By way of validation about the message of truth that John shared, he confirms in verse 5 of 1 John that he (and others) received this message from God. (Now, we might say that claims about our own writing need to be verified, but John the Apostle was already known to have walked and talked with Jesus, and it was accepted that he was faithfully passing along the truth about Jesus with the help of the Holy Spirit.)
And, what is that message?
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
1 John 1:5-7 NIV
I hope that we can agree with the facts that John presents here: For one thing, “God is light”. He is perfectly good. In fact, not only does He never sin, but He cannot allow sin to go unpunished.
Also, as created beings, if we claimed that we were following God – who is light – but our choices still demonstrated that we were walking in darkness, that wouldn’t cause God to be any less righteous or less perfect. It would merely show that we were lying about walking with God.
On the other hand, when we are following God and walking with Him, note that “we have fellowship with one another”, which I understand to be other followers of Jesus (other Christians). John doesn’t lead with saying that we “get on God’s good side” when we follow Him. Instead, John points out that we have fellowship. We are close to other Christians because all of us are part of the same family (by adoption), following the same God, and letting Him guide us in a single righteous path (rather than a million different human definitions of what we think right and wrong look like).
And, when we are walking in the light, we have salvation through the blood of Jesus. By the way, the NASB capitalizes the word “Light” once in verse 5 and twice in verse 7, indicating that those translators interpreted this as not just general righteousness, but specifically referring to God Himself. Since God is Light, walking with God is the same as walking in the Light.
That’s important news! However, although these verses are true by themselves, let’s also consider the NIV’s comment that this letter was written to those who believed that the spirit world was good and that the material world – including human flesh – was evil (i.e., the heresies of Gnosticism and Docetism).
In considering this passage, for those who incorrectly believed – due to influences outside of the teachings of Jesus Christ – that only “spirit” can be good, these people would at least agree that God was good. And, those who bought into Gnosticism might agree that human beings, specifically those who claimed to be good but were actually being evil, were just acting according to their flesh. This would have seemed pretty normal in their philosophy of “spirit = good; flesh = evil”.
However, these words from John could have gotten a little more contentious when he suggested that sinful, fleshly human beings could actually walk in light. Left to ourselves, this sounds like a contradiction (since we as human beings clearly do sin). However, in this passage, we learn how corporeal human beings (whose sinful nature does indeed pull us towards sin) can actually be good. It’s not because of our own work or our own force of will, but rather in following a perfectly good God, and accepting the blood of Jesus as the payment that He offered for our sins.
We aren’t good because of our flesh. We can be good because God justified us (pronouncing us righteous because of what Jesus did), though, and we can practice good – even in the flesh – if we will allow God to help us do so. So, how about you and me? Will we keep trying to be good on our own, or will we let Christ’s atonement [payment] cover our sins, and let His example, God’s direction, and the Holy Spirit’s guidance help us succeed in achieving the goal of God-honoring righteousness, which requires “divine sponsorship”?
From Sunday School lesson prepared for February 16, 2025
References:
- 1717 Bible Studies, 1, 2, and 3 John, © 2025 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – 1, 2 & 3 John, by Morris M. Womack. © 1998 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 