Thoughts From 1John 1 - Part 2

   And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 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.8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. 1John 1:3-10

      This passage has always confused me. How does walking in the light cause fellowship with fellow believers and how is that related to the blood purifying our sins. It could be that walking in sin interferes with fellowshipping because the sin and guilt will be difficult to hide from real deep fellowship and therefore maybe the one in sin will confess to the group and be cleansed? That is deep fellowship. That is getting together and talking about spiritual things rather than getting together to watch the Super Bowl, having a pot-luck, or game night. It would be more like a small group coming over to your house for prayer and a Bible Study. Unfortunately, most of the time if a person is in sin, they will avoid coming because they aren't ready to be convicted or give it up.

      Here's a weird thought. I've never heard it before so it probably isn't right, but what if the "one another" is the trinity. In context that makes so much more sense. Verse three talks about our fellowship being with the Father and the Son. Verse 5 talks about God being light and in Him there is no darkness. We know that the glory of God shines light. Paul was blinded by it, Moses glowed from a glimpse of it, and Peter, James, and John saw it of it on the Mount of Transfiguration as Jesus briefly "unzipped" his flesh. Light can't coexist with dark, it wipes it out. This is why sinful man can't be in the presence of a pure God, we would be disintegrated like those who looked in the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

        So in context what if these verses are giving the gospel? We are walking in darkness or sin and we can't lie to ourselves and say we haven't sinned. All have sinned and are separated from the consuming purity of a righteous God. If we confess our sins and receive God's blood sacrifice of Jesus to atone for our sins by faith, the sin is cleansed and the darkness has been removed and turned to light. We can now have fellowship with the Father and the Son because we are light. Then we should walk in purity so we can continue to have fellowship with them. The Psalmist said, "if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord does not hear me." You see, sin separates our intimate relationship with God but if we get back on the righteous path and confess those sins, we can be back in fellowship with God and walk in His light.

       Either way, both interpretations would be consistent with the teachings of the Bible, but one thing is sure, we are created for relationships with God and people. Leave the loneliness of self in your cave and come out into the light.