If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
To claim never to have sinned is to call God false and to show His word has no place within, a self-deception that denies the truth about human sin. It stands in the message that God is altogether light without any darkness, so to claim fellowship with Him while walking in darkness is falsehood, while walking in the light brings fellowship with one another and cleansing from all sin through the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. Honest acknowledgment and confession of sin meets faithful and just forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness, while stubborn denial and refusal to confess leaves the soul uncleansed. No one can truthfully claim sinlessness, sanctification, or abiding in Christ while breaking God's law and walking in transgression of His commandments, since true sanctification comes only through obedience to the truth. The remedy is set forth in the aim that believers sin not, with Jesus Christ the righteous as Advocate with the Father and atoning sacrifice for the whole world, known by keeping His commandments.
Context and Plain Meaning
The verse belongs to eyewitness testimony to Christ as the Word of life and eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested, seen, heard, looked upon and handled, declared so that hearers may have fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ and have full joy. It conveys the message heard from Him that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. To claim fellowship with Him while walking in darkness is to lie and not do the truth, while walking in the light brings fellowship with one another and cleansing from all sin by the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. Claiming to have no sin is self-deception showing the truth is not within, while confessing sin brings faithful and just forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness.
In plain sense to say we have not sinned makes God a liar and shows His word is not in us, not dwelling within and having no place in the heart. That denial contradicts God and accuses Him of falsehood, rejects the truth about human sin given in the surrounding verses, and proves the speaker deceived and without truth within. It includes refusing to admit a wrong condemned by God's word and justifying conduct rather than humbly confessing. Walking in the light instead means honestly acknowledging and admitting sin rather than self-deception, in order to receive forgiveness and cleansing.
It was written as stirring, firm and decided testimony when John was an old man, showing how God can use aged workers. It can be borne as true personal experience by workers who have stood faithful amid storm and trial in long service in God's work, and it is part of the message that worn and disappointed pioneer workers are to bear. It is spoken to brethren in responsible positions as a call to humble fellowship in the light. Careful reading of the first chapter prepares for understanding the second chapter, where the aim is that believers sin not, where Jesus Christ the righteous is Advocate with the Father and atoning sacrifice and propitiation for sin for the whole world, and where knowing God is shown and proved by keeping His commandments and walking as He walked rather than lying by claiming to know Him while disobeying. God is gracious and full of tender compassion and does not leave the sinner overcome by temptation in hopeless despair but gives hope through that Advocate.
Confession and Cleansing
Honest acknowledgment and confession of sin brings faithful and just forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness, while claiming to have no sin is self-deception showing the truth is not within. To say we have not sinned makes God a liar and reveals that His word is not in us. Those who stubbornly claim they have not sinned and refuse to confess cannot be cleansed from unrighteousness. They will not see the kingdom of heaven unless they confess, and without a decided change of attitude those who withhold acknowledgment to protect position and influence will never be cleansed.
Even Daniel, though greatly loved and greatly beloved of God, confessed his own sin together with his people's sin. His example shows the spirit of confession needed to remove stumbling blocks, to clear the King's way, and to see God's salvation and glory revealed.
The verse assumes every person has sinned and stands in need of accepting Jesus as Saviour. God gave His Son to die on the cross to make a complete atonement for sins, and had He not paid the redemption price none could be saved. Christ now lives at His Father's right hand pleading for sinners and lives to make intercession, and His intercessions prevail to take away sins. To all who receive Him as a personal Saviour He gives power to become sons of God, for belief in Christ as a personal Saviour is the only salvation provided for the sinner made alien from God by sin. Because He lives obedient believers shall live also, and He will keep them from falling in continuous and progressive surrender until grace is lost in glory. God is gracious and full of tender compassion and does not leave the sinner overcome by temptation in hopeless despair, but gives hope through an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the atoning sacrifice for sins, with the aim that believers sin not and do not continue in transgression of the law.
Humble confession of personal sin is to be made before God and Christ who died, and before men, rather than submitting to the accuser. It condemns boasting about not confessing, justifying self, and charging others with guilt as dishonoring God, the opposite of walking in the light where fellowship and cleansing from all sin through the blood of Jesus are given. Christ then leads the penitent soul upward step by step and gives peace to the mind. Angels guard the penitent believing soul so that evil angels cannot intrude.
Obedience and Daily Life
To claim to be without sin, to be sanctified, to abide in Christ, or to have fellowship with Him while breaking God's law and walking in darkness in transgression of His commandments is fearful deception that makes God a liar and proves His word is not within. True sanctification comes only through obedience to the truth, and the sanctified heart keeps all God's commandments, with the Sabbath of the fourth commandment standing as a pointed test of loyalty. Those who know God keep His commandments and have His word abiding in them, and to claim to know Him while disobeying is lying, while walking in the light brings fellowship with one another and cleansing from all sin by the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. The same warning condemns those who attack God's commandment-keeping people who take the Word just as it reads, who wrest the Scriptures to suit their own disobedience, walk contrary to God's commandments, and hate their brother, with their life condemning their course.
Denial of sin includes refusing to admit a wrong condemned by God's word and justifying conduct rather than humbly confessing it. It includes boasting about not confessing, justifying self, and charging others with guilt, which dishonors God and stands opposite to walking in the light where fellowship and cleansing through the blood of Jesus are given. It is lying against the truth by refusing to humble the heart to confess, and may misuse Scripture to excuse wrongdoing and to cover misleading statements.
To say "I do not hate my brother; I am not so bad as that" denies real sin and reveals how little a person understands his own heart. Feelings brought to the surface that have no kinship with love, showing no disposition to harmonize, being as ready for conflict as not, are sin and hatred, even when the brother may be bearing a message from God that is just the light needed for this time. This is a sharp and clear description applicable to church members who think they have zeal for God in their feelings against a brother when his ideas conflict with theirs.
The declaration that to say we have not sinned makes God a liar and proves His word is not in the speaker is to be used at the present time to call sin by its right name. It stands against unconverted influences that hinder the work by seeking personal glory and wishing to be thought originators of new theories presented as truth. Receiving those theories leads to denial of the truth given to God's people for the past fifty years and substantiated by demonstration of the Holy Spirit, leading minds into confusion away from truths to be indelibly impressed so that people hold fast the faith.
This denial is especially seen in men in grave responsibility who carry out plans God cannot endorse, whose defects are condemned in the Word, who when plainly reproved justify their course and deny wrong while knowing they are wrong. Though knowing they are wrong they throw over themselves the robe of righteousness and use Scripture to cover misleading statements, following the course Satan followed in the heavenly courts when he justified every movement he made. To brethren in responsible positions the verse is spoken as a call to humble fellowship in the light, completing the message that God is light with no darkness at all, that claiming fellowship while walking in darkness is lying and not doing truth, that walking in the light brings fellowship and cleansing by the blood of Jesus Christ, and that denying sin is self-deception while confessing brings faithful and just forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness.
Every soul is held accountable to God for how service to the Lord is carried forward, requiring deep thought and much seeking the Lord and singleness of purpose because time to work is short. This calls for receiving wisdom from Christ, who is sanctification and righteousness, and walking in the knowledge of the truth as a partaker of the divine nature. The mind is not to be crowded with variety so as to lose true understanding of Christ's teachings and the plain requirements of Thus saith the Lord, but a genuine experience of more value than recognition is to be obtained now, and everything is gained by walking humbly with God.
As part of the first chapter the verse teaches the obligation resting on everyone to strive for mastery over self by refusing to be led by inclination or selfish desires. Those who bear Christ's name must practice truth and carry out its lofty principles in daily life as fellow laborers with God and moral representatives of Christ, with character fashioned by the divine likeness and life hid with Christ in God. Instead of condemning fellow believers, each person is to let the truth as in Jesus abide in the heart, since judgment belongs to the one Judge alone, the One who died and took human nature and infirmities so that people may stand on vantage ground with God, rather than climbing upon the judgment seat in unholy surmising, evil speaking and false witness that reveals an impure fountain of the heart.
Walking in the light instead means acknowledging sin, confessing it, and receiving forgiveness and cleansing, and such confession and reformation help remove what divides hearts. It stands in perfect harmony with speaking the truth in love and growing up into Christ the Head, with the whole body joined together building itself up in love. It calls for the love of Christ in the heart giving fragrance to words and works, for return to first love and first works through repentance, and for watchfulness to strengthen what remains, especially for those living in the last days. It refuses a cold, selfish, half-hearted life that does not walk in the light, does not know the truth and does not practice its principles, is deceived by the enemy, leads others out of the right way, disobeys when truth crosses an unsanctified heart, and does not bear kindness and unity and love, as well as refusing vanity of mind with darkened understanding and blindness of heart.
To claim never to have sinned is to call God false and to show His word has no place within, a self-deception that denies the truth about human sin. It stands in the message that God is altogether light without any darkness, so to claim fellowship with Him while walking in darkness is falsehood, while walking in the light brings fellowship with one another and cleansing from all sin through the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. Honest acknowledgment and confession of sin meets faithful and just forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness, while stubborn denial and refusal to confess leaves the soul uncleansed. No one can truthfully claim sinlessness, sanctification, or abiding in Christ while breaking God's law and walking in transgression of His commandments, since true sanctification comes only through obedience to the truth. The remedy is set forth in the aim that believers sin not, with Jesus Christ the righteous as Advocate with the Father and atoning sacrifice for the whole world, known by keeping His commandments.
Context and Plain Meaning
The verse belongs to eyewitness testimony to Christ as the Word of life and eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested, seen, heard, looked upon and handled, declared so that hearers may have fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ and have full joy. It conveys the message heard from Him that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. To claim fellowship with Him while walking in darkness is to lie and not do the truth, while walking in the light brings fellowship with one another and cleansing from all sin by the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. Claiming to have no sin is self-deception showing the truth is not within, while confessing sin brings faithful and just forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness.
In plain sense to say we have not sinned makes God a liar and shows His word is not in us, not dwelling within and having no place in the heart. That denial contradicts God and accuses Him of falsehood, rejects the truth about human sin given in the surrounding verses, and proves the speaker deceived and without truth within. It includes refusing to admit a wrong condemned by God's word and justifying conduct rather than humbly confessing. Walking in the light instead means honestly acknowledging and admitting sin rather than self-deception, in order to receive forgiveness and cleansing.
It was written as stirring, firm and decided testimony when John was an old man, showing how God can use aged workers. It can be borne as true personal experience by workers who have stood faithful amid storm and trial in long service in God's work, and it is part of the message that worn and disappointed pioneer workers are to bear. It is spoken to brethren in responsible positions as a call to humble fellowship in the light. Careful reading of the first chapter prepares for understanding the second chapter, where the aim is that believers sin not, where Jesus Christ the righteous is Advocate with the Father and atoning sacrifice and propitiation for sin for the whole world, and where knowing God is shown and proved by keeping His commandments and walking as He walked rather than lying by claiming to know Him while disobeying. God is gracious and full of tender compassion and does not leave the sinner overcome by temptation in hopeless despair but gives hope through that Advocate.
Confession and Cleansing
Honest acknowledgment and confession of sin brings faithful and just forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness, while claiming to have no sin is self-deception showing the truth is not within. To say we have not sinned makes God a liar and reveals that His word is not in us. Those who stubbornly claim they have not sinned and refuse to confess cannot be cleansed from unrighteousness. They will not see the kingdom of heaven unless they confess, and without a decided change of attitude those who withhold acknowledgment to protect position and influence will never be cleansed.
Even Daniel, though greatly loved and greatly beloved of God, confessed his own sin together with his people's sin. His example shows the spirit of confession needed to remove stumbling blocks, to clear the King's way, and to see God's salvation and glory revealed.
The verse assumes every person has sinned and stands in need of accepting Jesus as Saviour. God gave His Son to die on the cross to make a complete atonement for sins, and had He not paid the redemption price none could be saved. Christ now lives at His Father's right hand pleading for sinners and lives to make intercession, and His intercessions prevail to take away sins. To all who receive Him as a personal Saviour He gives power to become sons of God, for belief in Christ as a personal Saviour is the only salvation provided for the sinner made alien from God by sin. Because He lives obedient believers shall live also, and He will keep them from falling in continuous and progressive surrender until grace is lost in glory. God is gracious and full of tender compassion and does not leave the sinner overcome by temptation in hopeless despair, but gives hope through an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the atoning sacrifice for sins, with the aim that believers sin not and do not continue in transgression of the law.
Humble confession of personal sin is to be made before God and Christ who died, and before men, rather than submitting to the accuser. It condemns boasting about not confessing, justifying self, and charging others with guilt as dishonoring God, the opposite of walking in the light where fellowship and cleansing from all sin through the blood of Jesus are given. Christ then leads the penitent soul upward step by step and gives peace to the mind. Angels guard the penitent believing soul so that evil angels cannot intrude.
Obedience and Daily Life
To claim to be without sin, to be sanctified, to abide in Christ, or to have fellowship with Him while breaking God's law and walking in darkness in transgression of His commandments is fearful deception that makes God a liar and proves His word is not within. True sanctification comes only through obedience to the truth, and the sanctified heart keeps all God's commandments, with the Sabbath of the fourth commandment standing as a pointed test of loyalty. Those who know God keep His commandments and have His word abiding in them, and to claim to know Him while disobeying is lying, while walking in the light brings fellowship with one another and cleansing from all sin by the blood of Jesus Christ His Son. The same warning condemns those who attack God's commandment-keeping people who take the Word just as it reads, who wrest the Scriptures to suit their own disobedience, walk contrary to God's commandments, and hate their brother, with their life condemning their course.
Denial of sin includes refusing to admit a wrong condemned by God's word and justifying conduct rather than humbly confessing it. It includes boasting about not confessing, justifying self, and charging others with guilt, which dishonors God and stands opposite to walking in the light where fellowship and cleansing through the blood of Jesus are given. It is lying against the truth by refusing to humble the heart to confess, and may misuse Scripture to excuse wrongdoing and to cover misleading statements.
To say "I do not hate my brother; I am not so bad as that" denies real sin and reveals how little a person understands his own heart. Feelings brought to the surface that have no kinship with love, showing no disposition to harmonize, being as ready for conflict as not, are sin and hatred, even when the brother may be bearing a message from God that is just the light needed for this time. This is a sharp and clear description applicable to church members who think they have zeal for God in their feelings against a brother when his ideas conflict with theirs.
The declaration that to say we have not sinned makes God a liar and proves His word is not in the speaker is to be used at the present time to call sin by its right name. It stands against unconverted influences that hinder the work by seeking personal glory and wishing to be thought originators of new theories presented as truth. Receiving those theories leads to denial of the truth given to God's people for the past fifty years and substantiated by demonstration of the Holy Spirit, leading minds into confusion away from truths to be indelibly impressed so that people hold fast the faith.
This denial is especially seen in men in grave responsibility who carry out plans God cannot endorse, whose defects are condemned in the Word, who when plainly reproved justify their course and deny wrong while knowing they are wrong. Though knowing they are wrong they throw over themselves the robe of righteousness and use Scripture to cover misleading statements, following the course Satan followed in the heavenly courts when he justified every movement he made. To brethren in responsible positions the verse is spoken as a call to humble fellowship in the light, completing the message that God is light with no darkness at all, that claiming fellowship while walking in darkness is lying and not doing truth, that walking in the light brings fellowship and cleansing by the blood of Jesus Christ, and that denying sin is self-deception while confessing brings faithful and just forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness.
Every soul is held accountable to God for how service to the Lord is carried forward, requiring deep thought and much seeking the Lord and singleness of purpose because time to work is short. This calls for receiving wisdom from Christ, who is sanctification and righteousness, and walking in the knowledge of the truth as a partaker of the divine nature. The mind is not to be crowded with variety so as to lose true understanding of Christ's teachings and the plain requirements of Thus saith the Lord, but a genuine experience of more value than recognition is to be obtained now, and everything is gained by walking humbly with God.
As part of the first chapter the verse teaches the obligation resting on everyone to strive for mastery over self by refusing to be led by inclination or selfish desires. Those who bear Christ's name must practice truth and carry out its lofty principles in daily life as fellow laborers with God and moral representatives of Christ, with character fashioned by the divine likeness and life hid with Christ in God. Instead of condemning fellow believers, each person is to let the truth as in Jesus abide in the heart, since judgment belongs to the one Judge alone, the One who died and took human nature and infirmities so that people may stand on vantage ground with God, rather than climbing upon the judgment seat in unholy surmising, evil speaking and false witness that reveals an impure fountain of the heart.
Walking in the light instead means acknowledging sin, confessing it, and receiving forgiveness and cleansing, and such confession and reformation help remove what divides hearts. It stands in perfect harmony with speaking the truth in love and growing up into Christ the Head, with the whole body joined together building itself up in love. It calls for the love of Christ in the heart giving fragrance to words and works, for return to first love and first works through repentance, and for watchfulness to strengthen what remains, especially for those living in the last days. It refuses a cold, selfish, half-hearted life that does not walk in the light, does not know the truth and does not practice its principles, is deceived by the enemy, leads others out of the right way, disobeys when truth crosses an unsanctified heart, and does not bear kindness and unity and love, as well as refusing vanity of mind with darkened understanding and blindness of heart.