If he reads his Bible, it condemns him. He will frame his ways to please himself, without consulting God. English Revised Version then the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.” What does this mean? “The ambitious man much be studying, and the worldling must be working or contriving, and the sensual, vain person providing himself for vanity, when they should be engaged in the worship of God.” Sin steals the time, attention and affection that we need to maintain our communion with God. The backslider in heart will be full of his own cares. Not because you want it to be, but because it is impossible unless we both walk in the light. These are extraordinarily strong words. Or we could say the light of God comes into the heart. 15. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Heb. Darkness is the threat of despair and misery. New Testament goodness, agathosune , is a versatile and strong word that can be used either of the act or the intention motivating the act. And I think he chose the word light because it carries a positive connotation that the word truth may not always carry. Hence, having faith in God no longer, and being unable to control events, he must of necessity be filled with anxieties with regard to the future. But light changes all that. Having enjoyed the love of God, and forsaken Him, he feels condemned for everything. He will chafe in almost every relation of life, will allow himself to be vexed, and to get into such relations with some persons, and perhaps with many, that he cannot pray for them honestly, and can hardly treat them with common civility. 19. It leads people to real faith instead of encouraging them to be content with a lip service that cannot change and cannot save. When we walk in the light, we cannot walk in darkness. He is light and in him is no darkness at all. The condition for forgiveness in verse 9 is confessing our sins. He said, "Father, this light reaches such a little way, I am afraid." It is finished in the cross and no more forgiveness is possible. He cannot have his own way. . You find freedom and hope and joy. Then you notice that the topic of God is avoided. . First of all, verse 5: “God is light and in him is no darkness at all.” What does John mean that God is light? "Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15). And nothing sweeter than friends singing and reading God’s word. Now we must look at the clarification in verses 8–10. It is often very trying to live with backsliders. Verse 6 would suggest that it is God and the believer. If we are not walking in the light, we have no warrant for believing that our sins are covered. All that know his state condemn him. Jesus says in John 5:44, “For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God.” This does not mean that we are not to respect and recognize people and appreciate the things they have done. Then the empire falls. He loses much of his time. 56. He is content, for now, to say that there is no cleansing of sin for the person who does not walk in the light. Walking by faith means living life in light of eternal consequences. It could be that the wonderful promise of verse 7 would play right into the hands of people who have a perfectionistic view of the Christian life. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. He has taken all these things out of the hands of God, and claims them and treats them as his own. You both hope in his promises, and avoid sin by the light of his word. All gracious affections, which are a sweet odour to Christ, filling the soul of a Christian with a heavenly sweetness and fragrancy, are broken-hearted affections. The evidence of indwelling truth is the exposure of error. He will bring upon himself multitudes of trials that he never would have had, had he not departed from God. Clarification: Don’t claim to be without sin (verses 8–10). John uses strong words so we will be strong people. He is the pathway to perfect and eternal joy with no disappointments. But in the end it simply is not up to us to decide whether the gospel is the kind of good news we would like it to be. First John 2:8–11 give some real clear indications. Such a gospel accounts for how 40 million people can claim to be born again in America at the same time that our moral condition is an all-time low of corruption inside and outside the church. You’re both devoted to his cause. “If we say we have fellowship with God while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,” i.e., between God and ourselves. He will be anxious about himself, about his business, about his reputation, about everything. The backslider in heart is full of his own self condemnation. What does it mean to be cleansed from all sin by the blood of Jesus. Light is the promise of hope and joy. will cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” This is the moral effect of the blood of Christ. Most people in the world have no experience of lasting joy in their lives. In other words, the reason Christ came was not merely to cover sin but to conquer sin. If this were not an apostle talking, I can imagine someone today saying, “Do you have to use such inflammatory words when you warn people about error?” John evidently felt that so much was at stake the language, “You make God a liar,” should not be softened into something like, “You displease your heavenly Father.” I’m not sure the Scriptures should be adjusted to our emotionally fragile age. But our newness consists in this: that the true light is shining in our hearts revealing the dreadfulness of our remaining sin and the abundance of God’s grace. Instead of keeping out of temptation, he will run right into it. 17. Second, the cleansing refers to the ongoing moral effect of the blood of Christ on our conscience, weaning us away from sin, giving us freedom from its power, and enslaving us more and more to the joy of righteousness. Having forsaken God, he will be sure to have much to irritate him. Our great joy is that our sin is forgiven in Christ. Living a life ruled by the love of God is what opens you up to walk in the spirit and live in the highest measure of the blessing and power of God! The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires; their hope is an humble hope; and their joy, even when it is unspeakable and full of glory, is an humble, broken-hearted joy, leaving the Christian more poor in spirit, more like a little child, and more disposed to an universal lowliness of behaviour. But God’s Word tells us to “cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12). The message of 1 John — that walking in the light is not optional, but necessary for salvation — is good news because it creates the moral atmosphere of urgency in which serious business is done with God. God is not like that. Fear is a God given emotion that keeps us out of danger, but we are not supposed to have so much that it immobilizes us and keeps us from serving God like we should. The consequences of that damage remain in our relationships with family, friends, and neighbors. Here is one of the most beautiful paragraphs I have ever read outside the Bible. Near the beginning of the 40 year wilderness experience, they were all getting ready to go into the Promised Land to reap their big reward in God. He does not, will not, cast his cares upon the Lord, but undertakes to manage everything for himself, and in his own wisdom, and for his own ends. “He who does not see the light in others does not see the light in himself.”― Doreen DeVore. Jesus, then, is the conduit or provider of light to the world. In sum, then, the on-going cleansing of the blood of Jesus in our lives refers to two things. Another way to put it would be that nothing is truly understood until it is understood in the light of God. It seems to me that there is good reason for saying it refers to both. 1. They will very naturally commit themselves against any truth that bears hardly upon a self-indulgent spirit. It frustrates your ability to attain your goal. Prayer is missing or perfunctory. The mark of the new creature in Christ is not a rosy self-concept. He shall be filled with his own feelings. Not only to acquit but also to reform. Light always involves the removal of darkness in the unfolding of biblical history and theology. . And God is light and in him is no darkness at all. God will frown darkness upon his path, and take pains to confound his projects, and blow his schemes to the winds. Which is why secular education is such a mirage of hope in the contemporary wasteland of our culture. God will frown darkness upon his path, and take pains to confound his projects, and blow his schemes to the winds. In other words, does it refer to progressive sanctification or to the on-going experience of justification? Verse 5: foundation — God is light and in him is no darkness at all. The backslider in heart will be filled with his own tempers. A backslider feels his trials keenly, but, while he complains of being so tried by everything around him, he is constantly aggravating them, and, being the author of them, he seems industrious to bring them upon himself like an avalanche. This is an almost certain result of a backslidden heart. That’s the overall structure of the paragraph: Now let’s go back and unpack some of its meaning. If he prays in secret, in his family, or in public, he knows he is not sincere, and feels condemned. When it comes to interacting with the world, we are not forbidden from making friends with those who are still enslaved to sin; rather, we are forbidden from acting in ways that displease God. What are Consequences of Backsliding in Heart. Verse 6 shows what destroys fellowship with God — walking in darkness. 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