there is but one sun, so there is but one God. The soul which once discerns and knows Him, feels that greater or brighter there is none, and that the only possibility of ever beholding more glory is by drawing nearer. (W. Arthur.)
Light in the hour of darkness
When Charles Kingsley was dying he said, It is not darkness I am going to, for God is light. (E. W. Bibb.)
No darkness in God
Skotia ouk estin oudemia (no, not even one speck of darkness); no ignorance, error, untruthfulness, sin, death. (A. R. Fausset, M. A.)
If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie—
Light and darkness: sin and purification
Light and Darkness are very living expressions. They belong to the life of us all. Moreover, these expressions were wonderfully suitable for those to whom St. John wrote. The Ephesians had paid an especial worship to Artemis or Diana. They connected her with the moon, the night ruler. They had paid a worship, in common with the other Greeks, to Apollo; him they connected with the sun, that rules the day. They connected them, I say, with these beautiful objects; but they were never satisfied with doing so. The god of light was the god whom they went to consult how they should manage states, conduct wars, make peace. They felt that a higher light than the light which the eyes could see must proceed from him. So these old Greeks thought. They were continually exalting the lower light above the higher light, and supposing the higher to come from the lower. This was their idolatry. They worshipped the visible things from which they thought that the light proceeded. St. John had been taught almost from his birth that he was not to worship things in heaven, or on earth, or under the earth, or the works of his own hands. He had been taught that the Lord his God was one Lord, that He was the Unseen Deliverer, Guide, Teacher, King of Israel. He had clung to this teaching. Now he had believed that this God had revealed Himself to them, not in the sun or in the moon, bug in a humble and crucified Man. With this conviction becoming every hour deeper and deeper in his mind, he had settled in the city where Apollo and Diana were worshipped. He saw the mischiefs and dangers of that worship more clearly and fully than he did when people told him about it on the Lake of Galilee. But he did not think that these Ephesians had been wrong because they had dreamt of a God of Light. That was a true dream. Christ had come to fulfil it. The God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, whom Jesus had revealed, was this God of Light. But there is another reason closely connected with this, why St. John could not abandon the word light for any that was more formal and less living. A man may easily fancy that goodness, wisdom, truth, are possessions of his own. Whether he thinks he has got them for himself, or that some god has given them to him, he may still believe that he holds them just as he holds a freehold house or a purse of money. But you can never suppose that you hold light in this way. That I can never boast that I possess, Now the message which St. John brought to the Ephesians was not concerning a blessing of the first kind, but of this last kind. He did not tell them that God had given them certain possessions here, or had promised them certain possessions hereafter, which they could call theirs. That is the subject of the next verse–If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. Walking in darkness is, alas! the phrase about which we have the least need of an interpreter. Everyone interprets it himself. It is possible for a man to be in this dark selfish state, and yet to say that he has fellowship with God. He may repeat prayers, he may offer sacrifices, he may pass for a religious man. But his life, the apostle says, is a lie. It is not only that he speaks a lie; he acts a lie. He does not the truth. This, indeed, he would have us to understand is falsehood–the very root of falsehood. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. The darkness of which St. John speaks is an utterly unsocial condition. A man thinks about himself, dwells in himself; the rest of the universe lies in shadow. What, then, is the opposite state to this? If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. The light is all around us, while we are most dark. I cannot extinguish the creation because I do not think about it or care about it. But this recollection is not enough to bring me out of my dark pit. My selfishness is too strong for all, however bright, in earth, and sea, and air to overcome. It is not too strong for God to overcome. All those strange intimations which come to me that I ant not what I am meant to be, must be flashes of light from the source of light. They are painful flashes. They are just what men have tried by their false religions–by their insincere professions of fellowship with God–to drive away. But if, instead of doing that, we will hail them, if we will receive them as His messengers, we may enter into His true order. The proper social life is restored to us, even if we are far away from our brethren. And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. St. John appeals to our experience. You desire to be true yourself; you desire to have fellowship with other men. The moment that first desire is awakened in me, then arises along with it a sense of falsehood: I have done false acts. I have been false. I have an inclination to do false acts and to be false now. I have something in me which violently resists my craving to be true. And about the seriousness, the terribleness of this fact there is no doubt. It must be at the bottom of the insincerity, discord, and hatred of the world. But how shall I describe this fact? I am at a loss; I cannot find a name. But I discover something more about the strange fact. God is light, and in Him is no darkness; I am intended to walk in this light. This inclination not to be true, not to have fellowship with my fellow men, is an inclination not to walk in this light, not to be in that state in which He has intended men to be. Now I am, perhaps, better able to express this inclination of mine, and what has been the fruit of it. One name, however, does not satisfy me. I try several. I call it transgression; that is, the passing over a boundary which was marked out for me. I call it iniquity; that is, an uneven, zigzag course, a departure from the straight, even course. I call it sin; that is, the missing of an aim; the going aside from the goal which I was intended to reach. All these words imply that there is One who has marked the boundary for me, who has drawn the line for me, who has fixed the goal or aim for me. All imply a disobedience to a Will which I am meant to obey. Now, the message which St. John brought to the Ephesians was, God has revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ as the perfect Truth. God has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ as the God who has created men to be one. Therefore it is a revelation to us of our sin; for it shows us how we have fought and do fight against this mind and purpose of God; how, in doing so, we fight against our own proper state, our own proper blessedness. I do not mean that this sense of sin did not exist before that full revelation of God in Christ. But how much deeper did it become in those who learnt that God was light, and in Him was no darkness–that He had sent His Son to bring them into His light! What a sense of sin must have been in them! How they must have felt, It is our own fault, our own choice, that we have been walking in darkness. We have been striving against a God who has been at every moment plotting for our good! If, then, the men in the times of old cried out for a purification, those who heard this revelation must have felt the need of it immeasurably more. But what kind of purification could they have? The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. There is a new lifeblood put into this nature of ours. God Himself has infused it. The Son of God has taken our flesh and blood. He is the Head of our race. When we seek to rise out of ourselves–to be delivered from our falsehood–to have fellowship with God, and fellowship with our brother, then His blood is an assurance that we have that fellowship. It removes the sense of sin against God which is in us; it removes the sense of sin against men. It gives that atonement and that purification which nothing else in earth and heaven can give. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Instead of this fancy that you are without sin being a proof how clearly the light is shining into you, it is a proof that you are shutting out the light, for that would reveal to you your own inclination to fly from it and to choose the darkness. The truth makes us aware of our falsehoods. Is that hard doctrine? No; for if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. His faithfulness and justice are the enemies of our sins; therefore to them we may turn from our sins. They are the refuges from the darkness that is in us. A faithful and righteous Being is therefore a forgiving Being. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. If we will not confess the evil in us, we impute that evil to Him. We thrust away that Word which is shedding abroad His light in us; we bury ourselves in our own darkness. This is the effect of trying to make out a good case for ourselves, when it is our interest, our privilege, our blessedness, to justify God and to condemn ourselves; to say, Thou hast been true, and we have been liars. Deliver us from our lies! Help us to walk in Thy truth! (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)
The child of light walking in light
The apostle warns us against saying more than we have made our own by experience. To have fellowship with God is a great matter; but merely to say that we have fellowship with Him is a totally different thing. John warns us that if we say that which our characters do not support, we lie. He leaves it just so, without a word of softening or excuse. Let us now speak of the real thing–the fellowship with God, which comes of walking in the light. The Christian life is described as walking, which implies activity. Chiefly in the character of active workers, or in that of willing sufferers, we must maintain fellowship with God. Walking implies activity; but it must be of a continuous kind. Neither this step, nor that, nor the next, can make a walk. Not he that begins, but he that continues, is the true Christian; final perseverance enters into the very essence of the believers life; the true pilgrims of Zion go from strength to strength. This suggests that walking implies progress. He that takes one step and another step, and still stands where he was, has not walked.
I. Consider, first, the light of our walk. True believers do not walk in darkness; they have found the road, and they see it before them. Moral darkness is contrary to their newborn nature: they cannot endure it. What is this light, then, in which the Christian walks?
1. I answer, first, it is the light of grace. The Holy Spirit brings us out from under the dominion of the old nature by creating within us a new life, and He brings us out from under the tyranny of the Prince of Darkness by opening our eyes to see and our minds to understand celestial truth. The result of this light is seen in various ways. It causes deep sorrow in the beginning, for its first discoveries are grievous to the conscience. Light is painful to eyes long accustomed to darkness. Anon the light brings great joy, for the soul perceives deliverance from the evils which it mourned. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.
2. Ever, in each condition, you observe conspicuously that the light of grace is seen as the light of sincerity. Hypocrisy and pretence fly before sincere belief and feeling.
3. Next to sincerity I regard a willingness to know and to be known as an early result of walking in the light of God. A religion which we will not submit to the test of self-examination cannot be worth much. No one is afraid to have a genuine sovereign submitted to any test: it is the coiner who is afraid. We must build on truth, and nothing else but truth.
4. A still surer evidence of grace is the minds perception of revealed truth and its obedience to it. Are the doctrines of grace essential verities with thee? Whatever God has said about sin, righteousness, judgment to come, art thou ready to accept it at once? Whatever He has revealed concerning Himself, His Son, His Holy Spirit, the Cross, life, death, hell, and the eternal future, dost thou believe it unfeignedly? This is to walk in the light.
5. This leads to a transparency and simplicity of character. The man who does in reality what he seems to do; the man who says what he means, and means what he says; the man who is truthful artless, and sincere in all his general dealings both before God and man, he it is whose conduct leads us to hope that the light of grace shines within.
6. This is very evident in the mans cessation from all guile towards himself. Remember how David pronounces him blessed in whose spirit there is no guile. He knew painfully what it was to be full of guile. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation. He is in the light now, for deceit has gone, and now God can speak comfortably to him, and wash him and make him whiter than snow.
7. The man who is walking in the light, as God is in the light, is full of abhorrence of sin. Sin is practical falsehood; it is moral darkness. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. Forget not this practical truth.
II. I come, secondly, to the communion of our walk. Those who are in the light shall not be alone. God Himself will be with them, and be their God. What honour! What joy is this! Thus is the mischief of the Fall removed, and Paradise is restored. God in the light and man in the light have much in common. Now are they abiding in one element, for they are dwelling in one light. Now are they both concerned about the same thing, and their aims are undivided: God loves truth, and so do those who are renewed in heart. Now we partake with God in sympathy, having a fellow feeling with Him. Does the great Father mourn His prodigal child? So do we mourn over sinners. Do we see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem? So do we mourn for the perishing who will not be saved. Again, as God rejoices over sinners that repent, so do we rejoice in sympathy with Him.
III. The glory of this communion. We have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. I gather from the way in which this sentence grows out of the text that this very thing, which looks as if it were the death of all communion with God, is made by infinite grace to be a wide and open channel of communion with Him. This stone is rolled away from the door of the sepulchre, and the angel of communion sits down upon it as on a throne.
1. To begin with, here is sin! What an evil thing it is! How our soul hates it! O, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me? Listen! You are having fellowship with God in this. God hates it also; and herein you are agreed.
2. Sin being once perceived, the next step is that it should be got rid of. Ah! say you, I wish I could be cleansed from it–cleansed from all of it; but how can this be? It is not possible for me to purge away my sin. The sacrifice of the Only-Begotten is the unique hope of sinners. The laying of our iniquity upon Him who deigned to be the great scapegoat of His people is the sole means for the taking away of the sins of the world. That inward persuasion of the impossibility of the purgation of sin by any doings or feelings of our own, and the consequent perception that in Christ only lies the help of men, has brought us through the light of truth to walk in fellowship with the thrice holy God.
3. The glorious Son of God condescends to become the atonement for sin. Standing by the tree of doom, we look up to that blessed Saviour with all-absorbing admiration and love. In the putting away of sin by the blood of Jesus the Father has an infinite content, and so have we. A step further.
4. Many of us have come to Jesus Christ by faith; we have looked to Him, and have accepted Him as our Saviour cleansing us from all sin. We rejoice in perfect whiteness, for the Lord has made us whiter than snow. Yes, we have fellowship with God in this cleansing, for God accepts us in the Beloved. God that made Him to be the Lord our Righteousness, God Himself justifies us in His Son. He will in the last great day make the whole universe a witness to the righteousness of the salvation of believers. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Communion with God
I. The nature and the means of communion with God.
1. We have communion with God in personal intercourse.
2. We have communion with God in the exercise and interchange of mutual thoughts and affections.
3. We have communion with God in the reception of His gifts and blessings.
4. We have communion with God in the exercise of mutual love to Christ. The heart of God and our hearts unite in their affections, and fix them on the Lamb.
5. We have communion with God in His works of nature. Never does the face of nature appear so lovely as when we thus behold in it the beauty of the Lord.
6. We have communion with God in the dispensations of His providence.
II. The connection which exists between communion with God and holiness.
1. A man may say that he has communion with God whilst he is walking in darkness and living in sin. He may say it literally with his lips, or he may say it by assuming the external forms of religion. He is a liar against his own experience, which has never enjoyed the communion he professes; he is a liar against his own affections, which are holding communion with sin and Satan and the world; and he is a liar against God Himself, who declares that He has no communion with darkness and with sin.
2. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. Such persons have communion with their God. God Himself is light, and they are children of light–and as the sun has communion with surrounding stars, because their beams of light resemble each other in nature, though they differ in degrees of glory, so there is a similarity, and a sympathy, and a harmony of character and pursuit, between God and His people, which is the origin and the means of their communion with each other. The holiness of the one attracts the holiness of the other. Their holy minds, their holy thoughts, their holy affections, and their holy pursuits meet and mingle.
III. The importance and some of the advantages of communion with God.
1. Communion with God is connected with an interest in the blood of Christ. Even the man who holds communion with God needs and finds a refuge in the great atonement. He does indeed walk in the light; but that very light discovers to him more and more clearly his numerous imperfections and sins, and his abundant need of pardoning mercy.
2. Communion with God is the means of promoting our holiness. Those who most associate with God most resemble Him, and partake most fully of the Divine nature.
3. Communion with God is a source of the sweetest pleasure. Those who walk with God in the light of purity, walk with Him also in the light of joy. Matthew Henry, just before he expired, declared, as his dying testimony, that a life spent in the service of God, and in communion with Him, is the happiest life that anyone can live in this world. And it must be so. There are no intelligent beings in the universe, whether men or angels, who can find true happiness in any place where God is not, or in any communion from which God is excluded. (J. Alexander.)
The right way of obtaining and maintaining communion with God
Why is God called Light without Darkness? And what is this Light?
1. Wisdom is light, and folly is darkness.
2. Knowledge is light, and ignorance is darkness.
3. Truth is light, and error is darkness.
4. Holiness is light, and sin and wickedness are darkness.
I. What this communion with God is.
1. Active on our part, which consisteth in the Divine operations of our souls toward God; when the mind is exercised in the contemplation of Him, the will in choosing and embracing Him; when the affections are fixed upon Him and centre in Him; when by our desires we pursue after Him, by our love we cleave to Him, and by delight we acquiesce and solace ourselves in Him.
2. Passive on Gods part. This communication of God to us in our communion with Him is specially in these three things.
(1) In light (2Co 4:6; Psa 36:9).
(2) In life (Eph 4:18).
(3) In love (Rom 5:5).
II. Some distinctions about communion with God.
1. Communion with God may be considered either with respect to this world, or the world to come; the one is imperfect, the other is perfect; one is mediate, the other immediate; the one is inconstant, the other without any interruption forever.
2. This communion with God hath higher and lower degrees; both among the saints here below, and the saints and angels above.
3. This communion with God is either internal or external; by internal I mean that sacred intercourse between God and the soul which is managed only in the inward man; and by external I mean this communion with God managed in some external ordinance of His worship in the communion of saints.
III. How this communion with God is attained and then maintained.
1. By Jesus Christ.
(1) By virtue of His incarnation.
(2) By virtue of His life which He lived here in the world. Considered either in the holy example that He has left us to walk by, or the doctrine that He here preached–by both which He did guide and lead men in the right way to fellowship with His Father.
(3) By virtue of His death, and making reconciliation for us by His blood. Without agreement made between God and us, we could never have had communion with Him.
(4) By virtue of His resurrection, whereby believers come to be raised up to newness of life (Rom 6:4).
(5) By virtue also of His ascension into heaven (Col 3:1).
(6) By virtue of His intercession. For this is one great thing that He intercedes for with His Father in heaven, that His people might have union and communion with them (Joh 17:21).
2. This communion with God is also by the Spirit of God. As the apostle speaks of the communion of the Holy Ghost (2Co 13:14). Now the Spirit doth effect this communion with God.
(1) By sanctifying our hearts, and assimilating our natures to the nature of God. For there can be no communion where there is no likeness of nature.
(2) By elevating and raising the soul above its natural power and reach.
3. These are the principal ways for communion with God. But then there are subordinate ways, which are the ordinances and institutions of God for that end. For God hath in all ages been training up His people to have communion with Himself, and therefore He did appoint ordinances for that end under the law. There were sacrifices, and altars, and solemn feasts appointed of God, all for this end. And so, in the New Testament, God hath His ordinances also appointed for this end; as prayer,.hearing the Word, etc. (M. Barker, M. A.)
Fellowship with God
I. What is the nature of this fellowship?
II. What is the great hindrance to this fellowship? It is here described as walking in darkness.
III. What are the conditions of this fellowship? If we walk in the light we have fellowship with Him. This implies–
1. Activity.
2. Progress. There is no finality in the experience of holiness.
3. Definiteness.
4. Completeness.
5. Pleasantness. In the light.
6. Safety. He that walketh in the darkness stumbleth (Joh 11:10).
IV. What is the result of fellowship? It is evidently cleansing. (H. Thorne.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. This then is the message] This is the grand principle on which all depends, which we have heard of , 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 Joh 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It being the professed scope and design of his writing, to draw men to a final participation and communion with God in his own blessedness, he reckons nothing more necessary to it, than to settle in their minds a right notion of God. Which, that it might be the more regarded, he introduces with a solemn preface;
This then is the message, & c., (though the word also signifies promise, it here more fitly bears this rendering), to notify:
1. That this which follows was not an imagination of his own concerning God, but his true representation of himself.
2. That it was given him in charge to be delivered and communicated to others; a message a man neither hath of himself, nor is to reserve to himself,
we have heard it of him, and declare it to you, as (consonantly hereto) he speaks. It is the Divine pleasure it should be published to the world, and that all men should know that as from him, i.e. that he is not a Being of mere power, as some, or of mere mercy, as others, are apt to fancy of him, either whereof were a very maimed and most disagreeable notion of the Deity: power without goodness were apt to run into fury; goodness without wisdom and righteousness would as naturally turn to a supine indifferency, and neglect of distinguishing judicially between good and bad; things neither suitable to the Governor of the world, nor possible to the absolutely perfect Being.
God is light; in God all true perfections and excellencies must be understood eminently to concur; and of them more could not have been comprehended under one word, (especially that belong to him considered relatively to his creatures, of which perfections it concerns us to have more distinct, formed, positive conceptions in all our applications to him), than are here some way represented or resembled by light, viz. that he is a Being of most lively, penetrative vigour, absolute simplicity, immutability, knowledge, wisdom, sincerity, righteousness, serenity, benignity, joy, and felicity, and especially of most bright and glorious holiness and purity; and in whom
is no darkness at all, nothing contrary or repugnant hereto.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. First division of the body ofthe Epistle (compare Introduction).
declareGreek,“announce”; report in turn; a different Greek wordfrom 1Jo 1:3. As the Sonannounced the message heard from the Father as His apostle, so theSon’s apostles announce what they have heard from the Son. Johnnowhere uses the term “Gospel”; but the witness ortestimony, the word, the truth, and here the message.
God is lightWhat lightis in the natural world, that God, the source of even material light,is in the spiritual, the fountain of wisdom, purity, beauty, joy, andglory. As all material life and growth depends on light, soall spiritual life and growth depends on GOD.As God here, so Christ, in 1Jo 2:8,is called “the true light.”
no darkness at allstrongnegation; Greek, “No, not even one speck of darkness”;no ignorance, error, untruthfulness, sin, or death. John heard thisfrom Christ, not only in express words, but in His acted words,namely, His is whole manifestation in the flesh as “thebrightness of the Father’s glory.” Christ Himself was theembodiment of “the message,” representing fully in all Hissayings, doings, and sufferings, Him who is LIGHT.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on 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, 1Jo 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 , 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Apostolic Testimony. | A. D. 80. |
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 (v. 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, v. 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, v. 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, Gal 3:13; Gal 3:14.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
And (). Mutual fellowship depends on mutual knowledge (Westcott).
Message (). Old word (from , messenger), in N.T. only here and 3:11, and note ‘ (from God like in verse 3) and , to announce, to disclose, here as in Joh 4:25.
God is light ( ). Precisely so the is light (Joh 1:4-9) and what Jesus claimed to be (Joh 8:12). John repeats it in negative form as he often does (Joh 1:3).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
This then is [ ] . Rev., correctly and literally, and this. According to the proper reading the verb stands first in order [ ] , with emphasis, not merely as a copula, but in the sense “there exists this as the message.” For a similar use of the substantive verb, see 1Jo 5:16, 17; 1Jo 2:15; Joh 8:50.
Message [] . This word, however, is invariably used in the New Testament in the sense of promise. The best texts read ajggelia, message, which occurs only at 1Jo 3:11; and the corresponding verb, ajggellw, only at Joh 10:18.
We have heard of Him (ajkhkoamen ajp’ aujtou). A form of expression not found elsewhere in John, who commonly uses par’ aujtou. See on Joh 6:46 The phrase here points to the ultimate and not necessarily the immediate source of the message. Not only John, but others in earlier times had heard this message. Compare 1Pe 1:10, 11. Apo points to the source para to the giver. Thus, Joh 5:41, “I receive not honor from [] men.” They are not the bestowers of honor upon me. Ver. 44, “How can ye believe which receive honor from [] one another;” the honor which men have to give, “and seek not the honor that cometh from [] God;” the honor which God alone bestows. On the other hand, 1Jo 3:22, “Whatsoever we ask we receive from [] Him,” the ultimate source of our gifts. So Mt 17:25 : “Of [] whom do the kings of the earth take custom – of [] their own children or of [] strangers ?” What is the legitimate and ultimate source of revenue in states ?
Declare [] . Compare the simple verb ajggellein to bring tidings, Joh 20:18, and only there. ‘Anaggellein is to bring the tidings up to [] or back to him who receives them. Apagellein is to announce tidings as coming from [] some one, see Mt 2:8; Joh 4:51. Kataggellein is to proclaim with authority, so as to spread the tidings down among [] those who hear. See Act 17:23. Found only in the Acts and in Paul.
God is Light [ ] . A statement of the absolute nature of God. Not a light, nor the light, with reference to created beings, as the light of men, the light of the world, but simply and absolutely God is light, in His very nature. Compare God is spirit, and see on Joh 4:24 : God is love, 1Jo 4:8, 16. The expression is not a metaphor. “All that we are accustomed to term light in the domain of the creature, whether with a physical or metaphysical meaning, is only an effluence of that one and only primitive Light which appears in the nature of God” (Ebrard). Light is immaterial, diffusive, pure, and glorious. It is the condition of life. Physically, it represents glory; intellectually, truth; morally, holiness. As immaterial it corresponds to God as spirit; as diffusive, to God as love; as the condition of life, to God as life; as pure and illuminating, to God as holiness and truth. In the Old Testament, light is often the medium of God ‘s visible revelations to men. It was the first manifestation of God in creation. The burning lamp passed between the pieces of the parted victim in God ‘s covenant with Abraham. God went before Israel in a pillar of fire, descended in fire upon Sinai, and appeared in the luminons cloud which rested on the mercy – seat in the most holy place. In classical Greek fwv light, is used metaphorically for delight, deliverance, victory, and is applied to persons as a term of admiring affection, as we say that one is the light of our life, or the delight of our eyes. So Ulysses, on seeing his son Telemachus, says, “Thou hast come, Telemachus, sweet light [ ] ” (Homer, “Odyssey,” 16 23). And Electra, greeting her returning brother, Orestes, “O dearest light [ ] ” (Sophocles, “Electra,” 1223). Occasionally, as by Euripides, of the light of truth (” Iphigenia at Tauris, “1046). No modern writer has developed the idea of God as light with such power and beauty as Dante. His” Paradise “might truthfully be called a study of light. Light is the only visible expression of God. Radiating from Him, it is diffused through the universe as the principle of life. This key – note is struck at the very opening of” the Paradise. ”
” The glory of Him who moveth everything Doth penetrate the universe, and shine In one part more and in another less.
Within that heaven which most His light receives Was 1 “” Paradiso,” 1, 1 – 5.
In the final, beatific vision, God Himself is imagined as a luminous point which pours its rays through all the spheres, upon which the spirits gazed, and in which they read the past, the present, and the future.
“O grace abundant, by which I presumed To fix my sight upon the Light Eternal, So that the seeing I consumed therein! I saw that in its depth far down is lying Bound up with love together in one volume, What through the universe in leaves is scattered; Substance, and accident, and their operations, All interfused together in such wise That what I speak of is one simple light.” ” Paradiso, ” 33, 82 – 90.
“In presence of that light one such becomes, That to withdraw therefrom for other prospect It is impossible he e’er consent; Because the good, which object of will, Is gathered all in this, and out of it That is defective which is perfect there.” ” Paradiso, ” 33, 100 – 105.
“O Light eterne, sole in thyself that dwellest, Sole knowest thyself, and, know unto thyself And knowing, lovest and smilest on thyself!” Paradiso 33, 124 – 126.
Light enkindles love.
” If in the heat of love I flame upon thee Beyond the measure that on earth is seen, So that the valor of thine eyes I vanquish, Marvel thou not thereat; for this proceeds From perfect sight, which, as it apprehends, To the good apprehended moves its feet.
Well I perceive how is already shining Into thine intellect the eternal Light, That only seen enkindles always love. “” Paradiso,” 5, 1 – 9 See also “Paradiso,” cantos 30, 31.
In Him is no darkness at all [ ] . It is characteristic of John to express the same idea positively and negatively. See Joh 1:7, 8, 20; Joh 3:15, 17, 20; Joh 4:42; Joh 5:2 4; Joh 8:35; Joh 10:28; 1Jo 1:6, 8; 1Jo 2:4, 27; 1Jo 5:12. According to the Greek order, the rendering is : “And darkness there is not in Him, no, not in any way.” For a similar addition of ouJudeiv not one, to a complete sentence, see Joh 6:63; Joh 11:19; Joh 19:11. On skotia darkness, see on Joh 1:5.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “This then is the message,” (Greek Kai aute) means “this even or also is” (Greek he angelia) the angelic report (message). The story Jesus brought from the Father, concerning His nature and attributes, is angelic.
2) “Which we have heard of him “ The term (Greek ap) “of or from him” indicates that the angelic message he is about to disclose had come audibly to him and other early disciples and apostles from the very ‘throne of God, Mat 3:17; Mat 17:5. God audibly spoke to John and early disciples to “hear ye him”, Heb 1:3.
3) “And declare unto you”, (Greek Kai anangelomen) means “we also (Angelic-like) announce to you”. Thus John asserts that this letter is of divine inspiration. Not mere human council.
4) “That God is light,” (Greek hoti ho theos) that the Elohim-trinitarian God-is “light” in His essential being – as light is indefinable and incomprehensible, so is God – What God, the trinity was, Jesus became in the flesh Heb 1:3 “the express image of His being” the light of the world. Joh 3:20-21; 1Ti 6:16.
5) “And in him is no darkness at all.” As “the express image” of God from heaven to the world, Jesus audibly declared Himself to be “the light of the world,” and further asserted audibly that anyone following Him would not walk in darkness, Joh 8:12. He is even the believer’s light and life to drive darkness from the shadow-valley of death, hallelujah! Psa 23:4. This message of eternal life and light is good in death!
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
5 This 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
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
1Jn. 1:5.The first part of the epistle begins here. It is directed against the Gnostic teaching, that to a man of enlightenment all conduct is morally indifferent. In every age there have been those who claimed an interest in Christ while living in sin. St. John does not address sinners generally, but distinctly those who made Christian profession, but fell short of it through misapprehensions and self-delusions. God is light.This is not merely the absolute fact concerning Him. It is the precise fact which Jesus Christ declared to be the first of truths. We have heard [it] of Him. Christianity is founded on the Divine holiness. Light is the sensible figure of rectitude, moral purity.
1Jn. 1:6. Walk in darkness.Either to hide what we do not wish to be seen, or in self-indulgent ways which are symbolised by darkness. Plummer says, Some Gnostics taught, not merely that to the illuminated all conduct was alike, but that to reach the highest form of illumination men must experience every kind of action, however abominable, in order to work themselves free from the powers that rule the world. See 2Co. 6:14. We lie.Either in self-deception, or in wilfully deceiving others.
1Jn. 1:7. One with another.Fellowship with Christ, which involves fellowship with the Father, and surely brings us into fellowship with all who have the same fellowship. Blood of Jesus Christ.Omit Christ. The blood is as truly a figure as the light. The blood is the life. But it is the surrendered life. There was no actual blood shed in the dying of the Lord Jesus that can in any sense be applied for cleansing. There is no general declaration of the universal efficacy of Christs blood to cleanse all sin. The reference here is strictly limited to professing Christians. Cleanseth.Present tense. The cleansing work is continually going on. Us.Precisely those who are in saving relations with Christ, but fall into sins of frailty (Heb. 9:14; Rev. 7:14). It is not the pardon of sin, but purification from sin, which is here associated with the blood of Christ.
1Jn. 1:8. Deceive ourselves.Lead ourselves astray.
1Jn. 1:9. And to cleanse us.Notice that He Himself is said to do what, in 1Jn. 1:7, His blood is said to do. The later expression helps to explain the earlier.
Note on 1Jn. 1:7 by Eric Haupt.Blood and life are in the Scripture equivalent terms: where that is, there is this; for the life is in the blood, according to the language of the Old Testament. Thus then the is possible only in consequence of the blood of Christ entering into our life as a new principle of life. There is absolutely no Christian sanctification imaginable which does not take place through the bloodthat is, through the Redeemers power of life working its effects and ruling within us.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Jn. 1:5-10
The Conditions and Privileges of Christian Fellowship.St. John had entered into, and was enjoying, the fellowship of the Father and the Son. That fellowship he wanted the disciples to enjoy as fully as he did. He would therefore have them worthily estimate its privileges, and understand the conditions of its maintenance. And since he has in mind the particular character of the mischievous influences to which the disciples were then exposed, his instructions exclusively bear relation to their correction. It was then being freely taught that to the spiritual man all conduct is morally indifferentnothing that he does, in the bodily and material spheres, is regarded as sin, nothing breaks up his fellowship with God. It is manifest that such teaching strikes at the very root of Christianity, which is, essentially, the recovery of men to righteousness, and that not a sentimental or mystical righteousness, but a real, present, practical righteousness, which must include knowing how to possess the vessel of the body in sanctification and honour.
I. The absolute condition of fellowship is perfect righteousness.This is indicated in the term light, the most pure and unsullied of all things, and in the strongly marked contrast between light and darkness, each of which absolutely opposes and excludes the other; there can be no conceivable alliance or accommodation between them. God is represented by light. That only can be in fellowship with Him which also is light. Mans self-indulgences belong to darkness, and make darkness. The light can have nothing whatever to do with them, except to clear the darkness away. There can be no fellowship where the strongest opposition is excited. Illustration may be taken from the Ormuzd and Ahriman of the Zoroastrian reform. The two powers are actively and persistently opposed. It is well for us to face this truth as openly as possible. The full relation to God is only possible to perfect beingsperfect as He is perfect. It was possible to the one righteous Man, the sinless Christ. It is possible, fully, to no other man.
II. Perfect righteousness is a condition unattainable by us.It is to any creature who is only a creature. But that perfect righteousness which is possible to a creature is not possible to us creatures, because our race has to carry the burden and disability of sin. We can never have fellowship with God on the absolute condition of being light as He is light, perfect as He is perfect. St. John brings out clearly this distinctionthough we cannot be actually light, as God is, we can will to be light, and we can make effort to be what we will to be. We can walk in darkness, or walk in light, the term walk implying will and effort. And in these two things may be found the only righteousness attainable by any creature while in limited, earthly conditions, and affected by the disabilities of a sin-biassed, bodily nature. The will is the man; it is the spiritual being acting; and the man is in the light, if his will is firmly set for righteousness. Then the man is kin with God, and can have fellowship with Him.
III. Christian imperfections have to be taken into account, but they need not spoil fellowship, if they are rightly dealt with.St. Johns teaching cannot be rightly apprehended unless the distinction between the sin of the regenerate man and of the unregenerate man is fully recognised. The unregenerate man sins as the expression of a will that is set against God. The regenerate man sins by persuasion of bodily frailty, or at most by the temporary bending aside of his will. Christians do sin. Their sin would disturb fellowship. But the liability to sin has been taken into merciful account, and due provision has been made for it.
1. It is expected that the Christian man will, by confession, clear himself of all suspicion of having his will in his sin.
2. Then God will entirely forgive the sin, and remove it as a hindrance to fellowship.
3. And even more, God will, in the power of the blood of Christ, cleanse the Christian from all the evil influences of his sin, and help him to recover the power which he must have temporarily lost, or he could not have yielded to the sin. The condition of fellowship with the Light is our being, at least in central purpose, also light. The privilege is a gracious provision for the imperfections which, at the best, attach to the human light.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
1Jn. 1:5. God is light.Here is the essence of the Christian theology, the truth about the Deity as opposed to all the imperfect conceptions of Him which had embittered the minds of the wise. To the heathen, Deity had meant angry, malevolent beings, worshipped best by the secrecy of outrageous vice; to the Greeks and Romans, forces of nature transformed into superhuman men and women, powerful and impure; to the philosophers, an abstraction either moral or physical; to the Gnostics it was a remote idea, equal and contending forces of good and evil, recognisable only through less and less perfect deputies. All this St. John, summing up what the Old Testament and our Lord had said about the almighty Father, sweeps away in one simple declaration of truth. Light was Gods garment in Psa. 104:2; to Ezekiel (chap. 1Jn. 1:1), the appearance of the likeness of God was brightness; to Habakkuk (chap. 1Jn. 3:8), His brightness was as the light; Christ had called the sons of God children of the light (Joh. 12:36), and announced Himself as the Light of the world (Joh. 8:12); in the Hebrews (chap. 1Jn. 1:3), Christ was the refracted ray of the Fathers glory, the express image of His person; to James, the Almighty was the Father of all lights (Jas. 1:17); to Paul, He dwells in the light that no man can approach unto (1Ti. 6:16); to Peter, the Christian state is an admission into His marvellous light (1Pe. 2:9). These ideas John comprehends. God is light. Light physical, because
(1) it was He who called everything first out of darkness, and
(2) from Him proceed all health and perfection. Light intellectual, because
(1) He is the source of all wisdom and knowledge, and
(2) in His mind exist the ideals after which all things strive. Light moral, because
(1) His perfection shows that the difference between good and evil is not merely a question of degree, but fundamental and final; and
(2) the life of Christ had exhibited that contrast sharply, once for all.W. M. Sinclair, D.D.
1Jn. 1:6. On being true to Ourselves.A man should take care that his professions and his conduct are kept in the strictest harmony. If he says he abides in Christ, his walk must evidently be a Christly walk. That may be urged as a plain and manifest duty
(1) for Christs sake, whom we are bound to honour, if we bear His name;
(2) for other peoples sake, since they cannot but misunderstand Christ, and so fail to realise His saving and sanctifying power, if we who bear His name misrepresent Him. But the point now to be impressed is, that there must be harmony between profession and conduct, because it is absolutely essential to a mans moral dignity and stability that he should be consciously true to himself. Let a man permit a conscious opposition between profession and life, and the man debases himself. Fail to be true to self, fail to be consciously at harmony with yourself, and you not only become slave to man, but slave to the devil, who finds his chance when the supreme concern for moral consistency is destroyed in a mans soul.
Walk in Darkness.The word walk expresses not merely action, but habitual action. A life in moral darkness can have no more communion with God, than a life in a coal-pit can have communion with the sun. For what communion hath light with darkness? (2Co. 6:4). Light can be shut out, but it cannot be shut in. Some Gnostics taught, not merely that to the illuminated all conduct was alike, but that to reach the highest form of illumination men must experience every kind of action, however abominable, in order to work themselves free from the powers that rule the world. If the light is the Divine, then the darkness is the undivine, or that which is opposed to Godthat is, the nature turned away from God, and not directed to Him. Hence the , darkness, coincides with the New Testament idea of the ; it is the principle which animates and governs the , and which comes in it into outward exhibition and form.
Perils of Self-deceit.These may come from a mans particular disposition; or from the influencebiasof public opinion; or from special times of unrestrainable passion; or from distinctly false and corrupting teachings.
1Jn. 1:6-7. Walking in Darkness or in Light.Darkness represents the self-sphere. Light represents the God-sphere. God is kin with everything clean, good, kind. Self spoils even good things by throwing upon them the shadow of its own darkness. Darkness, both in poetry and religion, is the symbol of evil. The figure may not come very effectively to those of us who have been brought up in Christian surroundings and associations; but we have to think of the moral atmosphere of pagan cities in the time when St. John lived. Their darkness is faithfully revealed in the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans. Or we may try to realise what is the depraved moral life of certain sections of our great cities. Or perhaps we can gain a better impression, and find a sharper contrast, if we think of the moral atmosphere of a heathen city, such as are to be found all over India, where immorality is actually made a portion of worship, an agency of religion, and the whole range of thought, and tone of human relations, are dark indeed: men walk in darkness. And there, in the very midst of all the impurities, move to and fro the few men and women who are regenerate in Christ Jesus. They walk in the light. Lives morally sweet; thought and feeling sensitively delicate and pure. They breathe the light; they live with God, who is light. St. John urges that no other than such walking in the light can be befitting to those who have been made light in the Lord. Men were deceiving themselves then with the idea that they could keep their soul-relations to the light, and yield to dark bodily indulgences. All material things, they said, were evil; and since they were in material bodies, they could not help being in a dark sphere, and it did not much matter how dark it was, if only they kept their souls in the light. But this is precisely what men never can do, and they wholly deceive themselves if they think they can. Where the body goes the soul will really go, whatever the outward seeming may be. And where the soul goes it will never rest content unless it has the body with it.
1Jn. 1:7. The Christians Walk in Light and Love.I am to speak to you of that bond of love which binds soul to soul in binding all to God; of that walk of light which assimilates us to Him who is light; and of the union which identifies these, in connecting them both with the purifying work of Christ.
1. The apostle declares himself commissioned to proclaim a message of transcendent importance, calculated to consummate the joy of all the believing people of God. It is this, God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
2. This revelation of the Divine excellency is directly connected with the mystical communion of which he speaks. The one is, in some measure, the condition on which the other is suspended. This light, with which God Himself is identified, becomes also the element in which His elect children breathe and move.
3. The apostle contemplates the Church of the sanctified walking together under the radiance of a common light, which streams from the presence of God, and which, involving them all, assimilates them all. What is that fellowship, and what that light, which are declared to involve each the other? First, we must resolve each into its proper origin, to contemplate each in its proper aspect. The apostle speaks of a fellowship essentially Christian; and to it none other than the Christian believer is competent. It is fellowship with us, because it is fellowship with the Father and the Son. The communion is essentially Divine; it exists in and through God alone; it is of each with each, because of all with Him. If you would learn its properties and characteristics, you must seek them in their fountain, where the human soul is alone with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We are to walk in the light, as He is in the light. We are to design from God Himself. We are to look straight to Him. The remove from the original may be infinite, but it is only one remove. As He is, so are we in this world. The walk in light is the earthly image of the supernal light; the fellowship one with another resolves into the fellowship with the Father and the Son. The Christian verity has taught us how to contemplate God. We are to regard that wondrous Essence which caused and sustains the universe as parting into three streams from one eternal Source, which (stooping to our capacities, relationships, and language) it has styled the Father, Son, and Spirit. Of what these Persons are, in their own nature, we cannot know; of what they are in relation to us, we can. Our fellowship is with the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. If, then, our fellowship with Deity be distinguished into separate communions, each having its own grounds and offices of intercourse, and if this threefold communion be inseparably interwoven with the walk of light which imitates a God who is light, we may naturally expect that that celestial lustre which represents the whole Godhead shall itself be separable into significancies, in some measure corresponding to the Divine Personages whom the Godhead embraces. Thus shall our threefold communion be met and answered by a threefold light. The significancies of that Divine light seem resolvable into three cardinal excellenciesholiness, happiness, and knowledge. God the Father, God of all righteousness; God the Son, the God of all happiness; God the Spirit, God of all truth: or God the Father, imputer of our righteousness; God the Son, victorious obtainer of our happiness; God the Spirit, liberal bestower of our wisdom. To live within the verge of the Divine illumination is to hold communion with the essential excellencies of the triune God. If the fellowship of the Three in One thus answer to the threefold light in which they dwell, how, specially, does it correspond to each? If the Father be eminently the light of holiness, and our accepter as a holy people in Jesus, he who walks in that light communes with Him by the link of holiness, by the cordial adoption of that righteousness of God which is witnessed by the law and the prophets, by profound submission to that will which is the executive, that reason which is in itself the legislative council, of the universe. If the Son be eminently the light of celestial peace and its dispenser, we commune with Him as dwellers in that light,by trust boundless and unfeigned in that victor who, having once and for ever foiled His adversary in the deadly struggle of Gethsemane and Calvary, will never forsake the Church He redeemed; by gratitude for blessings undeserved; by joy for blessings assured and everlasting; by that sterner task of which another apostle speaks, the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death (Php. 3:10). If in the Spirit we worship the light of eternal truth and its revealer, when are we found in that light, and when blending in mystic union with Him who abides there, but when with a sanctified reason we apply our whole mind to receive and understand His revelations, when, raising at His call the faculties which He alone can furnish with fitting objects, we issue gladly forth from the world of shadows, and meet Him, where He awaits us, in the world of immutable reality? The earthly career of light involves the whole Christian life, as directed to each member of the ever-blessed Trinity. And the whole communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as well as the mutual communion of the brethren in Christ, is comprehended in that single word love.W. Archer Butler, M.A.
The Power of Christs Blood.Blood is a figure for the surrender of life. In giving to God the blood of animals the worshipper gave to God the animals life. In shedding His blood Jesus gave His life to God as a sacrifice of perfect obedience and perfect trust. Because He thus gave His life to God, and was fully accepted, Jesus has the power to do three things:
1. To forgive sins that we have committed.
2. To cleanse us from the bad consequences and influences of the sins.
3. To keep us from committing them again; for even when we are made clean, we have to walk and work amid temptations and evils. So we need that He who forgives and cleanses should also defend and keep.
A Double Fellowship and a Single Condition.
I. A fellowship with Christwith God in Christ.
1. To be a Christian is to enter into gracious relations with Christ.
2. To keep a Christian is to maintain those gracious relations. Sometimes the prominent aspect in the fellowship is service, sometimes it is friendship. Henceforth I call you not servants, but I have called you friends.
II. A fellowship one with another in Christ.The fellowship of
1. A common love.
2. A common duty.
3. A common experience.
4. A common worship.
III. Both forms of fellowship depend on one condition: Walking in the lightthat is, walking according to the will of God, who is the light, as contrasted with walking in the darkness of our self-will and self-pleasing. Our spheres of fellowship may vary, but the condition of maintaining fellowship is absolute and unchangeable.
The Fellowship of Believers.Temptation in all ages to dissociate holiness from profession.
I. The fellowship of believers with each other depends on their individual fellowship with the Father and the Son. First, fellowship with God. That brings Christian union. The degree of the union depends on the fellowship with God. No force will make a Christian life or Christian union. Nourishment of inward spirit will tell on Christian living and Christian fellowship.
II. Fellowship depends wholly on mutual sympathy. Light cannot have fellowship with darkness. God is lightthe symbol of purity, moral perfectness. A man in sympathy with darkness cannot be in fellowship with the light. That differs from saying a man who sins cannot be in fellowship. A man may be in full sympathy with light, and be struggling after it, and yet be often overcome with evil. Fellowship depends on the heart being set on the light. And the bond of fellowship with one another is the common love of, and seeking after, the light.
III. For the imperfectness of human walking in the light a gracious remedy is provided. The blood of Jesus cleanseth us. It covers the evil, and it cleanses it away. The blood stands for the living power of Jesus.
The Condition of Christian Fellowship.Some texts are difficult to expound because of our familiarity with them. We too readily assume that we understand them, and we therefore resist all fresh and independent inquiry concerning them. There are two ways of treating Scripture texts:
1. We may let the words suggest thought. That way is suited to private meditation. But there is always this dangerwe may come to think that our thoughts are as authoritative as the Scripture words.
2. We may inquire what the words actually mean. That way is especially suited to public ministries. It is strange that St. John the loving should be the most controversial of the New Testament writers. But that is the fact which we may assert in view both of his gospel and his epistles. The false teachings of his day concerning the person of Christ are familiar: the false teachings concerning the Christian life are not so well known. There have been Antinomian teachings in every age. They took two forms in St. Johns days. It was said
(1) that the enlightened could be indifferent to moral distinctions; and
(2) that the enlightened ought to have complete knowledge of evil through personal experience of it. We can understand how such teachings affected the Christians when they came to be translated into the common thought. This St. John deals with in the beginning of his epistle. Christianity is inseparable from holiness; it can live in no other atmosphere. As he sees Christianity it is fellowship; and we cannot wonder at his taking this view when we remember how close was his own personal fellowship with Christ. To him personal religion was fellowship with Christ, and what it involved, even fellowship with the Father, and fellowship with the other sons. St. John caught the spirit of Christs great prayer, which he alone records. St. John begins his epistle by asserting his competency. He had intimately known everything relating to Christ from the beginning. What then is Christs primary message? ThisGod is light. Light is the material symbol of goodness, righteousness. Christ, who manifests God, manifests Him as light. No man sees Christ aright unless the sight makes him feel, as he never felt before, the holiness of God. His point in the text is thisthere is a condition on which fellowship depends, and there is a privilege which maintained fellowship secures.
I. The condition on which fellowship depends.If we walk in the light. Illustrate by the conditions of human associations. There must be common interests, and a common spirit. So in religion, there can be no fellowship if some walk in light, and some walk in darkness. How expressive of moral difference the terms light and darkness are! The Father of light walks in light. The Light of the world walked in light. Those named after the Light of the world must walk in light.
II. The privilege which maintained fellowship secures.The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. The blood of Jesus is a figure, just as God is light is a figure. It is not here the blood as the ground of forgiveness, but the blood as the power, or agency, in cleansing. St. John addresses persons who are forgiven, and restored to the Divine family. But here is a difficulty. Blood does not cleanse. Nobody ever heard of its use in such a way. (The only approach to the idea is the old use of bullocks blood in refining sugar.) St. John was a Jew. To him the blood was the life. Put the word life for the word blood, and say, The life of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. That partly gives St. Johns meaning; but it is not altogether satisfactory. When blood stands for life, it always means blood shed, life surrendered. Apprehend this, and the apostles meaning becomes clear. The blood of Jesus stands for that power to cleanse which Jesus has gained by surrendering His life. It is called His blood because it has come to Him through His blood-shedding. St. Johns idea is thiskeep fellowship by walking in the light, and you will surely find that there is a privilege belonging to that fellowship. It is thisone member of the fellowship is an ever-active power, working at the cleansing away of everything that can possibly break or spoil the fellowship. The symbol of our Lords continuous work in the fellowship was given in the upper room, when He washed the disciples feet, and dealt, for cleansing, with their sins of frailty. It was a fellowship of the clean. He kept it by removing the soilings from the feet. And is not this precisely the provision that we need? The sincere ones are frail. Frailty is provided for in the fellowship, if only we keep sincere. In family life, so long as the fellowship is preserved, the frailties can be easily and wisely dealt with. How does the living Lord Jesus cleanse? Through the discipline of life-experience, which He uses and sanctifies. And He comes to us with great persuasions that He can cleansepersuasions from His blood-shedding, from His entrusted powers as Mediator, from His adaptation through a human experience. And Christ in our life, cleansing us from our Christian frailties, is our inspiration to the cleansing of ourselves. There is what we only can do. There is what He only can do.
Close with St. Peters drawing up his feet away from the cleansing Christ. He was imperilling his fellowship.
The Lords Supper an Expression of Fellowship.One of the great words of St. Johns epistles is fellowship. The thought is beautifully presented here. The early disciples came into contact with the Lord, seeing, hearing, and touching Him. Their communion and fellowship were immediate and personal, and their contact with other disciples who had not seen the Lord was also immediate and personal, and so by declaring to them what they had seen and heard they introduced them to the fellowship of the Lord Himself. Christian history forms a chain of many links; and as we trace back link after link, till we come to Him from whom all hang in dependence, we feel the unity, the solidarity, of the Christian brotherhood and testimony. The Lords Supper is the expression of this visible fellowship.
1. Immediately connected with the existing body of disciples.
2. Links every new commemoration to all the preceding.
3. And so unites every body of disciples to the Lord.Anon.
The Limitations of Christian Sin.Much confusion of thought is occasioned by persisting in keeping to one definition of sin, as if it could always be just the same thing. It is the transgression of the law; but it is something else besides. It is the expression of self-will. It is even a natural consequence of human frailty. And it will be manifest that the character of sin necessarily changes when a man is renewed in will and motive by the regenerating grace in Christ Jesus. He becomes a new man; and if he gives full and befitting expression to his new life, he cannot sin. To sin with the will is the act of the unregenerate man; and if a Christian ever sins with his will, he, at least for the time, falls back upon the conditions of his unregenerate life. It needs to be firmly stated that the Christian, as such, cannot determinedly sin with his will. He may sin through frailty, or because led astray, and deceived by temptation; his will may be even forced aside for a time; but he comes to himself again when the force is withdrawn. He sins a childs sins who is in the full joy of home life and love.
1Jn. 1:8. The Peril of Christian Self-deception.Where there is even only a trace of life, and of the Divine fulness, this must immediately manifest sin to be sin (Eric Haupt).
I. The denial of sin.
1. Some claim an absolute exemption from sin.
2. Some say they have no sin, by claiming a relative exemption from it.
II. The consequence of this denial.For us to deny our sin is to deny
1. Indisputable facts.
2. The infallible testimony of the word of God.
3. The moral propriety of the scheme of redemption.
III. The confession of sin.If we confess, etc.
IV. The consequence of such confession.
1. Forgiveness.
2. Sanctification.Dr. Clark.
Sinful Tendencies of Christians.The preceding words had reminded St. John that even mature Christians, though certainly not walking in darkness, yet have sinful tendencies in themselves: sensuous impulses, non-spiritual inclinations, lack of self-knowledge, a lowered standard, principles and views borrowed partly from the world, wavering of will, and hence graver faults. Not to admit this would be to mislead ourselves, and in us the power and energy of light, searching the very corners of the heart, would not be working.W. M. Sinclair, D.D.
Self-delusion as to our State before God.It is among the most potent of the energies of sin, that it leads astray by blinding, and blinds by leading astray. There is an inherent and inevitable efficacy in sin to diffuse darkness, and to make us in love with the darkness it diffuses. In the judgment God will unravel all the tangled mesh of our excuses, and flash upon us the tremendous conviction, that we are lost only because we would be lost, that in every several instance of temptation the sin lay with us as the situation with God.
I. The imagination of our own sinlessness is an inward lie.It has been questioned whether the apostle included in this affirmation the highest degrees of Christian attainment; but Wesley made the theological question of Christian perfectibility of far more practical importance than it ever deserved. Whatever may be the measure of sanctification which God bestows upon His children in this world, we can scarcely conceive its highest state unaccompanied with a longing for a state yet higher, clearly conceived, and sought with a personal consciousness (so far) of imperfection, and an ardent desire to still escape that remainder of earthliness that embarrasses the ascent. In fact, the belief of Christian perfectibility seems inapplicable to individual practice from the very nature of Christian holiness. Were a perfect man to exist, he himself would be the last to know it, for the highest stage of advancement is the lowest descent in humility. The spiritual life, as a progressive life, involves a progressively increasing knowledge of God; and as it approaches the Source of all holiness, the spirit of man must appreciate far more accurately the force of the contrast between itself and its mighty Model. In truth, it is only fervent and exalted piety that can really feel how immeasurably far it is from perfect holiness. Whatever be the doctrine of Christian perfectibility collected out of the writings of St. John, it certainly can have but little relation to the earthly saints estimate of his own piety. It is not, however, of these perfect ones that we now speak, but rather of those whose cold hearts and neglectful lives utter the bold denial of a sinlessness which the lips dare not deny. Adequately to enumerate the causes of this lamentable blindness to pressing and palpable evil would be impossible. The particular causes of the delusion will vary with every variety of individual character. Every temptation that occupies, and by occupying excludes all other occupants, may claim its share in the perpetuation of this melancholy ignorance. We can only speak of some of the general principles on which the delusion rests.
II. The sources of this lamentable ignorance of our personal state with God.Something is due to the governing agency of Satan, the ruler of the darkness of this world. He who deceives that he may destroy, stupefies that he may deceive. The cunning of the serpent alone can reach the master-subtlety of making the soul of man do his work by being its own unpitying enemy, and traitor, and cheat: it is only the father of lies that thus can make the wretched heart a liar to itself. The first and darkest of his works on earth is the original and inherited corruption of the human soul itself. It is ignorant of sin, just because it is naturally sinful. Faint, frail, and disordered from the first, how should it easily suspect its own disease? One chief object of the gospel history, as applied by the Spirit of God, is to humble and yet animate us by a portraiture of moral excellence which, as observation cannot furnish, so assuredly nature will never spontaneously imagine. We cannot know our degradation, we cannot struggle, or even wish, to rise, if we have never been led to conceive the possibility of a state higher than our own. For the mournful unconsciousness of our personal depravity, have we not a powerful cause in that depravity itself? But no human being can be seen in the state of nature alone. Repeated acts are become principles of action, and every man is the creature of his own past life. If degraded nature is silent in denouncing sin, what shall she be when doubly and trebly indurated by habit. We know not ourselves as sinners, because from infancy we have breathed the atmosphere of sin. A man lives in the frigid formalism of external religion, or in the habitual neglect of God, until it seems almost impossible to separate the habit from life itself: to live at all is to live thus. The terrible power of irreligion, become thus habitual, to blind men to the momentous peril of their daily state, is above all evinced in this: that every form of exhortation or appeal is weak to break the lethargy; yet not at all from any unbelief of the facts or doctrines stated, but from an obstinate refusal or inability to imagine that they can have the remotest reference to the hearer himself. And this operation of habit is a universal law. Is not there something in the frame and condition of the world that is fitted to assist this melancholy work of deception? The blind man does not conceive of light, neither does the godless spirit conceive of God. But even supposing the organ to be restored, were he placed in a world of darkness, he would be as far as ever from imagining the true nature of the light he could not witness. Society moulds us. As men copy themselves by force of habit, they copy others by force of example. Mankind in crowds and communities tends to uniformity. We cherish and confirm the dream that we have no sin, because all the world is sinful as ourselves. The power of this universality of sin around us to paralyse the sensibility of conscience is augmented by the influence of rank and fashion. So servile a copyist of evil is man, that vice, the darkest and most degrading, seems to lose its name and nature when thus authenticated by the passport of rank. To this must be added the tendency of pleasure itself, or of indolence, to prolong this deception, and our natural impatience of the pain of self-disapproval. There are two ways of escaping an angry conscienceby ceasing from the evil that provokes it, or by resolutely refusing to hear its voice, which soon amounts to silencing it for ever.W. Archer Butler, M.A.
1Jn. 1:9. God keeping Conditions.He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. It is true to the nature of things that a father should forgive and restore his erring child, if that child penitently confesses his sin. And in putting Himself into the figure of a father, God puts Himself into fatherly conditions; and those conditions we may be quite sure that He will keep. He must, for He cannot be other than just to Himself, and faithful to us. Just, in this verse, has nothing to do with the conditions on which, as a moral governor, Gods justice is satisfied. Just here is a feature of the Divine character. In the same sense as that in which we speak of a man as a just man, we may speak of God as a just God. A just man will keep his engagements, strictly, honourably, fully. He will try to shirk nothing. And this security we have in thinking of the just God. If He has made a covenant, He will keep every one of its terms. If He has given promises, He will fulfil every one of them to the letter. If He has said He will forgive and cleanse His penitent children, forgive and cleanse He certainly will.
Confession a Sign of Right-mindedness.Confession as an act standing by itself has but little value. Its importance lies in the condition of mind and feeling which it represents and indicates. What is the mood towards sin of the man who confesses? (Of course, the supposition is that the confession is sincere.) Plainly, it is a different mood to that which he was in when he committed the sin, or when he kept in the hardened frame which allowed of his committing the sin. Plainly, too, he is in an humble mood of mind, and even distressed that he should have been led astray. And plainly, also, he now wants all the wrong taken away, and the broken relations fully restored. But these are right moods. The man has become right-minded. The proper spirit of the son has come back to the man; and in that fact is found a sufficient basis for full forgiveness and acceptance, and a gracious cleansing work.
Cases of Confession.Three cases are conceivable: A man may have nothing to confess; a man may be in a mood that he will not confess; and a man may want to confess. What do each of these reveal concerning the man?
Confessing our Sins.What is it to confess our sins? It is to tell them out to God. It is true God knows them already far better than we do ourselves. To Him all hearts are open, and from Him no secrets are hid. So when He bids us confess our sins, it is not that He may know them better, but that we may know them better, and feel them more deeply. And so it is plain that to confess our sins must mean much more than the mere telling them out to God. For this would be nothing at all, without self-examination, and godly sorrow, and humbling of the heart, and penitence, and prayer, and holy resolves, and amendment of life. Observe the twofold blessing promised:
(1) the forgiveness of sin;
(2) the cleansing from all unrighteousness. These are simply the two great wants of man with regard to sin: pardon for the past; cleansing for the future; or, in other words, the gifts of justification and sanctification. By the one (justification) we are accepted by God, who blots out our sins, and counts us as righteous for Christs sake, without our really being so; by the other (sanctification) we are really made righteous in ourselves, Gods Holy Spirit working in us, so that we conquer the power of sin, and grow in grace and holiness.W. Walsham How, D.D.
Forgiving must go with Cleansing.Could it possibly suffice for God to forgive? That may be tried in both the public spheres of justice, and in the private spheres of the family. The failure of public justice is seen in that it can do two things only. It can acquit, and it can punish, but it cannot cleanse. Consequently public justice as a civil power is effective, and as a moral power is helpless. The success of family dealing with wrong-doing is seen in the fact that a father can never satisfy himself with any act of forgiveness, because his supreme concern is the moral well-being of his child, whom He would deliver from the influence and power of his wilfulness, whom he must get cleansed from all his unrighteousness.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
1Jn. 1:5. God is light.Light is beautiful; it is gladdening to the eye and to the heart; it flies toward us like Gods angel from the skies; but light of itself is not enough. It were a poor thing for this earth if the sun gave it only light. Soon it would be clothed in the whiteness of universal snow, relieved only by an azure of glacial ice, and in the cold, clear, dazzling glare the life of ocean and continent would die. The earth would not cease to beit would roll on, a fair and beauteous star among the worlds; but no life would stir in its cold magnificence, no voice would break the stillness of its icy solitudesit would roll on, a splendid sepulchre, through the skies. Light of itself is not enough. Life wants something more than light. No life can be matured apart from warmth. Were God only light, we might be spotless as snow, chaste as crystals, beautiful as blocks of ice; but the best and highest things in our natures would diethere would be no warmth of friendship in our grasp, no pity flowing in tears of sympathy from our eyes, no sacrificing love in our hearts; our minds might become glorious, but our hearts would be empty and dead. And, therefore, inasmuch as a tender, sympathetic heart is higher than a mere scholastic mind, inasmuch as sacrifice is profounder than wisdom, and the cross sublimer than philosophy, insomuch is the knowledge that God is love better to us than the knowledge that God is light.Henry Wonnacott.
A Legend of the Light.There is a Rabbinical legend that, when light issued from under the throne of God, the prince of darkness asked the Creator wherefore He had brought light into existence. God answered that it was in order that he might be driven back to his abode of darkness. The evil one asked that he might see that; and, entering the stream of light, he saw across time and the world, and beheld the face of Messiah. Then he fell upon his face and cried, This is He who shall lay low in ruin me, and all the inhabitants of hell.
1Jn. 1:7. Walking in the Light.The planet Venus teaches an important lesson to the followers of Christ, viz. that the earth was never yet known to come between her and the sun. Whence the languor and the spiritual declensions, the darkness and the soul distresses, of many a child of light? Come they not very frequently from giving way to earthly cares, earthly joys, and earthly pursuits? We let these things shut out the sun. No wonder that we move heavily and walk in the dark while we cultivate that friendship with this world which is enmity with God. But if, on the contrary, our affections are set on things aboveif our treasure and our hearts are with Christ in heavenwe shall probably walk in the light, and enjoy an abiding perception of interest in His precious blood which cleanseth from all sin.Salter.
Luther and the Evil One.There is a legend of Luther that, during a serious illness, the evil one seemed to enter his sick-room, and, looking at him with a triumphant smile, unrolled a vast roll which he carried in his arms. As the fiend threw one end of it on the floor, and it unwound itself with the impetus he had given it, Luthers eyes were fixed on it, and to his consternation he read there the long and fearful record of his own sins, clearly and distinctly enumerated. That stout heart quailed before that ghastly roll. Suddenly it flashed into his mind that there was one thing not written there. He said aloud, One thing you have forgotten: the rest is all true; but one thing you have forgottenThe blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. As he said this, the accuser of the brethren, and his heavy roll of lamentation, and mourning, and woe, disappeared together.
Purity through Christs cleansing.See these pure white clouds that stretch in ranks, like rolling waves, across the canopy of heaven in the still, deep noon of a summer day! Row after row they lie in the light, opening their bosoms to the blaze of a noontide sun; and they are all fair; they are without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Who are these that stand, as it were, around the throne of God in white clothing, and whence came they? These are they that have come from various places on the surface of the earth and sea,some from the briny ocean, and some from miry land; some from yellow, overflowing rivers, and some from cool, crystal springs; some from stagnant pools in distant, lonely deserts, and some from the slimy bed of the Thames, or the Clyde, where living beings can scarcely breathe on the banks. All are alike welcome to these heavens, and all are, in their resurrection state, equally pure. May Ispiritually distant and uncleanmay I rise, like these snow-white clouds, from earth to heaven, and take my place, without challenge, among the stainless witnesses who stand around the Redeemers throne? I maynot because my stains are few, but because the blood of Jesus Christ, Gods Son, cleanseth from all sin. I maynot because my sins are small, but because my Saviour is great.W. Arnot.
CHAPTER 2
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER II
THIS IS THE MESSAGE
1Jn. 1:5
A.
The Text
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.
B.
Try to Discover
1.
Why does John change from the neuter what of the prologue to the masculine him?
2.
What does John mean by light?
3.
What does John mean by darkness?
4.
What are the practical implications of this verse for the Christian life?
C.
Paraphrase
And this is the message which we have heard from him, and are reporting unto you, That God is light, And in him is no darkness at all.
D.
Translation and Comments
1Jn. 1:5 . . . And the message which we have heard from Him and are declaring to you is this, that God is light and darkness is absolutely not in Him at all.
1.
The summary of the Gospel
In the fifth verse, John states in capsule the ministry of the incarnate life. All that John has seen, all that he has heard, all that he has learned from the tangible nature of the Divine Experiment is included. John conceives of the whole earthly life of Jesus as a message received and which he in turn must deliver. His form of expression here is reminiscent of Jesus own statement . . . the things which I heard from Him (the Father), these speak I unto the world. (Joh. 8:26)
2.
It is This Which John Declares
The Apostles entire thesis is dependent upon the fact that his gospel is not his own. As with Paul, so with John, he neither . . . received it from man, nor was I (he) taught it, but it came to me (him) through revelation of Jesus Christ. (Gal. 1:12) The philosophy of the gnostics was borrowed from the human reasonings of Graeco-Roman philosophers and oriental mystics. Johns message was given him directly by the divine revelation of the incarnation.
3.
God is Light
The Old Testament writers were familiar with the metaphor used here: God is Light. One of the earliest manifestations of God to Israel was as light in the Shikina Glory which led them out of Egypt. (Exo. 13:21-22) By day it appeared as a pillar of cloud. By night it appeared as a pillar of fire. In either case it was divine light given to guide Gods people from captivity to freedom, from the ignorance of Gods will to revealing of the covenant.
The psalmist sang, The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear . . . (Psa. 27:1)
Isaiah wrote of the Messiah as a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles. (Isa. 42:6) Again Isaiah prophesied, I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. (Isa. 49:6) In a burst of prophetic illumination, this same prophet penned these words, Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. (Isa. 60:1)
The pagans also were familiar with the term light applied to deity. The Zoroastrianism of Persia, father of the Oriental mystery cults, taught that the whole universe was the scene of a struggle between light and darkness. In this struggle, a man must choose which side he will be on. The issue of ones choice was his eternal destiny.
The Greek and Roman mysteries also thought of light and darkness in a way similar to the Persians. They believed there were two ways. One was the way of darkness, and one the way of light. The way of darkness ended in death, while the way of light ended in life. The Greeks particularly identified light with deity.
The Dead Sea Scrolls from the community of Qumran contain the statement The origin of truth lies in the fountain of light.
In the historical setting of I John, the idea that God is light was particularly relevant. It grew out of the background from which the Gospel came, and was already acceptable to that school of religious thought at which it was aimed.
When John says, God is light, he does not disagree with the gnostics whose philosophy was borrowed from these various sources. Rather he says that the affirmative proof that God is light is to be found in the incarnation which they were denying. Therefore, the evidence as to which side of this light-darkeness, life-death struggle a man is on is determined by his personal relationship to Jesus as the incarnate light.
This is precisely Johns own statement in the fourth Gospel, And this is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than light, for their works were evil. (Joh. 3:19)
The tests of life which John gives us in this epistle are three: 1) our attitude toward our own sin, 2) our attitude toward others in the fellowship, and 3) our attitude toward the incarnation itself.
These tests are an appeal to the nature of God revealed in Christ. To say God is light brings up immediately the idea of morality. If God is light, He is absolute purity and holiness. As this purity and holiness shines into our lives, it reveals that we are not pure and holy. To have fellowship with Him, we must be willing to accept this truth about ourselves in order that He may correct it.
The light of God in Jesus probes into the depths of our souls. Beneath the veneer of social propriety it reveals a vicious selfishness which corrupts and destroys. No amount of excuse making or philosophic sophistication can alter the fact that, when Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are tempted, yet was without sin (Heb. 4:15) His sinlessness condemned everyone who has ever yielded to temptation. The Gnostic denial of the personal guilt of sin is thus put to route by the fact that God Himself met and overcame temptation as a human being. John will say shortly, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
The second test that John will give by which we may know we have eternal life is the test of love. This also answers to the nature of God revealed in Jesus.
When John uses the word love he is not referring to a soft sentimentalism. Love is the self-giving which faced the rugged reality of the cross in order to give life to the lost. This test, like the first, takes its meaning from the message, God is light.
The life giving qualities of light are perhaps best illustrated by the light of the sun as it brings life to the earth. Ultimately all physical life is produced and sustained by the light of the sun. The fundamental truth of botany is that all animate life on earth is traceable to photosynthesis. This is the process by which green plants transform the nutrients from the soil into food in the presence of sunlight. Light gives physical life by the process of photosynthesis.
Love, rather than photosynthesis, is the process by which God, as light, gives spiritual life. As we test ourselves by the light of the Gospel, we find that those who love give themselves as God gives, in order to sustain life. John will say later, Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer . . . Just as darkness is the absence of light, so hate is the absence of love. Just as plant life cannot survive the absence of light, so the life of man cannot survive the absence of love. If we do not share this life giving love, we do not have eternal life.
The third test which John will give by which we are to determine our possession of eternal life is belief. So far as John is concerned, belief is the acceptance of the historic incarnation as the medium through which light reveals itself.
Here again, we must remember that the test grows out of the nature of God as light. God is all knowledge, and the source of all knowledge. To have eternal life we must accept truth as revealed by God Who is light. The revelation was made in Jesus as Christ.
If God is indeed light, then no intellectual ignorance can darken His all-embracing knowledge of truth. God is the source of all truth, not just that which we have blindly termed religious truth.
There is an area of truth which man has been able to discover within himself. It is referred to by the term humanities. This truth is expressed in literature, history and the branches of learning concerned with human thought and relations. If God is light, He is the ultimate source of this truth. The light lights every man coming into the world. (Joh. 1:9) The psalmist wrote, O Lord thou hast searched me and known me . . . such knowledge is too high, I cannot attain unto it. (Psa. 139:1ff) God knows what is in man. (Joh. 2:24-25)
There is a second area of truth which man discovers by observing and experimenting with his environment. This area of truth is called science. Since God is light, He is also the ultimate source of this truth. Man spends billions to learn a small part of the scientific knowledge possessed by the Architect of the universe. He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names. (Psa. 147:4)
There is an area of truth which man will never discover within himself, and which he will never discover by exploring his time-space environment. We can only know it as it is revealed by God. The humanist may tell what man is as a social animal. The scientist may discover where man is by studying the circumstances of mans physical existence, Neither will ever discover why man is or where he is going!
The inspired scriptures, with their account of the scheme of redemption, record Gods revelation of spiritual reality in Jesus Christ. The Old Testament, like a rheostat, gradually increased the available light as it prepared the spiritual eyes of men, blinded by ignorance, for the full brilliance of Gods self-revelation in the Christ. The New Testament records the time when the sunburst of Gods very express image, the effulgence of His glory stood before us. (Cf. Heb. 1:1-4)
To deny the incarnation of Christ is therefore to deny the ultimate truth of the entire universe. Divine revelation alone gives meaning to human and scientific truth. To deny revelation is to live in darkness and have only warped concepts of reality.
For this reason, John gives us belief in the Incarnate Word as the final test of eternal life. We know that the Son of God is come . . . and hath given us understanding, that we know Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. (1Jn. 5:20)
E.
Questions for Review
1.
What is the basis of Johns argument in I John?
2.
What statement by John summarizes the entire ministry of Jesus, including both His doings and teachings?
3.
What was the Shakina Glory? (Read Exo. 24:17; Exo. 40:34 and 1Ki. 8:11)
4.
What did the oriental mystery cults teach about light and darkness?
5.
What did the Greek and Roman religions teach about light and darkness?
6.
What do the Dead Sea Scrolls teach about the origin of truth?
7.
When John says God is light, does He agree or disagree with the pagan religions of the day? Explain.
8.
What three tests of life constitute the frame work of I John?
9.
What does the light of God reveal about personal sin?
10.
What is love in Johns writings? What does love give and why?
11.
How does John know God is light?
12.
How does the truth revealed by Jesus differ from truth in other areas of investigation? How is it similar?
13.
What gives meaning to truth discovered by man in the areas of science and the humanities?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
[2.
First Half. God is Light (1Jn. 1:5 to 1Jn. 2:28).
(1)
STATEMENT OF THE LEADING THOUGHT (1Jn. 1:5).
(2)
FIRST INFERENCE: The true fellowship (1Jn. 1:6-7); the Christian must not sin.
(3)
SECOND INFERENCE: Confession of sins (1Jn. 1:8-10); the Christian must not conceal his sin.
(4)
THIRD INFERENCE: Remedy for sins (1Jn. 2:1-2).
(5)
OBEDIENCE THE SIGN OF WALKING IN LIGHT (1Jn. 2:3-8).
(6)
ESPECIALLY BROTHERLY LOVE (1Jn. 2:9-10).
(7)
THE THINGS THEY MUST NOT LOVE IF THEY WALKED IN THE LIGHT (1Jn. 2:12-17).
(8)
THE MANIFESTATIONS OF DARKNESS (1Jn. 2:18-28).
(a)
Signs whereby they should know the forerunners of the last time (1Jn. 2:18-23).
(b)
Exhortation to continue in the light (1Jn. 2:24-28).]
(1) (5) This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you.What the Son had received from the Father, this the Apostles were to report to the world. The attention is aroused, as by the silence before the thunderstorm, to expect a central and fundamental notion of the utmost importance.
That God is light.Here is the essence of Christian theology, the truth about the Deity as opposed to all the imperfect conceptions of Him which had embittered the minds of the wise. To the heathen, Deity had meant angry, malevolent beings, worshipped best by the secrecy of outrageous vice; to the Greeks and Romans, forces of nature transformed into superhuman men and women, powerful and impure; to the philosophers, an abstraction either moral or physical; to the Gnostics it was a remote idea, equal and contending forces of good and evil, recognisable only through less and less perfect deputies. All this John, summing up what the Old Testament and our Lord had said about the Almighty Father, sweeps away in one simple declaration of truth. Light was Gods garment in Psa. 104:2; to Ezekiel (Eze. 1:2), the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord was brightness; to Habakkuk (1Jn. 3:3), His brightness was as the light; Christ had called the sons of God children of the light (Joh. 12:36), and announced Himself as the Light of the World (Joh. 8:12); in the Hebrews (Heb. 1:3), Christ was the refracted ray of the Fathers glory, the express image of His person; to James, the Almighty was the Father of all lights (Jas. 1:17); to Paul, He dwells in the light that no man can approach unto (1Ti. 6:16); to St. Peter, the Christian state is an admission into His marvellous light (1Pe. 2:9). These ideas John comprehends: God is Light. Light physical, because (1) it was He who called everything first out of darkness, and (2) from whom proceeds all health and perfection; light intellectual, because (1) He is the source of all wisdom and knowledge, and (2) in His mind exist the ideals after which all things strive; light moral, because (1) His perfection shows that the difference between good and evil is not merely a question of degree, but fundamental and final, and (2) the life of Christ had exhibited that contrast sharply: once for all. Thus, on this declaration depends the whole doctrine of sin: sin is not merely imperfection; it is enmity to God. There can be no shades of progression, uniting good and evil: in Him is no darkness at all. Good and evil may be mixed in an individual: in themselves they are contrary.
(2) (6) If we say.A favourite form with John, expressing sympathetic delicacy.
That we have fellowship with him. . . .Some of the Gnostics (like the Anabaptists) said that on account of their spiritual knowledge they were free to act as they liked, without committing sin. For walking as a description of the spiritual state, compare 1Jn. 2:6; 2Jn. 1:6; Rom. 6:4; Rom. 8:4; Eph. 4:17; Php. 3:20.
Darkness would include any conscious habit which was opposed to Gods example of perfection.
We lie.We are a self-contradiction, and we know it.
And do not the truth.The truth with St. John is as much a matter of action as of thought and word; that sphere of conduct which is in harmony with God, whose nature is Light.
(7) As he is in the light.The effulgence of the atmosphere of the perfectly good, the sinlessly loving, the gloriously pure, which, created by God and proceeding from Him, is specially His throne. At the same time, wherever such characteristics of Divine Light are found, there He is particularly present.
We have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.The antithesis to lying and doing not the truth, presented under the twofold aspect of (1) the brotherly result of walking with God, (2) its purifying influence. Each human being that comes near us becomes the object of our friendly sympathy; and the sacrifice of Christ has both put away the sin of the world and prevents sin from reigning in our mortal bodies; it obtains forgiveness for us, and by reminding us that it was sin that brought Jesus to the cross, has a continually purifying power over us, through the Spirit of Christ and of the Father. (See 1Co. 6:11; Eph. 1:7; Eph. 1:19-20; Heb. 9:14; 1Pe. 1:19-23.)
(3) (8) If we say that we have no sin.The preceding words had reminded St. John that even mature Christians, though certainly not walking in darkness, yet have sinful tendencies in themselves: sensuous impulses, non-spiritual inclinations, lack of self-knowledge, a lowered standard, principles and views borrowed partly from the world, wavering of will, and hence even graver faults. Not to admit this would be to mislead ourselves, and in us the power and energy of light, searching the very corners of the heart, would not be working. (See Rom. 7:18-23; Gal. 5:17.)
(9) If we confess our sins.An advance in the thought from the general having sin. Confession to God must recognise and measure each particular fault. (Psa. 32:5; Psa. 51:3; Pro. 28:13; Luk. 15:21.)
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.He, from the context, cannot possibly be any other than God. Here another grand progression of thought meets us: not merely we are in the truth, but the actual and glorious result on Gods side; faithful and just on account of Christs sacrifice and our repentance. For the double notion of forgiving and cleansing, see Note on 1Jn. 1:7. The Romish interpreters, in their arbitrary way, limit the cleansing here to purgatory.
(10) If we say that we have not sinned.The argument of the passage equally excludes the interpretation freedom from guilt since conversion as innocence during the whole life. St. John is here repeating, in a more emphatic form, the thought of 1Jn. 1:8.
We make him a liar, and his word is not in us.Stronger far than we lie, or the truth is not in us. Our foolish presumption is regarded in its worst aspect: an impiety against God, whose word, revelation, appeal to our conscience, and witness by the Spirit, are thus blasphemously contradicted. Parallel to we do not the truth and the truth is not in us, the practical result here is that we cannot be regarded as having in any sense received Gods revelation into our hearts.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
A preliminary summary of the entire epistle, 1Jn 1:5-10.
Our apostle now summarizes the substance of his message or epistle, by unfolding the true Christian doctrine of purity from sin in opposition to the errorists’ theory of purity in sin. God is absolute purity, and the only method of coming into oneness with his purity is, by absolute confession of sins, repentance, the atonement, the pardon, and the sanctification. Every other method is a fatal falsehood.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
5. This message Message is the noun of which declare, or announce, in 1Jn 1:3, is the verb, and includes the entire doctrine of the epistle. Heard and declare from Christ unto you.
God is light As perfect universal truth and purity; yet not universal so but that there is an opposite darkness. Yet the darkness is not in him, but is the perfect reverse of him. Truth and falsehood, love and malignity, light and darkness, are the intensest possible opposites. They may mix, but cannot be identified.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
God Revealed As Light Which By Its Nature Constantly Reveals Man’s Sinfulness and Calls Him To Repentance ( 1Jn 1:5 to 1Jn 2:2 ).
‘And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.’
If you asked most people what the message of Jesus, the Word of Life, was, they would probably reply, ‘it is that God is love’. But John here tells us differently. He points out that the message of Jesus is that ‘God is light’, a light in which there is no darkness, a light of self-revelation (compare Psa 27:1; Psa 36:9; Isa 49:6), a light where there is no alienation for those who walk in the light, a light where there is no moral deviation, where all is true, and pure, and good. But for that reason for those who are in darkness, both intellectually, because they have spurned God’s self-revelation (Rom 1:18-23), or morally, because they spurn their consciences, there is no place in the presence of God. This was the first essential basic of the teaching of Jesus, that God is holy, and pure, and true, and righteous, and none can come to Him but those who can bear the light. That was why He declared that He Himself had come as a light into the world so that people might let that light shine on them revealing the truth about them, and then respond to that light by turning from sin and receiving forgiveness through His name, and by that means thus coming to Him Who is ‘light’.
This is of crucial importance. His later declaration that ‘God is love’ (1Jn 4:8; 1Jn 4:16) must be seen in this context. ‘God is light’ is primary. In His essential being He is light. And in the context this means both moral light and self-revealing light. And the result of coming to that light and walking in it is that such men will love one another and will love God and keep His commands (1Jn 5:3), both because they are loved by Him (1Jn 3:16; 1Jn 4:9-11 ; 1Jn 4:16; 1Jn 4:19), and because they see truly, and they will thus experience the glorious reality that God in His essential being is love, pure love, holy love revealed in that sphere of light (1Jn 4:7-9; 1Jn 3:14). But it is not a love that tolerates darkness. It is not a love that overlooks or tolerates sin. It is a love revealed in His begetting as His own those whom He draws to Himself (1Jn 4:7; Joh 6:44), in supplying them with ‘life’ (1Jn 4:9) and in providing for them propitiation for their sins (1Jn 4:10). It is a love revealed in light. It is thus impossible to walk within that sphere of light and not reveal love for the brethren (1Jn 4:11; 1Jn 4:21; 1Jn 5:1). We note here that the love of which he speaks is love for God and for one another in Christ. Love for outsiders is not mentioned here although it will result. For God’s people walk in the sphere of light and love, and have love for one another.
He said elsewhere that in the coming of Jesus, God’s light had come into the world (1Jn 1:9; 1Jn 3:19), for He had come from Him Who was light, revealing and shining out that light (Heb 1:2), but that because men were sinful they loved darkness rather than light and turned from His light and thus they turned from God. They were like crawling insects hiding from the light under a stone, who once the stone is removed scuttle immediately for cover seeking a welcome darkness. But He also indicated that there were those who would respond to the light, letting it shine on their lives revealing all their moral ugliness, so that they might then turn to Him to have that ugliness removed and be transformed. Then they might walk with God and be approved by Him (Joh 3:19-21).
Isaiah saw that light in Isaiah 6, and it made him cry out, ‘Woe is me, for I am destroyed. For I am a man of unclean lips — and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.’ And it was only through the blood shed on the coals of the altar that he was able to find forgiveness and restoration. So it is with all who come to God. At some stage they become aware of their total unworthiness as the light of God shines on them revealing their true condition, and then they seek forgiveness through the blood of His cross. Only then can they know Him and rest content in His presence.
This is no easy believism, no being mollycoddled into the Kingly Rule of God. It cries out that men recognise that God is pure light, and that if we would know Him and enter into His presence it can only be by being made fully clean, fully whole, able to face the light. There is no exemption from this, no exception, for God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. That is why the offering of Jesus Christ once for all as a sacrifice for sin was so necessary. Only through His pure righteousness being put to man’s account, and man’s sin being punished and paid for through His cross, could men ever come to the God who is pure light.
So John stresses that God is pure light, and that there is no place in His presence for those who walk in darkness. The ideas of light and darkness as related to the divine were ones that were well known in John’s day and were found in a number of religions, and especially from this point of view in the writings of the Qumran community (included in the Dead Sea Scrolls) and thus current in that time. But the idea as taken up by Jesus and by John is given its own unique moral significance. God is light in that He is wholly moral and wholly self-revealing to those who can receive it, with the result that sin and spiritual ignorance, which are symbolised by darkness, are abhorrent to Him, the sin and ignorance which are due to man’s rebellion against Him, and result from the refusal to respond to His light. And God’s light makes men aware of sinfulness (Joh 3:19-21), and reveals their spiritual ignorance (Joh 1:4-5; Joh 1:9-12) and is consonant with His life which He offers to men (Joh 8:12) which brings them light.
In the light of Joh 8:12 we can indeed say that ‘God is light’ could be equated with the idea that ‘God is life’. Jesus there declared that He was the Light of the world and as such brought men the light of life, the life which can be the light of men when they respond to Him, eternal life, relieving their darkness, illuminating their souls and bringing home to their hearts His moral demands. For His life is light. Thus the Word of life (1Jn 1:1-2) brings home to men the God Who is light and makes them aware that if they come to Him they come to the light. They cannot have the One without the other.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Jn 1:5 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.
1Jn 1:5
“Sin is to cast aside the will of God and to live according to one’s own will, deserting that which is true and lawful in order to satisfy one’s own desires, thinking thus to obtain happiness. Yet in so doing one does not obtain real happiness or enjoy true pleasure. Sin has no individuality, so that no one can say of it that someone created it. It is simply the name of a state or condition. There is only one Creator and He is good, and a good Creator could not have created a bad thing, for to do so would be against His very nature. And apart from the one Creator there is no other who could have created sin. Satan can only spoil that which has already been created, but he has not the power of creating anything. So sin is not a part of creation, nor has it independent existence such that it could be created. It is simply a delusive and destructive state of being. For instance, light is something which has real existence, but darkness has not; it is only a state, the absence of light. Thus sin or evil is not a self-existent thing, but simply the absence or nonexistence of good. This dark state of evil is most terrible, for because of it many miss the right course, and making shipwreck on the rocks of Satan fall into the darkness of hell and are lost. For this reason I who am the Light of the world became manifest in the flesh, so that those who put their trust in Me should not perish, for I rescue them from the power of darkness and bring them safe to that desired and heavenly haven, where there is neither name nor sign of darkness (Rev. xxi.23, xxii.5).” [27]
[27] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, translated by Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line], accessed 26 October 2008, available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “II Salvation and Sin,” section 1, part 1.
1Jn 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
1Jn 1:7 1Jn 1:8 1Jn 1:8
Jas 3:2, “For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.”
Illustration – One characteristic of a child is to always deny that he was the one at fault. It is the same with adults on the job. Immature people will not accept responsibility nor blame for what they have done wrong. Thus, it is in the kingdom of God. We must grow up and acknowledge our wrongs.
Scripture References – Note similar verses:
Pro 20:9, “Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?”
Rom 3:9, “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;”
Rom 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”
1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1Jn 1:9
Scripture References – Note similar verses:
Lev 26:40-42, “If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.”
Psa 51:4, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.”
Pro 28:13, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”
We have a similar statement in Jas 5:16, which tells us to confess our faults, or sins, to one another.
Jas 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
1Jn 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1Jn 1:10
Rom 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Walking in the light, cleansed by Christ’s blood:
v. 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.
v. 6. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth;
v. 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 now launches forth in his letter proper, developing, first of all, his topic that God is Light: And this is the message which we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light and that darkness is in Him in no way. St. John desires to make an announcement, a declaration, to deliver a message. It is not a message or philosophy which he has thought out himself; he is not offering the result of any research of his own. What he writes, what he proclaims, is the truth of Christ, of God; he is a messenger of Christ, a minister of salvation, as every true pastor is intended to be. God is Light, and darkness in Him there is none. Light is purity, holiness; He is the Source of all true knowledge, wisdom, happiness, and holiness. There is no darkness, no ignorance, no imperfection, no misery, no sinfulness in Him. As light is the symbol of purity, goodness, and perfection, so, on the other hand, darkness symbolizes ignorance, sinfulness, misery, corruption.
Upon this fact the apostle bases a conclusion regarding the conduct and life of the Christians: If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we are liars and are not practicing the truth. That we have fellowship with God as our heavenly Father by faith the apostle had just stated. But if we now, who profess to be Christians and thus to be united with God in the most intimate union, live and behave ourselves as though we were still in darkness, if we are addicted to sin, if we in any way serve sin and corruption, then our entire life is a lie. We may be self-deceived, under circumstances, but the lie is there nevertheless. We are then not doing, practicing, the truth, which demands that we live a pure and holy life, according to the will of our heavenly Father. To walk and live in sins while professing to be children of God is to brand ourselves as liars and hypocrites.
St. John describes the conduct of the Christians as it should be: But if we walk in the light as Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. We are a light in the Lord through faith, and therefore it behooves us to walk as the children of light, Eph 5:8. God, our heavenly Father, is in the light, His entire essence is holiness, everything that He does is pure and holy. Of this nature we partake by faith, and our conduct should give evidence of the faith that has made us children of the light and enables us to walk as the children of light, according to God’s good pleasure and will. If thus we live a holy and righteous life, deriving continual light, power, and life from Him, then there will be two happy consequences of such behavior. In the first place, we have the assurance that we have fellowship with one another: we are closely connected with our heavenly Father by faith; we are united with the holy apostles and with the Christians of all times by the bond of this same faith. Just as an unholy, sinful life, a conduct of sin and shame, excludes the perpetrator from all communion with the saints of God and with God Himself, so a righteous and holy life, lived by the power of God through faith, binds us ever more closely to the Lord and to one another. At the same time we are also assured that the blood of Jesus, our Savior, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin. In spite of the weaknesses and imperfections of this earthly life, in spite of the many accusations and temptations on the part of the devil and the children of this world, we have forgiveness of sins. Jesus, the true Man, our Brother according to the flesh, but at the same time the Son of God, the eternal God Himself, has shed His blood for us once, yet His sacrifice has eternal validity and power by virtue of that mysterious, wonderful personal union of the two natures. Always, every day, without ceasing, we have forgiveness of sins, we are righteous and just and holy before God through the blood of Jesus Christ, which is always effective; in the case of every sin we have forgiveness, which is always and ever again offered and transmitted to us in the Word and in the Sacrament and accepted by us in faith.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
to 1Jn 2:11
1Jn 1:5 to 1Jn 2:11 .
After the apostle has indicated the fulness of joy, which is in the fellowship with the Father and with the Son, as the aim of his Epistle, he brings out in what follows, from the point of view that God is (1Jn 1:5 ), in opposition to moral indifferentism, the condition under which alone that fellowship can exist.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
1Jn 1:5 . This verse contains no inference from what precedes ( is not = igitur, Beza), but the thought that lays the foundation for what follows.
] “ and this is the message; ” is here put contrary to its usual position, comp. 1Jn 2:25 , 1Jn 3:11 ; 1Jn 3:23 , 1Jn 4:3 , etc. before “in order to mark the reality of the message” (Braune); here as elsewhere also refers to what follows: . . ., by which the subject-matter of the message is stated. Calvin incorrectly, following the reading : promissio, quam vobis afferimus, hoc secum trahit, vel hanc conditionem habet annexam.
The word only here and 1Jn 3:11 (where, however, it is also not unopposed); frequently in the LXX. 2Sa 4:4 ; Pro 12:26 ; Pro 25:26 ; Pro 26:16 ; Isa 28:9 ; Jer 48:3-4 . The reading is more difficult with the meaning “promise;” yet this may be justified in so far as every N. T. proclamation carries with it a promise. [47] De Wette prefers this reading, but takes , following the example of Oecumenius, a Lapide, Beza, Hornejus, etc., contrary to the constant usus loquendi of the N. T., in the signification: “announcement” (Lange: “teaching”).
] “ from Him , that is, Christ.” Instead of , it is more usual to have , comp. Joh 8:26 ; Joh 8:40 ; Joh 15:15 ; Act 10:22 ; Act 28:22 ; 2Ti 2:2 .
in the Epistle, not always (Paulus, Baumgarten-Crusius) indeed, but mostly, refers to God, while refers always to Christ; here it refers backwards to . . in 1Jn 1:3 ; Dsterdieck: “From Him, Christ, the Son of God manifested in the flesh (1Jn 1:3 ), whom the apostle himself has heard (1Jn 1:1 ff.), has he received the message about the Father.” In favour of the correctness of this explanation is also the following: . [48]
] is synonymous with , 1Jn 1:2-3 , only that in the idea “again” is contained; Erasmus: quod filius annuntiavit a patre, hoc apostolus acceptum a filio renunciat. [49] This refers back with peculiar subtleness to the preceding , and thus testifies to the correctness of that reading (Dsterdieck). The subject is, as in 1Jn 1:2-3 , John and the rest of the apostles. To reduce their proclamation to the word which they heard from Christ Himself serves to confirm its truth; comp. the combination of and in 1Jn 1:3 . Ebrard wrongly interprets this also of the proclamation of John which occurred in his Gospel, to which this Epistle is related as the concentrating development. [50]
] is inappropriately translated by Luther: “ a light;” the article weakens the thought; God is light, i.e. God’s nature is light = absolute holiness and truth (comp. chap. 1Jn 4:8 ; Gospel of Joh 4:24 ); [51] for the signification of the symbolical expression “light,” compare especially Jas 1:13 ; Jas 1:17 .
As God is in absolute sense, so also all light outside of Him is the radiation of His nature, as all love flows forth from Him whose nature is ; comp. chap. 1Jn 4:7 ff.
] The thought contained in the foregoing is emphasized by the negation of its opposite, which is here expressed in the strongest manner by , in accordance with John’s diction (comp. chap. 1Jn 2:4 ; 1Jn 2:18 , etc.).
: antithesis of : sin and falsehood; the same antithesis is frequently in the N. T.; comp. Rom 13:12 ; Eph 5:8 ff.; 1Th 5:4-5 . In opposition to the general prevalent explanation given here, Weiss thus explains the sense of this verse: “God is light, i.e. He has become visible, capable of being known, namely in Christ, who certainly proclaims this truth; there is no more any darkness in God at all, i.e. no part of His nature remains any longer dark and unknown, He has (in Christ) become completely revealed.” This interpretation, to which Weiss is led by the erroneous supposition that the idea has in the N. T. no ethical reference, [52] is refuted both by the form of expression, which exhibits (just as , chap. 1Jn 4:8 ) as a description of the nature of God, and also by the train of thought, in so far as the truth expressed here forms the starting-point for all the following amplifications which bear on the ethical relationship of Christians. Besides, the apostle would have insufficiently expressed the thought, as he would have left out the essential , which Weiss unjustifiably inserts. John rightly puts the truth that God is light, as the chief subject-matter of the of Christ, at the top of his development; for it forms the essential basis of Christianity both in its objective and in its subjective subsistence; in it there lies as well as judgment in regard to sin, so also salvation from sin by the incarnation and death of Christ, as well as necessity of repentance and faith, so also the moral exercise of the Christian life.
[47] Spener: “Promise; inasmuch as, in what follows, a promise is really involved. God is not only a light in Himself, but to believers He is also their light. And that is the promise.”
[48] The use of this pronoun even where the reference is obscure is caused by this, that John does not think of the Father without the Son, or the Son without the Father; the thought therefore remains essentially the same, whether we refer it in the first instance to the Father or to the Son; notwithstanding, however, the view of Socinus is unjustifiable, according to which, on account of the conjunctio inter Deum et Christum (which Socinus, moreover, holds not as a conjunctio essentiae, but only as a conjunctio voluntatis et rerum aliarum omnium), by is here to be understood equally God and Christ.
[49]
[50] According to Ewald, John is here quoting a definite utterance of Christ; possibly, but not necessarily.
[51] The fulness of the references contained in these words, Lorinus states in the following manner: Deus lux est, quia clarissime se ipsum percipit, omniaque in se ipso, utpote prima et ipsissima veritas; quia summe bonus, ac summa et ipsissima bonitas; fidelis absque ulla iniquitate, justus et rectus, quia fons omnis lucis in aliis i.e. veritatis atque virtutis, non solum illustrans mentem, docensque quid agendum sit, verum etiam operans in nobis, ut agamus et sic radiis suis liberans mentem ab ignorantiae tenebris, purgans a pravitate voluntatem.
[52] The assertion that refers only to knowledge and not to the ethical state, is so much the more untenable, as Weiss himself describes this knowledge as “the true knowledge of God, i.e. such that the entire spiritual life of man is absorbed in it, so that he is henceforth completely in God,” or “in which the object of cognition is received into the whole spiritual life of man in such a way that it becomes a force, inspiring and determining, or ruling, the latter in its totality.” But even such a cognition must certainly be regarded as an ethical act.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
II. PRINCIPAL PART THE FIRST
1Jn 1:5 to 1Jn 2:28
IF YE WALK IN THE LIGHT (1Jn 1:5 to 1Jn 2:2)OBEDIENT TO HIS LAW IN GENERAL (1Jn 2:2-6), AND TO THE COMMANDMENT OF BROTHERLY LOVE IN PARTICULAR (1Jn 2:7-14), NOT MISLED BY THE LUSTS (1Jn 2:15-17) AND THE LIES OF THE WORLD (1Jn 2:18-23) YE SHALL ABIDE BEFORE CHRIST
1. Leading thought: God is Light
5This then Isaiah 9 the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you,10 that God is light, and in him is no darkness11 at all.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Jn 1:5. And is not like (igitur, Beza) or (Episcopius); for it is neither an inference, nor even a delicate antithesis; it simply connects with the preceding, as does , 1Jn 1:4, with , and while points to the contents of the now opening Epistle, connects with the exordium, in which preparation is made for what follows, and points to the subsequent words [ . . .M.].
This is the message.Contrary to the usual position of the words ( , 1Jn 2:25; 1Jn 3:11; 1Jn 3:23; 1Jn 4:3; 1Jn 5:11; 1Jn 5:14, cf. Joh 17:3), is emphatically placed first to denote the existence and reality of the message. The poorly authenticated reading is very awkward, the word denoting not annunciation (Oecumen., Beza, de Wette contrary to the grammatical usage of the N. T.), either here or elsewhere (1Jn 2:24; 1Jn 3:11; cf. var. 2Ti 1:1; Act 23:31), and if taken in the sense of promise would have required here an enlargement of the thought. Calov: non jubemur tantum in luce ambulare ac mundari sanguine Christi, sed utriusque etiam gratia nobis promittitur, illius per Spiritus Sancti illuminationem, hujus per expiationis Christi applicationem; quia utraque fruimur per beatam cum Deo et Christo communionem. [Huther thinks that the reading in the sense of promise might be justified on the ground that every announcement of the New Testament is fraught with promise, and cites Spener, who says: Promise, as the sequel indeed conceals a promise. God is not only a light in Himself, but He is also the light of believers. And that is the promise.M.]., which occurs no where in the New Testament, as Socinus and Episcopius read, is an arbitrary correction. The outwardly best authenticated reading is strongly supported by the context, for it seems to recho in the following : the message of Christ is announced again by His Apostles. Erasmus: Quod filius annunciavit a patre, hoc Apostolus acceptum a filio renunciat nobis.
Which we have heard from Him.The Apostle alludes to 1Jn 1:1. He thinks of the first disciples, and more particularly of the Apostles. Hence both the , the , and the contents of the message: . . .., suggest the reference to Jesus, the Christ; this is also rendered necessary by the preposition , which indicates the Prophet-speaker, the Person of the Master, on whose lips the Apostles hang as hearers and disciples. John uses , Joh 8:26; Joh 8:40; Joh 15:15, but there it is the Father who speaks and the Son who hears; this () presupposes the nearness, the being together, and had to be used when the Son was hearing the Father, the other () denotes distance, and could hardly have been used in the aforecited passages; points also to familiarity only to derivation in general denotes, with reference to 1Jn 1:3 : , Christ; the assertion that , as distinguished from , which always relates to Christ, invariably refers to the Father (Paulus, Baumgarten-Crusius) is incorrect. The sense then is: From Him, the Incarnate Son of God, whom we have heard, etc., 1Jn 1:1, we have received the message concerning God the Father (Dsterdieck, Huther). Socinus, who takes the relation of God and Christ not as conjunctio esseriti, but only as conjunctio voluntatis et rerum aliarum omnium, understands a Deo et Christo, i.e., a Deo per Christum, thus representing Christ as the mere mediator and not as the author of the message.
And announce to you again.Next to the note of Erasmus, as quoted above, we cite the admirable exposition of Bengel: Qu in ore Christi fuit eam apostoli ; nam ab Ipso acceptam reddunt et propagant. is not exactly = , the latter denotes to continue announcing [rather to bear tidings from one person () to anotherM.], the former to announce anew, back, again, as in Joh 4:25; Joh 16:25, where, however, is the more authentic reading. As our Lord conversed with the Syrophnician woman as the Messenger of God Reporting what the Father had told Him before, so the Apostles report what the Lord had told them before (Joh 20:21).
God is light.This is the substance of the . But Christ did not say so, although He called Himself the Light, Joh 12:12; Jno 15:46; and speaks of the children of the Light (Joh 8:36), even as James refers to the Father of the Lights, , Jam 1:17, see the note above ad loc. But Christ, as the Son of God, is (Heb 1:2), and this it is which John and his fellow Apostles (1Jn 1:1) had heard, seen and gazed upon, so that the sum-total and centre of the message of Christ, as well as His personal manifestation and revelation in the flesh, may truly be expressed in the words God is Light. Christ reveals this, but no philosopher is able to find it; without Christ the wise men of the world pass it by. It is not a light, as Luther translates, as if there were other lights beside and out of Him. The Being of God is Light. Neither is it in the light, as if it were only surrounding Him, nor as the Light. It is not secundum similitudinem (Bullinger), but secundum substantiam. Light is His garment (Psa 104:2); Ezekiel (1 John 1.) and Habakkuk (1Jn 3:3, sqq.) beheld the glory of the Lord as fire, pure and bright as lightning. He is not only the Author of light, to whom belongs His first creative fiat (Gen 1:3), but the Father of all light (Jam 1:17), a mighty sphere of light surrounds Him (1Ti 6:16); and the marvellous light wherein Christians walk is Gods (1Pe 2:9). This sentence is parallel to the sentence: God is Love (1Jn 4:8; 1Jn 4:16), with the same fundamental thought, although in the one instance the expression is figurative, and in the other literal, and the figurative expression lays peculiar emphasis on one side of the Divine Being, and this, on account of the antithesis in the following verses (1Jn 1:6-10), is also holiness, perfect pureness, but not omniscience, as Calov maintains, although in Dan 2:22 light is the symbol of the omniscience of God; it may include, however, the wisdom of God. [Alford:Of all material objects, light is that which most easily passes into an ethical predicative without even the process, in our thought, of interpretation. It unites in itself purity, and clearness, and beauty, and glory, as no other material object does; it is the condition of all material life and growth and joy. And the application to God of such a predicative requires no transference. He is Light, and the fountain of light material and ethical. In the one world, darkness is the absence of light; in the other, darkness, untruthfulness, deceit, falsehood, is the absence of God. They who are in communion with God, and walk with God, are the light, and walk in the light.M.]
And darkness in Him is none whatsoever.This second negative member, stated with marked emphasis ( , similar to Joh 15:5, see Winer, p. 521. [The two negations produce one negation, which is the more frequent case, and serve, originally, to make the principal negation more distinct and forcible, and exhibit the sentence as negative in all its parts.M.]), rejects any and every darkness, i.e., impureness [or absence of all admixture.M.]. Oecumenius: , . Rather both: neither an untruth or a lie, nor any sin is in Him. The fulness of the reference contained in this expression is brought out by Lorinus in the following passage cited by Huther: Deus lux est, quia clarissime se ipsum percipit, omniaque in se ipse, utpote prima et ipsissima veritas; quia summe bonus, ac summa et ipsissima bonitas; fidelis absque ulla iniquitate, justus et rectus, quia fons omnis lucis in aliis, i.e., veritatis atque virtutis, non solum illustrans mentem, docensque quid agendum sit, verum etiam operans in nobis, ut agemus et sic radiis suis liberans mentem ab ignoranti tenebris, purgans a pravitate voluntatem.Johns speculation or mysticism is so thoroughly ethical, that he is solely concerned with the practical working out of the truth: God is Light. As he connects this sentiment with the preceding by , namely, the fellowship with the Father and the Son, so he develops the nature of this fellowship-life in the sequel (1Jn 5:6-21). Now, since the nature of this fellowship and of the life in it depend upon the nature of the Father, he begins with the leading thought (1Jn 1:5) and with reference to errors in a sentence of two members, the one positive, the other negative. [Huther: John properly makes the truth that God is Light, as the chief substance of the of Christ, the starting-point of his development; for it is the essential basis of Christianity, both as to its objective and subjective substance, and it involves both the consummation of sin and the redemption from sin by the incarnation and death of Christ; both the necessity of repentance and faith and the moral problem of the Christian life.M.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Monotheism and the absolute personal existence of God are with John two chief points, which may be also identified here, although one side only is made prominent. Of the two sentences, God is Spirit (Joh 4:24), and God is Love (1Jn 4:8; 1Jn 4:16),the former denoting the Being of God physically, the latter ethically; the former describing the nature and substance, the latter the character of God,the second only will have to be connected with the sentence, God is Light, and thus be further defined by a metaphorical expression. Spirit and Love are indeed correlative fundamental ideas, since Spirit denotes free self-glory in self-consciousness and spontaneity over a substantial fulness of real vital powers, and Love free self-surrender with conscious and intentional conservation of the essential original determinateness both of oneself and of others (Plitt). But the phrase God is Light, declares the superiority of God to all sensuous wants (Kstlin), the holiness of God, and thus defines further the character of God, His Love, and this as a holy Love, while it enables us to take the Love of God as contemplating also the communication of His Holiness. We may add, God iseternal Life (Joh 1:20) as a correlative, so that His Love as well as His Holiness are live. There is no manner of darkness in Him. He is not a God in process of being coming to Himself in the history of creation, the world or in the spirit of man, as Plato maintains: He is operative prior to all the of Plato, or the dark Urgrund of Schelling, as a self-conscious, holy, loving and living God. Nor has sin, evil, its original beginning in Him, as was taught by the Gnostics in their doctrine of emanations. [Wordsworth: A sentence opposed to the error of most of the Gnostics, who asserted the existence of two hostile Deities, one a God of Light, the other of Darkness. Irenus I., 25. 28, ed Grabe. Theodoret, Hret., fab. prm. Epiphan., Hres, XXVI., cf. Ittig. Hres, p. 34; note in his Comment. on Joh 1:5; and Bp. Andrewes, III., pp. 371376. Almost all the Gnostics adopted the theory of dualism, derived from the Magians, and afterwards developed by the Marcionites and Manichans.M.]
2. God is Lightmust not be taken as a notice, a truth without reality, a reality without efficiency. As the sentence God is Spirit (Joh 4:24) is immediately followed by and those who worship Him, must worship Him in Spirit and in truth, so this sentence must be taken as a principle, the application of which is contained in the sequel. The sentence is through and through ethical and practical. John wants no science without practice. He does not allow an enlightenment of the mind without a corresponding bias and purifying of the will.
3. The question Whence comes sin, evil into the world? the Apostle here decides very distinctly in a negative form: in no event from God. Evil though connate, is not co-created.
4. Nothing must be taught or announced that does not rest upon or does not agree with the testimony of Christ. Those who pretend to know eternal truth which maketh free, different from Him, do not know it better, and are not servants, but adversaries and rebels.It is at once Apostolical and Protestant to go back to the beginning of the Gospel in Christ. We are much more the Apostolical Church than the Church of Rome with its claims to Apostolicity.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
God is Light. 1. Whence do you know it? 2. What does it mean? 3. Whither does it point?Whatever right and true views you may have of God the Father, you have them from Christ, no matter whether a messenger of salvation, a servant of the Church have announced them to you, whether they were told you by your mother or commended by the counsel of a friend, whether Christian hands brought them to you in the Bible, or the Holy Ghost excited them in your heart.Nothing gladdens the hearts of men more than light; but how have they abused the Word and deprived it of its best part, and try to make it chime in with unholiness in thought, in word and in deed!The worlds light dazzles without illumining, shines without producing a spring with blossoms or an autumn with fruit.The worlds light may be useful, build you in this life bridges of honour, bring wreaths to artists and fame to the wise, make account of order in the land and in the streets, rejoice the heart in the social circle and refresh the mind, but also undermine and destroy the salvation of your soul. But it cannot carry a shine of consolation into the night of life, still less into the night of death; it cannot help the soul to find love and the life which death cannot destroy.The worlds light sets like the sun in the sky; but the Light which is God the Lord, shines through all the night of sin, of life, of death.Try every light, whether God be in it.If He, the Holy One, is absent, that light is no light worthy of the name, but a false light, a will-o-the-wisp.Do not look for salvation in any light of science or civilization, if it denies the holy light. Fear only the darkness in which God the Father is not found.
Starke:Teachers should not pronounce any thing in things Divine but that which they have heard from the Lord in His Word; for if the Apostles themselves were firmly tied by it, how much more are they bound to cleave to it? The thoughts of man, being fallible, are not sufficient for the foundation of the faith.Because God is Light, and in Him is no darkness whatsoever, it is wholly impossible that He can be the Cause of sin, which is the greatest darkness.God is all Light, Wisdom, Holiness, Consolation and Joy; who would not desire to be united with Him?
Lange:Because God is Light we have often to sigh in our fellowship with Him: Lord, cause Thy face to shine upon us, and be gracious unto us.
Spener:God is Light. 1. Holiness and Righteousness, showing that He not only has no evil within Himself, but also cannot suffer sin or evil in His creatures. 2. All wisdom and Allwisdom. 3. Glory and salvation.
Heubner:Christianity has showed to all men the light-nature of God in Christ in the clearest brightness; that He is through and through perfect Knowledge, Omniscience, Wisdom, Love, Grace, Holiness and Happiness, and delights in the happiness of His creatures. Why does John specify this as the chief announcement? 1. Because it is of the first importance and indispensably necessary for sinful man to know that it is not by the hostile and malicious purpose of an omnipotent Being that he has been cast into this misery, that God did not plan his ruin, and that it does not come from Him, because He is pure and good. 2. Because salvation, a restoration of happiness may be expected from this God who desires all men to be happy. This belief is mans first support [holding-point] of salvation. And this His Will God has proved most strongly in factthrough Christ.
Besser:John convicts of falsehood three classes of spirits by declaring the vanity of the boast of fellowship with God on the part of such as walk in darkness instead of walking in the Light, of such as comfort themselves with the assurance of being perfectly pure instead of relying upon the continual cleansing of the blood of Christ, and lastly, of such as, instead of confessing their sins, deny their sinfulness. Worldly-mindedness, boast of sanctity and self-righteousness are exposed by John to the condemnatory light of the truth, and accompanied by an exhortation to a sincere, humble and penitent walking in the Light.
[Bp. Hall:Divine Light and reflections. Sermons, Works, 5, 419.M].
Footnotes:
[9]1Jn 1:5. , B. C. G. K., Cod. Sin., al. [Syr., Theoph., Oecumen., Tischend., Buttmann, Wordsw. , A., Vulg., Lachm., Rec.; this is altered from the original reading.M.]
[10]Instead of , A. B. G., al. [Griesb., Scholz., Lachm., Tischend., Wordsw.M.] we find in C., and in Cod. Sin., over , the following correction, probably emanating from the transcriber himself: ; but a later hand has added as the right reading.
[11][, renuntiamus, announce again, Report (Lillie). Declare, E. V., is too weak, it denotes a repetition of an announcement already made and known, brought out by the preposition . See the notes of Bengel and Erasmus in Exegetical and Critical.M.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 2431
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING CONFORMED TO GODS IMAGE
1Jn 1:5-7. This then is the message which me have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 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.
IN fulfilling the ministerial office, it is not sufficient that we set before our people the evidences of Christianity, or inculcate the performance of some moral duties: we are messengers from God to men; and we must declare to them the message which we have received from him. We must not alter or conceal any part of that which we have been commanded to deliver; but must make known the whole counsel of God; and, having declared it with all plainness and fidelity, must urge the acceptance of it with all the energy we possess.
We have a message then from God to you: we are commanded to open to you the Divine character, and to call you by the most impressive arguments to become conformed to his image. In discharging this duty we proceed to set before you,
I.
The character of God
The term light, in Scripture, has various acceptations; but there are two things which we shall notice as more particularly comprehended in it in the words before us. It is the property of light to discover all things; and it is perfectly pure and incapable of pollution: when therefore it is said, that God is light, we must understand it as designating,
1.
His infinite knowledge
[God is a God of knowledge [Note: 1Sa 2:3.]. There is no creature which is not manifest in his sight. The transactions of darkness are not hid from him: he sees the adulterer, that avails himself of the darkness of the night to visit his guilty paramour. His eye is upon the thief, that lays his hand upon his neighbours property. He notices the fraudulent dealer, who sells by false weights and measures, or takes advantage of the purchasers ignorance to get rid of a bad commodity, and to exact of him a higher price than it is worth. Nor is it the actions only that God inspects; his eyes are not only on our ways, but on our very hearts. We are apt to think that the thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he cannot see [Note: Job 22:13-14.]; but the darkness and light to him are both alike [Note: Psa 139:11-12.]: He searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins [Note: Jer 17:10.]: He knows the things that come into our minds, every one of them [Note: Eze 11:5.]: He weigheth our spirits [Note: Pro 16:2.], and discerns the precise quantity of good or evil that there is in all our thoughts and desires: yea, He knows the imaginations that we go about, even now, years before the thoughts are distinctly formed in our hearts [Note: Deu 31:21.]. Our inmost souls are as much open to his view, as the sacrifices were to the priest, when he had flayed them for the purpose of examining the flesh, and cut them open to inspect their inward parts [Note: This is the idea suggested, Heb 4:13.]. In short, with him is no darkness at all: hell and destruction are before him; much more the hearts of the children of men [Note: Pro 15:11.].]
2.
His unspotted holiness
[Light is perhaps the only thing which is incapable of being polluted; and therefore is peculiarly fit to represent the immaculate purity of God.
God is a holy Being; yea, glorious in holiness, as well as in every other perfection. He hateth all the workers of iniquity: He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity [Note: Hab 1:13.], without the utmost abhorrence of it. In this respect also, as well as in the former, there is no darkness at all in him: there is none in his nature; there is none in his dispensations.
Consider his nature: Which of his attributes has the smallest mixture of unholiness? His sovereignty is not a weak partiality, but a holy exertion of his will, according to his own determinate and eternal counsels. His justice is not a rigorous severity, but a holy regard to the honour of his broken law. His mercy is not a weak exercise of pity at the expense of justice and truth, but a holy display of his unbounded compassion, in a way that at the same time illustrates and maguifies all his other perfections.
Consider his dispensations: these, it is true, are oftentimes inscrutable to us; yet is he righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works [Note: Psa 145:17.]. We are sometimes indeed ready, through unbelief, to question his wisdom and his goodness [Note: Psa 73:12-14.]. When we see the wicked triumphing, and the righteous suffering under the accumulated trials of persecution from man and desertion from God, we are apt to be offended, and to ask, whether there be a God that ruleth in the earth? But in both these respects is his holiness expressly vindicated in the sacred writings: the martyrs that are now in glory, at the same time that they expostulate, as it were, with God on the subject of his forbearance towards their persecutors, address him as holy and true [Note: Rev 6:10.]: and David, when complaining bitterly of the dereliction that he suffered, takes especial care to acknowledge that, in the midst of all, his holiness is unimpeached; O God, I cry in the day-time, but thou hearest not; and in the night-season I am not silent; but thou art holy [Note: Psa 22:1-3.]. When therefore we are not able to comprehend the reason of Gods dispensations, we must still confess, that though clouds and darkness are round about him, righteousness and judgment are the basis of his throne [Note: Psa 97:2.].]
The next part of the message points out to us,
II.
The necessity and benefit of a conformity to him
The saints are said to be renewed after the Divine image: and it is worthy of particular observation, that the only two points in which this renovation is said to consist, are knowledge [Note: Col 3:10.], and holiness [Note: Eph 4:24.]. We see then from hence wherein that conformity, which we are to attain, consists: it consists in knowledge and in holiness, or, as my text expresses it, in walking in the light as he is in the light: our minds must be enlightened with the knowledge of Gods truth; and our hearts must be purified in the performance of his will.
Let us notice then,
1.
The necessity of this conformity
[Many will pretend to have communion with God, while they are ignorant of the salvation revealed in the Gospel, and living in the habitual indulgence of sin. But, while they thus walk in darkness, what fellowship can they have with God? What access can they have to him, when they do not so much as know the way of access to him through the rent vail of the Redeemers flesh [Note: Heb 10:19-20.]? and what regard can they feel in their hearts towards him, while they are under the allowed dominion of worldly and carnal lusts? Their profession is a system of falsehood and hypocrisy: they lie, and do not the truth: they may work up themselves to ecstacies if they will; but they neither have, nor can have, any fellowship with God; for how shall the throne of iniquity (or one in whom sin reigns) have fellowship with him [Note: Psa 94:20.]? What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness [Note: 2Co 6:14.]?]
2.
The benefit of this conformity
[If a person be walking unfeignedly and progressively in the study of Gods will, and in obedience to it, he possesses two great and unspeakable benefits; namely, communion with God, and acceptance before him.
He has communion with God [Note: The opposition between the 6th and 7th verses shews that ver. 7 does not relate to the communion of the saints with each other, but to their fellowship with God.]. God loves the humble, diligent, obedient servant: He will come to him, and lift, up the light of his countenance upon him, and manifest himself to him as he does not unto the world. He will shed abroad his love in his heart, and give him a spirit of adoption, whereby he shall cry, Abba, Father. The person himself may not be very conversant with raptures: but, whether he be more or less sensible of Gods favour to him, it is manifest that he has fellowship with God: his knowledge of the Gospel proves that God has taught him; and his experience; of its sanctifying power proves that God has strengthened and supported him.
He has also acceptance before God: he is not like an unpardoned sinner: Jesus Christ has washed away his sins in the fountain of his blood; yea, every day, every hour, every moment, is he cleansing him from the pollution that adheres to his best services. This cleansing is a continued act of Christ [Note: Cleanseth.]: and through it the soul maintains its peace with God, and is regarded by God without spot or blemish [Note: Eph 5:26-27.]. Cleansed by Jesus from the iniquity of his holy things, he is presented faultless before the presence of Gods glory with exceeding joy [Note: Jude, ver. 24.].
Such are the benefits of cleaving to Christ, and walking as he walked: and a life devoted to God is not so properly the means of obtaining these benefits, as it is the evidence that we already possess them.]
From this most instructive subject we may learn,
1.
The connexion between faith and works
[One man hopes to be saved by his works, while he disregards faith in Christ: another hopes that his faith will save him, though it never produce good works. But both of these deceive their own souls: for no man can do such works as the Gospel requires, unless he embrace the truths which it reveals: and, if he could do them, they would be utterly insufficient to justify him before God. On the other hand, the faith that is without works, is dead: and as it differs not from the faith of devils, so will it bring us no better portion than theirs. Knowledge is necessary to produce holiness; and holiness is necessary to evince that our knowledge is truly spiritual and saving. It is not by separating them from each other, but by uniting them together, that we are to walk in the light as God is in the light.]
2.
The connexion between duty and happiness
[The greater part of the world expect happiness in the ways of sin: but God has warned us that there is no peace to the wicked. There is no real happiness but in fellowship with God: and there is no fellowship with him, without a conformity to him. If then we would be happy in this world, we should be religious: we should study to know and do the will of God. Then we should be happy in sickness as well as in health, and in the prospect of death no less than in the midst of earthly enjoyments.]
3.
The connexion between grace and glory
[The saints in glory are called saints in light; and in order to partake of their inheritance, we must be made meet for it [Note: Col 1:12.]. An unregenerate sinner would not be happy, even if he were in heaven. There is a total difference of character between them that are saved and them that perish: those who are saved, love God, and delight in him, and make it the labour of their souls to glorify him: whereas they who perish, would, if they were able, pluck him from his throne: it would be glad tidings to them if they were informed that he exists no longer. Such precisely is the difference between saints and sinners in this world; the one find all their happiness in serving God; the other say in their hearts, We wish there were no God. Neither the one nor the other indeed attain the same degree of holiness or wickedness in this world that they will in the next: but in all other respects their characters will continue the same that they are in this life. If ever then we would have fellowship with God in heaven, we must begin it here: and, if ever we would dwell with him in the regions of everlasting light, we must now be brought out of darkness into the marvellous light of his Gospel [Note: 1Pe 2:9.], and walk henceforth as children of the light and of the day [Note: Eph 5:8.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
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. (8) If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (9) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (10) If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
By the message may, I think, be considered the whole sum and substance of the Gospel. For the Apostle having before so blessedly introduced the Lord Jesus Christ, next tells the Church the purport of the divine revelation he brought. And, by the general expression of light, to which God in his threefold character of Person is compared, is meant to say, that everything of darkness, (which sin, in all its multiform shapes, may well be called,) must, of consequence, be directly opposed to God. Hence, here is an infallible mark to know the Church, and every individual of the Church by. For, if any man remain in the dark, and blind, and ignorant state of nature in which he was born, unconscious of the plague of his own heart, ignorant of Christ’s Person as God-Man, ignorant of his offices, characters, and relations, hath never been regenerated by the Holy Ghost, and is still in the Adam-state, dead in trespasses and sins; for such an one to talk of having fellowship and communion with God, when he neither knows God nor himself; this shews him to be deceiving himself; with saying peace, peace, when there is no peace! Reader! pause over the account, for it is truly awful. And what makes it yet more so is, that it is much more general than is supposed. Our Lord hath given us the representation of a whole professing Church of this kind, in that of Laodicea; Rev 3:14-18 . They thought themselves rich, and increased with goods, and needed nothing, whereas He, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, searching the heart, and trying the reins, discovered, that they were wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. And that same Almighty Lord only knows, what multitudes there are of the same character in the present hour, mingling up in what are called Gospel Churches, in a pharisaical righteousness of their own! Such I mean, as though they hold the blessed doctrines of God the Father’s everlasting love, in having chosen, the Church; God the Son’s redeeming love, in working out salvation by his blood and righteousness; and God the Spirit’s regenerating mercy for an entrance into the kingdom of heaven; yet consider these but only part means, or but procuring causes, to their best, and (as they call them) sincere endeavors. In all such instances it may be truly said, darkness hath covered the earth, and gross darkness the people; Isa 40:2 . For, for men to profess having fellowship with God, while walking thus in the vanity of their own minds, is the most awful of all self-deceptions!
But what a blessed relief is it, to the soul of a poor self-condemned and self loathing sinner, to be so graciously taught by God the Spirit, in this divine scripture, that if walking in the light, as he is in the light; that is, being enlightened by God the Spirit to see, as God sees, sin to be exceeding sinful; to lay low in the dust before God, under the condemnation of our own mind, convinced that in us, that is, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing; to be daily, hourly, coming to Christ, as the Christ of God; and to him, as a remedy, full and complete, and of God’s own providing for sin; this proves the partnership, fellowship, and interest we have, in all that belongs to Christ, and in which all his redeemed have alike fellowship with God, and with one another; and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth its from all sin. Reader! pause over these wonderful words, and ponder them well. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin. Not the blood of bulls, or goats, or lambs, or sacrifices upon a thousand altars! Not the ordinances, means of grace, services, sacraments, prayers, tears, reforms, repentance, or the whole world of offerings, commutations, or charities, even though men would give the fruit of their body for the sin of the soul! Not these. For so far are they, any of them, or all of them put together, from recommending to the favor of God, that they are offensive to God, unless themselves are cleansed, and perfumed in that blood of Christ, which hath perfumed all heaven! Oh! the preciousness of this scripture. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin! Every word is bigger with importance than all the world! The blood of Jesus Christ. Nothing less than Christ’s blood, can take away sin. And no blood but the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, can take away sin. And none but the Son of God, one with God, and equal with God, can he competent to this vast work. And not only cleanseth from sin, but all sin. Original sin, actual sin, natural sin, spiritual sin, universal sin, yea, all sin. And it cleanseth from all sin, by the infinite dignity of his Person who offered it, the infinite preciousness of the blood he shed for it and the infinite merit, efficacy, and everlasting power of it in that in its cleansing, it cleanseth so as to prevent all future defilements. Oh! the glory of this perfect, full, and finished salvation! It is a peace-speaking blood; Heb 12:24 , a soul-cleansing, sweet smelling blood; Eph 5:2 , a full redeeming blood, for in it we have redemption of sins according to the riches of his grace; Eph 1:7 . And neither the powers of hell, nor the remains of sin in our own nature, can bring anything to counteract its efficacy, in the souls that have been cleansed by it. And the Church here on earth, which, through the leadings of God the Holy Ghost, are come to the blood of sprinkling, as well as the Church in heaven, have all the same divine cleansing. The company John saw around the throne, were samples of the whole Church; who had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; Rev 7:14 . Reader! write down this blessed scripture for hourly use. Yea, beg of God the Holy Ghost to indent it with his living engraving signet, in the tablet of thine heart: The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin!
I will not detain the Reader longer than is absolutely necessary, in observations on what follows. But the verses are too important to be hastily passed by. John, under the authority of the Holy Ghost, having told the Church, that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin; though he knew the Church is thereby cleansed from all sin, so that its guilt and filth shall no longer condemn; yet, by what he immediately adds, he plainly shews us, that the bodies of the saints are still the subjects of sin; neither will they be ever free from sin, until they drop into the grave, and return to corruption. If we say (saith John) that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Now here is opened to us an interesting subject, which, if duly studied, under God the Spirit’s teaching, explains to every child of God the blessedness of being cleansed from all sin in Christ; while yet the best of men still groan under the consciousness of in-dwelling corruption.
When a child of God is first awakened from sin, and regenerated by the Holy Ghost, and under his divine teachings, and quickening influences, he is brought to a sense of his lost estate by nature, and to a heartfelt knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ by grace; he feels a blessedness in what the Apostle here saith, under the authority of the Holy Ghost, that he hath fellowship with God in Christ, and that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin. But, in the midst of this soul-reviving truth, he feels, and groans under the daily workings of sin in his body, which he discovers to be virtually all sin. He would do good, but he finds evil present with him. He delights in the law of God, after the inward man; but he sees another law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin, which is in his members. The child of God ponders these things with the most poignant distress of soul; and, until they are explained to him by God the Holy Ghost himself, he never can discover a full and satisfying account.
As an humble means in the Lord’s hand, I have, in several parts of this Poor Man’s Commentary, (see particularly 2Th 2:13 ) endeavored, and wholly on scriptural grounds to shew, that grace, when renewing the soul, makes no alteration upon the body. The body is wholly a mass of flesh and blood, and bones and arteries. It remains, therefore still carnal. All its pursuits, and desires, and affections, and appetites, are suited to its nature, which is daily tending to corruption. So that grace makes no change in this part of our nature, neither was it ever intended. The original sentence at the fall must be executed. Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return; Gen 3:19 . Hence it is to be sown at death a natural body, as it was first formed in the Adam-nature of our creation, but by virtue of our redemption by Christ it will be raised at the resurrection, a spiritual body. This is to form the triumphs of Christ, in raising our vile bodies, to be then fashioned like unto his glorious body. This is what the Apostle calls the redemption of our body, and which they who have the first fruits of the Spirit wait for; Rom 8:23 . But in the mean time, a corrupt, sinful body, whose whole tendencies are corrupt, cannot but be in opposition to the renewed part of the child of God, who by regeneration is wholly spiritual, being quickened, which was before dead in trespasses and sins. It is no wonder, therefore, that in a constant daily warfare between such opposite principles, the child of God should go mourning. How shall it otherwise be, when a man’s own body is everlastingly opposing his own soul? the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit lusting against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would; Gal 5:17 .
Reader! if this subject be well studied, under the teachings of the Holy Ghost, and in the lessons practically taken from the plague of a man’s own heart; it would tend to clear up the point upon true scriptural evidence, and, under grace, enable a child of God to extract much good from the seeming evil. It would shew him, more and more, his own unworthiness before God, hide all pharisaical pride from his eyes, keep open a constant spring of true sorrow for sin, in making him loathe himself in his own sight; and, above all, endear Christ in the glories of his Person, blood, and righteousness, as the sole cause of salvation. But if men, unauthorized by scripture, untaught of God, will presume to be wise above what is written, and contend, that regeneration renews but in part, and that it is a work wrought alike in soul and body; that there is a progressive holiness and sanctification in the whole man; (though if the advocates for this doctrine would honestly confess, what their daily experience cannot but teach them, that they themselves are living witnesses against what they advance;) I say, it is not to be wondered at, that persons of this complexion are always hanging at an uncertainty, as to the condition of their spiritual state before God. For they are building up, in their own strength, a supposed holiness of their own, which is like erecting an house upon the mud, where there can be no foundation. And, as their whole life is at the best but a peradventure; at a peradventure they live and die.
I must beg the Reader’s attention to another very sweet and interesting point, which the Holy Ghost hath here dwelt upon, by his servant John. If we confess our sins, (saith John,) he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Is God’s faithfulness and justice concerned to forgive the sins of his people on their confession of them? Yes! for having received an equivalent payment, yea, more than an equivalent, in the death of Christ; the faithfulness and justice of God are both engaged, in Covenant engagements, to discharge the Principal Debtor, now the Surety hath made him free. And in the pardon of all Christ’s redeemed ones, the Lord remembers, and fulfils his everlasting Covenant; Isa 49:9 ; Zec 9:11 . And the confession of sins in the pardoned, is not the cause of pardon, but the effect, This will always follow, where the grace of God brings salvation.
Moreover, it is among the precious testimonies of our enjoying communion with God, that we confess our sins before him. He that hath most communion an d fellowship with God will be most open and communicative. It is with God’s friendship in this particular, as it is with man’s: the more we love a man, the more we delight to unbosom ourselves to him. So with God in Christ, the more the Lord hath our confidence, the more we shall find grace to unfold to him, what we feel by reason of sin. Nay, as our sins and transgressions are all against God, the more sensibly we shall feel our love to him, the more we shall feel hurt at offending him. And, therefore, none will be so ready to rip open the soul before God, as that soul who loves God most, and dreads to do anything so as to be shy before him. And, as we know, that the Lord knows all our secret sins, which are in the light of his countenance, before we can inform him: so we also know, that so gracious is our God, that he hath pardoned them before we have confessed them, and before we called for mercy, he hath answered; Isa 65:24 . Oh! what a thought to comfort us. None but God’s friendship could admit a friendship like ours! His love, not our deservings, becomes the standard of his favor. Hence, our communion with him, is kept up on our part, in confessing our sins. And on his part, in pardoning them in Jesus.
I will not dwell upon the last verse in this Chapter, though I must not wholly pass it by. If we say that we have not sinned! Who among the sons of Adam will, or can say this? Original sin, actual sin, sins of omission and commission; all sin, and come short of the glory of God. To deny this, must argue a state of blindness indeed, which no truly regenerated child of God can be in! But I add no more.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Ministry of Light
1Jn 1:5-10
Light is not only, as we have already said, distance, as suggesting the ideas of largeness and liberty: light is also revelation. It shows a thousand things we could not have seen, but for the very degree of its intensity. A little light is a little revelation, a great light is a great disclosure; the light seems to create what it only displays. We point out to one another, as we stand in the valley, objects of beauty on the hill-top; perhaps these objects of beauty are quite little shrubs, but how well-defined they are against the silvery sky! how clear, how almost eloquent! it seems as if presently they might have something to say to us, returning our admiration with some words of grateful recognition. Even a grassblade looks more beautiful in a high light than it ever could look in twilight; we seem to see its green blood running all through its wondrous economy. The more light there is, the more knowledge, the more truth, the larger, clearer recognition and realisation, of things innermost and things most precious. What we want is more light. Persons will say, We do not want novelty. That is perfectly so, but light makes no novelty in any sense of frivolousness or mere experiment; light reveals, shows things that have been there all the time, and we never saw them because the light was never sufficiently intense and glorious. So with Bible-reading. Many a man sees things in the Bible which other people do not see, simply because he lives in a larger, truer light. It is difficult for twilight to believe in noonday. You cannot persuade morning twilight that it will grow into noontide glory; nor can you persuade evening twilight that but a few hours ago the whole heaven was dazzlingly effulgent So there are some persons you cannot persuade in relation to the larger light which other readers possess. Hence they call those readers novelists, dreamers, heretics; persons who want to be wise above that which is written. Impossible! What is written? Yes, that is the question. What is written to the blind man? Nothing. What is written to the man of imperfect sight? Just what he can see. What is written to those eagle eyes that wander through eternity? God, all love and truth and light and wisdom. We should rejoice in the larger, keener sight of other men; we should call them our better brothers, our elders, teachers, friends, companions with an interval, but companions with no interval in the matter of true sympathy: thus we should have great teaching, wide, varied teaching, and instead of finding fault with one another for variety of sight and variety of revelation, we should claim all good and true teachers as our helpers in the faith, as angels and messengers of heaven.
Light is not only distance, and revelation; light is welcome, in the sense of offered hospitality. See how the people go out when the sun shines! Why these crowds upon the thoroughfare? They are obeying the invitation of the sun kind, hospitable, father-mother sun. He calls everybody to his bounty. They are not all rich people who are going out in the sunlight; they are not all driving forth in gilded and crested chariots to see the sun: there are little children, poor, ill-clad, but still under a strange fascination. Whither go ye, little feet? What is the answer? The answer is perhaps incoherent or partially beside the mark, yet in it there is a hiding of the light of the sun: they are going out to see the light, to feel the warmth, to hear the birds, to cull the flower, to splash in the river: it all means that the ministry of light is acting upon them and calling them to the larger table spread by hands unseen. See! there is a threatening of thunder, there is a great cloud hastening up from the west: why are the parks being emptied? why are the gates being sought by eager crowds? Because of the darkness. The light took all the throng away to sit in God’s great parlour of grass, his great drawing-room of shaded forests; but the darkness, the gathering rain-clouds, the threatening storm, these sent the people away to smaller hospitality, and to what they sometimes foolishly imagine to be securer protection. Light is welcome. Light says, Come away: an hour of my ministry will make you young again; come into the broad sanctuary; see what God has done; here is the summer God, he will not frighten you like the God of freezing, chilling winter: come! the Spirit and the Bride of light say, Come; whosoever will, let him come. He will come to bounty, to release, to larger life.
Light is not only distance, revelation, welcome; light is joy. Who could be really sorrowful in summer light? It seems to say to the heart, Why art thou cast down, O child of the Infinite, offspring of eternity, kin of God? why this downness of soul? thou shouldst rejoice and be glad and sing for very delight of heart. Men who are not musical can hardly forbear a little strain in the light. They shape their lips as if they meant to utter something in tune, and if they searched into the reason of that action they would find it was the result of the ministry of light. Putting all these considerations together they help us to understand a little so little of our Father in heaven, who has sent us this message concerning himself God is light, and in him is no darkness at all: he is all glory, all splendour; he lives in light, nay, the light is but the robe which he throws around himself to give somewhat of definiteness and figure to that which otherwise would be without shape and palpability. The Bible is full of light. All truth lives in light. All real fearlessness of imagination and soul, conscience and understanding, calls out for more light. God is the giver of light. Christians themselves are secondarily lights of the world. Jesus said, speaking of himself, “I am the light of the world,” and on another occasion, speaking of the disciples and to them, he said, “Ye are the light of the world”; and the apostles, urging and exhorting Christians to realise the breadth and grandeur of their vocation, call upon them to walk, not as children of the darkness, but as children of the light and of the day, sons of the morning, children of the midday. All these considerations should destroy slavish fear in relation to God. They should bring to our hearts a sense of vastness, of revelation, and of welcome, and of hope, and of joy. God is not a frown; God is not a living and penetrating rebuke: God is light, God is love; his mercy endureth for ever. The blackest sinner may stand before him, and with bent head may cry, God be merciful to me! a prayer to which he never said No, when it went up from a ruined heart.
This would be meditation or contemplation worthy to be classed with the highest sentimentality. The great difficulty with the Bible is that we are no sooner into its poetry than we are out of it and into its morality. If the Bible had been all poetry it would have had few hostile critics. The morality of the Bible vexes men. So long as the Bible condenses itself into the twenty-third Psalm certainly there is nothing like it for sweetness, comfort, minor tone, and soothing music we could read it again and again with growing passion of sympathy and delight; but the Bible soon takes us out of that kind of Psalm and says to us, To-day we will try your scales. Then the Bible loses popularity. To-day we will go home and see how you behave yourself in your own family. Then the Bible loses a large following. To-day we will go into heart analysis, we will search into motives, we will try the purposes of the soul in the light of heaven: we will test all action in presence of the agony of the Cross. Then men go away: and the Bible says to them, Will ye also go away? The Bible will have every debt discharged, every duty fulfilled; it will have nothing to do with dishonesty, or indolence, or self-consideration; meanness, conceit, greediness: the Bible will have us all like God; and God is light; and light is revelation, welcome, joy, bounty. Light is always giving itself away, and yet the fountain thereof remains unshorn or undivested of a single beam. The Apostle therefore will have us walk in the light.
“If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.” By “darkness” in this passage understand evil, If we say that we have fellowship with God, who is light, and yet walk in darkness, which is evil, we contradict ourselves; not in the sense of telling a momentary lie, but in the sense of revealing the essence and nature of our heart: for we do not the truth, and the truth is not in us. Observe, we are not startled into a slip of the tongue, we simply reveal ourselves, and say we want a sublime theology, if its sublimity may only be used as a cloak for an imperfect morality. God will not have this, for God is light; Christ will not have this, for Christ is light the light of the world, the light of holiness, the very glory of heaven, superseding the sun, of which there is no need where he sits as King.
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another”: we enter into the spirit of trust, mutual confidence, social regard; we are united by bonds as indissoluble as they are tender and helpful. This is the secret of true society; this is the basis on which a lasting commonwealth rests. We have not a compact as between men in regions where language changes, and where covenants will bear one construction under one set of criticisms and another under a different set; we are first united in God, then social union becomes consequential, fluent, easy. These are the two commandments: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God will all thy soul: and the second, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. You could not invert the commandments; you cannot start with a true love of neighbourliness; if neighbourliness is to be more than a compromise, a weak and uncertain concession, it must be founded upon eternal principles, and notably upon the principle that God has all the heart’s love, and that the greater love includes the less. Why seek let me ask once more to scale the heavens with a ladder? Why try to do an action so easily convicted of frivolity and impossibility?
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” The Apostle here seems to anticipate the theory that sin is an invented term; that sin simply refers, in the estimation of some critics, to a degree of colour; so sinfulness is a state of the character, being off-colour. You take up a diamond and say it is large, and the price is very greatly reduced because the diamond is a little off-colour; had it been of a pure white, it would have been worth ten times the money: sinfulness, in the estimation of such persons, is a lapse of conduct, a momentary lapse, so that a man may presently recover himself, and walk on as if nothing had happened. Where that theory of sin lives in the mind the gospel is of necessity foolishness, because the remedy is so much greater than the disease; the idea of proportion as between a dying God and a soul that has made a momentary slip is infinite and incredible. The idea of sin in the Bible is that it is the abominable thing which God hateth; it is not being off-colour but off-life, off-truth, away from holiness and all moral beauty. In the estimation of the Bible sin is soul-poverty, soul-helplessness, soul-ruin. Now there is a proportion between the gospel and this condition of affairs: where sin has ruined the soul, the soul is unable to recover itself, and when there is no eye to pity and no arm to save, God’s eye is filled with tears and God’s almightiness is put out in an act of salvation. So we have no longer to deal with ourselves as if we were the victims of the fallacy that we have no sin, or no sin worthy of the name, no sin that goes really into the root and core of things. So long as a man is in that state, he will be a flippant self-excusant, he will be able to manage his own moral affairs, he will have no need of the gospel: but when a man says, “I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son,” then he needs all Calvary.
Supposing a man to have this consciousness, what is his overt act to be? His overt act is to be an act of confession: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” There must be no keeping back. We must plainly say to ourselves what we have done; we must write down in blackest ink everything we have done that is wrong. By no euphemism, by no crafty ambiguity of expression, are we to avoid the devil that we have created within ourselves. He must be delineated, portrayed, graphically, lineally, appallingly; and when we see the hideous sight we must say, My trangression is ever before me: God be merciful to me a sinner! I wronged that life, I slew that beauty, I burked that obligation, I told that huge lie, I was a party to that subtle craftiness, I told lies to myself, and I created a noise, that in the tumult I might escape the twinge and agony of conscience: God be merciful to me a sinner! When a man comes into that state of mind he knows whether he needs the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, or not, and he hears no word so large, so tender, so musical, as “The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth from all sin”: then these words are taken out of the hands of the grammarian and the critic, and even the theologian, and become a great, sweet, mighty gospel, filling the whole life, and making the heart glad as with descending heaven.
“If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” God therefore stands before us as the accuser; it is God who has discovered the sin, it is the Lord who has said, This is wrong, you ought not to have done this. It is not an offence that can be expunged, it is a wound that can only be healed by the medicament of blood.
So the great story stands; so the wondrous music of gospel and tragedy rolls on; so the river of God masses through all the tangled forests and deep valleys and mysterious places of this human life. This is a glorious gospel. It does not trim or compromise or deal superficially with the great questions of life; it gets down into deepest experience, into bitterest consciousness. This is the everlasting gospel. If any man will turn away from it he takes with him his own soul, and must not invoke me at the last as one who dealt falsely with him and whispered pleasant things to him when I ought to have told him burning, scalding truths. Nor will I allow this to be the last word. If we have entered into this mystery of life and this scheme of Divine forgiveness we are to prove it by our conduct, by love and charity, by pureness and nobleness of soul. If we say that we had fellowship with God, and yet our conduct is as bad as it can be, John says we are “liars.” That is a hard word to use, and John was not given to the use of hard words when he was called to the discharge of duty, but when duty called upon him to be plain no man could be so definite. Here then we stand. It is possible for men who profess Christianity to be liars. Which would you rather be, an infidel or a liar a speculative infidel, a man who says, “I wish I could see as you do, but I really cannot,” or a man who says, “I see the truth, I admire it speculatively, but I am the servant of lies, the slave of darkness”? Behold, I set before you this day life and death. Choose ye. The choice is yours, and yours must be the destiny.
Prayer
Almighty God, thou are training us for thyself day by day, by ministries we do not fully understand, yet the benefits of which are shed abroad in our hearts, and are found again in our conduct. The Lord will work according to his own way, and none may say unto the Eternal, This is right, or, This is wise. The will of the Lord be done. If our school be on the mountain top, so be it; we shall enjoy the opening heavens, the fresh winds that blow from the skies, and the light will be plentiful: if our school be in the deep valley where we have to wait long for the light, a cold dreary school, where the learning is very difficult, and the teaching is not easy to be understood, the will of the Lord be done; the valley is the Lord’s as is also the top of the hill, and if so be the Lord himself will teach us, all shall be well at the latter end, we shall be prepared to sing the song of the redeemed in fuller and nobler tones. We bless thee for thy providence; it is kind, sweet, continuous: behold, thou knowest what we need, and when it is best for us to receive it. Thou dost turn our notions upside down, we cannot tell when thou wilt come; it is enough for us to know that come thou wilt, and that thou art ever coming, if we did but know the way of the Lord. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly: come in any one of thy chariots, the thunder or the tempest; we would, if we might speak to thee, ask thee to come as a still small voice, for we are weary, and our hearts are often ill at ease. We have seen thee in the daytime, a great brightness; we have known thy nearness in the night season, because of a blessing that comforted the heart, and because in the darkness we have seen somewhat of the light that lies farthest away. Thou hast brought us up from being little children, thou hast never forsaken us; sometimes we thought thou hadst gone a long way from us, and lo, thou wert watching us in the very nearest shadow, and when we were about to fall thou didst guard us from stumbling, and in the darkness thou didst find for us a sanctuary. Thou hast kept our eyes from tears, our feet from falling, our soul from death; and amid all the controversies of the time thou hast blessed us with peace imperturbable, the very peace of God which passeth understanding. We bless thee that, if thou thyself art beyond understanding, so are thy gifts; we cannot understand thy peace which we have in our own hearts: how then can we understand the Giver of that peace? The joy thou dost create within us is joy unspeakable: how then can we tell the mystery of thy being and explain our faith in God? We bless thee for a silent theology, we rejoice in a worldless trust, we love to live in the region where there is no speech. Grant unto us daily wisdom for daily need; may we be anxious about this moment and not the next; at all times may we be found resting in the Lord and waiting patiently for him, that we may abound in all these virtues and graces: but what pray we for but for a double portion of thy Holy Spirit, but for a deeper acquaintance with the very heart of the Son of God who loved us, and gave himself for us? Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
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.
Ver. 5. That God is light ] He is , light essential, and they that walk with him must be as so many crystal glasses with a light in the midst; for can two walk together, and they not be agreed? Amo 3:3 . That was a devilish sarcasm of the Manichees, that God (till he had created light) dwelt in darkness, as if God were not eternal light, and dwelt in light unapproachable,1Ti 6:161Ti 6:16 . But what madmen were the Carpocratian heretics, who taught (even in St John’s days, as Epiphanius testifieth) that men must sin, and do the will of the devils; otherwise they could not enter into heaven! These might well be some of those Antichrists he complaineth of1Jn 4:31Jn 4:3 ; 1Jn 4:6 , and of those libertines and liars he here argueth against.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
5 .] In each of these divisions, the first verse contains the ground-tone of the whole. And so here GOD IS LIGHT. And ( is not a sequence on what goes before ( igitur , Beza) any further than it refers back by the words to above. It serves to introduce the new subject) the message (De Wette supposes to be a correction from the more difficult . But as Dsterdieck has well argued, the great manuscript authority for ., combined with the fact that in ch. 1Jn 3:11 . is also read, and with this also, that . is a very common word in the N. T., whereas , occurs only in these two places, precludes De W.’s supposition. The correction from to . was very obvious from ch. 1Jn 2:25 , which also suggested transposing to . .) which we have heard from Him (viz. from Christ), and announce to you (“quod filius annunciavit a patre, hoc apostolus acceptum a filio renunciat nobis.” Erasm. Dsterd. remarks that St. John seems every where to observe the distinction between – and – , to announce and to declare . And to this distinction here exactly corresponds (as Bengel, “qu in ore Christi fuit , eam Apostoli : nam ab ipso acceptam reddunt et propagant”); whereas , which means in the N. T. nothing but “ promise ” (neither in 2Ti 1:1 , nor in Act 23:21 has it any other sense; see note on the latter place), seems to carry no meaning here, and has, as above, evidently crept in from ch. 1Jn 2:25 ), is this ( predicate, as always in such sentences): that God is light (not, as Luther, “a light:” is purely predicative, indicating the essence of God: just as when it is said in ch. 1Jn 4:8 , . There it is true the predicative is purely ethical, and thus literal, when used of God who is a Spirit, whereas here, being a material, not an ethical object, some amount of figurative meaning must be conceded. But of all material objects, light is that which most easily passes into an ethical predicative without even the process, in our thought, of interpretation. It unites in itself purity and clearness and beauty and glory, as no other material object does: it is the condition of all material life and growth and joy. And the application to God of such a predicative requires no transference. He is Light, and the Fountain of light material and light ethical. In the one world, darkness is the absence of light: in the other, darkness, untruthfulness, deceit, falsehood, is the absence of God. They who are in communion with God, and walk with God, are of the light, and walk in the light), and there is not in Him any darkness at all (it is according to the manner of St. John, to strengthen an affirmation by the emphatic negation of its opposite; cf. 1Jn 1:8 ; ch. 1Jn 2:4 ; 1Jn 2:10 ; 1Jn 2:27 , &c. Of the ethical darkness here denied, the Schol. says, , , , . The strengthens the negative “no, not even one speck.” The Greek expositors ask the question respecting this message, ; and answer it, , . Their reply is right, but their reference to those words of our Lord is wrong. It was : viz. from the whole revelation, in doings and sufferings and sayings, of Him who was the of the Father. With that revelation those His words admirably and exactly coincided: but they were not the source of the message, referring as they did specially to Himself, and not directly to the Father. In His whole life on earth, and in the testimony of His Spirit, . So that this message is the result of the whole complex of 1Jn 1:1 ).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
5 2:28 .] FIRST PART OF THE EPISTLE: the message, that, if we would have communion with Him who is Light, we must walk in light, keeping His commandments . See the discussion on the division of the Epistle, in the Prolegomena.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Jn 1:5-10 . The Message of the Incarnation and the Duty which it brings. “And this is the message which we have heard from Him and are announcing to you, that God is light, and darkness in Him there is none. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and be walking in the darkness, we lie and are not doing the Truth; but if we be walking in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from every sin. If we say that we have not sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the Truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, faithful is He and righteous to forgive us the sins and cleanse us from every unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we are making Him a liar and His Word is not in us.”
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1Jn 1:5 . in N.T. only here and 1Jn 3:2 . could only mean “promise” ( cf. 1Jn 2:25 ). and both mean “announce,” the former with reference to the source of the message ( ) and the latter to its destination. “ Quod Filius annunciavit, renunciat apostolus ” (Haupt). : the double negative makes a stronger negative ( cf. Luk 23:53 ). The manifestation of God in Christ was to those who beheld it a splendid glory, the breaking of a great light into the darkness of a sinful and sorrowful world. Cf. Mat 4:14-16 . Light means warmth, health, sight, in a word “life” ( cf. 1Jn 1:2 ).
Light is given that we may “walk in it” and enjoy its blessings. It is thus that the Gospel attains its end and fulfils its purpose in us. The Apostle now proceeds to warn his readers against two heresies which ignored this condition of heavenly fellowship.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Jn 1:5 to 1Jn 2:2
5This 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. 6If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. 1Jn 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
1Jn 1:5 “the message we have heard” The pronoun “we” refers to John and the other eyewitness hearers and followers of Jesus during His earthly life. John directly speaks to his readers (“you”) in 1Jn 2:1, probably referring to the churches of Asia Minor.
The verb “heard” is a perfect active indicative. This reflects the vivid recurrent term relating to the physical senses in 1Jn 1:1-4. In a sense this is the Apostle John affirming his personal presence at Jesus’ teaching sessions. John is passing on Jesus’ revelations, not his own! It is even possible that the Gospels’ unique “I Am” statements were John’s remembrance of Jesus’ private teachings.
“from Him” “From Him” is the only pronoun in the entire section of 1Jn 1:5 to 1Jn 2:2 which refers to Jesus. Jesus came to reveal the Father (cf. Joh 1:18). Theologically speaking, Jesus came for three purposes.
1. to reveal the Father (cf. 1Jn 1:5)
2. to give believers an example to follow (cf. 1Jn 1:7)
3. to die on sinful mankind’s behalf (cf. 1Jn 1:7; 1Jn 2:2)
“God is Light” There is no article. This is emphasizing the revelatory and ethical aspects of God’s nature (cf. Psa 27:1; Isa 60:20; Mic 7:8; 1Ti 6:16; Jas 1:17). The Gnostic false teachers asserted that light referred to knowledge, but John asserts that it refers also to ethical purity. “Light” and “dark” were common terms (an ethical dualism using these terms is also found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and early Gnosticism). It related to the dualism between good and evil (i.e., Joh 1:5; Joh 8:12; Joh 12:46) and possibly the Gnostic dualism of spirit versus matter. This is one of John’s simple yet profoundly theological assertions about deity. The others are (1) “God is love” (cf. 1Jn 4:8; 1Jn 4:16) and (2) “God is spirit” (cf. Joh 4:24). God’s family, like Jesus (cf. Joh 8:12; Joh 9:5), should reflect His character (cf. Mat 5:14). This changed and changing life of love, forgiveness, and purity is one of the evidences of a true conversion.
“in Him there is no darkness at all” This is a double negative for emphasis. It is an assertion of the unchanging holy character of God (cf. 1Ti 6:16; Jas 1:17; Psa 102:27; Mal 3:6).
1Jn 1:6 “If we say” This is the first of several third class conditional sentences which refer to the claims of false teachers (cf. 1Jn 1:8; 1Jn 1:10; 1Jn 2:4; 1Jn 2:6; 1Jn 2:9). These statements are the only way to identify the assertions of the false teachers. They appear to be early (incipient) Gnostics.
The literary technique of a supposed objector is called diatribe. It was a way of presenting truth in a question/answer format. It can be clearly seen in Malachi (cf. Mal 1:2; Mal 1:6-7; Mal 1:12; Mal 2:14; Mal 2:17; Mal 3:7; Mal 3:14) and in Romans (cf. Rom 2:3; Rom 2:17; Rom 2:21-23; Rom 3:1; Rom 3:3; Rom 3:7-9; Rom 3:31; Rom 4:1; Rom 6:1; Rom 7:7).
“we have fellowship with Him” The heretics claimed that fellowship was based on knowledge only. This was an aspect of Greek philosophy from Plato. However, John asserts that Christians must live Christlike lives (cf. 1Jn 1:7; Lev 19:2; Lev 20:7; Mat 5:48).
“yet walk in the darkness” “Walk” is a present active subjunctive. This is a biblical metaphor expressing a moral lifestyle (cf. Eph 4:1; Eph 4:17; Eph 5:2; Eph 5:15). God is light with no darkness. His children should be like Him (cf. Mat 5:48).
“we lie and do not practice the truth” These are both present tense verbs. John calls several types of religious people liars (cf. 1Jn 1:10; 1Jn 2:4; 1Jn 2:22; 1Jn 4:20; Isa 29:13). Lifestyle actions truly reveal the heart (cf. Matthew 7). See Special Topic: Truth in John’s Writings at Joh 6:55.
1Jn 1:7 “but if we walk in the Light” This is another present tense which emphasizes continuing action. “Walk” is a NT metaphor for the Christian life (i.e., Eph 4:1; Eph 4:17; Eph 5:2; Eph 5:15).
Notice how often “walk” and present tense verbs are related to the Christian life. Truth is something we live, not just something we know! Truth is a key concept in John. See Special Topics at Joh 6:55; Joh 17:3.
“as He Himself is in the light” Believers are to think and live like God (cf. Mat 5:48). We are to reflect His character to a lost world. Salvation is the restoration of the image of God in mankind (i.e., Gen 1:26-27), damaged in the fall of Genesis 3.
“we have fellowship with one another” The term “fellowship” is the Greek term koinnia, which means a joint participation between two persons (see Special Topic at 1Jn 1:3). Christianity is based on believers sharing Jesus’ life. If we accept His life in forgiveness, we must accept His ministry of love (cf. 1Jn 3:16). Knowing God is not abstract truth, but initiates fellowship and godly living. The goal of Christianity is not only heaven when we die, but Christlikeness now. The Gnostic heretics had a tendency toward exclusivism. However, when one is rightly related with God, he will be rightly related to his fellow Christian. Lack of love toward other Christians is a glaring sign of a problem with our relationship with God (cf. 1Jn 4:20-21 and also Mat 5:7; Mat 6:14-15; Mat 18:21-35)
“the blood of Jesus” This refers to the sacrificial death of Christ (cf. Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12; Mar 10:45; 2Co 5:21). It is very similar to 1Jn 2:2, “the atoning sacrifice (propitiation) for our sins.” This is the thrust of John the Baptist’s “behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (cf. Joh 1:29). The innocent died on behalf of the guilty!
The early Gnostics denied Jesus’ true humanity. John’s use of “blood” reinforces Jesus’ true humanity.
There is a Greek manuscript variable related to the name.
1. Jesus – NASB, NRSV, NJB, REB, NET
2. Christ – MSS , B, C
3. Jesus Christ – NKJV
This is one example used by Bart D. Ehrman, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, p. 153, to show how ancient scribes tried to make the text more specific to refute the current heretics. Option #3 was an attempt to mediate the MSS variation.
“cleanses us from all sin” This is a present active indicative. The term “sin” is singular with no article. This implies every kind of sin. Notice this verse is not focusing on a one-time cleansing (salvation, 1Jn 1:7), but an ongoing cleansing (the Christian life, 1Jn 1:9). Both are part of the Christian experience (cf. Joh 13:10).
1Jn 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin” This is another third class conditional sentence. Sin is a spiritual reality in a fallen world, even for believers (cf. Romans 7). John’s Gospel addresses this issue often (cf. Joh 9:41; Joh 15:22; Joh 15:24; Joh 19:11). This verse rejects all ancient and modern claims that deny individual moral responsibility.
“we are deceiving ourselves” This Greek phrase refers to personal, willful rejection of truth, not ignorance.
“the truth is not in us” The way to acceptance by a Holy God is not denial, but recognition of our sin and acceptance of His provision in Christ (cf. Rom 3:21-31). “The truth” can refer to the message about Jesus or the person of Jesus (cf. Joh 14:6). See Special Topics at Joh 6:55; Joh 17:3.
1Jn 1:8-9 “If” These are both third class conditional sentences which means potential action.
1Jn 1:9 “confess” This is a compound Greek term from “to speak” and “the same.” Believers continue to agree with God that they have violated His holiness (cf. Rom 3:23). It is present tense, which implies ongoing action. Confession implies
1. a specific naming of sins (1Jn 1:9)
2. a public admitting of sins (cf. Mat 10:32; Jas 5:16)
3. a turning from specific sins (cf. Mat 3:6; Mar 1:5; Act 19:18; Jas 5:16)
1 John uses this term quite often (cf. 1Jn 1:9; 1Jn 4:2-3; 1Jn 4:15; 2Jn 1:7). Jesus’ death is the means of forgiveness, but sinful mankind must respond and continue to respond in faith to be saved (cf. Joh 1:12; Joh 3:16). See Special Topic: Confession at Joh 9:22-23.
“our sins” Notice the plural. This refers to specific acts of sin.
“He is faithful” This refers to God the Father (cf. Deu 7:9; Deu 32:4; Psa 36:5; Psa 40:10; Psa 89:1-2; Psa 89:5; Psa 89:8; Psa 92:2; Psa 119:90; Isa 49:7; Rom 3:3; 1Co 1:9; 1Co 10:13; 2Co 1:18; 1Th 5:24; 2Ti 2:13). God the Father’s unchanging, merciful, faithful character is our surest hope! This phrase accentuates God’s faithfulness to His Word (cf. Heb 10:23; Heb 11:11). This may also refer to God’s New Covenant promise made in Jer 31:34, which promised the forgiveness of sins.
“and righteous” This term is unusual in a context related to a holy God freely pardoning unholy people. However, this is theologically accurate because God takes our sins seriously, yet He has provided the means for our forgiveness in the substitutionary death of Christ (cf. Rom 3:21-31). See Special Topic at 1Jn 2:29.
“forgive . . . cleanse” These are both aorist active subjunctives. These two terms are synonymous in this context; they refer both to the salvation of the lost and to the ongoing cleansing necessary for fellowship with God (cf. Isa 1:18; Isa 38:17; Isa 43:25; Isa 44:22; Psa 103:3; Psa 103:11-13; Mic 7:19). The false teachers who denied the gospel, needed salvation. Believers who continue to commit acts of sin need restoration of fellowship. John seems to address the first group implicitly and the second explicitly.
1Jn 1:10 “If we say” See note at 1Jn 1:6.
“we have not sinned” This is a perfect active indicative which implies that one has never sinned in the past nor in the present. The term “sinned” is singular and refers to sin in general. The Greek term means “to miss the mark.” This means that sin is both the commission and the omission of the things revealed in God’s Word. The false teachers claimed salvation was related only to knowledge, not to life.
“we make Him a liar” The gospel is based on the sinfulness of all mankind (cf. Rom 3:9-18; Rom 3:23; Rom 5:1; Rom 11:32). Either God (cf. Rom 3:4) or those who claim sinlessness, is lying.
“His word is not in us” This involves the dual aspect of the term “logos,” both as a message and a person (cf. 1Jn 1:1; 1Jn 1:8; Joh 14:6). John often refers to this as “truth.”
1Jn 2:1 “My little children” John uses two different diminutive terms for “children” in 1 John.
1. teknion (cf. 1Jn 2:1; 1Jn 2:12; 1Jn 2:28; 1Jn 3:7; 1Jn 3:18; 1Jn 4:4; 1Jn 5:21; Joh 13:33)
2. paidion (cf. 1Jn 2:14; 1Jn 2:18)
They are synonymous with no intended theological distinctives. These affectionate terms probably come from John’s advanced age at the time of the writing.
Jesus used the term “children” to refer to disciples in Joh 13:33.
“I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin” This is an aorist active subjunctive. John is making a definite distinction between present tense, an ongoing habitual lifestyle of sinning (cf. 1Jn 3:6; 1Jn 3:9) and individual acts of sin committed by struggling and tempted Christians. He is trying to bring a balance between the two extremes of
1. taking sin too lightly (cf. Rom 6:1; 1Jn 1:8-10; 1Jn 3:6-9; 1Jn 5:16)
2. Christian harshness and brittleness over personal sins
These two extremes probably reflect two different schools of Gnostic teachings. One group felt that salvation was an intellectual matter; it did not matter how one lived because the body was evil. The other group of Gnostics also believed the body was evil and, therefore had to be limited in its desires.
“And if anyone sins” This is a third class conditional sentence which speaks of potential action. Even Christians sin (cf. Romans 7).
“we have an Advocate with the Father” This is a present active indicative which refers to Jesus’ ongoing intercession as our heavenly Advocate (parakltos). This was a legal term for a defense lawyer or “one called alongside to help” (from para, beside and kale, to call). It is used in the upper room discourse in the Gospel of John, for the Holy Spirit, our earthly, indwelling advocate (cf. Joh 14:16; Joh 14:26; Joh 15:26; Joh 16:7). However, this is the only use of the term for Jesus (although it is implied in Joh 14:16; Rom 8:34; Heb 4:14-16; Heb 7:25; Heb 9:24). Paul used this same concept for the intercessory work of Christ in Rom 8:34. In this same passage he also speaks of the intercession of the Holy Spirit in Rom 8:26. We have an Advocate in heaven (Jesus) and an Advocate within (the Spirit), both of whom the loving Father sent on His behalf.
“Jesus Christ the righteous” This characterization is used of God the Father in 1Jn 1:9. New Testament authors use several literary techniques to assert the deity of Jesus.
1. use titles used for God for Jesus
2. assert actions of God done by Jesus
3. use grammatically parallel phrases referring to both (objects of verbs or prepositions)
It speaks of the sinlessness (holiness, God likeness) of Christ (cf. 1Jn 3:5; 2Co 5:21; Heb 2:18; Heb 4:15; Heb 7:26; 1Pe 2:22). He was the Father’s means of bringing “righteousness” to a people.
1Jn 2:2
NASB, NKJV”He Himself is the propitiation for our sins”
NRSV”he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins”
TEV”Christ himself is the means by which our sins are forgiven”
NJB, RSV”He is the sacrifice to expiate our sins”
The term hilasmos is used in the Septuagint for the lid of the Ark of the Covenant called the mercy seat or place of atonement. Jesus put Himself in our guilty place before God (cf. 1Jn 4:10; Rom 3:25).
In the Greco-Roman world this word carried the concept of a restoration of fellowship with an estranged deity by means of a price being paid, but the word is not in this sense in the Septuagint (remember the NT authors [except Luke] were Hebrew thinkers, writing in Koine Greek). It was used in the Septuagint and in Heb 9:5 to translate “mercy seat,” which was the lid of the Ark of the Covenant located in the Holy of Holies, the place where atonement was procured on behalf of the nation on the Day of Atonement (cf. Leviticus 16).
This term must be dealt with in a way that does not lessen God’s revulsion to sin, but affirms His positive redemptive attitude toward sinners. A good discussion is found in James Stewart’s A Man in Christ, pp. 214-224. One way to accomplish this is to translate the term so that it reflects God’s work in Christ: “a propitiatory sacrifice” or “with propitiatory power.”
The modern English translations differ on how to understand this sacrificial term. The term “propitiation” implies that Jesus placated the wrath of God (cf. Rom 1:18; Rom 5:9; Eph 5:6; Col 3:6). God’s holiness is offended by mankind’s sin. This is dealt with in the ministry of Jesus (cf. Rom 3:25; 2Co 5:21; Heb 2:17).
Some scholars (i.e., C. H. Dodd) feel that a pagan (Greek) concept (appeasing the anger of a deity) should not be applied to YHWH, therefore, they prefer “expiation” whereby Jesus’ ministry dealt with mankind’s guilt (cf. Joh 1:29; Joh 3:16) before God and not God’s anger against sin. However, both are biblically true.
“for our sins; and not ours only, but also for those of the whole world” This refers to the potential of unlimited atonement (cf. 1Jn 4:14; Joh 1:29; Joh 3:16-17; Joh 12:47; Rom 5:18; 1Ti 4:10; Tit 2:11; Heb 2:9; Heb 7:25). Jesus died for the sin and sins of the whole world (cf. Gen 3:15). The only thing that keeps the whole world from being saved is not sin, but unbelief. However, humans must respond and continue to respond by faith, repentance, obedience, and perseverance!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
This then = And this.
message. Greek. angelia. Only here and 1Jn 3:11.
of = from. App-104. as 1Jn 1:1.
declare. Greek. anangello. See Act 20:27.
God. App-98.
light. App-130.
no . . . at all. Greek. ou oudeis. A double negative. This is the Figure of speech Pleonasm (App-6), as in 1Jn 1:8.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
5-2:28.] FIRST PART OF THE EPISTLE: the message, that, if we would have communion with Him who is Light, we must walk in light, keeping His commandments. See the discussion on the division of the Epistle, in the Prolegomena.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Jn 1:5. ) ch. 1Jn 3:11. The declaration, which relates to the main subject. Neither in the gospel nor in the epistles does John speak of the Gospel by name; but he terms it the testimony, the word, the truth; and here, by a closely resembling sound, , the declaration. That which was in the mouth of Christ , a declaration, the apostles , declare; for they in turn give forth and propagate , the declaration received from Him. It is called the word, ch. 1Jn 2:7.- , from Him) from the Son of God: Joh 1:18.-) The Light of wisdom, love, and glory. What the light is to the natural eye, that God is to the spiritual eye. As he here calls God Light, so ch. 1Jn 2:8, he calls Christ Light.-, darkness) The meaning of this is plain from the opposite.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Jn 1:5-7
1 John 1:5-7
SECTION TWO
GOD IS LIGHT
(1Jn 1:5 to 1Jn 2:28)
CONDITIONS OF FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
(1Jn 1:5-7)
5 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.–Again the apostle cites the sensible evidence which he had of the Lord’s identity, emphasized so strongly in verse 1, as the ground. of his readers’ acceptance of the “mes-sage” which he was announcing, viz., (1) God is light; (2) in him is no darkness at all. This message John and the other apostles had “heard” from “him,” i.e., Christ. The affirmation, “God is light,” is not the same as “God is the light” or “God is a light,” but simply God is light, such is his essence he is of the character of light. The word “light” sums up the divine character on the intellectual side, as “God is love,” similarly describes the fullness of his moral nature. He is the “author” of light (Jas 1:17) its creator (Gen 1:3) he is bathed in perpetual light (1Ti 6:16); and the marvelous light in which Christians are to walk is his (1Pe 2:9). Moreover, “in him is no darkness at all.” “Darkness” is a figure of ignorance, superstition, and sin, as “light” represents truth, purity, and goodness. In this manner, God is contrasted with the heathen deities the worship of which promoted immorality, ungodliness, and gross sin. The devil and his agents are styled “the world rulers of this darkness” (Eph 6:12), and their domain is called “the power of darkness” (Col 1:13). Those formerly enmeshed in the mazes of heathenism were said to have been “once darkness,” but now, as the result of their obedience to the gospel, “light in the Lord.” (Eph 5:8.) Paul gave thanks unto the Father, “who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” (Col 1:12.)
Though there is much darkness in the world, “darkness in him there is none whatsoever.” This statement, in the Greek text, is an exceedingly emphatic one, the two negatives, ouk estin oude-mia, signifying “no, not even one tiny particle!” There is no discoloration, no admixture of darkness in the pure light which streams from the character of God. He is, indeed, “the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning.” (Jas 1:17.)
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:–This verse con-tains a conclusion drawn from premises in the verse preceding. The situation which he assumes is a hypothetical one: Should one say, “I have fellowship with God,” and yet walks in darkness, his words are false, and he does not the truth. “Walk” is a figure of the Christian life, summing up its activities. The Lord said, “I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (Joh 8:12.) To be in fellowship with God, one must walk in the light; he who claims it, yet does not walk therein, sins both in word and in deed. Here, as often elsewhere in the sacred writings, it is made clear that theory and practice in religion are inseparably connected. Truth, properly held, always exhibits itself in obedience. Those who “walk in darkness” are not only sinful in conduct; their dis-position is one of hatred and envy. “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in the darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in the darkness, and walketh in the darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness bath blinded his eyes.” (1Jn 2:9-11.)
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,–The verb “walk” here (ean peripatomen) is present active subjunctive, thus literally, “If we keep on walking in the light . . .” It must be a continuing walk. Moreover, we are to walk in the light in which the Father is. We are in the light only when fellowship with him obtains; and in this light must we remain. It is conditional whether we are in it, but such is his constant habitation. His dwelling is in “light unapproachable.” (1Ti 6:16.) If the element of our daily walk is the same as God’s, “we have fellowship one with another.” “Fellowship” (koinonia) is partnership, joint participation, com-munion. Thus only through fellowship with God is fellowship with the brethren possible. Fellowship with the brethren involves mutual assistance in all the difficulties of life; it includes the bear-ing of one another’s burdens (Gal 6:2), the sharing of all the sorrows and joys which constitute life. “And whether one mem-ber suffereth, all the members suffer with it; or one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof.” (1Co 12:26-27.)
And the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. –This clause is coordinate with “we have fellowship one with an-other,” and is a statement of the means by which it is possible for us to walk in the light. Thus, by walking in the light two results follow: (1) we have fellowship with each other; (2) the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Cleansing efficacy is thus attributed to the blood of Christ. Many important considerations follow from this passage: (a) It is not the mere example of Christ’s dying that accomplishes our salvation; (b) it is not simply the contemplation of his death which delivers us from the guilt of sin; (c) it is not belief in the moral implications of Calvary which pro-duces the blessing; nor (d) faith in the suffering of Christ on the cross. It is the blood, the shed blood of the Son of God, that cleanses us from sin. Moreover, it cleanses from sin, not merely or solely the conscience, but sin (amartias), all sin, whether of thought, word, or deed, rash sins, sins of ignorance, of malice, of omission or commission, sins of the flesh, sins of the disposition, sins of pleasure or of pain, sins of every type and kind committed at any time or place.
“Cleanseth” is from the verb katharizei, in the present tense, thus revealing that it is a constant process, conditioned on our walking in the light. As we thus walk the blood operates to keep us constantly cleansed from the defilement of sin and the condem-nation which attends it. This verse is an exceedingly significant and comprehensive one, in the light of the false doctrines which were in vogue when the Epistle appeared and which it was written to refute. Established beyond reasonable controversy are the following important propositions: (1) the reality of the body and blood of Jesus; (2) the sufferings which he experienced on the tree of the cross; (3) the efficacy of the blood which he shed.
Commentary on 1Jn 1:5-7 by E.M. Zerr
1Jn 1:5. The message which we (the apostles and others through them) have heard of him (the Son of God). The subject of the message is light, brought into the world by Christ which he received from his Father. God not only has light (spiritual truth) but He has nothing else; no darkness at all. Good men and angels have some light but it is limited, while with God it is light unmodified.
1Jn 1:6. The Lord is all light and truth which is the opposite of darkness. For this reason no man can possibly be a partaker (have fellowship) with Him whose life is one of darkness which is a figurative name for that which is not the truth. Hence it is a logical conclusion that if a man claims to be on both sides of this proposition at the same time he is lying.
1Jn 1:7. Walk in the light. No man lives who does not make some mistakes and commit sin incidentally. But this phrase means a man whose general life is one of godliness and whose motive principle is the light of the New Testament. This man can truly be said to be walking with the Lord because he is in the pathway that Jesus laid out for him. Being in the fellowship with God the source of all light, is like being constantly in the stream of the blood of His son. That blood is constantly flowing (figuratively) through the body or church of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the natural body of a man whose blood stream is healthy, if germs slip into the person that blood, being always present, will be like a disinfectant that will destroy the germ. Likewise the blood of Christ is ever present to cleanse away the mistakes and incidental sins that a true Christian does. Hence if a man is a worker in the Lord’s vineyard and his life as a whole is one of obedience to the law of Christ, he does not need to worry about the mistakes he might make which he does not realize, for the blood of Christ will take care of it and wash them away. They will be cleansed by the “fountain opened to the house of David . . . for sin and for uncleanness” (Zec 13:1). “There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Im-manuel’s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.”
Commentary on 1Jn 1:5-7 by N.T. Caton
1Jn 1:5-This then is the message.
The message we heard of the Lord, and the one we declared unto you, I now repeat in another form, and this I do because I have spoken to you of our fellowship with the Father and with the Son.
1Jn 1:5 –God is light.
God is the source and the dispenser of light-all light, both physical and moral. God being the head of our fellowship and the source of all light, he is, therefore, the dispenser of all moral light. He is light absolutely. In him is no darkness at all, no evil, no mistake. Moral light is possessed by him in infinite perfection. Bro. B. W. Johnson’s notes here are especially clear. He says: “The term denotes luminous, clearness, the free and benevolent source from whence flow light, intelligence, purity and blessing, absolutely free from alien intermixture, since in him is no darkness at all. Light represents truth, knowledge, holiness; darkness represents ignorance, error, falsehood and sin.”
1Jn 1:6-If we say that we have fellowship with him.
Should we claim to have fellowship with God, who is absolute light-light in infinite perfection-while we are walking in darkness-that is not doing right, not doing what we know God requires at our hands, acting wickedly; in so claiming we lie. This must be plain, and it is in accordance with the doctrine of the gospel, that if God is light and we walk not in the light, the fellowship is broken, we are not in accord, and we must be in accord with the will of God to have fellowship with him.
1Jn 1:7 –But if we walk in the light.
If we claim fellowship with God while we walk in the light, we lie not. If we practice holiness in our lives because we are assured that God is holy, we thus keep before us the desire of the head of our fellowship, that all should be holy, as he is holy; then and in that case we do have fellowship with God and with one another; and also in that case the blood of Jesus Christ, which was shed for the remission of sins, shed as an atonement for sins, cleanses us from all sins. That is walking in the light all our days. At the last we need fear no punishment for sin; from this punishment we are delivered. We are fitted to have a fellowship or communion with our God in the heavenly world.
Commentary on 1Jn 1:5-7 by Burton Coffman
1Jn 1:5 –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.”[23] 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 1Jn 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.[24] He based this upon the fact that the statement in 1Jn 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.”[25] 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,”[26] 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.”[27] 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 1Jn 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.
[23] Ibid., p. 28.
[24] R. W. Orr, op. cit., p. 609.
[25] A. Plummer, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22,1John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 4.
[26] James William Russell, op. cit., p. 597.
[27] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 4.
1Jn 1:6 –If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
In this verse, the apostle made the application of his remarks in the verse preceding. Smith identified the false teachers refuted by this as “the Nicolaitans who held to the heresy of antinomianism.”[28] John did not honor their heresy nor the names of any of its advocates with any identification whatever. Plummer thought that the heresy in view was that of the “Carpocratian Gnostics, who taught that to the enlightened all actions are indifferent, because neither impurity nor filth Can change the nature of pure gold.”[29]
And do not the truth … This is changed in the RSV to “do not live according to the truth,” but Morris assured us that the ASV is the correct rendition.[30] This very statement is found in Joh 3:21 and in the Qumran scrolls. “Truth can be a quality of action as well as of speech.”[31]
The false claim in this verse is that of affirming that we walk with God even while we are walking in darkness. “Walk” in this passage, as frequently in the New Testament, is an idiom for the totality of human conduct.
[28] David Smith, op. cit., p. 171.
[29] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 4.
[30] Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 1261.
[31] Ibid.
1Jn 1:7 –but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin
If we walk in the light … When the light from God, as revealed in Christ Jesus and the preaching of the apostles, is entered and walked in by the Christians, “Walking in the light shows up their sins and frailties, revealing the need for constant cleansing.”[32]
Roberts pointed out that John’s teaching here “implies that only the sinless can have fellowship with a sinless God,” adding that this involves a contradiction between our own “admitted sinfulness and the affirmation that we do have fellowship with God (1Jn 1:3).”[33] Roberts resolved the “contradiction” in the considerations of: (1) Christ’s propitiation for our sins; (2) the cleansing action in view in this verse; and (3) the intercession on our behalf of Jesus Christ our advocate. Here indeed is the achievement of that absolute perfection required of all who hope to enter heaven, as announced by Jesus Christ in the sermon on the mount (Mat 5:48). The whole doctrine of Perfection requires a great deal more attention to it than is evident in current Christian literature. For a further study of it, see in my Commentary on Galatians, pp. 130-133. For those who walk in the light, the continual, ceaseless and effective cleansing through the blood of Christ is the means of their continuing in a state of absolute perfection. This cleansing, however, is not necessarily automatic. “It is based upon confession, penitence, renewal (1Jn 1:9), and keeping his commandments (1Jn 2:3).”[34] Even beyond this, however, the cleansing effect of Jesus’ blood is operative unconditionally in instances of the believer’s unawareness of sins that lie hidden from himself.
Fellowship one with another … Although not stated in this sentence, this fellowship is also with God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ (1 John 3). This fellowship stands for membership in the corporate spiritual body of Jesus Christ. Thus the cleansing here mentioned is not that from “old sins” prior to conversion, but from the accrual of sins daily by the Christian.
The blood of Jesus his Son … All forgiveness for mortals, in the last analysis, derives from this source. John’s mention of it so early in the epistle shows the high priority of this fundamental truth.
Cleanseth us from all sin … “The singular sin sometimes denotes the principle of sin, but this cannot be the meaning here. All sin means `every act of sin.'”[35]
This great verse is the source of incredible joy, assurance and consolation to the child of God. He never needs to fear that some impulsive, unintentional, or atypical conduct might overtake him with the result of eternal condemnation. His walking “in the light” can be established by the long term directional thrust of his whole life upon earth and cannot be contradicted and negated by any temporary or insignificant lapse.
[32] Charles C. Ryrie, Wycliffe Bible Commentary, New Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p. 1007.
[33] J. W. Roberts, op. cit., p. 31.
[34] Ibid., p. 32.
[35] Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 1262.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
II. LIGHT AND DARKNESS AND THE TESTS
CHAPTERS 1:5-2:17
1. God is light; walking in darkness and in light (1Jn 1:5-7)
2. What the light manifests (1Jn 1:8-10)
3. The advocacy of Christ to maintain the fellowship (1Jn 2:1-2)
4. The tests of fellowship (1Jn 2:3-17)
1Jn 1:5-7
The message they had heard of Him and which they declared to others is, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Light, perfect, pure light is Gods nature; He is absolutely holy, with no darkness in Him at all. That God is light was manifested in the life of the Lord Jesus, for He was and is holy. Fellowship with the Father and the Son means, therefore, to have fellowship with light, and that excludes a walk in darkness. if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth. If one professes to have fellowship with God and walks in darkness, he lies, for darkness can have no fellowship with light. 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.
But what is this walk in the light? It is not the same thing as walking according to the light. It does not mean to live a perfect and sinless life. Walking in the light is not the question of how we wait but where we walk, and the place where the believer walks is the light. It means to walk daily in His presence, with our will and conscience in the light and presence of God, judging everything that does not answer to that light. Whatever is not right is brought at once in His presence, exposed to the light, confessed, judged and put away. Such is the walk in the light which fellowship with God demands. The result of such a walk in the light is mutual fellowship among believers, because each has the same nature of God and the same Spirit, the same Christ as the object before the heart and the same Father. It cannot be otherwise. Then there is another thing stated, The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. Walking in the light shows us what we are and we cannot say that we have no sin. But we have no consciousness of sin resting upon us before a holy God, though we know that sin is in us, but we have the assurance of being cleansed from it by His precious blood. Such is the blessed position of a true Christian. Fellowship with the Father and with His Son, walking in the light as He is in the light, fellowship one with another and the cleansing power of the blood.
1Jn 1:8-10.
The light makes known that sin is in us. If the believer, the child of God, says that he has no sin, the light contradicts him. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. The denial of sin within is a delusion. This evil teaching that the old Adamic nature is eradicated in the believer is widespread in our day among Holiness, Pentecostal and other sects. True spirituality is to confess daily, walking in the light, that in our flesh there dwelleth no good thing. And if sin is committed it needs confession. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The light also manifests another evil, the claim of a sinless perfection. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us. Some have applied this verse to the unsaved; it has nothing to do with the sinner, but relates to a true believer, who in presumption makes the claim that he lives without sinning. And the reason why children of God make such unscriptural claims is inattention to His Word, for the Word makes manifest what sin is, and the Apostle says If we say that we have not sinned … His word is not in us.
1Jn 2:1-2.
For the first time John uses the endearing term my little children, meaning the born ones of God, who are born into the family of God by having believed on the Son of God. One might conclude, inasmuch as belief in the eradication of the old nature and sinless perfection is a delusion, that the child of God must sin. But, while sin is within, and a sinless perfection is beyond our reach, it does not mean that the believer should continue in sin. He had written these things that they might not sin. But if any man sin a gracious provision has been made. Let it be noticed that the application, as it is often done, to the sinner who is outside, who knows not Christ at all, is totally wrong. It means the little children, the members of the family of God. If any true child of God sins we have an advocate with the Father (not God, it is the matter of the family), Jesus Christ the righteous. The advocacy of Christ restores the sinning believer to the communion with the Father and the Son which sin interrupted. He does not wait till we come repenting and confessing, but in the very moment we have sinned He exercises His blessed office as our Advocate with the Father and His intercession produces in us repentance, confession, and self-judgment. Thus we are maintained by Himself in the fellowship into which the grace of God has called and brought us.
When the believer sins it does not mean that he has lost his salvation. Many a child of God has been harassed through ignorance, and imagined that he committed the unpardonable sin. The sin of a believer does not make him unsaved or lost, but it makes fellowship with the Father and the Son impossible till the sin is judged and confessed. This is accomplished by His advocacy.
The Lord Jesus as much lives to take up the failure of His own, as He died to put away their sins by His blood. This, too, is founded on propitiation; but there is besides the blessed fact that He is the righteousness of the believer in the presence of God. His one expiatory sacrifice avails in abiding value; His place is before God as our righteousness; and there for the failing He carries on His living active advocacy with the Father.
1Jn 2:3-17.
John now writes of the characteristics of the life which the believer has received, the eternal life and applies certain tests. The profession of a Christian is that He knows God. But how do we know that we know Him? The answer is, If we keep His commandments. This is not legality in the least which puts the believer back under the law. John knows nothing of that. Obedience is the leading trait of the imparted life. It is set on doing the will of God. Christ walked on earth in obedience; His meat and drink was to do the will of Him that sent Him. Inasmuch as His life is in us as believers, it must manifest itself in obedience to the will of God. It is the same which we find in 1Pe 1:2, sanctified, or set apart, unto the obedience of Jesus Christ. It is not a sinless obedience as it was in Him; while the believer has his heart set on obeying the Lord and doing His will, he often fails and stumbles, but he continues to aim at doing the will of God, for that is the nature of the new life. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His Word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in Him.
One who professes to know God and does not manifest obedience is no Christian at all, but he is a liar, and the truth in the knowledge of the Lord is lacking in such a one. He is a mere professing Christian, one who has the outward form of godliness but does not know the power of it, because he has not the life in him, which is His life and in which he delights to obey. The first great test of the reality of the divine life in the believer is obedience.
Then follows a second test: He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked. In His prayer our Lord told the Father, They are not of the world even as I am not of the world; and again, As Thou has sent me into the world so have I sent them into the world (Joh 17:16; Joh 17:18). Believers are not of the world as He is not of the world, because they are born again and have His life in them. They are in Him, abiding in Him, and therefore they must walk as He walked, which does not mean to be what He was, for He was without sin, but it is a walk after His own pattern, the reproduction of His character and life through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In the next two verses we read of the old commandment and of the new commandment (1Jn 2:7-8). The old commandment is explained, as the word which they had heard from the beginning, that is, the same beginning as mentioned in 1Jn 1:1, the manifestation of Christ on earth. But what is the commandment of which he speaks next? It is something new now, for the life which was in Him on earth is in believers now. Therefore, it is true in Him and in us because the darkness is passing away and the true light already shineth. Christ is life and light and as His life is in us we share it in Him; this is that which is new. It was true of Him first, and now it is true of us, too.
This is followed by another test. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. The life must manifest itself in love. Light and love go together; both are manifested in Christ, He was light and love. If He is, therefore, in the believer, and he possesses that life, and professes to be in the light, and with such a profession hateth his brother, he shows thereby that he is in the darkness until now. Love cannot be separated from that life and light which was in Him and which is in us as believers. He that abideth in the light loveth his brother and because he does there is no occasion of stumbling in him. In him who loves there is neither darkness nor occasion of stumbling; in him who does not love there is both darkness and stumbling. He who hates his brother is a stumbling block to himself and stumbles against everything. Not loving the brethren and manifesting hatred against them is the sure sign of being in darkness and walking in darkness. Such are the tests of Christian profession; light and love, obedience and loving the brethren; where there is no life from God there is absence of love for the brethren and a walk in darkness and not in the light. It seems that many in Johns day were in that deplorable condition, while today such is almost universally the case.
1Jn 2:12-17
contain a message to those who are in the light, who possess that life and in whom it is manifested in obedience and in love. He addresses the fathers and the young men. Before he does this he mentions that which all believers, even the most feeble, possess. I write unto you little children (the term of endearment which means the whole family of God) because your sins are forgiven you for His names sake. This is blessedly true of every child of God, Each has redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. It is the thing which is settled for time and eternity for all those who are in Christ.
Then different grades are mentioned: fathers, young men and little children. The meaning is in the spiritual sense, fathers in Christ, young men in Christ and babes in Christ. The word children used in 1Jn 2:13 and 1Jn 2:18 is a different word from the one used in 1Jn 2:12. In this chapter in 1Jn 2:1; 1Jn 2:12 and 1Jn 2:28 the little children are all the family of God, but in 1Jn 2:13 and 1Jn 2:15 it means young converts.
The maturity of the fathers consists in knowing Him that was from the beginning, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. Spiritual progress and maturity is a deep knowledge and appreciation of Christ. The Apostle Paul illustrates what real Christian maturity is. He had but one desire to know Him; not I but Christ; Christ is all. The Fathers have Christ for their fullest portion and walking in Him have learned the depths of His grace and the glory of His person. They are occupied not with their experience but with Himself It has been well said, All true experience ends with forgetting self and thinking of Christ. To know Him, to know Him still better, to be entirely dependent on Him, to have none other but Him, never losing sight of Him– that is the highest attainment of a Christian.
He speaks next of the young men, who have advanced in their Christian life. They had gone forward in undaunted faith and courage and overcame the difficulties; they overcame by faith the wicked one. The strength of the new life, that is, Christ, was manifested in them in conflict. The babes, comes next, the young converts, who have not much experience in conflict. To them he writes, Ye have known the Father. Every newborn babe in Christ cries, enabled by the Spirit of adoption, Abba, Father. To know God as Father is the blessed birthright of every newborn soul.
Once more he writes the same to the fathers. He can add nothing to it for the highest attainment is to know Him, as the fathers know Him. But he has more to say to the young men. He tells them that they are strong, because the Word of God was abiding in them, which is the source of power and strength of every believer and because the Word of God abided in them they overcame the wicked one. Then follows the exhortation and warning not to love the world, the world of which John speaks later, which lieth in the wicked one.
This world-system in every aspect, whether we call it the social world, the political world, the commercial world, the scientific world, the religious world–all is not of the Father. All its glory is not of the Father. The love of the world is, therefore, inconsistent with the love of the Father. The controlling principles in it are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. May we remember once more that our Lord speaks concerning His own, They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Grace has taken us out of this old world, with its corruption which is there by lust and has put us into another world, so to speak, in which Christ is the center and the attraction. That new sphere is our place. The only way to escape this world with its beguiling influences is by separation from it. And that separation becomes real when we know Him, as the fathers know him, and find our joy and our satisfaction in Christ. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. But if this exhortation was needed in Johns day, how much more is it needed in our days, when, as never before, the god of this age blinds the eyes of them that believe not, when this world system, in its godless and seductive character, develops a power and attraction unknown before, and when on all sides professing Christians are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
the message: 1Jo 3:11, 1Co 11:23
that God: Psa 27:1, Psa 36:9, Psa 84:11, Isa 60:19, Joh 1:4, Joh 1:9, Joh 8:12, Joh 9:5, Joh 12:35, Joh 12:36, 1Ti 6:16, Jam 1:17, Rev 21:23, Rev 22:5
Reciprocal: Gen 1:3 – Let Psa 94:20 – fellowship Psa 104:2 – with light Isa 9:2 – walked Dan 2:22 – and the Dan 7:9 – whose Mat 5:16 – your light Luk 1:79 – give Rom 13:12 – works 2Co 6:14 – and what 1Jo 1:3 – declare 1Jo 1:7 – as 1Jo 4:8 – God is
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Jn 1:5. The message which we (the apostles and others through them) have heard of him (the Son of God). The subject of the message is light, brought into the world by Christ which he received from his Father. God not only has light (spiritual truth) but He has nothing else; no darkness at all. Good men and angels have some light but it is limited, while with God it is light unmodified.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The Message, which is the compendium of Christs teaching.
1Jn 1:5. And, resuming the we have heard in the Introduction, this is the message which we have heard from Him: from His Son Jesus Christ (1Jn 1:3), the Him being enough if we remember the fellowship between the Father and the Son. As the apostle condenses the whole of the revelation of Christs Person into one word was manifested, so he condenses the sum of His teaching into one word message: this word occurs again only in chap. 1Jn 3:11, there concerning love as here concerning light.
And announce unto youor, as it were, re-message to you; the word being different from declare,that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all: the positive and negative assertion of a truth, so characteristic of this Epistle, here begins; and the two clauses must be combined in one concept. The subject is fellowship with God; that is, the possession of something common to God and to us. This is hereafter love, God is love; here it is light, or unmingled and diffusive holiness. All interpretations that refer this to the essence of God are superfluous. God in His moral nature is to us light: light is one of the predicates of God, as related to moral creatures. It is purely ethical, as love is in the other passage: the Epistle does not contain one reference to the essence of God, or the manifestation of His essence. It is only said that no man hath seen Him at any time; and it is remarkable that the glory so common in the Gospel and Revelation is absent here: the only revelation is in Christ, and as such only a revelation of holiness and love. Holiness in God repels evil, and that to the sinner is its first aspect: in Him is no darkness of sin that can be common to Him and us. But holiness in Him is diffusive, as the light is, or it could not become common to Him and to His saints. Both aspects unite in the atonement which is near at hand with its explanation.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
That is, “This is the sum and substance of the gospel of Christ’s doctrine, and our message, to teach us to know what God is, namely light, that is,a being of infinite knowledge, wisdom, and purity; and that there is no darkness in him, no darkness of error, no darkness of ignorance, no darkness of falsehood, impunity, and sin, found with him, or can be pleasing to him.”
Note here, 1. The gospel is a message, a special and gracious message, sent by God to a lost world. The ministers of the gospel are messengers sent of God, to make known this message; and if so, then they must receive their mission from God, then their message depends not upon their own, but God’s authority; then their people are to receive it, not as the message and word of man, but as it is indeed the word of God. This is the message that we have heard, and declare unto you.
Observe, 2. The metaphor which which St. John makes choice of, to set forth the nature of God by.
He describes him, 1. Affirmatively, God is light, his nature and attributes are (though darkly and imperfectly) resembled by it; the light, as it was the first of all creatures, shadows forth the eternity of God’s being, who is the First and the Last; light, of all bodies, is the most immaterial and uncompounded, denoting the spirituality and simplicity of God’s nature.
Is the light diffusive, and cannot but impart itself for the benefit of others? so is God communicative of his goodness to all persons, shining upon the just and upon the unjust.
But according to the apostle’s intendment here, light is of a pure and undefiled nature, it is a bright and spotless splendour; though it shines upon a dunghill, it contracts no pollutions; this represents the perfect purity and unspotted holiness of God.
2.Negatively, In him is no darkness at all; that is, God is so pure, that not the least impuirty can cleave unto him; so holy, that no sin can be found in him, and consequently no darkness of sin or impunity can proceed from him.
Learn we then, always to entertain high and holy thoughts of God, and to conceive of him as a being that hates sin, and all the works and workers of darkness, Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee: sinners shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Psa 5:4
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
God Is Light
The knowledge the Gnostics believed they possessed was a mystical one imparted to them specially. There were ascetic gnostics who tried to totally separate themselves from the world. The libertine gnostic believed he could participate in all kinds of evil without harming his pure knowledge. Thus, John took up a discussion of some who claimed to be in partnership with God, yet walked in darkness. The word “walk” describes the whole of human life or conduct. John says it is impossible to be in fellowship with God and live in sin. Christianity is not a mere mental exercise, but a belief practiced in one’s life ( 1Jn 1:6 ; Jas 1:21-22 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
1Jn 1:5-7. This then is the message That is, one part of it; which we have heard of him The Son of God; that God is light The light of truth, wisdom, holiness, glory. What light is to the natural eye, that God is to the spiritual eye; and in him is no darkness at all Not the least mixture of ignorance or error, of folly, sin, or misery; if we say Either with our tongue, or in our heart; if we endeavour to persuade ourselves and others, that we have fellowship with him If we pretend to, or make a profession of it; and walk in darkness Live in a state of ignorance, error, folly, or sin, which things are as contrary to his wise and holy nature, as darkness is to that of light, whatever professions we may make of our acquaintance with Christianity, and of being zealous for its interests; we lie, and do not the truth Our conduct shows that our professions are false, and that the truth is not in us. But if we walk in the light In the way of truth, knowledge, and holiness; as he is (a deeper word than walk, and more worthy of God) in the light Is essentially and perfectly wise and holy, then we may truly say, we have fellowship one with another God with us, and we with him; for that is the fellowship the apostle is speaking of 1Jn 1:6, namely, fellowship or intercourse between the head and the members of the community: a fellowship which consists in the Fathers bestowing blessings on us through the mediation of Christ, and in our receiving these blessings from the Father and the Son with thankfulness. As if the apostle had said, We who have seen, and you who have not seen, do alike enjoy that fellowship with God and Christ, the imitation of God being the only sure proof of our having fellowship with him. And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son With the grace purchased thereby; cleanseth us from all sin Taketh away all the guilt, and therewith all the power of sin, both original and actual. There is also a cleansing from all sin in a higher sense, even from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, (see 2Co 7:1; Eph 5:25-26; Col 1:22; Tit 2:14,) from whatever is contrary to the mind of Christ and the image of God, which may be experienced in the present life, by the blood of Christ, who, having died to procure for us the influences of the Spirit for fully sanctifying our nature, may be truly said to cleanse us from all sin by his blood. Of this cleansing, however, the apostle does not speak directly in this verse, but he speaks of it 1Jn 1:9.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
ARGUMENT 2
GOD IS LIGHT
5. That God is light, and there is no darkness in Him. From this beautiful scripture we see that light, like life, is original only in God, and imparted pursuant to His sovereign will. The light of the material world, illuminating irresponsible beings, both animate and inanimate, is a fixture of the divine administration. Meanwhile, with all responsible probationary intelligences, as in case of life, it is dependent on the divine presence, and determined by the free and untrammeled volition of the recipient.
6. Pursuant to these great cardinal facts of life and light, John here gives us a grand and convincing antithetical argument; 1Jn 1:6; 1Jn 1:8; 1Jn 1:10 revealing the sin side of the antithesis, while 1Jn 1:7 and 1Jn 1:9 set forth the grace side, the two standing out in vivid contrast, sin and darkness, light and salvation being inseparable concomitants.
7. Of course all who are in the light are the children of God, having been truly regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and saved not only from condemnation, but from the commission of sin. Now if such will walk in all the light God gives them, revealing their inbred sin, pursuant to their humble, doubtless faith, the blood cleanseth them from all original sin, surviving justification. This is a glorious latitudinous truth, extending to every human being in heathendom as well as Christendom, promising not only pardon but purity to every human being walking in all the light God gives.
8. If we may say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. This verse, with the sixth and tenth, has been appropriated by many foolish people as an apology for sin, to their own destruction; whereas it simply reveals the sin side of the antithesis, to the magnification of the grace side. You see this verse forever sweeps Zinzendorfianism from the field, anathematizing the man who says he has no remaining sin to be
removed by the cleansing blood after conversion, as a liar, deceiving himself and destitute of truth.
9. Here we have the whole plan of salvation focalized in a nutshell, the Holy Ghost promising us pardon and purity on the isolated condition of a full confession of our sins, actual and original. Such a confession involves repentance, faith, prevailing prayer and obedience.
10. This verse drops back on the sin side of the antithesis, convicting every human being who has reached responsibility unregenerated, and anathematizing all gainsayers as liars, destitute of Gods Word.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
1Jn 1:5 to 1Jn 2:2. Fellowship with God Requires a Right View of Sin.
1Jn 1:5-10. Spiritual fellowship depends on moral affinity. Hence since Jesus has declared the holy perfection of God, we cannot truthfully claim fellowship with Him, and at the same time be habitually committing sin. Only as we Christians constantly aim to be like God have we fellowship with Him and with one another, our sinfulness being cleansed by the blood of Christ. To deny that we are sinful or that we have committed sin proves self-deception, ignorance of moral facts, and of Gods message to us in the Gospel. Our duty is to confess our sins to God and thereby secure from Him forgiveness and cleansing. Thus does John deal with the view which regarded sin as immaterial or unreal.
1Jn 1:5. God is light: this is one of Johns great definitions of God (1Jn 4:16). Light, as here contrasted with darkness, means not intellectual illumination (for which cf. Joh 8:12) but ethical perfection. It describes the absolute purity and holiness of God, as He has been revealed by Christ (p. 745).
1Jn 1:6. walk: a familiar Scriptural figure to describe a regular course of life.do not the truth: i.e. do not live in harmony with its demands. The life as well as the statement of the lips is false.
1Jn 1:7. we have fellowship one with another: i.e. possibly, with God, but probably with brother Christians, fellowship with God being implied and the truth declared that the nearer we are to God, the closer is our fellowship with each other.cleanseth from all sin: the ritual cleansing required by the Law as a condition of approach to God has its parallel in the cleansing of the heart effected by the blood of Christ as the preface and accompaniment of fellowship with God.
1Jn 1:8. the truth is not in us: i.e. we are blind to our real condition.
1Jn 1:10. we have not sinned: i.e. since conversion. In any case this phrase points to acts of sin, whilst that in 1Jn 1:8 regards sin as a condition or state. God is made a liar because His entire scheme of redemption assumes the universality of sin, and the same view is set forth in His Word.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Verse 5
That God is light. There are several of the divine perfections which might be represented metaphorically by light. That holiness is the one here intended, is evident from 1 John 1:7, where it appears that it is an attribute of God, in respect to which men are bound to conform to him.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
1:5 {3} 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.
(3) Now he enters into a question, by which we may understand that we are joined together with Christ, that is, if we are governed with his light, which is perceived by the ordering of our life. And thus he reasons, God is in himself most pure light, therefore he agrees well with them who are of the light, but with them that are of the darkness he has no fellowship.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
II. LIVING IN THE LIGHT OF FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD 1:5-2:11
"Since the apostle’s expressed concern is that his readers might have fellowship with the apostolic circle and thus also with the Father and the Son (1Jn 1:3), it is reasonable to specify what this fellowship is really like. So, as an introductory section to his epistle, John discusses the nature of true fellowship with God" [Note: Idem, The Epistles . . ., p. 57.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
This verse provides a basis for what follows in 1Jn 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. Joh 1:4-5; Joh 1:7-9; Joh 3:19-21; Joh 8:12; Joh 9:5; Joh 12:35-36; Joh 12:46; Rev 21:23). John elsewhere described God as spirit (Joh 4:24) and as love (1Jn 4:8). All three comparisons of God stress his immateriality and essence. God exposes and condemns sin (called "darkness" in Joh 1:5; Joh 3:19; Joh 12:35 [twice], and in 1Jn 1:5-6; 1Jn 2:8-9; 1Jn 2:11 [twice]). The light figure emphasizes these qualities in God: His splendor and glory, His truthfulness, His purity, His self-communicative nature (cf. Psa 27:1; Psa 36:9; Isa 49:6; Joh 1:9), His empowering activity (cf. Joh 8:12; Joh 12:35; Eph 5:8-14), and His right to demand (cf. Joh 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. Eph 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.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
A. Staying on the Path by Walking in God’s Light 1:5-2:2
John began his explanation of what it means to live in the light of God’s fellowship by stressing the importance of continuing to walk in God’s light. Some antinomian Gnostics believed that knowledge was superior to virtue and morality, and John’s revelation here countered that error.
"If the readers are to have fellowship with the Father and with the Son (1Jn 1:3), they must understand what makes this possible. They must know who God is in himself and, consequently, who they are in themselves as creatures of God. So the author first describes the moral character of God in terms of light (1Jn 1:5) and then goes on to deny three claims made by those who falsely boast of their knowledge and fellowship with God. The false positions are (1) moral behavior is a matter of indifference in one’s relationship to God (1Jn 1:6); (2) immoral conduct does not issue in sin for one who knows God (1Jn 1:8); and (3) the knowledge of God removes sin as even a possibility in the life of the believer (1Jn 1:10). True ’tests’ or evidence of fellowship with God or walking in the light are (1) fellowship with one another (1Jn 1:7), with subsequent cleansing by the blood of Christ; (2) confession of sin, (1Jn 1:9) which brings both forgiveness and cleansing; and (3) trusting that if we sin we have Jesus Christ as an advocate and sacrifice for our sins (1Jn 2:2)." [Note: Barker, p. 309.]