1 John 1:5-7

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 John 1:5-7

The apostle, having declared the truth and dignity of the author of the gospel, brings a message or report from him, from which a just conclusion is to be drawn for the consideration and conviction of the professors of religion, or professed entertainers of this glorious gospel. I. Here is the message or report that the apostle avers to come from the Lord Jesus: This then is the message which we have heard of him (1 John 1:5), of his Son Jesus Christ. As he was the immediate sender of the... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 1:5

1:5 And this is the message which we have heard from him, and which we pass on to you, that God is light, and there is no darkness in him. A man's own character will necessarily be determined by the character of the god whom he worships; and, therefore, John begins by laying down the nature of the God and Father of Jesus Christ whom Christians worship. God, he says, is light, and there is no darkness in him. What does this statement tell us about God? (i) It tells us that he is splendour... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 1:5

In God, says John, there is no darkness at all. Throughout the New Testament darkness stands for the very opposite of the Christian life. (i) Darkness stands for the Christless life. It represents the life that a man lived before he met Christ or the life that he lives if he strays away from him. John writes to his people that, now that Christ has come, the darkness is past and the true light shines ( 1 John 2:8 ). Paul writes to his Christian friends that once they were darkness but now... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 1:6-7

1:6-7 If we say that we have fellowship with him and at the same time walk in darkness, we lie and are not doing the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with each other and the blood of Jesus Christ is steadily cleansing us from all sin. Here John is writing to counteract one heretical way of thought. There were those who claimed to be specially intellectually and spiritually advanced, but whose lives showed no sign of it. They claimed to have... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 1:6-7

As John sees it, there are two great tests of truth. (i) Truth is the creator of fellowship. If men are really walking in the light, they have fellowship one with another. No belief can be fully Christian if it separates a man from his fellow-men. No Church can be exclusive and still be the Church of Christ. That which destroys fellowship cannot be true. (ii) He who really knows the truth is daily more and more cleansed from sin by the blood of Jesus. The Revised Standard Version is... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 1:6-7

Four times in his letter John bluntly accuses the false teachers of being liars; and the first of these occasions is in this present passage. (i) Those who claim to have fellowship with the God who is altogether light and who yet walk in the dark are lying ( 1 John 1:6 ). A little later he repeats this charge in a slightly different way. The man who says that he knows God and yet does not keep God's commandments is a liar ( 1 John 2:4 ). John is laying down the blunt truth that the man... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 John 1:5

This then is the message ,.... Of God by his Son the Word, or from Christ by his apostles. The Syriac version renders it, "this is the Gospel"; which is good news from a far country, a message sent from the King of kings to sinful men: or this is the annunciation, or declaration; that is, the thing declared, or showed. Some render it, "this is the promise", that whereas God is light, such who walk in the light shall have communion with him, and others shall not: which we have heard of him... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 John 1:6

If we say that we have fellowship with him ,.... The Alexandrian copy reads, "for if we say": that is, if any profess to be partakers of the divine nature, to be like unto God, and to have communion with him, to have the light of his countenance, and the discoveries of his love: and walk in darkness ; in the darkness of sin, ignorance, and unbelief, or are in a state of unregeneracy and blindness; whose understandings are darkened, and they know not God in Christ, nor have any true sight... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 John 1:7

But if we walk in the light ,.... Are persons enlightened by the Spirit of God, so as to have a true sight and sense of sin, to know Christ, and the way of salvation by him; and are children of the light, and are going on and increasing in spiritual light and knowledge; walk on in Christ, the light, by faith, and in the light and truth of the Gospel, and as becomes it, and as children of light; and as such who are called out of darkness into marvellous light: as he is in the light ;... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 John 1:5

This then is the message - This is the grand principle on which all depends, which we have heard of απ ' αυτου , From him; for neither Moses nor the prophets ever gave that full instruction concerning God and communion with him which Jesus Christ has given, for the only-begotten Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, has alone declared the fullness of the truth, and the extent of the blessings, which believers on him are to receive. See John 1:18 . God is light - The source of... read more

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