1 John 1:5 - Meaning and Application

The apostle has already shown the truth and worth of the One who gives the gospel. Now he brings a message from him, and that message calls for honest thought and careful self-examination from all who profess religion and claim to receive this glorious gospel.

The message comes from the Lord Jesus, the Son of God: “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you” (1 John 1:5). Jesus sent the apostles, and he is the main person in the earlier verses, so the pronoun “him” points to him. The apostles and other gospel ministers are Christ’s messengers, and their greatest honor is to bring his mind and his words to the world and the churches. The Lord Jesus chose to send his message to us through people like ourselves, and he honors weak human vessels by putting his treasure in them.

What they heard, they were eager to pass on. A message from the Word of life, the eternal Word, should be welcomed with joy. Here is the message: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). This speaks of God’s greatness, beauty, purity, wisdom, holiness, and glory. It also speaks of the full perfection of all that he is, with no flaw, no mixture of evil, no change, and no decay in him.

This also points especially to God’s moral perfection, the holiness of his nature and will, which we are meant to copy and which should shape our gospel life. It includes his pure holiness, his searching knowledge, especially of the heart, and his holy anger against sin and injustice, which burn with bright intensity. It is fitting that to this dark world, the great God should be shown as perfect light. The Lord Jesus opens the name and nature of the unseen God better than anyone else. “The only Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known” (John 1:18).

This is one of the highest gifts of the Christian revelation, that it gives us the noblest and most fitting account of the blessed God. It matches what reason can learn, the greatness of the works around us, and the nature of the One who rules and judges the world. What better summary of all holy excellence could there be than this: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5)?

From this message, there is a serious conclusion for all who profess faith. If we say that we have fellowship with God, but we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. To walk, in Scripture, means the whole course of a person’s life. To walk in darkness means to live by ignorance, error, and sinful practice, against the clear teaching of our holy religion.

Some may claim great religious experience and say they enjoy fellowship with God, while their lives remain immoral and unclean. The apostle says plainly that such people lie. They lie against God, because God does not share heavenly fellowship with unholy hearts. “What fellowship can light have with darkness?” They also lie about themselves, because they have no true access to God and no real communion from him. Their words are false, and their lives prove their claims false.

But if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. God is eternal light, and Christ, the Mediator, brings that light to the world. The Christian faith is the great light that shines in our world. When a person lives in keeping with that light, in heart and conduct, it shows true fellowship with God. Such people show that they know God, have received his Spirit, and bear his image in their souls.

Then we have fellowship with one another, with other believers and with God himself, through his blessed gifts to us. One of those gifts is this, that the blood, or death, of his Son is applied to us. “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). The eternal Son became Jesus Christ by taking on flesh and blood. He shed his blood for us and died to wash us from our sins in his own blood. His blood removes the guilt of all sin, both inherited sin and sins we have personally committed, and in that way we stand righteous in God’s sight. More than that, his blood brings the holy help by which sin is more and more put down, until it is fully done away with (Galatians 3:13-14).