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?
Where we walk, not how we walk
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.
"As He is in the light"
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.
Fellowship one with another
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.
What the light reveals is the worth of the blood
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.
Sin still in us
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.
Why "cleanses" is present tense
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.
Summary
- 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.