Walking in Light; 1 John 1:6-7
1 John 1:6 NASB
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him and {yet} walk in the darkness, we
lie and do not practice the truth;
1 John 1:7 but if we walk in
the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Various claims were made
by the teachers at that time: that they really weren’t sinners,
that they didn’t sin, that the sin didn’t really have an impact on their
relationship with God because if Christ has already paid the penalty for all of
my sins then it really doesn’t matter what I do. So this, then, became a
rationalism of excuse for continuing to sin in a licentious manner without ever
having to honestly deal with the prohibitions of the Scriptures. This is set
forth in several “if” clauses in the English: v. 6, “If we say that we have
fellowship with Him”; v. 7, “If we walk in the light”; v.9, “If we confess”; v.
10, “If we say.” These are called hypothetical or conditional clauses. In
English there is only one way to state and “if” clause. The
“if” clause itself is called the protasis. Then there is the concluding
clause, the “then” clause, and that is called the apodosis. The “if” clause
expresses a condition or a supposition; the “then” clause expresses the results
of the supposition.
The Greek language is much
more precise in the way it expresses conditional clauses. It has four different
ways and each expresses a different nuance. The first class condition indicates
that the condition was more probable or likely—if, and assuming it is true. In
the second class condition the “if” clause is not viewed as probable—if, and it
is not true. The third class condition is the condition of a possibility—maybe
it will, maybe it won’t; it could go either way. The fourth class condition is
a wish—if it were so, I wish it were, but it is not. There are all kinds of
shades of meaning that we can pack into “if” clauses, and what we have here,
down through verse 10, are five third class conditions: maybe we do this; maybe
we do not do this. These are options in the believer’s life.
“If we say…” The next
question we have to ask exegetically is, who is the
“we”? This is a first person plural pronoun. The “we” is I, John the apostle,
secondarily, but it is not I and the audience, and it is not just anybody. It
we take that “we” as anybody and make it “if anybody says that they have fellowship
with Him and walk in the darkness, then they are a liar and don’t practice the
truth.” That is what that would mean, and we could take that and say it was
talking about unbelievers who aren’t saved. If the “we” were to refer to John and
his readers, then it would indicate “if we (you and I) say that we have fellowship
with Him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth,” and
John might be using “we” to mean you. Then it could also be stretched to mean
believer and unbeliever, and he would be saying then that if you claim to have
fellowship to God and you are living a certain lifestyle in darkness and not
practicing the truth then maybe you are not saved. There are those who do that.
But once we understand that to be consistent the “we” here has to mean “I,” John
first and foremost and the apostles as a group with him secondarily, and that
is the meaning primarily, it can’t be applied to an unbeliever. It absolutely
excludes believer versus unbeliever as the issue in 1st John.
More people get confused
over this and end up in going in all kinds of strange directions in 1st
John because they want to make the tests that we will study in the epistle
tests of whether or not we are saved or not. The implication of that is that if
you are committing certain acts or not obeying Scripture in a certain way then
maybe you aren’t really saved to begin with. This is one of the major planks in
the position of what is called “Lordship salvation.” They interpret these to be
tests of faith—how to know whether or not you are really saved. The problem
with all of that is that is that you really don’t ever know that you are really
saved, because what happens ten or twenty years from now if I start not doing
these things or failing these “tests of faith” that are in 1st John?
So there is no real assurance of faith in what is called Lordship salvation,
you don’t really ever know that you are saved.
1 John
1:6 NASB “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and {yet} walk
in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” John is saying through the use of a third class
condition here that it is possible even for him as an apostle to make a false
claim with relationship to fellowship, and even as an apostle he cam walk in
darkness. That is important because there are many who think that walking in
darkness is tantamount to being an unbeliever. What we have just demonstrated
by looking at the meaning of “we” is that if it means John then John admits that
it is potential for him to walk in darkness. So walking in darkness, then, can’t
be related to salvation but signifies something other than salvation. That
affects verse 7.
1 John 1:7 NASB
“but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship
with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” So
the we and us all relate to the apostolic group. He is
using themselves as an example. This tells us that
this is not talking about believers versus unbelievers.
The doctrine of walking
1. The key word here is peripateo
[peripatew] which means to walk. Figuratively the word is used
for how one conducts oneself, to behave in a particular manner, or to live.
Walk refers to a lifestyle. It emphasises that our life is lived one moment at
a time, one decision at a times. Sometimes its metaphorical meaning may extend
to the entire panorama of a person’s life, including thought life and overt
action. Physically, walking is one of then best forms of exercise. Spiritual
walking works all of the spiritual skills from confession of sin all the way
through to inner happiness. It exercises the muscles of the spiritual life, it
increases the circulation of doctrine in the soul, it improves the inhale and
exhale of doctrine, it eliminates the waste of human viewpoint from the soul
and replaces it with divine viewpoint, and it strengthens the soul through the
construction of our soul fortress which protects and defends the soul from the
outside pressure of adversity and prosperity. So walking, therefore, it a term
that encapsulates everything related to spiritual life—our spiritual life and
our spiritual growth.
2. Walking, then, is a crucial term to describe the
characteristics of the believer’s life and the overall or the general mandate
is to walk worthy. Ephesians 1:4 NASB “Therefore I, the prisoner of
the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you
have been called.” This isn’t legalism, it is responsibility. Colossians
3. The negatives: Ephesians 4:17, we are to walk not in
the emptiness of our minds like the Gentiles. 2 Corinthians 4:2, we are not to
walk in craftiness (deceitful cunning). Walking also involves living by means
of something or action. This is indicated by the instrumental use dative of
means. This emphasises the fact that we are to walk by means of the Holy Spirit,
by means of His Word, by means of the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Then we
are to walk according to a norm or a standard, and that norm or standard is
expressed in God’s Word. Galatians
4. The basis for the believer’s walk is his new position
in Jesus Christ. Romans 6:4. We are identified with Christ in His baptism so
that we might walk in newness of life. That is the purpose for the believer’s
life, to demonstrate the power of God in sanctification in phase two
spirituality.
5. Another key verse says that a believer is to walk as a
child of light because positionally he is already
light. Ephesians 5:8 NASB “for you were formerly darkness [positional
darkness: unbelievers], but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of
Light.” When we trust Christ as saviour we are placed in Christ. This is
positional light. Outside of Christ is positional darkness. Positional light
and positional darkness are not the same as experiential light and experiential
darkness. Paul says to the Ephesian believers: “Walk
as children of Light.” If walking in light is the same as being in light, then
he wouldn’t say that. When he tells them they are children of light he still
has to tell them to walk as children of light. So what we see here is the
reality that the believer can be light but not walk as light.
1 John 1:6 NASB
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him and {yet} walk in the darkness
[operate on the sin nature], we lie and do not practice the truth.” In contrast
he says [7] “but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from
all sin.” So fellowship, then, is based on a certain type of lifestyle. As soon
as that lifestyle if violated through sin that fellowship is broken. That last
clause in v. 7 establishes the basis for cleansing: “and the blood of Jesus His
Son cleanses us from all sin.” This is a reference to His substitutionary
spiritual death on the cross.