God is Light, so Walk in the Light: John 1:5-2:2

This is an account of John 1:5-2:2 which I wrote during my time at Bethlehem College. It includes an exegetical analysis, a theological account, and an ethical application, sandwiched between opening and closing prayers.

Biblical Text: 1 John 1:5-2:2

Opening Prayer

Father of light in whom no darkness dwells, 
God of truth in whom there is no lie, 
You have created us for fellowship with you,
But we all like sheep have gone astray. 

Our minds are blinded by darkness,
Our hearts are covered in filth,
We are inclined to hide our sin,
To declare you a liar and deceive ourselves.

Our Lord Jesus Christ who sits beside the Father,
Cleanse our sin with your precious blood.
Loose the bonds of our self-deception,
And grant us full fellowship with you. 

Holy Spirit who indwells all the saints,
Enlighten us to see the true testimony of Christ.
Empower us to walk in the light of the Father, 
That we might have love for one another. 

Exegesis: The Argument of the Passage

John is proclaiming a message from God to his readers. The message is that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1:5) This sweeping statement about God’s nature is followed by five conditional “if” statements about God’s people. John structures his argument in this way to show that God’s nature has direct implications for how the Christian lives. The first two of the five conditional statements draw a stark contrast. If we walk in darkness while claiming to have fellowship with God, we are liars. (1:6) But if we walk in the light, we do have fellowship with God and his people. (1:7) Notice the phrase, “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light.” This means that Christians ought to reflect God’s character. Because he is light, we must walk in light. We must imitate God. Yet even so, there is a key difference between God and his people. God is wholly light, and thus he is morally perfect, without darkness or sin. On the other hand, Christians are not wholly light. The promise is not that Christians will be completely morally perfect; the promise is that “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1:7) Christians ought to imitate God, but they always fall short, and hence they need the blood of Jesus to cleanse their sin. 

The next three conditional statements build off the previous two. John has already established the importance of walking in the light, as God is in the light. Now what does it mean to walk in the light? According to John, those who walk in the light do not hide their sin. For “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.” (1:8) Hiding our sin is a form of self-deception. We lie to ourselves, which is to say “the truth is not in us.” The alternative to hiding our sin is confession. Herein lies a staggering promise: “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1:9) Walking in light means bringing out sins into the light. If we bring our sins into the light, we will receive forgiveness and cleansing. This verse also contains two more declarations of God’s nature, namely faithfulness and justice. Here John emphasizes that our forgiveness is grounded in God’s faithful and just nature. The final “if” statement is nearly identical to verse eight, except John replaces “we deceive ourselves” with “we make him a liar.” When we hide our sin, we are declaring God to be a liar. But if we believe in our hearts that “God is light,” (1:5) then we will walk in the light by confessing our sin. 

John follows this paragraph about light with a declaration of Christ’s nature and work. Once again he inserts a conditional statement, “if anyone does sin…” (2:1) His goal in writing is that we may not sin, but the previous paragraph guarantees that we will sin. If and when we do sin, we can fall back on the nature and work of Christ. He is righteous in nature, he advocates for us, and he has appeased God’s wrath toward all our sin.

Theology: The Perfect Triune God and the Saving Work of Christ

This passage is grounded on a theology of divine perfection. This is seen in the affirmation that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1:5) This statement is simple (pun intended), yet its significance cannot be overstated. There is no part of God that lacks light. He has no blemish or shadow due to change. (James 1:17) Even the sun, the brightest object in the sky, has variations and spots. God’s light is infinitely fuller and brighter. Furthermore, John affirms that God is “faithful and just.” God’s faithfulness means it is impossible for him to lie. (Numbers 23:19) His justice means that he is without iniquity. (Deuteronomy 32:4) These are all different ways of stating the doctrine of divine perfection. God is perfect and full in all his being, lacking no good thing. 

The passage also contains majestic claims about the Trinity. First, Jesus is the Son of God. (1:7) Why did John insert these two small words, “his Son”? Why did he not simply say, “the blood of Jesus cleanses us from our sin”? At first glance, the words “his son” seem beside the point of the passage. However, a proper understanding of theology reveals the significance of Jesus’ Sonship. Jesus’ identity as God’s Son is essential to his atoning work. As Athanasius put it centuries ago, only God can save. If Jesus was not the true begotten Son, very God of very God, then his sacrifice could not cleanse us from our sin. But since Jesus truly is God’s Son, God is faithful and just to forgive our sin. Next, John opens a brief window into the Son’s work in relation with the Father. Jesus Christ is our “advocate with the Father.” (2:1) He is interceding for us at the right hand of God. (Romans 8:34) Christ’s office as mediator is impossible to understand properly without a doctrine of the Trinity. Christ unites us with his eternal Father, inviting us to participate in the eternal love of the Trinity. 

Next, this passage is inundated with a theology of Christ’s saving work. John captures Christ’s saving work, especially with the word, “propitiation.” Christ is the sacrifice that appeases God’s wrath towards our sins. He died on the cross as our substitute, paying the just penalty for our sins. As a result of Christ’s propitiation, God can faithfully save his people without compromising his justice towards sin. He died as the Righteous One to demonstrate God’s righteousness in justifying his people. (Romans 3:25-26) Now, theologians within different camps of orthodox Christianity have differing views on the extent of Christ’s atonement. A proper dogmatic discussion of the extent of Christ’s atonement goes well beyond the scope of this passage, but John’s writing does add an important piece. John claims that Christ’s propitiation extends to not only his readers, but to the entire world. How does that sweeping statement apply to the Reformed doctrine of Limited Atonement? For now, it suffices to say those of the Reformed persuasion (including myself) should not ignore this passage, nor should they explain it away. Rather, they should seek to do justice to the weight of John’s words, interpreting them in light of all Holy Scripture. 

Ethics: Lying and Truthful Speech

This passage has much to say about the ethics of speech. The arguments throughout John’s letter contain sharp dichotomies, and his argument about our speech is no exception. There are essentially two kinds of speech: lying speech and truthful speech. How do we distinguish between the two? 

Lying speech has two main characteristics. First, lying speech is inconsistent with our behavior. If we claim to have fellowship with God while walking in darkness, we are not speaking truthfully. (1:6) The classical understanding of truth is that which corresponds to reality. When our words do not correspond to reality, we are not speaking truth. If we claim to walk with the God of light while we are living in darkness, our words are contradicting reality. In other words, we are hypocrites. Second, lying speech hides our sin. Many of us know the feeling when friend confronts us with our sin, our conscience convicts us and we know we are guilty. A heavy lump wells up in our throat and we have a choice. We can confess, or we can deny. Assuming this friend trusts us, we could probably get away with a lie. But if we lie in this situation, we commit a greater offense than the original transgression. We double down and harden our hearts. With every lie we veer closer to the hypocrisy that Jesus hates. These lies not only harm our friends, but they also harm us individually. Speaking falsehood is a form of self-deception, because we are lying to our own conscience. We silence the voice of the Spirit, and so in the next moment of crisis or temptation it is more difficult to determine what is true. The more we lie in our speech, the more we lose our grasp on reality itself. In summary, lying speech is inconsistent with our behavior and it hides our sin. 

The alternative to lying speech is truthful speech. In this passage, truthful speech is characterized by confession. If we confess our sin, then we are speaking truth. Now John does not explicitly clarify the mode of this confession. Elsewhere in Scripture, it is clear that we must confess privately before God as well as outwardly before others. Private confession is a necessary antidote to hypocrisy. We can make a public spectacle of our confession and yet still harbor sin in our hearts. We can put on a false display of humility to cover up our pride. God already knows our sins, but we must lay them out before him in order to receive cleansing. If God is light, how can we expect to fellowship with him while hiding darkness in our hearts? Outward confession is also necessary to mend relationships with fellow Christians. Secrets erode relationships, so if we are not honest about our sins we cannot have fellowship with one another. This does not mean we must be transparent with everyone about our innermost thoughts. But we should have people in our lives with whom we can drag embarrassing secrets into the light, to expose the skeletons in our closet. This is the only path to a life of integrity and cleanliness. Confession is a distinguishing mark of those who walk in truth. 

Prayer of Praise

Father we praise you, God of light,
For you are always perfect and full, 
You have no darkness, untruth, or injustice,
You are faithful and true and righteous.

Our advocate Jesus Christ, God’s precious Son
Thank you for satisfying divine wrath,
For washing our darkest sins away,
And giving us truth that we might walk in light.

Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and Son,
We praise you for shining Christ’s light in our hearts,
We thank you for empowering us to slay sin,
And convicting us that we might confess. 

Our Triune God, we long for the day,
When all darkness is vanquished, and we see you face-to-face,
When your glorious light covers the globe,
And we have fellowship with you forevermore!