Verse 6 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.”
John sets forth the first ideal which may be denied by us in our practise of Christianity. God is seeking to establish this ideal on earth now for His own pleasure and purpose as well as for our joy. To realise the ideal on earth we must understand the ideal already established in heaven by God in His setting there a Man in supremacy, in glory, in the light. What is true of Him there will be true of us if our response to God is right. The place He occupies in the presence of God, in the light, within the veil, we are called to occupy spiritually, even while still on earth. This is fellowship with Him to possess His life and share His place, in light, with Him. The apostolic brand of Christianity professes this ideal but our response to God, the sort of Christianity we profess, may not measure up to this. What is not of God, what is of evil, may come in and ruin this fellowship into which we are called.
It is fashionable nowadays for christians to believe they should have fellowship with other christians just because they are made fellow-possessors of eternal life. This fellowship is based upon the grounds of the unity of ‘the church which is His body’ rather than upon the unity of the faith, the acceptance of all the essential doctrines of Christianity. Scripture declares categorically that we have fellowship one with another if we walk in the light, the fulness of divine light now shining for us on earth. Our fellowship with God as individuals depends upon our possession of eternal life and that makes it unbreakable. Our fellowship with one another is conditional and can be broken. We are, or should be, bound together constitutionally into a fellowship of revealed truth. Yet this ideal may not be entered into effectively. Evil can break this fellowship among the company if we do not use the means for dealing with it which God has set at our disposal.
The three possible hindrances to full and effective christian fellowship, which we shall see as we proceed, are the world (vs 6-7), the flesh (vs 8-9) and the devil (v.10). These are the enemies of the people of God in every age which seek to prevent them from attaining to the ideal set before them in the family fellowship described by God. In fact they are deliberately set before the people of God so that, in overcoming them, His people might acquire increasing spiritual ability.
Those who claim to be a christian community, a church of God in Pauline terms, but who walk in darkness, live a spiritual lie and militate against the realising of the purpose for which they have been called. The fellowship is outworked by the “we”, the responsible people of God. This is the people of God in their togetherness with the Son of God, Jesus Christ. They have said that they have effectively entered into the partnership which God has opened up potentially between His Son and those who possess His life on earth.
Yet it is possible for such people to walk in the darkness. This is the spiritual darkness of nature, particularly human nature, which exists apart from the light of divine revelation. This natural realm, despite God’s purposeful intervention, remains under the dominating influence of evil. So if natural things form part of our Christianity, to that extent we walk in the darkness for, according to God, the world cannot appreciate or discern ‘spiritual light’. Those who profess such ‘Christianity’ seek to use it to make the world a better place, to become involved in worldly things and issues. They view christian fellowship as having been established by God on earth in order to bring Christ’s kingdom to earth universally by their own abilities. To them this is ‘the church triumphant’. Such is Christendom.
This is an obvious contradiction of revealed truth, which shows that the churches rather than ‘the church’ are here not to improve the world but to appreciate God. The people of God are not called to go on walking according to outward appearances and their own natural appreciation of those appearances. They are not to walk as if the Word of God were not completed.
By natural birth we become alive in the flesh, in the natural realm which is running its present course under evil’s influence. By spiritual rebirth the people of God are introduced into a new realm. In it they live before God in the present possession of eternal life with the Word of God to govern them. God sees us, and we should see ourselves, as only being alive before Him in this new realm in which christian fellowship is enjoyed and practised.
Worldly-minded, do-gooding christians are involved in vanity and darkness. They miss the present opportunity which God affords them of a ppreciating the truth. This is the revealed truth whereby the Person and work of God is made known to us. This Word of God is given to His people so that by them it may produce a present effect in the world. This is a spiritual work for the ultimate benefit of creation and not a natural work for the present benefit of man in this world. The people of God should be working for the ultimate bringing-in of good and the removal of evil from creation. They receive truth and should be doing christian good by devoting themselves to divine revelation. They come to know God Himself and become fully mature spiritually in this new fellowship in conflict with the powers of darkness. God will ultimately, in the day of manifestation, administer the blessing of the world-to-come by a glorified people which such a fellowship has secured for Him.
To summarise, John is setting forth the ideal, the Christ of Christianity, as being in the light. In full measure, in perfect complacency and compatibility, He is in the light, a Man in Deity. The incarnation has to do with Deity coming down, in a spiritual sense, into humanity. Christianity has to do with man being received up into the presence of God. This is the ultimate state of created perfection and Christ has arrived at this in His glorified humanity. Meanwhile, on earth, in purposeful Christianity, we live spiritually rather than physically or morally in His life. If we see ourselves as God sees us and walk accordingly, we have fellowship in the true sense and in the most effective way with those who are so enlightened.
Verse 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.”
John proceeds to show that this does not mean that we have to arrive at a state of spiritual perfection, full growth, before we can enjoy the benefits of such fellowship. It does not mean that there must be no sin on the part of those who are called to enter into fellowship with one another. The system of fellowship into which God establishes us on earth is so great that provision is made in it whereby natural sinfulness among its adherents and exponents need not break it.
We have to realise the greatness of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, and appreciate the full significance and virtue of His death for us which makes us His own. It cleanses us from all sin, from every single sin. As God sees us – and as we must see ourselves if we are to have unbroken fellowship with one another – not a single sin attaches to the individuals who make up the fellowship which is in the light. What we are in this world by nature need not and will not hinder fellowship if we realise the virtue of the blood of Christ for us spiritually. Our human, earthly deficiencies remain but do not exist in the spiritual sphere in which we have fellowship with one another. God has Himself dealt with the nature which sins by the blood of Christ which cleanses sin. To see fleshly sin in others in the fellowship is to be governed by sight, by natural appearances and not by the Word of God. Such a fellowship becomes a worldly fellowship, denying the spiritual efficacy of the blood of Christ and thereby preventing the attainment of the spiritual ideal.
Christian fellowship is the fellowship of the blood of Christ. “The cup which we bless, is it not the fellowship of the blood of Christ?”, 1 Cor.10. The fellowship embodies what has resulted on earth in the present time from the completed earthly work of Christ. God has established a fellowship of those who are now partakers of the divine nature and subsequently formed into a spiritual unity on earth by their mutual obedience to revealed truth. Christianity is a post-crucifixion system or development: the cross and what it means for us stamps its character upon it. Christianity is a setting-aside of nature, even of Christ in flesh, as the means whereby God will realise His ultimate intentions. By the death of Jesus Christ His Son, He has established an entirely new thing, in heaven and on earth, which need not and will not be ruined by the sin which brought down all that preceded it.
Verse 8 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
The second hindrance to establishing the true christian fellowship is set forth by John in vs 8 and 9. “If we say (aorist) that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves”. Here the basic error is in the profession that fellowship in Christianity is based upon moral perfection. A fellowship which is only for morally perfect, self-righteous people is a fellowship of self-deception and is not of God. A brand of Christianity dedicated to the improvement of human nature with the view to perfecting it is not one which John cares to own. Christian perfection is not moral or social despite the fact that Christianity has become almost universally accepted as an ethic. Spiritual perfection, the full growth of the new man, is the good that is set before us, man in possession of the full knowledge of God. Effective partnership in the things of God is the way to achieve this. In God’s sight, as it should be in ours, “old things have passed away”. We can only improve the old nature in our own eyes and if we week to perfect it, we develop spiritual pride and become critical of others. The tendency then will be to break the fellowship.
The flesh, ordinary human nature, is made important and significant in a puritanical fellowship and thereby we deceive ourselves. Every other religion, except ideal Judaism and ideal Christianity, is a system for the improvement of human nature, formed to alter the moral and social character and course of the present world. But the old nature is incorrigibly evil before God and has been replaced in the new system, Christianity, by the new nature, divine life begotten in man. A fellowship of spiritual partnership in which the flesh counts is one that does not take account of revealed truth.
It is a perfect Christ-like fellowship which God looks for, not a perfect Adam on earth. The only perfect Adam God ever found was the One who was The Last Adam in His reckoning, Christ, 1 Cor. 15:45. The tendency nowadays is for christians to seek to be like Christ in the flesh, morally perfect – an impossibility. Rather, we should accept the truth as Paul had to do, Rom.7:18, ‘that in us dwells no good thing!’. If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and in practice the truth is not in us. A spiritually perfect assembly fellowship is the goal, not one whose members are morally, emotionally or socially perfect.
Verse 9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
John then proceeds to show how this possible hindrance to fellowship – the misconception based upon introducing Adam into the sphere which can only be occupied by Christ – is provided for in Christianity. If we see and feel the activity in ourselves and in others in the fellowship of a nature which sins, then we are seeing and feeling what God does not see because He looks upon the efficacy of Christ’s death as applied to us. Because of the blood of Christ, God is faithful and just even in entertaining or dealing with such a people.
A superficial reading of verse 9 out of its context has caused many to believe – and accept as normal christian practice – that if a believer sins then his sin remains unforgiven until such time as he confesses it to God. This gives rise to the morally and spiritually reprehensible doctrine of keeping ‘short accounts’ with God, as if He could compromise with sin! Such an interpretation would constitute a contradiction of such scriptures as chapter 2:12 and Heb.10:14 and 17, viz. John contradicting himself and Paul.
John does not say that if we continue to confess our sins then Christ will continue to forgive them. He says that if we, collectively, in christian fellowship, as before, confess them as a basic fact of our present existence, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins. Again, “forgive” is in the aorist tense, an act complete in itself, not a repetitive forgiveness. Christianity brings out the character of the God with whom we have to do. Because of the virtue of the blood of the cross, the death of the Messiah, God can remain faithful to Himself in continuing to deal with men who are human failures, but who are spiritual successes in knowing Him and His system of truth. In verse 7, it is sin, i.e. the sinful nature. In verse 9 it is sins, the acts of such a nature. Though the flesh remains and continues to act in us, God does not reckon this in His dealings with us, Rom.8:9. We are clean, once-for-all, by the washing of the regeneration (the new nature in us) of the Word, Titus 3:5. Here John is not setting forthspiritual failure in the reception and practice of revealed truth: this is the next hindrance for which there is no remedy if it continues. The sins here are the sins of the old nature, the forgiveness of which brings out God’s faithfulness and righteousness. God would be unfaithful to the work of the Son and inherently unrighteous toward those who received the virtues of His completed act of redemption if He held against them their fleshly sins. The knowledge of this doctrine is not an encouragement to sin all the more at this level but a deterrent. “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”, John 8:32.
God is also faithful to cleanse (again aorist) us from all and every unrighteousness. He has acquired by Christ the spiritual ability to make those who are moral failures righteous, like Himself. Our righteousness, God’s making us righteous, has nothing to do with the flesh and its present state by worldly assessment. Neither our standing nor our state before God owes anything to what we are in the flesh. God has intervened in the course of nature and has demonstrated His ability to perform His purpose by begetting His nature in sinners and at the same time loosing them once-for-all from their sins and their spiritual consequences. Our sins still have moral, social, emotional or legal consequences but these are in the natural and not in the spiritual realm.
Christianity brings out the character and work of God for those who are the objects of blessing and who are being fitted to be the means of mediating blessing to all. God has brought man into this present benefit by the fitness which His own works, rather than their merits, confers upon them, so that collectively they may live spiritually significant lives.
Verse 10 “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
John then deals with the third hindrance to effective christian fellowship. Again it is that which constitutes basic christian fellowship that John sets forth, and the departure from essential truth which goes to form the fellowship. The language of this last verse in the chapter is very forceful, particularly in view of what would appear, on superficial reading and interpretation, to be rather a small error, viz. “If we say we have not sinned”. In fact, what is set forth here is the worst possible basic error which the people of God collectively can commit. By it we make Christ a liar, so obviously there is more to this verse than meets the natural eye. Those who so act, do so like the father of lies.
Another point is that, after the previous conceptual errors have been set forth – worldliness and fleshliness in orientation toward God – John shows divine provision for escaping from such error. That is, verse 7 qualifies the error of verse 6 and verse 9 that of verse 8. But there is no verse 11. There is no provision for those guilty of the error exposed in verse 10. The sort of Christianity practised by those who commit this error of verse 10 is a Christianity in which the Word of God is not given its rightful place and is not glorified. It is not wholly and solely based upon divine authority as given in the Word of God. Another authority, Satan’s, is owned. This is a misconception which is completely destructive of true Christianity and of what it can accomplish for God on earth in the present time. “If we say” (aorist) has, as before, to do with our basic christian beliefs. It is what a company of believers demands of those who would join it and subscribe to its aims. Here it is the claim ‘that we have not sinned’. Such a body of christians would claim that they had been so constituted by God that they could proceed with their christian life and service according to their own dictates without being subject to divine revelation. Their position would correspond to that of the Jewish nation in the days of the Lord Jesus. The Jews refused to accept His divine authority because His words conflicted with their accepted practice of Judaism. They transformed what was spiritual into a naturalistic religion. They taught for the oracles of God the traditions of men, Mark 7:7,8.
Ideally in Christianity, assembly fellowship is based upon, determined and governed by the Word of God, as given in the apostles’ teachings. Thereby there results on earth something which is of God and for God. This must have nothing in its constitution and practice which is not according to the Word of God. If this is not adhered to, we make Christ a liar and His Word is not in us. The local assembly, the fellowship, is ideally the depository of revealed truth on earth, “the pillar and support of the truth”, 1 Tim 3:15. In the day in which we live, spiritually, the present testimony is characterised by the Wor4d of God having been completed and being obediently expressed. We have no ecclesiastical authority to govern us. It is sadly possible to misconceive and misrepresent divine truth and to make God a liar. This is what Satan did originally. It is evil in its essence. Satan, the greatest created being, valued his own greatness so much that he believed he could bring ‘good’ into being in creation by his own conceptions and powers.
So also in the spiritual realm, rather than in the natural realm, God has raised up a fellowship by which and in which effective service will be rendered to the God of revelation. Thereby His ultimate intentions will be realised in creation. For this fellowship to be effective and successful it must be, in constitution and practice, exactly according to the Word of God. To interpose human ideas, however good they are naturally, is to ruin the divine establishment. It is to do what Satan did in pride, putting his own ideas into practice in conflict with divine revelation. It is to make the Christ the author of a lie, for such naturalistic ‘Christianity’ is a lie. “If we say we have not sinned”, then revealed truth is not being glorified by our response to receiving it. It is not then evoking the response for which God has given His Word to us. It is corrupting the temple and rendering ineffective what the temple of God, the church of God, is built up to contain and mediate. This is the revealed truth of God, which should be so held by us that our effective practice of Christianity would render it capable of being understood. Such is the importance of keeping assembly fellowship pure and exactly according to the Word of God.