If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. 

These are some pretty powerful words. I don’t think that this scripture needs any sort of interpretation for anyone to understand what is being said, so I am going to focus on a couple of key points that I think would be very important for everyone to understand. Verse 8 says, “… the truth is not in us,” while verse 10 says, “… his word is not in us.” These verses, in paralleling each other, make the claim that there is “a truth” as in an absolute truth, and that scripture is it. We can also see this in 2 Timothy 3:16a, where Paul tells us that “All scripture is God-breathed,” or maybe “All scripture is inspired by God,” depending on just what translation you are using.

Something else that this scripture tells us is that “good” is not good enough. My travels outside of the USA have thus far been fairly limited, so I won’t attempt to speak on humanity as a whole, but rather I’m just going to pick on Americans. There seems to be a notion going around that if you are a “good person” then you will go to heaven after your death. There’s a problem with this. Heaven is perfect. Not just good, but perfect. How can a “good person” belong in a place that is perfect? The answer: they can’t. Going back to this passage, we come to an understanding that we all have sinned. No exceptions. Sorry if that hurts your pride, but that also has no place in heaven (Job 35). So the question now becomes, “how do we become perfect?” The answer is in verse 7.

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This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by 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, purifies us from all sin.

I thought about separating verses 5 and 6 from verse 7, but I guess my days of preaching “hell, fire and brimstone” and straight bible-thumping are past, so I will go ahead and add the promise of light to the threat that comes with darkness in this passage.So God is light. Not just any light, but a perfect light, for there is “no darkness at all.” Have you ever paid attention to an empty stage when a spot light is on? From a couple years of technical theater I can tell you that anything you shine that light on will be brightly illuminated. This is what it is like when we are in fellowship with Christ. We are walking in His light. However, if we simply take a step in the wrong direction, we are no longer in the spotlight. There are clear boundaries to the spotlight, as there are to His will. I believe that what this passage is telling us (and this will continue as we move further into 1 John) is that when we sin, we are no longer in fellowship with Christ. Do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that we lose our salvation. I believe that once we are saved, there is nothing that we can do to lose our salvation, however though we may be saved, that doesn’t mean that we are in fellowship with Him.Have you ever been in a relationship with someone and gotten in a bad argument? You may still love the other person, however with the clash in interests, you may not feel particularly close to that person at the moment. This is very similar to what happens when we let our own interests get in the way of God’s interest. We let our sins divide us from Him, and though He still loves us, we have stepped away from Him, and out of the light.–AD

I’m still here! I haven’t been posting here on WordPress, but I have been posting on my .Mac website. I recently managed to kill off my old posts (by my own lack of foresight) because I did not back up all of my information before doing some work on my computer. I don’t know if I will come back here to post, but I will keep posting over on my personal website. If you are interested, check out the link below.

web.mac.com/alex.dubois

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