1 John 1:7

1:5-10 A message from the Lord Jesus, the Word of life, the eternal Word, we should all gladly receive. The great God should be represented to this dark world, as pure and perfect light. As this is the nature of God, his doctrines and precepts must be such. And as his perfect happiness cannot be separated from his perfect holiness, so our happiness will be in proportion to our being made holy. To walk in darkness, is to live and act against religion. God holds no heavenly fellowship or intercourse with unholy souls. There is no truth in their profession; their practice shows its folly and falsehood. The eternal Life, the eternal Son, put on flesh and blood, and died to wash us from our sins in his own blood, and procures for us the sacred influences by which sin is to be subdued more and more, till it is quite done away. While the necessity of a holy walk is insisted upon, as the effect and evidence of the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus, the opposite error of self-righteous pride is guarded against with equal care. All who walk near to God, in holiness and righteousness, are sensible that their best days and duties are mixed with sin. God has given testimony to the sinfulness of the world, by providing a sufficient, effectual Sacrifice for sin, needed in all ages; and the sinfulness of believers themselves is shown, by requiring them continually to confess their sins, and to apply by faith to the blood of that Sacrifice.

Let us plead guilty before God, be humble, and willing to know the worst of our case. Let us honestly confess all our sins in their full extent, relying wholly on his mercy and truth through the righteousness of Christ, for a free and full forgiveness, and our deliverance from the power and practice of sin.

But if we walk in the {d} light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, {4} and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (d) God is said to be light by his own nature, and to be in light, that is to say, in that everlasting infinite blessedness: and we are said to walk in light in that the beams of that light shine to us in the Word. (4) A digression the matter at hand, to the remission of sins: for this our sanctification who walk in the light, is a testimony of our joining and knitting together with Christ: but because this our light is very dark, we must obtain another benefit in Christ, that is, that our sins may be forgiven us being sprinkled with his blood: and this in conclusion is the support and anchor of our salvation.

But if we walk; which is a continued and progressive motion, i.e. do persevere and improve in holiness. In the light; being transformed into the holy image and likeness of God, and showing themselves the children of light, as he is light, and the Father of lights. We have fellowship one with another; have fellowship with him, met autou, as one copy reads: however, we must comprehend God, and this the contexture of discourse shows. And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin; kayarizei lest our purity and holiness should be thought to have deserved such a privilege, it is cautiously added, and the blood, & c. is that which alone expiates, or makes atonement for our sins (the proper notion of cleansing here). Our former sinfulness and present imperfect holiness render it impossible God should admit us to communion with him for our own sakes, or without such an intervening sacrifice; kayarmata usually signifying expiations. And if we further extend the notion of cleansing, so as to comprehend internal subjective purification, (which also the word may admit), the further meaning is, that even that purifying influence, whereby we are qualified for present holy walking with God, and for final blessedness in him, we owe to the merit and procurement of the Redeemer’s blood.

1 John 1:7 . Ὡς , as ) Imitation of God is the test of fellowship with Him.— αὐτὸς , He Himself ) God. So the Hebrews often say, הוא , He, that is, God. So αὐτὸς , 1Ma 3:22 .— ἔστιν , is) This word is more inward, and more worthy of God, than to walk.— κοινωνίαν ἔχομεν , we have fellowship) that is, Then we truly say, that we have fellowship: for walking in the light certainly and immediately follows this.— μετ ̓ ἀλλήλων ) mutual, between us and you: 1 John 1:3 : for ἀλλήλων , reciprocally, does not appear an appropriate expression respecting God and men: comp. John 20:17 . It is however an abbreviated expression: in 1 John 1:6 , with Him, understand from 1 John 1:7 , and among ourselves [and one with another]: in 1 John 1:7 , among us [one with another], understand from 1 John 1:6 , with Him. Comp. John 14:10 , note.— καὶ τὸ αἷμα , and the blood) Fellowship with the Son of God is described. Respecting the blood, comp. ch. 1 John 5:6 ; John 6:53-56 ; Revelation 1:5 .— καθαρίζει ἡμᾶς , cleanseth us) by remission and taking away: comp. 1 John 1:9 .— πάσης , all) original and actual.

We walk in the light (ἐν τῷ φωτὶ περιπατῶμεν) The phrase occurs only in the First Epistle. Walk, as above. In the light, having our life in God, who is light. He is in the light God is forever and unchangeable in perfect light. Compare Psalm 104:2; 1 Timothy 6:16. We walk, advancing in the light and by means of the light to more light. "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:18). One with another (μετ' ἀλλήλων) Not, we with God and God with us, but with our brethren. Fellowship with God exhibits and proves itself by fellowship with Christians. See 1 John 4:7, 1 John 4:12; 1 John 3:11, 1 John 3:23. Of Jesus Christ His Son Omit Christ. The human name, Jesus, shows that His blood is available for man. The divine name, His Son, shows that it is efficacious. I shall be rendering a service to students of John's Epistles by giving, in a condensed form, Canon Westcott's note, classifying the several names of our Lord and their uses in the Epistles. The name in John, as in the Bible elsewhere, has two distinct, but closely connected meanings. 1. The Revelation of the Divine Being by a special title. 2. The whole sum of the manifold revelations gathered up so as to form one supreme revelation. The latter sense is illustrated in 3 John 1:7, where "the name" absolutely includes the essential elements of the Christian creed, the complete revelation of Christ's work in relation to God and man.

Verse 7. - The contrary hypothesis is now stated, and the thought is carried a stage further (cf. verse 9). He again speaks conditionally ἐάν , and does so until 1 John 2:3 ; after which the participial substantive ὁ λέγων ὀ ἀαπῶν ὁ μισῶν represents the conditional clause. The change of verbs is significant: we walk , God is , in the light. We move through time; he is in eternity. Our activity involves change; his does not. Like the sun, he both is Light and dwells in the light; and if we walk in the light, which is his atmosphere, we have fellowship one with another. Darkness is an unsocial condition, and this the light expels. From verse 6 we might have expected, "we have fellowship with him;" and some inferior authorities read μετ αὐτοῦ . But St. John's repetitions are not mere repetitions: the thought is always recur or reset to carry us a step further (cf. verses 3, 4). Having fellowship with one another is a sure result of that fellowship with God which is involved in walking in the light. "Here is a reply to those who would restrain Catholic communion to their own sect" (Wordsworth). Another result of walking in the light is that the blood of Jesus (his sacrificial death) cleanses us day by day continually (present tense) from our frequent sins of frailty. This cleansing is not the same as forgiveness of sins (verse 9). The latter is the case of ὁ λελουμένος , the man that is bathed ( John 13:10 ); the former is the frequent washing of the feet (cf.

Revelation 7:14 ; Revelation 22:14 ). The expression, the blood of Jesus, in Christian theology, "is dogma with pathos.... It implies, as no other word could do, the reality (1) of the human body of Jesus, (2) of his sufferings, (3) of his sacrifice." By his blood new life-blood is infused into human nature. 1 John 1:7

7. Compare Eph 5:8, 11-14. "We walk"; "God is (essentially in His very nature as 'the light,' 1Jo 1:5) in the light." Walking in the light, the element in which God Himself is, constitutes the test of fellowship with Him. Christ, like us, walked in the light (1Jo 2:6). Alford notices, Walking in the light as He is in the light, is no mere imitation of God, but an identity in the essential element of our daily walk with the essential element of God's eternal being. we have fellowship one with another—and of course with God (to be understood from 1Jo 1:6). Without having fellowship with God there can be no true and Christian fellowship one with another (compare 1Jo 1:3). and—as the result of "walking in the light, as He is in the light." the blood of Jesus … cleanseth us from all sin—daily contracted through the sinful weakness of the flesh, and the power of Satan and the world. He is speaking not of justification through His blood once for all, but of the present sanctification ("cleanseth" is present tense) which the believer, walking in the light and having fellowship with God and the saints, enjoys as His privilege.

Compare Joh 13:10, Greek, "He that has been bathed, needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit." Compare 1Jo 1:9, "cleanse us from all unrighteousness," a further step besides "forgiving us our sins." Christ's blood is the cleansing mean, whereby gradually, being already justified and in fellowship with God, we become clean from all sin which would mar our fellowship with God. Faith applies the cleansing, purifying blood. Some oldest manuscripts omit "Christ"; others retain it.

But if we walk in the light - Compare the notes at 1 John 1:5 . Walking in the light may include the three following things: (1) Leading lives of holiness and purity; that is, the Christian must be characteristically a holy man, a light in the world, by his example. (2) walking in the truth; that is, embracing the truth in opposition to all error of paganism and infidelity, and having clear, spiritual views of truth, such as the unrenewed never have. See 2 Corinthians 4:6; 1 Corinthians 2:9-15; Ephesians 1:18. (3) enjoying the comforts of religion; that is, having the joy which religion is fitted to impart, and which it does impart to its true friends, Psalm 94:19; Isaiah 57:8; 2 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 13:11. Compare the notes at John 12:35. As he is in the light - In the same kind of light that he has. The measure of light which we may have is not the same in degree, but it is of the same kind. The true Christian in his character and feelings resembles God. We have fellowship one with another - As we all partake of his feelings and views, we shall resemble each other. Loving the same God, embracing the same views of religion, and living for the same ends, we shall of course have much that is common to us all, and thus shall have fellowship with each other. And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin - See the sentiment here expressed fully explained in the notes at Hebrews 9:14.