Walking in God’s Light/Living in Fellowship With Him (Part Three)

Pastor Robert L. Taylor
Aug 21
2 min read

John tells the believer, “But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Believers who want to walk with God must walk in the light. We fellowship with God on God’s terms and not on our terms. We conform to God; God does not conform to us. Here we’re given the choice to the wrong behavior mentioned in verse 6. Instead of walking “in darkness” we should “walk in the light” and “have fellowship with one another.” That is to say, “we have fellowship with God and He has fellowship with us.” John’s point is that when believers walk in the light, since God Himself is in the light, they have something in common with God, namely, “the light” which results in having “fellowship with one another.” When doing this we’ll find an ongoing experience of the cleansing power of “the blood of Jesus His Son.” Just as light and darkness cannot co-exist with one another, so sin and God cannot co-exist together. God is absolute perfection and cannot co-exist with sin in any sense. A believer with active, unconfessed sin in his life cannot walk or fellowship with God. He cannot lose his standing with God, but he can lose his fellowship with God. Fellowship with God as a Christian depends on the confession of sin. A carnal Christian cannot fellowship with God. However, God cleanses the carnal Christian if he confesses his sin. How can a perfectly holy God have fellowship with us, even in the light, since we remain sinful people? The amazing answer is that while we walk in the light, “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” The “blood of Jesus” is a figure of speech used for the death of Jesus on the cross. Although Jesus shed His blood 2000 years ago, His blood still cleanses today. Fellowship with God is possible because of the lasting value of the blood of Christ. His blood is efficacious for any sin we might commit. In other words, our sinful nature doesn’t prevent this fellowship! God treats us as being clean by virtue of the shed blood of Jesus! As verse 9 makes clear, there’s an ongoing forgiveness that happens as part of the Father/child relationship. Both the ongoing cleansing and forgiveness enables imperfect people like ourselves to genuinely experience fellowship with a Father who is Light and completely free from darkness (verse 5). Every moment of fellowship with God is a moment paid for us by the precious blood of the Lamb of God! Be encouraged!