Daily Thoughts from 1 John: Fear of Exposure (1:5-7)

Daily Thoughts from 1 John: Fear of Exposure

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.  (1 John 1:5-7 ESV)

John begins with establishing a basic principle.  There is no darkness at all in the God who is light.  This contrast suggests that “light” represents God’s absolute purity of character, the light by which we see everything clearly and do not stumble around dangerously, the true leader on the pathway of holiness and righteousness.  He is sinless perfection, loving in every single decision and action.

Such a characteristic is at once awe inspiring and fearsome.  There is plenty of darkness in me.  Being in connection with the God who is light exposes the darkness in me.  So John begins explaining to his readers that there are three possible responses unbelievers make to this exposure and three right responses believers make.  The first one for each is in verses 6 and 7 respectively.

1st possible response by unbelievers — Unbelievers see the darkness of their souls exposed by the light of God, normally through the company of those who are believers (Jesus said that we are the light of the world, Matthew 5:14).  In fear that they will be seen as sinners they put on a pretense of having fellowship with God.  They are living sinful lives but say they are in connection with the God who is light.  In so doing, they lie to those around them and do not practice the truth.  This is HYPOCRISY.

Proper response of the believer — In contrast, believers walk in the light.  That is, they purposely expose and bare themselves to God’s searching light so that the darkness in them will become apparent.  By fellowshiping with God in this way they therefore have fellowship, true fellowship, with other believers, not seeking to hide their sin and darkness but seeking to grow in grace.  And by so exposing themselves to the Light the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses them from all sin.  This is INTEGRITY.

Unbelievers fear the judgment of God when their sin is exposed.  Believers know they have been covered by Christ’s sacrifice and need not fear judgment.  God is for us, even or especially in the exposure of the sin in our lives.  He wants to root it out for our good, for our healing and freedom.  Like the sun which dries up wet and rotting places, so God’s light heals our inner darkness.  Implicit in this idea is that such cleansing is a process, not a one-time event.

We may suppose that those adhering to the error at Ephesus, the knockoff version of Christianity, were displaying hypocrisy as one of their responses to God’s light.  But a believer can let this same wrong response slip into his or her life when we succumb to the wrong belief that we are responsible for our own righteousness before God instead of His development of it in our lives through the process John describes.