In verses 6-10, the previous language of the roadway and the language of fellowship are now drawn together by John in a few simple and direct sentences.
God's truth is not an abstract philosophical ideal to be honored and held up for respectful admiration, but a relationship to be lived. It immediately becomes clear that God's truth is a vibrant roadway upon which we are to walk, and on a day-to-day basis. For John, Christian faith is not a matter of spiritual speculation or the mastery of secrets and code words. John continues to write with the same freshness and lack of pretense that has marked his opening sentences as he now sketches in how a person can live in fellowship with God and with God's people.
We are to walk in the light, and this means to walk in the way of disclosure. First we discover God in the way of light (1 John 1:6); we also discover ourselves in the way of light (1 John 1:8). What is it that we discover about God? And what do we discover about ourselves? Within these four verses we make these discoveries:
(1) God is on the side of truth and openness. Therefore, in order for us human beings to have common relationship with God, we must stand before God in the way of openness and light.
(2) John shares a surprise with his readers. We are told amazing good news at the very moment that we could not even dare to expect it. The way of light is dangerous, and its disclosure is threatening to every human being because the light shows up our own inadequacies and, even worse, our own wickedness. We have walked the way of harm. Now, in the presence of the light, that distorted way is in full view. We are warned not to attempt any cover-up.
What is it that will happen now as the way of our lives becomes apparent and exposed because of the light of God's justice and truth? We have walked so much of our lives in darkness, moreso than we will want to admit, and therefore John's command to us that we enter upon a totally exposed and brilliantly illuminated roadway is hardly good news. In theory we respect light but to step out into its sheer spotlight intensity is frightening. Then the surprise comes: the Creator of the world has visited the world in person! And we make the greatest discovery of all. The Lord who is the Light for the roadway is also our Companion on the roadway. This is the enormous exception for which we had no right to expect or hope. Jesus Christ is on the road with us as the Light who reveals our sinfulness so that we dare not play games with that fact: If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar. But Jesus Christ is also the Lord of Life who enables us to resolve injustice and sin and the tragedies of darkness. The resolution of the human crisis is a person who comes alongside us in the middle of the road.
John tells us that if we walk in the light the and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. The word blood is crude and definite for a Greek reader; it is profoundly rich and significant for a Jewish reader or any person grounded in the OT. For each reader the word implies death, but within the background of the Old Testament the word also means life. It is the life of Jesus Christ that is given by which we are resolved and made right for the road of light. John makes use of the strong Greek word katharizōto express the result of this encounter. The word means to 'clean out'. The English word 'catharsis' is from this Greek root. John's message to us is very basic. We are able to do only one thing ourselves and that is to step out into the light. The tragic confusion, anger, and hurtfulness that the light reveals in our lives is too much for us to handle and to resolve by ourselves. God Himself who brings the light also brings the help; that help is the Person Jesus Christ who gives His own life in our behalf. At just the right moment, we discover the enormous exception that God does not destroy the wanderers He finds upon the road. Rather He cleanses them and qualifies them for the way of light.
John insists one very important point. To walk in the light does not mean that a human being is sinless and flawless; rather to walk in the light means that a human being as a sinner is, in the light, fully aware that he or she is a sinner. That is the point! The surprise of this passage is that just such a sinner is not a lost cause, beyond help, but that at just the right moment the companion of our road—who himself is the source of the light which makes us recognize our guilt—now becomes the means of our help which resolves our guilt. The answer to the human tragedy therefore is not a secret to be learned, not an escape from the road into a more spiritual atmosphere, and not the denial of the problem, but the man Jesus Christ alongside.
John presents a classic summary sentence in verse 1 John 1:9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins…" The Greek word that is translated in our text by the word "confess" is the word homologeō. This word means 'to agree' or 'to declare alike'. It is made up of two Greek words, the prefix homo, which means literally 'alike', and logos, 'word, speech'. We are told by John that our responsibility is to agree with God about the nature of our crises. This openness and vulnerability on our part is what firmly plants our feet upon the pathway of light. There are no special code words to learn or special incense formulas to master, or elaborate rituals to perform!
We are to stand in the open position and admit who we are, agree with God and receive cleansing and forgiveness. The word 'forgive' in Greek means to leave behind, literally to abandon. The promise to us from John is that God will forgive, will leave behind our sins. He who is righteous will cleanse us from our anti-righteousness. We learn from John by his use of one single word that forgiveness is a costly gift. That one word is the word 'blood'. Jesus Christ has won for humankind the right to the way of light and life because of the event of his own lifeblood spent on our behalf. Forgiveness is not a transaction in a courtroom but the event that happens at a cross.
One final part of John's affirmation has to do with the fellowship of those who are on the roadway together with Jesus Christ. John teaches that the openness before God that enables our forgiveness also enables our fellowship. Fellowship is not founded upon deception and never has been. It is the common or shared crisis that the disciples experience together when the light of the road first confronts us, and that common crisis is resolved in the common forgiveness that comes when we recognize our sinfulness and our need for the Savior.
This means that the kind of fellowship that John is describing in this chapter is the fellowship of brokenness. The people we meet on the roadway of 1 John 1 are too wrung out by the experience of God's sheer honesty and light to play games about moral superiority or mystical one-upsmanship. These persons have met the good light, the enormous exception, and the main feelings that they have are gratitude and joy. John had promised it, and now we are able to feel it in this great chapter. The fellowship that emerges between such persons is not superficial but substantial. We have discovered the brokenness of each other and because of the broken healer we are drawn together into a fellowship of grace. It is a fellowship that is created by the act of God and by our walking in the light the blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing us from every defilement due to sin.
