1 John 1:6-7 “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 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.”

What does it mean to “walk in the darkness”? John isn’t talking about an occasional dark spot in our moral lives that God’s light will soon clear up. Passing under a shade tree or the shadow of a building isn’t the same thing as walking in the darkness.  A shadow of sin continues to make its presence known and felt in our lives. Martin Luther once compared it to the birds: “You can’t keep the birds from flying over your heads, but you don’t have to let them make a nest in your hair.

If we choose to seal the light out of some part of our lives; if we turn off the switch and let the darkness rule unopposed and uncontested; if we are actively embracing the darkness, then what fellowship can we claim with God? What do we share or have in common? God’s light isn’t compatible with the world’s standards of greed and materialism, sexual license, abusive-vulgar speech, casual disrespect and defiance of authority, unrestrained anger and outrage, or smug self-righteousness, to give just a sample list. Either the light is exposing these things, or it is being extinguished by them. Living in that kind of darkness as a way of life while claiming fellowship with God is living a lie, John says. Careful what you claim.

There is a solution, an alternative, to the false claim. “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.” Walking in the light doesn’t mean we have reached some sort of perfection. That becomes more clear the more John explains this to us. Walking in the light means that we are letting God’s light do its work. It holds everything we say, think, or do up to the brilliant standard of God’s law. It exposes our sin so that we can repent of it. We stop hiding from the truth and start confessing it about ourselves, our lives, and our Lord.

Then we find God’s grace: “…and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” God’s purpose isn’t to hold our time in the darkness against us. He doesn’t intend to catch us in our lies and prosecute us for them. He wants to lead us to light, and truth, and wash the rest away in Jesus’ blood. He wants the thing we share in fellowship with him to be his love and forgiveness most of all: he giving it, and we receiving it.

Then we can claim fellowship with God, and look forward to even more things he will share with us.