1 John 1:5-10

1:5 "God is light" = God is the Revealer of His holiness. Both aspects of the divine nature figure in the discussion of sin and fellowship in 1 John 1:6-10. As Light, God both exposes man's sin and condemns it. If anyone walks in darkness he is hiding form the truth which the Light reveals.

1:6 - A Christian cannot truly claim communion with Him while living in darkness because He is Light. Christians sometimes feign (pretend to be affected by) spirituality while engaging in acts of disobedience.

1:7 - There can be only one sphere of real communion with God - the light itself. "with one another" isn't between other Christians, but between ourselves and God. If Christians live in the light where God is, there there is mutual fellowship between Himself and them. - The light is the fundamental reality which they share: True communion with God is living in the sphere where one's experience is illumined by the truth of what God is. It is ti love open to His revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. - This entails believers acknowledging whatever the light reveals is wrong in their lives.

- John talks about walking IN the light, not ACCORDING TO the light because that would rewuire sinless perfection and would make fellowship with God impossible. To walk IN it, however, suggests openness and responsiveness to the light.

- Believers who walk in the light 1) have fellowship with God and 2) are being cleansed from every sin. So long as there is true openness to the light, our failures are under the cleansing power of Christ's blood shed for us.

1:8 - The heart is full of depravity. The Truth may be "in" us as a controlling, motivating influence, but until heaven, this claim will always be false. We should always be ready and willing to confess whatever sins/failures that God's light exposes.

1:9 - "Our" is not in the Greek txt. Paraphrased, it should be more like "If we confess our sins, He will forgive the sins we confess and moreover will even cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
- Each Christian is responsible to acknowledge (the meaning of confess cf 2:23 and 4:3) whatever the light makes him aware of,and when he does so a complete and perfect cleansing is granted him.
- He is Faithful = forgiveness is assured.
- He is just = it does not go against His character.