'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.'
'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.'--1 John
i. 5-ii. 6.
John is the mystic among the New Testament writers. He dwells much on
the immediate union of the soul with God, and he has little to say about
institutions and rites. His method is not to argue, but to utter deep,
simple propositions which convince by their own light. But he is also
intensely eager for plain, practical morality, and in that respect sets
the example which, unfortunately, too many of the more mystical types of
Christian teaching have failed to follow. To him the outcome and test of
all deep hidden union with God is righteousness in life.
The blending of these two elements, which is the very keynote of this
letter, is wonderfully set forth in this passage. They would require
much more space than we command for their treatment, for every clause is
weighty as gold. We can but skim the surface, and try to bring out the
salient points.
I. We have, first, a wonderful gathering up of the whole gospel message
into one utterance as to the essential nature of God. Light is in all
languages the symbol of knowledge, of joy, of purity. It is the source
of life. Its very nature is to ray itself out into and conquer darkness.
Its splendor dazzles every eye; all things rejoice in its beams.
Darkness is the type of ignorance, of sorrow, of sin. But, whilst the
symbol is thus rich in manifold revelations, probably purity and
self-communication are the predominating ideas here.
John has been honoured to give the world the three great revelations
that God is spirit, is light, is love. And this profound saying in some
sense includes both the others, inasmuch as light, which to the popular
mind is most widely apart from matter, may well stand for the emblem of
spirit, and, since to radiate is its inseparable quality, does represent
in symbol the delight in imparting Himself, which is the very heart of
the declaration that God is love. If, then, we grasp these two thoughts
of absolute purity and of self-impartation as the very nature and
property of God, John tells us that we grasp the kernel of the Gospel.
And he thinks that men never will grasp them certainly unless a
'message' from God, a definite revelation in historical fact, certifies
them. We may hope or doubt, or desire, but we cannot be sure that God is
light unless he tells us so by unmistakable act. John knew what act that
was--the sending of His only-begotten Son. To the positive statement
John, in his usual manner, appends an emphatic negative one: 'Darkness
is not in him, no, not in any way.' He is light, all light, only light.
II. With characteristic moral earnestness, John passes at once to the
practical effects which the message is meant to have. We are not told
what God is simply that we may know, but that, knowing, we may do and
be. If He is light, two things will follow in those who are in union
with Him--they will walk in light, and they will in His light see their
own evil. John deals with these two consequences in verses 6-10--the
former in verses 6 and 7; the latter in verses 8-10. The parallelism in
the construction of these two sets of verses is striking: