Up next in 10
Are You Walking In The Light? A Close Look At 1John 1:5-10 #1john #walkinthelight
Feb 19, 2025
A few days ago we looked at 1 John 1:1-4 and in our study we concluded that the apostle John was establishing at the outset that the Jesus whom he and the other disciples experienced was indeed the Christ. John presented the empirical evidence as well as the backing of the words of the prophets and the law. Today we’re going to be directing our attention on v5-10. We have to read these verses in light of their background. As I mentioned in my previous presentation ( while I was exploring v1-4), we established that another reason why John wrote this epistle was to counter false teaching. Gnosticism had infiltrated the church and the gnostic teachers believed that the way one lived in his physical body didn’t matter at all. They were wrapped up in mysticism and secret knowledge. They promoted licentious living and you can see how that could destroy the integrity of the church. So keep this in mind as we go through v5-10
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
hello good morning this is taiva
0:02
tives.com
0:03
and today we're going to continue our
0:05
study on the book of
0:06
first john now on last week we looked at
0:09
first john 1
0:10
verse versus 1 through 4 and today we're
0:13
going to look at verses 5
0:15
through 10 and the title that i chose is
0:18
are you walking in the light this is
0:20
important and i want to give you a
0:22
background before we get into
0:23
looking at uh those verses so basically
0:27
um as we looked at uh first john 1 verse
0:30
1 through 4 last week
0:31
we concluded that the apostle john was
0:34
establishing at the outset
0:36
that the jesus whom he and the other
0:39
the other disciples experienced was
0:41
indeed
0:42
the christ so john presented the
0:45
empirical evidence as well as the
0:46
backing of scripture so he wasn't just
0:48
relying on his experience with jesus but
0:50
he was also saying that jesus fulfilled
0:53
the law and the prophets he fulfilled
0:55
the prophecies of the old
0:56
testament so um what i want to do today
1:00
is this i want to give you a quick
1:01
uh background into entering uh verses
1:04
5-10
1:06
so one of the things that john was doing
1:08
when he was writing that episode he was
1:10
he wanted to counter false uh teaching
1:13
because there were false teachers
1:15
that had come into the church and they
1:16
were preaching pretty much our
1:18
gnosticism and we talked about what
1:20
narcissism is
1:21
basically they were wrapped up in some
1:22
kind of mysticism they denied
1:25
the physical body they're saying that
1:26
whatever you do with your physical body
1:28
doesn't really matter
1:29
all that matters is your spirit and your
1:31
your your connection with god so
1:33
they were all they were like putting a
1:35
lot of emphasis on experiences that were
1:37
like weird
1:39
and we we see a lot of narcissism today
1:41
in our churches there's a lot of things
1:42
that are happening in churches
1:44
that are really not biblical they're not
1:46
scriptural
1:47
so john when he was writing this this
1:49
chapter he was actually
1:50
attacking that kind of mindset so that's
1:53
what we're going to be talking about
1:54
and then this these are gnostic teachers
1:57
they were promoting uh licentious living
2:00
and you can see how that can destroy the
2:02
integrity of the church so
2:03
john was like set on a mission he wanted
2:06
to refute
2:07
those guys and he wanted to expose their
2:09
lives so that's the background basically
2:11
so let's get into
2:13
the verses so i'm gonna go versus uh
2:16
verses by verses okay
2:18
so we're gonna start with verse five now
2:21
this is what john says in verse 5.
2:23
this is the message we've heard from him
2:26
and proclaimed to you
2:27
that god is light and in him there is no
2:30
darkness
2:30
at all so that's what john says about
2:33
what jesus told them about god okay
2:36
so basically john is telling his
2:38
audience i'm relaying a message that
2:40
i've heard from jesus
2:42
this is what jesus told us that jesus is
2:44
the christ
2:45
so basically remember he he established
2:48
are they outside that jesus is indeed
2:50
the christ
2:51
and since jesus is the christ he
2:53
constitutes the absolute
2:55
in the sense that whatever jesus says is
2:57
what goes
2:58
in other words the only teaching that
3:00
matters is the teaching of jesus
3:02
nobody else's teaching matters but jesus
3:05
is teaching
3:06
so now we're going to look at isaiah 5
3:08
20
3:09
to understand what it means for god to
3:11
be light in isaiah 5 20 the prophet says
3:15
woe to those who call evil good
3:19
and good evil we put darkness for light
3:25
and light for darkness we put bitter for
3:28
sweet
3:30
and sweet for bitter basically what
3:31
isaiah the prophet is doing is this he's
3:33
doing a contrast between light
3:35
and darkness evil and good so basically
3:38
he's putting an emphasis on
3:39
there has to be a distinction a clear
3:41
distinction between what is evil and
3:43
what is good
3:44
and he's saying some people have twisted
3:46
things up what is evil they call good
3:48
and what is good they call evil and what
3:49
is light they call
3:50
darkness and what is darkness they call
3:52
light and he also uses
3:54
uh bitter and sweet basically he's
3:56
putting that contrast there
3:57
for us to understand what it means to
4:00
forgot to be in the light
4:02
basically what we can infer from this is
4:04
this
4:05
the best human definition we can have is
4:08
that god is the epitome
4:10
of all that is good god is
4:13
the epitome of all that is right all
4:15
that is lovely
4:16
there is no imperfection in god god is
4:20
morally perfect
4:22
there is no trace of evil in god not
4:24
even one
4:25
ounce of evil in god because he is god
4:28
in essence
4:29
basically god is good he's good in
4:32
essence what i'm saying
4:33
he is good this is god his god is good
4:37
no one is righteous like god no one is
4:39
as good as god because
4:40
god is the definition of what is
4:42
whatever is good whatever is lovely
4:44
whatever is perfect god is good
4:48
god is light so and and then let's go to
4:52
and then we're going to jump to verse
4:53
six because he has to establish at the
4:55
beginning because
4:56
john has to he's he's trying to let his
4:58
his audience know listen
5:00
god is light god is good
5:03
there is no traces of evil in god at all
5:07
okay so in verse 6
5:11
if we say we have fellowship with god
5:14
while we walk in darkness we lie and do
5:17
not practice the truth
5:19
so what does that mean what does that
5:21
mean
5:23
we have to go to second corinthians 6
5:25
and 14.
5:27
paul tells us do not be unequally yoked
5:29
with unbelievers
5:31
for what partnership has righteousness
5:33
with lawlessness
5:34
or what fellowship has light with
5:36
darkness so
5:38
basically john is basically exposing the
5:41
gnostic teachers lies
5:43
basically he's saying this no one who
5:45
claims to be in an intimate relationship
5:47
with god
5:48
will live in continual licentious living
5:52
no one who truly abides in god will
5:55
throw off
5:56
all moralist restraints it's an
5:58
impossibility
6:00
there is no fellowship with light and
6:01
darkness so that those who insist on
6:03
living in darkness and claim to be
6:05
children of god
6:06
are liars okay and we see that today
6:10
and and here's the thing like let me
6:12
pause for a second
6:15
you have a lot of people in churches
6:19
okay they're going there and there are
6:21
manifestations
6:23
now i don't know if those manifestations
6:25
are from the spirit of god
6:26
or i don't know where those
6:28
manifestations are coming from
6:30
so they put so much emphasis on those
6:32
manifestations
6:33
but yet there is no fruit of the spirit
6:36
in their lives
6:37
they talk about the dreams that they've
6:38
had and their own spiritual mind post
6:40
them up with these false notions
6:42
so you can see the lie because you
6:44
continue to live in sin
6:46
and then you have these experiences so
6:48
basically
6:49
you put your emphasis on the experience
6:51
and you deny the uh
6:53
um your body in the sense that what you
6:55
do with your body doesn't matter anymore
6:57
so you think well i'm still a child of
6:59
god meanwhile
7:01
you're living in sin so there is no
7:04
uh there is no connection between living
7:06
in the light and living in darkness
7:08
there is no fellowship with that and
7:10
that's what
7:10
john is saying here you can't claim to
7:13
be in the light
7:14
and continue to live in darkness and the
7:16
deeds of darkness are pretty clear
7:18
that life sense just living and lassen
7:20
shows uh um
7:22
thrown off all moral restraints and this
7:24
is what john was really
7:25
attacking in this passage okay now
7:28
here's the thing
7:29
john also has some people in mind
7:31
genuine believers
7:33
they may see his words and then begin to
7:35
get really frightened because
7:37
sometimes you are struggling with sin
7:39
okay you are a genuine believer but you
7:40
have a struggle you you don't want the
7:42
sin in your life and you you don't know
7:44
how to deal with it
7:45
so john has those people in mind and
7:47
he's gonna address them in verses seven
7:49
so let's go to see what verse seven says
7:52
so in verse seven we read on the
7:54
following but
7:56
if we walk in the light as he is in the
7:58
light
7:59
we have fellowship with one another and
8:02
the blood of jesus
8:03
his son cleanses us from all sin
8:05
basically one another means god
8:08
okay we have fellowship with god and one
8:10
another and the blood of jesus
8:12
his son cleanses us from all sin if we
8:14
walk in the light so what does that mean
8:18
john is saying that the person that
8:19
walks in the light the person that walk
8:21
in accordance with the word of god
8:22
because we're going to read in psalm 119
8:24
verse 105
8:26
your word is a lamp to my feet
8:29
and the light to my path so basically
8:32
john is saying
8:33
the person that walks in the light walks
8:36
in accordance with the word of god
8:38
will experience true fellowship with god
8:41
why because that fellowship will result
8:44
in conviction
8:45
confession discipline cleansing
8:48
repentance and sanctification for god
8:51
disciplines those who accept our sons
8:53
and daughters
8:54
no one who is in true fellowship with
8:56
god can continue to live in
8:58
licentiousness
8:59
no one who's in true fellowship with god
9:01
can continue to live in sin there will
9:03
be discipline from the lord
9:05
that's how we get authenticated and i
9:07
want us to go to hebrews 12
9:09
verse 4 through 11 to understand this
9:12
better
9:12
listen to what the scripture says in
9:14
hebrews 12 verses 4
9:15
through 11 in your struggle against sin
9:19
you have not yet resisted to the point
9:21
of shedding your blood
9:22
and have you forgotten the exhortation
9:24
that addresses your sons
9:27
my son do not regard lightly the
9:30
discipline of the lord
9:32
nor be wary when reproved by him for the
9:34
lord
9:35
discipline the one he loves and
9:37
chastises
9:38
every son whom he receives it is for
9:41
discipline that you have to endure
9:43
god is treating you as sons for what son
9:46
is there
9:46
whom his father does not discipline if
9:49
you are left without discipline
9:50
in which all have participated then you
9:52
are illegitimate children and sons
9:56
you know illegitimate children and not
9:58
sons
9:59
besides this we have we've had earthly
10:02
fathers would discipline us
10:04
and we respected them shall we not much
10:06
more be subject to the father of spirits
10:08
and leave
10:09
for they disciplined us for a short time
10:12
as it seemed
10:13
best to them but he disciplines us for
10:15
our good
10:16
that we may share his holiness okay
10:19
for the moment all discipline seems
10:21
painful
10:22
rather than pleasant but later he yields
10:25
to peaceful fruits of righteousness
10:27
to those who have been trained by it
10:30
basically that's what john is trying to
10:32
convey here john is trying to say if we
10:34
walk in the light
10:35
as he is in the light we are fellowship
10:37
with one another and the blood of jesus
10:39
christ
10:40
cleanses us from all sin so if you're in
10:43
true fellowship with god god will not
10:45
let you get away with
10:46
living without any kind of
10:48
accountability you're going to be
10:50
exposed to the word of god and the word
10:52
of god is going to cut you to the heart
10:54
and that's going to cause you to repent
10:55
of your sin and then when you confess
10:57
your sins
10:58
you get cleansed by the blood of jesus
11:00
so basically
11:01
he's talking about again you have to
11:04
remember
11:05
what we have at stake here is that the
11:07
false teaching from the gnostic
11:09
gnostic teachers they were pretty much
11:11
saying that it doesn't matter what you
11:13
what what you do with your body and john
11:15
is refuting that with every
11:17
scripture or any reverse that we see
11:18
here he's saying
11:20
you can't be in fellowship with god and
11:21
continue to live in sin because if
11:23
you're truly in fellowship with god
11:25
the word of god will expose your
11:27
darkness and then guess what you're
11:29
gonna repent of it
11:31
okay so he's not saying that you are
11:32
sinless but he's saying that if you when
11:35
you sin
11:35
you're going to be exposed you're going
11:37
to be disciplined by god and that's
11:39
going to lead
11:40
to repentance that leads to righteous
11:43
living
11:44
let's keep going verse 8
11:48
so if we say we have no sin we deceive
11:51
ourselves and the truth
11:53
is not in us now there's two kind of
11:54
people now john
11:56
also has some folks in mind who might
11:57
have like a very shallow
11:59
and narrow view of the righteousness of
12:02
god
12:03
these are folks who may appear like
12:05
religious
12:06
and do all the external like right
12:08
things but have a very shallow view of
12:10
the nature of god
12:11
and his righteousness because if you
12:14
truly understand what deuteronomy 6
12:16
verse 5 says it says this you shall love
12:19
the lord your god
12:20
with all your heart with all your soul
12:22
and with all your might
12:24
this is something that no one can
12:26
achieve
12:27
unless they are endured with the holy
12:29
spirit in a sense that only
12:30
god can do this what god is demanding
12:34
here is
12:34
absolute devotion dedication to his
12:38
uh his kingdom day and night
12:41
and jesus is the only one that truly
12:43
lived it out
12:45
so when we say we have no sin we are
12:47
basically saying
12:48
we are basically denying this and we
12:50
deceive ourselves
12:51
and you are deluded okay so jesus said
12:55
somewhere
12:55
unless your righteousness succeeds that
12:58
of the pharisee you will not enter the
13:00
kingdom of god that's in matthew 5
13:02
verse 20. so basically the pharisee had
13:04
like this a shallow view of the
13:06
righteousness of god
13:08
so jesus takes that to a higher level
13:10
he's saying listen if your righteousness
13:12
doesn't exceed other
13:13
pharisees because they were considered
13:15
the standard you will not
13:16
enter the kingdom of god so if we say we
13:19
have no sin
13:20
we are deluded you deceive yourself and
13:23
this is what john is trying to
13:24
communicate here because he knows that
13:25
there are some people
13:26
that have this self-righteousness and
13:28
he's attacking that as well
13:31
okay so let's go to our verse 9.
13:36
so the scripture says if we confess our
13:38
sins
13:39
he is faithful and just to forgive us
13:42
our sins and to cleanse us
13:43
from all unrighteousness so
13:47
john is is reporting everything jesus
13:49
told them about god
13:50
and jesus modeled his own life because
13:54
he is god okay jesus modeled his his own
13:57
life
13:58
because he's god he modeled the life
14:00
that god desires
14:02
because he's god and remember what he
14:04
told thomas he said
14:06
whoever has seen me has seen the father
14:08
that's in john 14 verse 9
14:10
okay because jesus said to john
14:14
thomas was like show us the father and
14:16
jesus said have i been with you so long
14:18
and you still do not know me philip oh
14:20
no he was philip i'm sorry philip
14:22
whoever has seen me has seen the father
14:24
how can you say show me the father
14:26
okay so basically john tells us that if
14:30
we truly come under conviction and
14:32
confess our sins
14:34
god promises to forgive us because he is
14:36
faithful to his word
14:37
and he maintains the integrity of his
14:39
character see when jesus died on the
14:41
cross
14:41
he paid the penalty for your sins and my
14:44
sins and he said
14:45
it is finished so when you confess your
14:48
sins
14:48
god forgives you and god forgives me on
14:51
the basis of the finished
14:52
work of christ so he god upheld his
14:55
justice by nailing jesus on the cross
14:57
god was maintaining the his just
15:00
character he wasn't just gonna let sin
15:01
slide by
15:02
so this is why jesus had to die because
15:06
god was also maintaining his justice
15:08
and then when we confess our sins he
15:10
forgives us because he made a provision
15:13
for us through jesus christ and he's
15:16
faithful to his words because god
15:18
made that provision and god said if
15:20
anybody
15:21
confessed their sins they now forgive
15:23
them on the basis of christ's work and
15:25
god
15:26
maintains the integrity of his character
15:29
by upholding
15:30
his merciful attribute his justice
15:33
attribute as well okay and he forgives
15:35
us and he cleanses us
15:37
from all unrighteousness so not only
15:39
does god forgive us but he also cleanses
15:41
us
15:42
okay from our sin so that we can have
15:45
fellowship with him so that our
15:46
fellowship is not broken
15:47
so this is so important to understand
15:49
that like even i struggle to understand
15:51
that like
15:52
you have you have like the intellectual
15:54
knowledge you get it
15:55
but sometimes you have to live it out
15:58
it's one thing to understand it in your
15:59
mind
16:00
it's another thing to live it out and to
16:01
actually live
16:04
because you believe it okay when you
16:06
confess your sins
16:08
god is faithful and just to forgive your
16:10
sins and to cleanse you
16:11
because if he doesn't cleanse you then
16:12
you have no fellowship because god is
16:14
holy
16:15
you have to understand it and let's go
16:19
to the last verse verse 10.
16:21
so if we say we have not sinned we make
16:24
him a liar and his word is not in us
16:26
so basically again he's going back to
16:28
what he said earlier john is saying that
16:30
when we claim that we are sinless
16:32
we basically make god a liar god is the
16:35
standard for all that is right
16:36
so when he declares someone guilty of
16:38
sin god is right when he declares you
16:40
and i ain't guilty of sin
16:42
and here what you know you have to know
16:44
what god said about mankind
16:46
there is not none righteous not even one
16:49
that's romans 10
16:50
and 3 verse 10 to 11. no one is
16:52
righteous so if we claim that we are
16:54
sinless
16:54
we are essentially saying that god is
16:56
lying so and this is what john is saying
16:58
here
17:00
okay guys and then so what can we learn
17:02
from all these things
17:04
my question is this don't just read
17:06
these words and just go home and forget
17:08
about it
17:09
are you walking in the light or are you
17:11
still in darkness
17:13
john gives us the criteria how do you
17:15
know that you're living in the light
17:17
john tells you if you if you claim to be
17:18
in the light while you walk in darkness
17:20
you deceive yourself
17:21
because if you're truly walking in the
17:23
light you're going to come under the
17:25
conviction of the holy spirit
17:26
and that's going to be repentance and
17:28
there's going to be change and there's
17:30
going to be a desire for righteous
17:31
living
17:32
because we are called to examine
17:35
ourselves
17:36
to see if we are truly in the faith to
17:38
to test the genuine
17:40
genuineness of your faith so i'll
17:42
encourage you to do that
17:44
because if you're not being disciplined
17:46
by god if you if you find yourself
17:48
constantly like resisting the word of
17:51
god
17:52
if you find yourself hating the word of
17:54
god if you're living in
17:55
sin and you're not bothered by it
17:57
chances are you are not saved
18:00
okay and i will encourage you to test
18:01
yourself through the word of god because
18:03
this is important
18:05
you know you don't want you don't you
18:07
don't want to deceive yourself you don't
18:08
want to be deluded because a lot of
18:09
people live like that
18:10
you live in open sins and it doesn't
18:14
bother you and you may have some
18:16
experiences at church you may
18:17
go to church and sing songs and maybe
18:19
you may even shed tears while you're
18:20
preaching or what while you
18:22
while you're singing and that that you
18:25
you think just because you shed it here
18:27
therefore you're okay because the holy
18:29
spirit has given you that you may be
18:31
deceiving yourself maybe it's just your
18:32
own emotions playing tricks on you
18:34
okay so how do you know that you're
18:36
living in in the light
18:38
are you constantly walking in are you
18:40
constantly coming under the authority of
18:42
the word of god
18:43
and is the word of god causing you to
18:45
repent repent and believe the gospel
18:48
that's the whole thing is come under the
18:51
mighty hand of god
18:52
humble yourself and let god search your
18:55
heart
18:56
and bring out those things that he
18:58
doesn't like so that you can confess it
18:59
so that your fellowship with god is
19:00
continual
19:02
but if you don't do that you just live
19:03
your life you think you're okay
19:05
and you deceive yourself because you
19:08
have experiences
19:09
that is not walking in the light walking
19:12
in the light doesn't mean that you are
19:13
sinless
19:14
but it does mean that you come and you
19:16
confess it
19:17
and then you get cleansed and then you
19:20
live righteously because the
19:21
sanctification process is
19:22
evidence of the work of god in your life
19:25
are you sinning less
19:26
and are you desiring to be more like god
19:29
because if you truly are a child of god
19:31
guess what
19:32
you're gonna long after the things of
19:34
god but if you continue to long after
19:36
the things of the world
19:37
then the love of the father is not in
19:39
you so i'll encourage you to go back and
19:41
read that chapter again
19:43
and hopefully it makes more sense to you
19:45
have a wonderful day and i'll see you
19:47
next time on
19:47
chapter two of first john okay thank you
#People & Society
#Religion & Belief