Fellowship and Forgiveness in the Light

1 John 1:5-10 (NIV)

The Lord’s Supper speaks of the fellowship and the forgiveness we have as Christ’s disciples. In these verses from First John, the apostle uses the words light and walk to describe Christian fellowship and forgiveness.

John wants us to understand how closely related these two images of light and walk really are. When we understand how they’re related, our Christian pilgrimage will be much straighter and brighter. The simplest way to describe the interrelatedness of light and walk is to compare it to walking down a road or a path. You can see how to walk that road much more easily when there’s a light shining, whether it’s the light of the sun or some type of man-made light. .

John uses the concepts of light and walk figuratively, in this sense. If we say that we believe that “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all,” then how we live will reveal whether or not we actually believe it. More than that—and this is the point John is making—if we believe that God is light and in him there’s no darkness at all, then our fellowship as Christians will reveal whether or not we actually believe it. In light of this, verse 7 makes sense. “But if we walk in the light, as he (God) is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” The road we walk as Christians is the road of fellowship with Jesus and each other. The light that guides and sustains us as we walk that road is God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

Robert McQuilkin has said that, “The sin of unforgiveness is the cancer that destroys relationships, eats away at one’s own psyche, and—worst of all—shuts us off from God’s grace.” As we come to the Table of our Lord this morning, do you need God’s forgiveness for some sin that’s in your life? Do you need to forgive someone? Do you need to be forgiven by someone? We might not realize it, but whether or not we forgive as God has forgiven us drastically affects the quality of our fellowship with Jesus and one another. Not only that, but how we respond reveals whether or not we truly believe that “God is light; and in him is no darkness at all.” If we’ll not forgive, or seek to be forgiven, then we do not believe what John says in verse 7 is true. “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, purifies us from all sin.”

The renowned Methodist pastor Charles Allen wrote that, when he was in the fourth grade, the superintendent of the school he attended mistreated him. The superintendent deliberately mistreated Allen because he’d had a falling out with Allen’s dad.

The Allens moved from that town, and the years passed.

One day during Charles’ first pastorate, he heard that his old antagonist was seeking a job with the schools in the area in which he lived and pastured. Charles knew that as soon as he told his friends on the school board about the man, they wouldn’t hire him.

Allen wrote,

I went out to get in my car to go see some of the board members and suddenly it came over me what I had done. Here I was out trying to represent Him who was nailed to the cross and me carrying a grudge. That realization was a humiliating experience. I went back into my house, knelt by my bedside, and said, “Lord, if you will forgive me of this, I will never be guilty anymore.” That experience and that promise are among the best things that ever happened in my life.

You see, light reveals the nature of our fellowship with God. Had Charles Allen carried through with his grudge, he would’ve proven that he was walking in darkness, even though he portrayed himself as walking in light. He would’ve been living a lie, and not the truth.

The churches of Asia Minor to whom John wrote had experienced something all Christians have experienced. They had heard some of their fellow believers claim to be walking in light while their actions proved they were walking in darkness. We’ve all known some Christian like that, haven’t we? These people prove true what John wrote in verse 6: “If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.” When we do as these Christians do, we prove we’ve been deceived. It proves also that we’re walking contradictions. We can’t love Jesus who is the Truth when we live in a way that contradicts the truth of Jesus.

While serving with Crate Jones, my mentor in ministry, on the ministry staff of the Angier Avenue Church in Durham, North Carolina, the two of us had a telling experience one day on an elevator of the newly-opened Durham General Hospital. An attractive black nurse got on the elevator. A rather handsome black got on with her. All the way up that man did everything he could to convince that young woman to go out with him that evening. Finally, she caved in. She told him what time her shift ended, and she would meet him then. When the elevator stopped, the man got off, but the woman stayed. When the door closed, she stuck her tongue out at him.

In the next issue of the church newsletter, Crate quoted the prophet Isaiah, who said, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (29:13)

Light reveals the nature of our fellowship with God. When we’re more comfortable in the dark than we are in the light then what John says is true, “We lie and do not live by the truth.”

What happens, though, when we walk in the light, in truth? The first of two positive consequences occurs: “we have fellowship with one another.” It’s impossible for two Christians, one who’s living in the light and another who’s living in darkness, to fellowship with each other. What fellowship can light have with darkness? Then, once we’re in fellowship, “the blood of Jesus, (God’s) Son, purifies us from all sin.” What is

John getting at? Well, can any of us say we’ve never sinned against God, ourselves, or someone else? No one. We’ve all sinned. But in verse 9 John tells us how our fellowship with God and each other is kept intact in spite of our sin. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” We must confess our sins. James the apostle said, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16) Do we love one another enough to forgive one another?

D.L. Moody once observed that, “Unconfessed sin is unforgiven sin, and unforgiven sin is the darkest, foulest thing on this sin-cursed earth.” Do you have unconfessed sin in your life? Then confess it. Get rid of it as fast as you can. Don’t walk in darkness any longer.

John’s message is both a warning and a word of encouragement. It’s a warning to those who live the kind of life you must conceal and hide. That kind of life can’t be lived in the light. It’s also a word of encouragement to those who walk in the light. Keep on walking in the light so that your fellowship with Christ and each other will grow sweeter and sweeter.

Andrew Blackwood suggests that the Lord’s Supper should be the crowning service in the church, and thus be earth’s nearest approach to heaven. As we come to the Lord’s Table today, do our actions reveal those on their way to heaven, those who are walking in the light?