(1 John 1:5-10 ESV)
So today I am a post abuser. Things are coming fast and furious around this passage and I want to get the thoughts down before they escape.
One of the truly striking things about this passage is that John nowhere alludes to the fact that we have no darkness. He does state that God is light and that in Him there is no darkness. But the reality is that he doesn’t even hint that there will be a time when darkness is not present within us. In fact, the last verse makes clear that we are saddled with sin, and to think otherwise is to make God a liar.
John’s warning to us is that we are not to walk in darkness. This really harkens back to Christ’s words in John 3 that men hate the light and refuse to come into it. By this we can conclude that it is not the darkness within us which God abhors (which He clearly recognizes) but our desire to remain in darkness, to walk in darkness.
And so we, though we have darkness within us, are instructed to walk in the light. Who’s light? Our own, no, God’s light. When we walk in the light we realize two benefits from it; we may freely fellowship with one another – without shame, guilt, hiding or lying to each other and; the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. Does that then mean that we are cleansed to the point where there is no darkness within us? John answers with the next verse. ”If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” So at no point in earthly life should we expect that we shall be free of darkness. Our striving to be free of darkness is futile. John’s encouragement is simply this: walk in the light.
We all struggle with sin. Our natural response when we encounter the identity crisis of sin is to withdraw from the light. As a child, if we had done something we knew was wrong, which of us did not naturally try to avoid our parents as long as possible. Which of us did not attempt to lie to cover our wrongdoing? We did this because we feared the consequences of our wrongdoing. But God’s love, unlike that of our parents, is perfect. As John states in chapter 4 and verse 18 of this same book, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” To be perfected in love is not to be sinless, but to walk without fear before God understanding that the act of walking in the light is more important to God than our wrongdoing.
Again, this is no license to sin. To walk in the light is to know Him. In chapter 3 John states, “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” Those walking in the light make no habit of sinning. But when we do sin, for we will sin, we must not recede to the darkness. We must understand and accept the fact that God knows us, all of us, and that more than anything He wants us to walk in the light of his perfect love. To confess our sin to the one who loves us without flaw, without condition, without cost is to walk in the light.
Christian maturity is not sinless perfection, but honest interaction with God. Faith in Christ’s work keeps us in the light because it is undeniable proof that God loves sinners like us perfectly. It is the gospel that proves God’s love for us and draws us from darkness into the light. From the punishment meted out by the law to the love of God demonstrated by His mercy. And though sin remain, it is no longer that which forces us further into the darkness, but that which should create in us the desire to run into the light.
God Bless
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