Verse 5.  God is light and in Him is not any darkness at all.  When there is light in a room there
isn’t any darkness.  When we flip on a switch the darkness disappears and the light appears in the
room.  The darkness is gone.  When God is in our lives the darkness should be gone as well.  In
the Bible darkness is used to represent sin.  God is holy and in Him there is not any sin.  John
Calvin states, “Hence the meaning is that God is light in such a way that He admits no darkness.
From this it follows that He hates an evil conscience, pollution and perverse behavior and
everything that smacks of darkness.” In order to fully “enjoy Christ and His blessings we must be
conformed to God in righteousness and holiness.”  Since God is light and without sin.  Jesus is
God and thus He is without sin and blameless.  He took on the penalty of our sins so that we may
have life.  He is the light of the world.  Albert Barnes states, “God is light ...  not the light, or a
light, but light itself; that is, He is Himself all light, and is the source and fountain of light in all
worlds.” James 1:17, John 1:4,5, I Timothy 6:14-16. Psalms 36:9, 61:11, 147:5 God is light and
all power.  A.R. Fausset, “As all material life and growth depend on light, so all spiritual life and
growth depend on God.”  Plants require light to sustain life and grow even so God is our source
of life and growth.

Power creates light.  Electrical power as it flows through a light bulb creates light.  The tungsten
in the halogen gas emits light when power flows through it.  Even as a light bulb emits light when
power flows through it, our lives should emit light when God flows through us.  The wiring to
our souls is the Word of God.  Even as a lamp must be plugged in an electric socket, we need to
be plugged into God.  The source of the electricity is the power plant and in our case God is the
source.  He has chosen to reveal Himself to us through His Word. Psalms 119:105  This then is
the message that God is light and in Him there is no darkness.  He is all powerful and the source
of all power.  Anything we do in the Christian life must be powered by Him. Psalms 127:1  He is
our strength.  Psalms 37:39

God is light.  Jesus is God.  Therefore Jesus is light.  He paid the penalty for all our sins so that
we may have eternal life. John 3:16, Isaiah 1:17-19.  The blood of Christ washes away our sins.
He removes the darkness from our lives.  Psalms 69:5  He sees the darkness, but when we repent
of our sins and believe on Him He saves us.  Psalms 103:12  Jesus removes the darkness from us.

Verse 6.  Since the blood of Christ removes from us the darkness we are to be in the light.  “If we
say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.”  Once
saved we cannot continue on walking in darkness.  Romans 6:1,2  The grace of God scatters the
darkness according to Calvin.  Titus 2:12, 13  The one who walks in darkness yet says they have
fellowship with God is what we refer to as a hypocrite.  Titus 1:16 A hypocrite is lying.  They say
one thing and then do another.  They say they walk in the light, when in reality they are walking in
darkness.  Those who profess are not necessarily those will confess at His feet that Jesus Christ is
Lord.  Barnes, “we are deceived if we think that we can have fellowship with God, and yet live in
the practice of sin.”  A true believer can fall into sin, but cannot and will not remain there.  A false
one will remain there and not admit to being there.  A true Christian admits to God they have
sinned and repents.  The false one lies and says he has no sin.  Have you ever heard someone get
up in a church and give a testimony how they haven’t sinned in over forty years?  Well right then
they sinned.  They lied to who?  Everyone in the congregation knows they were lying, God knows
it.  So who were they lying to? But themselves.  They are deceived into thinking they are saved.
James 1:22, I John 1:8  A little later we will go into more detail on this.

Walking in sin separates the true believer from fellowship with God.  If we are walking in sin and
say we have fellowship with Him we are lying.  A backsliden Christian can try to fool everyone
that they are just so close to God, but from the loss of the fruit of the Spirit in their lives it is
evident to everyone including them.  The slide down the backsliden path is very slick.  First one
“little” sin and then one more until we are sliding so fast that we cannot stop.  Only the hand of
God can catch us as we sink into the quick sand of sin.  The devil masks sin and makes the it look
like solid ground, but once out in it we find it is just sinking sand.

From the inward man comes the outward productions.  As I have stated in previous lessons on
other topics, inward conditions result in external expressions.  The state of our heart is evident in
our lives.  John 3:16-21 The deeds of darkness are reproved by the light.  The inward light or darkness will be manifested in outwards signs.