THE DEMANDS OF TRUTH -- Monday:
"If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth." (1 John 1:6).
What does it mean to "walk in darkness?" Primarily, it is living apart from Divine influence – conducting our lives outside the circumference of Divine fellowship. It is another was of saying walking "after the flesh," or setting the mind upon the flesh (Rom 8:5). "Darkness" is the state of nature from which we were delivered in Jesus Christ (Col 1:13). It is a condition where an ignorance of God dominates the soul, thereby alienating the individual from God (Eph 4:18).
Darkness is the realm ruled by Satan because God is absent from it. Thus we read of "the power of darkness" (Lk 22:53; Col 1:13), and "the rulers of the darkness of this world" (Eph 6:12). From one perspective, darkness is the absence of light. There are "works of darkness" (Rom 13:12) – works that are done in ignorance of God and out of the energy of the flesh. In salvation, God effectively calls us "out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Pet 2:9). That is what occurs every time a person is born again, receives Christ, is baptized into Christ, or puts on Christ. There are no new births into darkness. There is no affinity with God in the darkness – none at all!
The Spirit is forthright on this matter, leaving no question about His meaning. "If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth" (RSV). Notice, it does not say "If we say we are Christians," or "If we say we are saved," or "If we say we are believers." Because we have been "called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor 1:9), He refers to having "fellowship with Him." This does not mean the individual says these actual words. Any claim to an association with the Lord falls into this category: i.e., born again, saved, Christian, member of Christ's body, etc.
While holiness is a requisite for all of us, the Spirit is not, so to speak, commanding us to be holy. Rather, He is revealing to us the manner in which the grace of God works. There is such a thing as knowing, or comprehending, "the grace of God in truth" (Col 1:6). This is what occurs when the human spirit is "joined to the Lord" (1 Cor 6:17), becoming "one spirit" with Him.
Our very conversion is described as an enlightening experience. "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor 4:6, NKJV). That is a marvelous circumstance experienced by everyone who is born again.
Any individual who professes he is in fellowship, or company, with God, yet walks in spiritual ignorance, is lying. No explanation is needed. The individual's life contradicts his profession, and therefore the profession is false.
It is not necessary for us to pass eternal judgment on such persons. That is not our prerogative. The point of the passage is that union with God is not based upon a one time decision, or a single magical event or act of obedience. Fellowship with God yields a life that grows brighter and brighter unto the perfect day (Prov 4:18). A process is taking place in God's people in which they "are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Cor 3:18, NASB). Where this is not happening, there must be no profession of allegiance to or affinity with God, for there really is none.
Notice how the Spirit phrases this statement. He does not call upon us to begin evaluating everyone around us. Rather He says, "If we say that WE have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, WE lie, and do not the truth." This is intended to provoke us to self-examination. If we want to be assured that WE have eternal life we must examine ourselves (2 Cor 13:5).
Herein is an intriguing expression: "WE lie, and do not the truth." Jesus spoke of the person who DOES the truth. "But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God" (John 3:21). This is a striking phrase, indeed: DOING the truth! This confirms God is working in the individual: "what he has done has been done through God" (NIV).
Fellowship with God involves Him working in us, for God has no fellowship with anyone in whom He cannot work! If, therefore, God is not working in us, it is because we are not in fellowship with Him. That is why the truth cannot be done, or wrought, in us. For if God does not work in us to do the truth, it simply cannot be done.
PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank You for the love of the truth which I have received. I ask for grace to live out that truth, that it might be expressed through my thoughts, feelings, and deeds.