If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
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 cleanses us from all sin.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:6-9
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Verse Meaning:
- If we profess we are real Christians.
- But we consciously do what God forbids or fail to do what God tells us, the Bible offends to say, "we're liars." Many would say, "God is offending. He is judgmental." Or at least John would be labeled, "judgmental."
- When we walk in the Light there is fellowship with spiritual Christians. If we do not walk in the Light, we feel uncomfortable around them and feel more comfortable around the compromising ones.
- But if we confess [admit, own up to, express true contrition for grieving the Holy Spirit] then we are cleansed and restored to immediate fellowship with Christ; restored to the Light.
Thomas Guthrie used to say: If you find yourself loving any pleasure better than your prayers, any book better than the Bible, any house better than the house of God, any table better than the Lord's table, any persons better than Christ, any indulgence better than the hope of Heaven—take alarm.—Selected.
My Testimony
Once, I was compromising Christian. I hid my sins. And I paid for it later. But as the Bible promises, my sins found me out. I had a hard fall that broke me. I no longer had the pride and self-reliance I had in conditionally limiting Christ in my life.
When I was in that state, I lost interest in reading the Bible. I tried to pray. It bored me. I didn't know what to say. I felt it wouldn't reach the ceiling of my house.
Finally, I sat on the floor of my house and asked God why? I waited for an answer; waited for as long as it took. In time, the word "blindness" appeared on a black backdrop of my mind. I was convinced, persuaded, [which is faith and conviction] that those words were true about me.
Convinced and miserable I began to search my soul for every instance of sin that came to mind. I went back as far back as a child. I truly confessed and accepted God's forgiveness of each sin brought to mind. I confessed sins I committed to my parents, siblings, church members, girls, employers, to my soul and body, and most importantly to the Lord.
God is the main offended object. It is His will, His plan, His heart. I was an unfaithful servant in relationship to pure living, proper church involvement, prayer openness about my soul and its choices.
I confessed that I did not bring to Light all my thoughts before the Lord telling Him. I told Him I had hid discussing some things to Him.
Then I told God all about my feelings and desires. I told Him what I evilly longed for. I was clear to tell Him the names of the corrupted desires and how my flesh longed to please myself. Then I told God my affections; all that I loved which displaced Him as Lord.
As I brought each into the Light, I confessed each and turned from them in order to become a vessel totally yielded to the Lord's use, in spite of how that affected my relationships and choices.
I want to get to article #8 about Walking in the Light which is so important. But for now I want to speak about walking in darkness. Just because we are Christians does not mean we are always walking in the Light.
People walk in darkness because they make wrong/sinful choices. Sinful choices may be about acting defensive, resentment, withholding love from a brother/sister, choosing activities super-ceding enjoyable devotional time with the Lord, failing to look to the Lord in all my experiences and choices, pride, neglect, impurity, covetousness, etc.
If we remain in darkness, we strain our spiritual eyes/perceptions of the true nature of things. It becomes hard to spiritual things, to read and understand spiritual things. And lastly, we falsely interpret things. Then we add those interpretations into a growing belief system which pushes us farther into darkness. After awhile, being accustomed to the darkness, we begin to call darkness light and begin to say, "We see nothing wrong...."
The Effects of Darkness
Regarding people, we misjudge people. We wrongly interpret them and we treat them wrongly. Our tolerance weakens, our patience wanes. We sound more critical. We shut our ears to anything which contradicts our views.
We all have a sin nature still residing in us. That sin nature hates God, the Bible says. And it attempts to seduce us with false ideas. We then begin to call evil good and good evil.
Rom 8:7 [That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot.
Rom 8:8 So then those who are living the life of the flesh [catering to the appetites and impulses of their carnal nature] cannot please or satisfy God, or be acceptable to Him.
When we walk in darkness, we mistake any details of what we are looking at. When in a dim room, we cannot see the detail of color, contrasts, and values. So failing to see detail leaves the mind with much imaginations that are wrong.
Persons who walk in darkness cannot understand spiritual people.
1Co 2:14-16 But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.
But the spiritual man tries all things [he examines, investigates, inquires into, questions, and discerns all things], yet is himself to be put on trial and judged by no one [he can read the meaning of everything, but no one can properly discern or appraise or get an insight into him].
For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart. [Isa. 40:13.]
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The old sin nature refuses to believe and respond to the mistaken things we see. It will throw all its way to provoke feelings of resistance to the Light.
The sin nature enjoys living in darkness. It enables the mind to only see the gratifications, not the dangers.
Every day we experience life and people. They confront our emotions and our thinking about it. But when we walk in darkness, the sin nature attempts to hide the details of what God sees. We do not see the "whys" of something happening. We confuse happiness with joy and we settle for happiness, but do not grasp joy. There is no joy in darkness.
We lack the real joy in dark times, and the discernment how to properly associate with different types of people who may be either a danger or an opportunity to share Christ.
If we remain in darkness our vision assures us that all things are normal and that we must handle them the best we can and that God will only help us in emergency situations. Darkness assures us that a little sin here and there is alright because we are under grace and that God still loves us to let us do what we want to do.
Circumstances can get bad enough on us that we run to God for Light. But God doesn't let them see everything clearly until they choose to remain in the Light. If they are serious enough to remain in the Light and walk away from all known sins, more Light is sent.
God is not in the business of being the local doctor to quickly treat our vision and rush out the door to return to darkness. He wants us to stay with Him, to abide with Him, to live in the Light so that we walk in a dark world, having the Light of God fully shining within us.
This is my testimony of experience this is true. Once I made decisions to boldly and increasingly turn from sins in my life, the more Light I began to have. I do believe those who walk more in the Light see things good and bad the carnal believer does not and cannot see.
Walking in the Light is walking "in Christ." We are in Him, He is within us. There must be a union, a total surrender and submission to all we know is right. Being right with God provides Light-as-needed to see truly circumstances, people, and ourselves.
Some years ago, I experienced one of many experiences of new Light from God that helped my marriage. 1st went through several weeks deeply judging each of my thoughts, desires, feelings, affects, and choices. I looked at my character, my witness, my activities, my influences. God gave me Light what I needed to do with each of these.
Though responding to the Light in obedience took days for some, weeks to years for others. But, I can say that I am very little the man I was 20 years ago.
Ridding the darkness takes self-examination, transparency, repentance, and a growing commitment to follow Christ at all times and reconcile when I fail.
Purpose to know God by reading, studying, and by all means contemplating the meaning of His Word. Do word studies on Bible words, verses, passages, etc. There are plenty of good commentaries on the internet. If you don't daily feed your soul you will live a life of confession and sinning and confession, etc. We then remain weak, defeated, and discouraged.
By all means talk with God and explain the darkness you feel and see. Remember that the things you see in the darkness forms a belief system you believe is real--but these are lies formed by you from the distortions by evil. Our belief system can only be transformed by walking in the Light.
We will cover this in our next lesson.
Good day. Determine to get out of the dark areas and back into the full light of God.
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