If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not practise the truth.
John has just announced that God is light. Now he turns that announcement into a test. Verse 6 is the first of three claims he weighs. It asks one question: do a person's words about God match the way they live?
This verse begins a run of claims that John tests one by one.
There are in verses 6-10 three "if we says," all of them important in the extreme. The first is this verse. Can we name a clearer or more open break from the very nature of Christianity? It is saying, but not doing. This was bad enough in Israel. But how sad it is now, when the light and the love have shone out so fully to us, whom God has given life by the word of truth!
Who is the "we" in this verse? The answer is wider than it first looks.
How many people, as I have heard many myself, assume as a matter of fact that "we" must always mean the family of God! It often is, and generally so. But it is not always true… God also deals with people according to what they profess. John speaks here of departures from the truth that had already begun in his day and that spread through the professing Christian world in ours… Someone who is not a Christian might pass himself off as one for a long time. He need not be a deceiver; he might deceive himself and think he was a Christian.
The claim fails because of who God is.
If you say you have that kind of fellowship, and walk in darkness, it is all false. Darkness cannot have fellowship with light… God does not change the holiness of His nature. So claiming to have fellowship with that nature, while we walk in darkness, is all false.
One distinction here keeps struggling believers from misreading the verse.
The question here is where we walk, not how. God brings us to Himself, and He is light. From then on we walk there, poor as the walk may be… But if we pretend to walk in the light while we are still in the dark, our life is nothing but a lie.
So a Christian's failure — even serious failure — is not what this verse describes.
He may slip through carelessness. He may give in to self-will, or let the desires of the flesh or of the mind carry him away. All of that is sinful and out of keeping with the light. But serious as this is, God's love in Christ forgave him when he was an enemy and saved him when he was lost. That same love provides restoring grace… and never calls such sad failure "walking in darkness." … Those who walk in darkness have neither life nor light; they need God to awaken them and give them life. The Christian who falls needs only to repent and have the interrupted fellowship restored.
John says more than that such a person speaks falsely. He points to something the person fails to do.
Verse 6 supposes the case of someone who only claims it: "If we say," and so on. It states the broad principle, whoever the speaker may be. The need of it is only too clear where unreality in the things of God prevails — saying and not doing; singing hymns that express fresh, bright, heartfelt enjoyment of the love of God and of Christ, while there is not a trace of it in the life. The word that meets this is very sharp. To walk in darkness is to walk as if God had never revealed Himself in Christ… "Doing the truth" is a weighty word (see John 3:21).
Where a person walks answers what they claim about themselves.
Take anyone who professes this link of fellowship with God — and many are in that state — but walks in darkness at the same time. The very sphere of their walk gives the lie to what they claim. They only claim godliness; they are not believers at all. They have no fellowship, nothing in common with the God they profess to know. They have no real knowledge of God's holy nature. They do not walk in honest communion with the blessed light of God. They have no heart appreciation of the blessed Person of Christ, who Himself is "the light."
- Light first. God's nature sets the standard. Darkness cannot share anything with light, because God never softens His holiness to fit a person's claim.
- Say, then walk. The issue is not doctrine held but life lived — saying and not doing. The place where a person walks either backs their words or exposes them.
- "We" is wide. The words cover anyone who claims the name. God deals with people by what they profess, and a person can fool others — or even himself — for years.
- Where, not how. This verse measures where a person walks, not how well. When a believer slips, grace restores him, and God's love never calls that walking in darkness.
- Do the truth. Truth is something you practise, not only claim. A claim with no trace of it in the life is a lie the whole life keeps telling.
But if we walk in the light as *he* is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.
John tests every claim to share life with God by asking where a person walks. This verse ties that walk to fellowship with other believers and to cleansing blood — but does walking "in the light" mean how well we live, or where God has put us?
Commentators repeatedly draw a line between walking in the light and walking according to the light. The distinction is about location rather than performance.
"If we walk in the light," etc. (1 John 1), refers to our standing, not to our practical ways. It is not how but where you walk; that is, not in the world nor in Jewish shadows, but "in the light."
That does not make the phrase abstract. Being in the light means living with nothing hidden, and dealing at once with whatever the light exposes.
But what is this walk in the light? It does not mean to live a perfect and sinless life. Walking in the light is not the question of how we walk but where we walk, and the place where the believer walks is the light. It means to walk daily in His presence. Our will and conscience are in the light and presence of God, judging everything that does not answer to that light. We bring whatever is not right at once into His presence. There the light exposes it, and we confess it, judge it and put it away.
The light here is God Himself fully made known, and it is where God has placed us.
And note, this is not only about the first moment of conversion, when that light reached us as poor wretched sinners. It is just as much about what comes afterwards, in all our course as Christians here in this world. We are brought into the light — that is, into this full revealing of God. That is our Christian place before God. It is not a question of walking according to the light; of course we ought. But we are brought into the light. God sets us in a distinct position before Him, and these words express it: "in the light." We are before the eyes of God, and our walk should be before the eyes of God, lit by the full revelation of what He is.
The middle clause is not organised togetherness. It follows from a shared life that surfaces even between strangers.
Verse 7 gives three parts of our Christian condition, looked at as men walking down here. First, we walk in the light as God is in the light, everything judged according to Him with whom we have fellowship. Next comes what the world knows nothing of: "we have fellowship with one another." That is, I have the same divine nature as every Christian, and the same Holy Spirit lives in me. So there must be fellowship. I meet a perfect stranger travelling, and there may be more communion with him than with someone I have known all my life, just because the divine life is there.
Being fully exposed to God might seem the last place to feel secure. Writers here turn that round: the light is exactly where the blood's value is measured.
This light of God into which I am brought shows me, not my sins, but the value of that blood which cleanses from every kind of sin. This is not a constant action going on in the believer, as many would make it out, but what the blood of Jesus does — it "cleanses," and this not partially, but "from every sin."
At the cross we learned what the blood covered in our past. In the light we learn more.
When you come to the cross as a guilty sinner, you learn the value of the blood of Christ, as applied to all that you have done; here in the light you learn the value of the blood as blotting out all that you are capable of doing. It is the same blood, but seen in a deeper, fuller way.
The light does not leave us pretending, and it does not leave us weighed down.
Walking in the light shows us what we are, and we cannot say that we have no sin. But we have no sense of sin resting on us before a holy God. We know that sin is in us, yet we have the assurance of being cleansed from it by His precious blood.
Some read the present tense as cleansing that has to be repeated. One writer answers with everyday examples.
The word is "cleanses" — the present tense. From this some have deduced that the blood is to be continually applied. But the present tense is also used to describe the nature or character of anything; just as we say, "Cork floats." "Fire burns." "Soap washes." Such are their respective natures. So it is the nature of the blood of Christ to cleanse from all sin. That blessed property is inherent in it.
The practical result is that the believer's guilt is a closed question.
Scripture knows nothing of a re-application of the blood of Christ to the believer. Once cleansed, he is cleansed for ever… the blood, once shed and presented before God, is ever there in all its value for our souls, so that the question of guilt can never more be raised against us.
- Place — the verse says where the believer walks, not how well he performs.
- Presence — that place is God fully made known. Our will and conscience stand in the open before Him, and what the light shows up we confess and put away.
- People — one life and one Spirit make fellowship with every believer who walks there, sometimes with a stranger more than with an old friend.
- Proof — in the light what stands out is not our sins but the worth of the blood, cleansing "from every sin," not partially.
- Permanence — "cleanses" states the blood's nature, as fire burns. Cleansed once is cleansed for ever, and guilt is never raised again.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Near the start of his letter, John lists claims that people who call themselves Christians might make. He tests each one against the light. This claim is not about a past act but about what we are now. So what does it deny, who does it fool, and why does it prove itself false?
In this verse "sin" is singular. Commentators press that point: the claim denies not a record of wrongdoing, but the source it flows from.
This false claim would deny that we have a sinful nature, "We have no sin." It refers to sin in our nature. The next (v.10) refers to sins committed in practice. One of the very first principles of scripture is that of "trees bearing fruit … each according to its kind." (Gen. 1:12). Apples grow on an apple tree, plums on a plum tree and sins on a sin tree! If believers do not have a sinful nature then it is not possible for them to commit sins. What pathetic self-deception!
That distinction matters, because God does not treat the two the same way.
The evil principle we are born with is often simply called sin. The evil actions, words and thoughts that come from having this corrupt nature are called sins… This distinction matters all the more when we find in Scripture that God does forgive our sinful deeds — that is, our sins — through the shedding of the blood of Christ. Yet He never forgives sin in the flesh. He "condemns" or judges it.
Light shows what is really there. So it leaves us no room to hide what we are by nature.
The light requires us to confess what we are by nature. To say we have no sin is not only ignoring a truth; it is also deceiving ourselves. In that case the truth is not in us. If Christ, who is the truth, lives in us, we must know that we carry a sinful nature about with us.
Notice how far the claim actually goes.
This is the height of self-deception. We assume not only that we have not sinned, but that we are without sin — without even a leaning towards anything that displeases God. We imagine we have reached the stage of Christian life where sin is completely absent. This kind of false holiness is a foolish and evil delusion.
And notice who is actually fooled:
Note that we do not deceive God, or other people, but only ourselves.
The closing phrase is unusual. One writer reads it as more than simple ignorance.
But "the truth is not in us" seems to be a little different from the truth not being known by us at all. No doubt every Christian is expected to know the truth by God's teaching. Here, at any rate, the odd wording stands out. It traces the self-deception to the truth not being ours inside. The truth should be "in us," not just believed and admitted by us.
Kelly also weighs who actually talks this way.
This statement is so strong that it makes you doubt whether people so deluded could really be Christians… Yet quite a few hold these theories, and it would be wrong to think they were not Christians. They probably mean that they never give in to sin. Even that is a bold thing for them to say.
Admitting that sin is in us is not the same as saying it rules us. The verse before it supplies the answer.
No intelligent Christian says he has no sin. The flesh, in which there is no good thing, is always there. But as to salvation, if the Spirit of God dwells in us, we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, even though the flesh is in us. And the words just before this verse are "the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin" — God's answer to the flesh being there.
The denial does not last, because life keeps disproving it.
The old nature stays unchanged and unchangeable, side by side, so to speak, with the new nature… And the folly of those who have deceived themselves in this way will show itself sooner or later. It has often come out in an outburst of temper, a display of pride, or a bad fall.
- Root — the claim John rejects denies our sinful nature, not just sinful deeds; sins grow on a sin tree, so denying the tree means claiming you cannot sin at all.
- Light — walking in God's light does not remove what is inside us; it requires us to confess what we are by nature.
- Deception — the claim fools no one but the claimant, and time exposes it through a fall, an outburst, or pride.
- Truth — the failure is not that they do not know the truth, but that it is not theirs inside; truth should be in us, not just believed and admitted.
- Cleansing — the honest admission rests on the sentence just before it: the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. That is God's answer to the flesh still being there.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us [our] sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God is light, and the letter has just said that anyone who claims to have no sin is fooling himself — so how can people who still sin stay in real fellowship with Him? The promise turns on two things: what confession means, and why this verse calls forgiveness just instead of kind.
The verse does not say "if we ask to be forgiven." It names a different act, and commentators press the difference hard.
It is a much easier thing for a child to ask for pardon for some fault than to confess it. We may ask pardon for some particular sin, and Scripture gives us no ground to know it is gone. But when we confess it, faith knows it is gone. The moment I have judged myself about it, I am entitled to know that it is gone.
Asking for pardon leaves room for excuses. Real confession, one writer argues, strips those away and leaves only two facts in the room.
Coming to God merely to seek forgiveness may or may not be accompanied with full confession. If someone only wants forgiveness, he will plead his circumstances and his weakness as excuses. He wants God to have some ground for forgiving other than what is in God Himself. But in true confession there is no talk of the pressure of circumstances or of one's own weakness... It is a question solely of "Your grace" and my self-will. His grace would have kept me; I refused it.
The verse could have said God is merciful. It says He is faithful and just, and that raises the question: faithful to whom?
Faithful and just towards whom? Towards Christ! Christ bore our sins in His own body on the cross (1 Peter 2:24). When you confess your sins to God, believing that Christ bore them on the cross, God would be unfaithful and unjust towards Christ if He didn't forgive you. It would be the same as if God said, "I am not satisfied with what Christ did when He died for your sins, so I must still hold them against you." Christ paid the debt in full. Can you imagine God being so unjust to Christ as to still hold you accountable?
If a believer's sins are already forgiven, why does this verse still offer forgiveness? One writer answers that Scripture uses the word in two senses, and this verse covers both.
Scripture speaks of forgiveness in a second sense too. A child of God sins, and his communion with God is broken. When he confesses that sin, he is forgiven — not in the sense that the sin was never charged to him, as in Romans 4:7-8, but in the sense that his communion and joy are restored. This verse (1 John 1:9) is a general statement. It fits the sinner who comes to God for the first time and confesses his sins: he is forgiven once for all, on the ground of Christ's death. It also fits the child of God who has sinned and confesses: he receives the Father's forgiveness as a child.
Forgiveness deals with guilt; the second half of the promise deals with defilement. Commentators are careful to say what this cleansing is not.
Unrighteousness in a Christian calls for confession. We need not only the sense of God's pardon, but also the removal of the stain that sin leaves on the spirit. This cleansing does not come by applying the blood to the believer again. It comes through the word of God working on the defiled spirit.
There is a practical result too. Confession does something to us as well as for us.
Confession of sin means the judgment in our own hearts and minds of what we confess. And that means cleansing from its influence and deliverance from its power.
Confession does not begin with us. The next verses of the letter introduce an Advocate with the Father. A second Advocate works inside the believer.
If anyone sins, the blessed Advocate above pleads with the Father for him. He presents the full worth of His atoning work. He prays for the one who has failed, because He Himself bore the judgment of that very sin. Then the other Advocate, the Spirit, works in the conscience. He produces repentance and confession. He brings the soul back into the light, with the sweet sense that the sin is forgiven, the unrighteousness cleansed, and the communion fully restored. "He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake." (Psalm 23:3)
- Light exposes. God's light shows the sin, and the Spirit works in the conscience so the sin is judged and owned rather than covered.
- Confession, not excuses. Excuses ask God to forgive on some other ground. True confession drops the defence and owns self-will against His grace.
- Justice, not pity. God is faithful and just because Christ bore those sins. To refuse a confessing soul would wrong Christ Himself.
- Two forgivenesses, one verse. The sinner coming for the first time is forgiven once for all. The child who has sinned receives the Father's forgiveness, and broken communion is restored.
- Cleansing, then restoration. God forgives the guilt and removes the stain. The Word does that cleansing, not a fresh application of the blood, and the soul comes back into the light.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
John closes this chapter about walking in the light with a third false claim: someone denies ever having sinned. The charge is not that such a person is mistaken, but that he contradicts God Himself.
Three times in this chapter someone "says" something that the light exposes. Each answer is heavier than the last. One writer lays the sequence out side by side:
There are three points in 1 John 1... "If we say we have fellowship with Him"; "If we say we have no sin"; "If we say we have not sinned." In the first case, "we lie and do not practice the truth." In the second, "We deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." In the third, "We make God a liar, and His word is not in us." In the first, what we claim contradicts how we live... In the second, we judge ourselves falsely and are self-deceived... "If we say we have not sinned," then "we make God a liar," for He has said we have. And His word, in which He has declared it, is not in us, though we may pretend to accept it outwardly.
Misleading yourself is bad. Calling God a liar is far worse:
To "mislead ourselves" was bad in the presence of the light that ought to show us as we are. Yet it was a small thing compared with making God a liar. There you dare to blaspheme. There you attack God recklessly at the most sensitive point of His honour. For what matters more to God than His truthfulness or His holiness?
Verse 8 and verse 10 are often blurred together, but the wording differs deliberately — one is about a present nature, the other about a past record.
To "say that we have no sin" (verse 8) is ignorance of myself. "If we say that we have not sinned" (verse 10) is a plain denial of God's testimony. But "have not sinned" looks back at the past; it does not speak of our sinning now. "We have no sin" is present, because it is a nature in me which the truth makes me know.
The same distinction shows why the second denial reaches further than the first — it touches what God has publicly said about the whole human race:
We can see therefore a necessary difference between this assertion that "we have not sinned" and that "we have no sin." The one speaks of acts committed; the other may go deeper, to search out the sin which is in our nature.
Verse 8 offers no test — self-deception exposes itself. Verse 10 does offer one, and it is a written statement you either accept or contradict.
There is a test for this claim: the Word of God. To make such an absurd statement is to set ourselves against the Word of God and to make Him a liar. He states clearly that we have sinned, and that ends the matter. We cannot contradict His Word and still have His Word living in us.
God does not treat this claim as an honest mistake:
He does not say that they are mistaken, or ignorant, or deceived. He says that they call Him a liar. No one takes it lightly to be called a liar, even though all men are liars. How much more, then, does God — the God Who is light by nature — feel the insolent refusal of His creature to accept His word.
Commentators differ on the target. Some read it as a description of an unconverted person, however religious:
This again is the proud arrogance of unbelief, denying that its actions have been sinful. This superior, self-deceiving attitude belongs only to someone with no life at all... Honestly facing sin is one of the clearest effects of being in the light.
Others apply it to believers who claim a sinless life, and trace the claim to neglect of Scripture:
Some have applied this verse to the unsaved. It has nothing to do with the sinner. It relates to a true believer who presumes to claim that he lives without sinning. And the reason why children of God make such unscriptural claims is that they pay no attention to His Word.
Where His word is missing, the denial follows. Where His word is present, confession follows — and that is where every believer began.
Where His word is in us, we admit gladly and humbly that we have sinned... And what do we say, we who belong to Christ on high? What did we say as we came out of darkness into light? Did we not begin with that? Yes, we began with what we never forget. All truly converted souls say, "We have sinned."
- Three claims. "We have fellowship" while walking in darkness is a lie. "We have no sin" is self-deception. "We have not sinned" makes God a liar. The same light exposes all three, and each answer is graver than the last.
- Two words. "No sin" denies a present nature. "Not sinned" denies the past. The second denies God's own testimony that we have sinned.
- One test. His word is the test. To contradict that word is to prove it is not in us.
- The charge. God does not call such a person mistaken or ignorant. He treats the claim as calling Him a liar, at the very point of His honour.
- The reversal. Where His word is in us, we say what He says. Every believer's first words were "we have sinned" — the confession that verse 10 refuses.