1st John 1:5-7 WE HAVE HEARD Sometimes when we hear information passed on to us from teachers, friends or family members regarding things that have happened or been said, it is different from the actual facts. It is not that they have been deliberately trying to deceive us, but people filter things through their own perspective. John takes care to be specific when he states that what he is telling the readers, he and the other apostles heard it from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. This was not second-hand information, nor was there any personal additions to the facts. "God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all."
God did not create light because He is Light. There are no shadows around God. When His glory was in the Holiest of all in the tabernacle, there were no shadows cast by the wings of the cherubim. He is omnipresent so where He dwells in light darkness cannot exist. He would have created darkness as the condition of earth before the days of creation. The sin of Lucifer, angels and men has made the creation of darkness necessary in order for those who sin to survive even for a moment. In darkness evil and good look alike. Darkness cannot exist in light because light exposes what ever has been hidden. Sin is exposed by the light of truth and righteousness. Sinful men "love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil."
God is Light physically because He is the Source of the shining glory of energy unleashed. God is Light morally because He is holy. His charge to His children is to "Be ye holy, for I am holy." God is Light intellectually because He is "The Truth." That Truth gives guidance and understanding to us from "The Life." When Light and Truth are surrounding us, "The Way" makes sure the walk of fellowship with God and His people is experienced.
Believers are in light because we are "children of the day." That is our position. Our standing in Christ has placed us in the light. Every person who has been born into the family of God by the Holy Spirit is in this fellowship of light. Even though we have been saved by His grace and justified freely, we still have the fact of indwelling sin that makes sinning a matter to be faced and dealt with in our lives. Those who are in the light can stumble, and even fall if we get distracted or look backward. Sin does not have dominion over us, but still can influence us to do what is wrong, even when we know it is wrong.
To enjoy the fellowship of walking in the light and experiencing the value of our relationship with God, sin must be faced and rejected. Truth is what we believe and also what we should practice. A vital, living union with God is where a Christian's joy becomes real. Holiness and truth go together well. The false teachers who were promoting Gnosticism (similar to secular humanism in many ways) thought the human body was evil and of little value. They gave two options: live life in rigid inflexible discipline that rejects anything that gives comfort, or go ahead and satisfy yourself by doing whatever you want. People say things like that today. "After all, when you're dead, you're dead, so go ahead and do what you want."
Christians do not love sin and God at the same time. To claim to be a child of God and live a sinful lifestyle and yield to the lusts of the flesh and live immorally, is a false assumption. Habitual walking in darkness is proof of a person being a false professor - a false Christian. When one is born again, they have a new nature. One can stumble, be careless and sin, but that is not the bent of their life. That is not what they want. If a person loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. A Christian will confess and forsake sin, and then rise up to "walk in newness of life."
When a person is in fellowship with God, they will walk in the light with the characteristics of divine life being evident. Habitual sin without a commitment to repent of it and refusal to go that way any further, is clear evidence that one is walking in darkness and is a child of the night. They have never been born again of the Spirit. Light and darkness have no fellowship - no communion.
Because a person is walking in the light, we do have real fellowship with our Lord and His people. This is normal Christian living. Our connection with other believers is based on our link of life with God, and also on our commitment to holiness of life. Light does not want to be involved with darkness. The attitude of those who love the Lord is that we want to bring pleasure, honor and glory to Him - not to ourselves. God Himself is Light; Christ is our Light and those who are walking in the Light are in turn, a light to the world around. The walk of a believer relates to where we walk, "in the light," rather that the way we walk.
There is no question as to the cleansing by the blood of Jesus Christ. There is no other way for cleansing of sin to be accomplished. Death for sin is the only way of redemption, and "Christ died for our sins, according to the scripture." His blood has done its cleansing work. We do not need another application of the blood of Christ when we sin. The degree to which I walk in the light is not what determines whether I am cleansed. That is a fact that has been accomplished by the death of Christ for sin. Whether I need cleansing or not is not up to me. That has already been done for me when the Lord Jesus paid in full the penalty for sin upon the cross. He was identified by John the Baptist as "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin if the world." We have identified ourselves with Him when we believe on Him, put our full faith in Him alone for our salvation and trust His death as sufficient to meet the claims of God against our sin. Now we live a new life of fellowship with God by walking in the light publicly as one who has been permanently cleansed from sin by His precious blood.