This is a meaty passage, isn't it? And at first it seems a bit confusing. John seems to be saying that we cannot fellowship with God if we are still sinning, but also that we are sinners and to say differently is to make God a liar.
Let's consider the passage as a whole. John speaks of fellowship here--both with God and with one another. Fellowship is closely related in John's mind... with how we are living our lives. And we deceive ourselves when we try to pretend this isn't not so (i.e. I can live anyway I want and it should not affect our friendship in the least). Walking in the light is the way to have real fellowship with God and each other. In fact , in verses 8 and 10, John says that we cannot have God's truth (v.8) or his word (v.10) in us if we are not truthful about ourselves.
Now consider how John talks about sin and darkness here. We looked at v.5 last week and noticed that John was excited to share with them the truth that God is all light and that there is no "dark side" to him so that we can trust him utterly. Now he continues with this darkness idea in v. 6 by saying that we cannot fellowship, have an intimate relationship with God when we are walking in the darkness. So what does it mean for us to walk in the light? Does it mean to be sinless? Actually no, because John goes on to say in v.8 that we are deceiving ourselves when we claim we have no sin. And this seems to be following directly on his thought in v.6 about walking in the darkness. I think that John is saying that darkness involves deceit, being deceived about yourself and others. When we walk in darkness, we remain in a place of deceit. And what are we deceived about? About who we are, and where our source of life and identity truly lie. We say we are fellowshipping with God, but we are not receiving His light into our lives.
What ultimately is sin? Sin is not trusting God to be our life, not trusting Him to be the triune God He has revealed Himself to be. Sin is not just what we do wrong--the deeper part of sin is the lack of trust in God that these deeds spring from. Sin then is related to this deceit and darkness. And of course, deceit leads to a greater and greater desire to cover up the truth. We can become afraid of the light, because of what it may reveal. And this I think is why John begins by assuring his readers about the character of God. God is not deceiving us--if there is any light we can count on to be for us, it is God's light. It will not be easy for it to shine in our lives but we can be sure that it will lead to full life--fellowship with God and with others.
What may seem ironic is, that the way to step into the light is to admit we are in darkness, that we sin. God in other words, is not expecting me to be perfectly trusting of Him on my own, or to be perfect independent of Him (as if that were even possible!) I begin and continue to move forward by confessing to God that I am not counting on Him to be all that He is in my life. I hand over to Him my lack of trust and I stop deceiving myself that I am really very together already. It seems, in fact, that John is saying that one way we know the truth is in us is that we see more clearly our sin. God's truth, His words, moves in and we see more and more as we walk with Him the many ways we have not yet trusted Him and the many ways we charge ahead on our own every day.
And what does John say about this sin? That when we confess it, God is faithful and just and will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So John turns his readers back to the wonderful character of God and expands their understanding of what it means that He is light. God is faithful, just, forgiving, and cleansing. Apparently then, it is not our job to make ourselves righteous. We participate in God's making us righteous by turning over to him all the junk His light continues to reveal to us.
God Bless,
PamzSpamz
No comments:
Post a Comment