Summary

In this verse we are presented with the opposite of 1 John 1:6. The previous verse made it clear that whoever says he belongs to God, but lives against God’s will and continues to do so, is lying. Such a person is deceiving not only himself but also the people around him. That is how you draw people away from Christ and are in the employ of darkness, in the service of the devil.

In this verse it becomes clear what that other life implies. It is a life in which you allow God’s light to uncover the sins in your life. It is a life where you want to stand in God’s light and walk on the way that the Lord shows us with that light.

The verb walk here points to the way of life. Show how you live in such a way that you, together with God, take the road that he points out. This is the way that Christ has laid down. In the Old Testament the word walk also occurs, as in: going in the way the Lord takes you. Two very clear examples of this are Enoch and Noah. These two men were lonely in their time because they sought to serve the Lord with their whole existence. Because they held out to the people the Word of the Lord for all of life. We read this about them:

·         Genesis 5:22–24: Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

·         Genesis 6:8–9: “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.”

We find this image of walking on the way God shows us in more places in the Old Testament, for example Genesis 18:19; Exodus 18:20; Psalm 119:35; Proverbs 23:19; Isaiah 48:17.

Walking with God, that is, walking in the light means standing in God’s light and following his way—the way appointed by him—the way paved by Christ as the right way. It is the way where you pay attention to Christ. You want to follow him based on the forgiveness earned by him. He points the way by his teaching and his life.

This verse makes it clear what this means for our relationship with each other as a church community, and for being connected to Jesus Christ.

It is striking that John first points out that living in God’s light means that we truly belong to one another. When we live this way, we are truly brothers and sisters of one another in faith. The people who teach differently and have formed their own group need to know that you do not belong to God’s people when you do not want to live according to God’s Word with body and soul. The church members need to realize very well that people who are living against God’s Word and yet speak with their mouths about God and Jesus really do not belong. Also, when it comes to living as the people of God, this implies living according to God’s commandments. Without that life you have no real fellowship, no real connection with one another. You cannot separate love of the neighbour from the true faith. On the contrary, it needs to be expressed in your life.

The Lord Jesus said this very clearly and John heard it too. Fundamental here is the summary given by the Lord Jesus of the Ten Commandments: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 22:37–40).

To truly belong to one another, to truly have fellowship with one another and to be part of God’s people together, it is necessary to live a truly Christian life and to thus follow Christ together in our lives, according to his Word. This is an encouragement to those who have stayed with that Word in the church that John is addressing. It helps them understand that the group that seceded from them does not belong there. That they can confidently set aside the temptations of this group. A genuine Christian life has everything to do with sharing in the salvation that Christ has earned. That is also the second thing John is now making clear.

If you want to share in what Christ has earned through his blood as the Son of God, then it is necessary to really want to live according to his Word and his commandments. Whoever avoids this with pious words is not saved from the judgment of sin. He remains guilty before God. It is all about an active faith. At the end of this chapter we will go deeper into the relationship between faith and works.

Having fellowship with the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, is a formulation that makes clear what real faith means. True believing is not possible without believing that Jesus is the Christ. True faith cannot exist without believing that Jesus Christ gave his life in the place of the believers, to save them from judgment. And lastly, you cannot truly believe without believing that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God—true God who became man.

Here the Holy Spirit indicates very clearly that you do not belong to the church of Christ when you do not believe that the Lord Jesus was and is truly man. Those who do not believe these things ultimately have no fellowship with Christ and no fellowship with the Father in heaven. This is also very important for us to realize in the twentyfirst century. Quite often you hear people say that we should not make things so difficult because, we are a minority in society and don’t we all love Jesus in our own way? With this kind of statement, we have to remember that the church in John’s days was a much smaller minority than today. Yet the Spirit makes it clear that this kind of false teaching should have no place in Christ’s church—not even when we have become a small minority.

The blood of Jesus Christ is mentioned because you die when the blood drains from your body. The Lord Jesus shed his blood on the cross where he made the sacrifice for the sins of the believers. The blood points to the blood that flowed at the sacrifices in the temple and which Christ fulfilled by offering the sacrifice as the Lamb of God on the cross (see, e.g.,John 1:29 and in the Old Testament especially Leviticus 16:1–34). That the blood points to the death of the Lord Jesus as the decisive sacrifice is found, among others, in Romans 3:25; Romans 5:9; Ephesians 1:7; Ephesians 2:13; Hebrews 9:12–14 and Revelation 7:14.

The blood also indicates that the Lord Jesus was truly human. He died. This Jesus is the Christ. Christ is Greek and means Anointed One. The Hebrew Messiah also means Anointed One. The man who is God’s Anointed One is Jesus Christ. The man Jesus Christ is the promised Saviour. John then adds that Jesus Christ is God’s Son. That means that the Lord Jesus was really God, who also became man. We cannot comprehend this mystery, but we have to believe it. It is God’s way of salvation that surpasses our understanding (see 1 Corinthians 2:7–10).

Thus, Jesus Christ unites believers in peace to God as their heavenly Father. Through this cleansing by Christ’s death, there is fellowship with him and we can stand before God in peace. In this regard, see also Ephesians 2:13–14 and Ephesians 5:27.