“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 1:7 NIV
John is talking to believers, children of God, in 1 John. It is believed that he is talking to those who were living in the area that is now Turkey. The believers were struggling with false teachers and these false teachers were effective. This led the believers to begin questioning what they believed, they were having trouble telling what was the truth from what was a lie.
This is something that I know many people struggle with today. We want to believe what we hear and see on social media, what we see on the news, what we read in papers, but it is hard to discern what is truth and what is lies. The devil is very effective in distributing lies. He makes sure that when he is telling the lie that it has some truth to it, that it is not so far out of reason that it can be easily believed as being the truth.
As followers of Christ, children of God, co-heirs with Christ, we have an advantage that non-believers do not have. We have God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit. We are able to take the information we are given, whether it is from an outside source such as social media, the news, etc. or from inside our own minds and check it against the most consistent, reliable source there is, God’s word.
The light that John is writing about in this verse is Jesus. John is writing this letter to these believers because he wants to help them in their walk of faith. He is trying to lead them as they grow in their relationship with Jesus. What Jesus had been teaching during His ministry was a very new way of thinking for those who heard it. Some of the new believers had not been believers very long, and were struggling in changing what they had believed for years. John was reminding them that Jesus was the Light and was shining light into a dark world.
The dark world was not only the world of the unbeliever, but was also the world of those who proclaimed to be the religious elite of the Jewish nation. There were so many laws that had been created by man to accompany God’s laws, that keeping them was impossible. People began to not worship God and want to follow God’s laws, but instead became obsessed with the law and feared breaking it.
John is telling them that a light has come that will free all of them from this darkness. That light is Jesus. The challenge with follow Jesus, is that you have to actually follow Him. You can’t say you are a follower and then not change your path. John tells us we are to walk in the light, and walking, as we all know, requires action. When we walk in the light, we are walking with Jesus. What does walking look like?
When we decide to be a follower of Christ, we are choosing to change our behaviors so that they are in line with what God has laid out in His word. We try to be as consistently obedient as we can be. We will never be perfect while we are here on earth, but we strive to do what God is asking as much as humanly possible. The more we live in obedience to God, the more we are growing in our walk with God, the more we are walking in the Light.
John states that we have fellowship with one another. I believe that John does not simply mean that we go to church and see each other on Sundays. Fellowship in this context can also mean having relationships with other believers that are positive, peaceful and supportive. It is beneficial for us as believers to support and encourage each other as we grow in our faith, to maintain peaceful interactions with each other.
The last part of the verse says that ‘the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.’ If we think of light as having the ability to remove darkness, we can see that Light can be cleansing. Jesus cleans us with His blood and because He is the Light that takes away the darkness of our sin. This occurs all day, every day, as we are incapable of not sinning, we need perpetual cleansing from Jesus. That cleansing is not just for our guilt, but sin leaves a stain on our lives, on our very beings. Jesus washes that away with His blood. He took on, became sin when He died on the cross for each one of us. He defeated sin and death so that we can live in eternity with Him.
I pray that if you do not already have a personal relationship with Jesus, that you would not wait another minute and in this moment, commit your life to Him.
Below are some questions that you can answer. Again, I would love to hear your responses if you are willing to put them in the comments section. If you don’t want to leave them where others can read them, you can private message me on my Facebook page ‘For His Honor.’
How do you maintain fellowship with the believers around you, since we are all imperfect?
We all have moments where we fall back into the darkness, how do you find your way back to the Light?
Since our lives are our witness, how do you show God’s love and light to others?