This is the third in a series of studies in 1John (see From the Beginning and Assuring Our Hearts Before Him). Now I wish to discuss 1John 1:5-2:6 which I will quote now in its entirety but not record:
(1John 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. 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.
2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous 2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. 6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.)
Having already told us that the disciples had seen and handled the “Word of life,” the “eternal life,” “that which was from the beginning,” when God descended in the form of Jesus (see From the Beginning), now John tells us what they heard from Him.
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.
As we have already seen (see Putting on Immortality and From the Beginning), light always refers to the realm of Spirit, the original, perfect creation which came out of God (who brought it forth when He said, “Let there be light”) and is not visible to the human eye—while darkness always refers to the realm of “matter” which is of man’s creating when he believed himself to be a separate being from God that must protect and preserve itself and choose good over evil to attain God’s love and acceptance (the realm of humanity). As John tells us, God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. God is Spirit (John 4:24), not a man (Numbers 23:19—God is not a man), not a person, has no personality, does now dwell in the realm of humanity (darkness).
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
To “walk in darkness” is to retain the sense of alienation from God by believing that humanity (the persona; the “old man”) is my true identity. As I’ve explained elsewhere (see From the Beginning), until I know myself and my brother as “Son” (God visible that can be “seen” and “handled”; God in expression), I can have no “fellowship” with either God or my brother. To think otherwise is to deceive myself (live out of the carnal mind which is the “devil” and the father of all lies). The humanity realm and the Spirit realm cannot enjoy “fellowship.”
It is “walking in the light” (knowing that in my true identity I am one with God and my brother) that enables me to “ascend” into the realm of Spirit (from whence I came) where I can enjoy that “oneness,” which produces the “fellowship” (walking and talking with God in the garden of Eden; enjoying His Presence—Genesis 3:8) that we see Adam and Eve hiding from after they had “put off” their immortality by descending into the realm of “matter” that was not “very good” but rather subject to death and every imaginable evil. They ate of the tree which enabled them to experience all the consequences of the belief in two powers, one of which is evil. With this belief came the law (trying to do something to again receive God’s love and acceptance. And with the law came the conscience which made them feel “naked,” condemned and afraid of God’s presence.
This “darkness” had become so “gross” that God Himself (Light) had to “descend” into this “matter” realm of darkness and make Himself visible as “Son” that we could both “see” and “handle” (humanity; personality; “sinful flesh”) to bring us out of this “darkness.” In his Gospel, John explains that this “word” which was God (John 1:1) “was life, and the life was the light of men” (v 4). The only “life” that man has is the life of God (Light; Spirit); but man was unaware of this, continuing to believe that he was human:
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
As long as he believes the physical to be his true identity, man is incapable of comprehending the “Light” that is his very life. God in the form of Jesus came to “light every man that cometh into the world” (v 9)—to bring him into the awareness of his true identity as spirit being (light)—that he is not born of flesh and blood, but of God (v 13). That’s why Jesus told us not to get our identity from our physical parents:
Matthew 23:9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
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.
To “walk in the light” is to come into the awareness (become en”lightened”) of our origin in God. Jesus Christ (God as “Son”) took all humanity to the death of the cross (let the “life” that was in that blood of physical man drain out (see The Blood of Jesus and Purpose of the Cross) in order to destroy the devil (Hebrews 2:14-15) (carnal mindedness or sense of separation from our Father). And that is what enables us to become “enlightened” to our true identity as sons of the living God (be “cleansed” from that “sin”).
8 If we say that we have no sin [sense of separation which produces our humanity], we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
See The Greatest Deception for an extensive treatment of the danger of not being aware of this “sin.”
9 If we confess our sins [acknowledge that what we are saying and doing is coming from that sense of separation and is designed to preserve and protect our humanity (persona) because we do not yet know that we are one with our Father], 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.
2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous 2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
It is very comforting to know that we don’t have to “cleanse” ourselves of this great deception; we only have to acknowledge our need. God has taken upon Himself the responsibility for our salvation on all levels. We see this further confirmed in some of the most comforting verses in all of Scripture:
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him [became the “propitiation” for our sins].
After receiving so much comfort from John and from Paul, we read these words—which gives us opportunity to go right back under the law if read by the “letter” rather than Spirit.
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
I have already expounded upon what it means to “keep his commandments” in the second of this series on 1John, Assuring Our Hearts Before Him. It is all about loving God and our brother and how that is accomplished. See also How I Know I’ve Received God’s Love—which is also a study in 1John that I wrote about a year ago.
The final verse we will look at in this study is:
6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
You will recall that the title of this study is “Walking as Jesus Walked.” This has already been discussed above. Jesus the man walked in the consciousness (or awareness) that he was one with his Father, the Father in Him and He in the Father (John 10:3; 14:10), that of himself in his humanity he could do nothing (John 5:30), that it was the Father in Him who was doing the works (John 14:10), and that in His humanity he was not “good,” that only God is good (Matthew 19:17).
If I say that I am abiding in Christ, then I should be walking in that same awareness. I would like you to read Walking in the Light to see an example of this teaching in operation in everyday life.