God is a companion only to those who admit their sin (past + present)

1 John 1:5-10

Observations

• The passage bounces back and forth between two scenarios:
  • the one who says they have fellowship with God but say they are sinless
  • the one who says they have fellowship with God and they admit to their sin
• it also says some things about God

• x
                                                                 +--------------------------+
                                                                 |           GOD            |
                                                                 +--------------------------+
                                                                           |            |
                                                                           v            |
                                                         +------------------------+     |
                                                         |  is light and in Him   |     |
                                                         |  is no darkness at all |     |
                                                         +------------------------+     |
                                                                           |            v
                                                                           |   +-----------------+
               (do you say you have                  +------------------+  |   | is faithful and |
                fellowship with God?)-----NO-------> | this passage is  |  |   |      just       |
                        |                            |  not about you   |  |   +-----------------+
                       YES                           +------------------+  |                  |
                        |                                                  v                  |
                        v                               +------------------------+            |
                 (do you say that                       | this is called walking |            |
                  you have sin?)--------YES------------>|      in the light      |            |
                        |                               +------------------------+            |
                        NO                                             |                      |
                        |                              +---------------+-----------+          |
                        v                              |                           |          |               
                +----------------------+               v                           v          |                    
                |    this is called    |      +-----------------------+      +------------+   |                           
                | walking in darkness  |      |  we have fellowship   |      |  you are   |   |                                
                +----------------------+      |   with one another    |      | confessing |   |                  
                        |                     +-----------------------+      | your sins  |   |                
                        v                                                    +------------+   |                
                  +------------+                                                   |          |    
                  |  you lie   |                                                   |          |    
                  +------------+                                                   |          |     
                        |                                                          v          v     
                        v                                            +---------------------------+
               +------------------------------+                      | God forgives our sins and |
               | you don't practice the truth |                      |   cleanses us from all    |
               +------------------------------+                      |      unrighteousness      |
                        |                                            +---------------------------+
                        v                                                          |              
               +---------------------------+                                       |              
               |   you deceive yourself    |                                       v              
               +---------------------------+                           +------------------------+ 
                        |                                              |   the blood of Christ  | 
                        v                                              |    cleanses us from    | 
               +-------------------------+                             |       all sin          |
               | the truth is not in you |                             +------------------------+
               +-------------------------+
                        |
                        v
               +-------------------------+
               | you are saying that God |
               |        is a liar        |
               +-------------------------+
                        |
                        v
               +-------------------------+
               |  God's Word is not in   |
               |           you           |
               +-------------------------+
              

• God is:
  • faithful
  • just
• of those who say they have fellowship with Him
  • those who say they have no sin and that they have not sinned:
    • are lying
    • don’t have the truth in them
    • don’t have God’s Word in them
    • are accusing God of lying
  • those who admit their sin:
    • have fellowship with other such people
    • are doing the thing called “confession”
    • are forgiven of their sins
    • are “cleansed” from “all unrighteousness”
    • the cleansing effect comes from Christ’s blood

Things God Does and other interpretations

• God forgives sinners who admit it (those who admit to what they’ve done wrong)
• God has no fellowship with some of the people who say they have fellowship with Him
  • He has no fellowship with those who say they have no sin
• From this passage, there is no indication of how God interacts with those who neither say they are sinners nor say they are sinless
  • objection: don’t most people fall into that undefined camp?
  • but this passage is only talking about those who say they have fellowship with God. This is not a verse about non-believers hearing of God for the first time. It’s about people calling themselves by God’s name.
  • I suspect most people who consider themselves people of Christ have some stance on their sin, either to confess or to deny

Application

• I should consistently confess and not deny that I have sinned and do sin
• This is my entry point to fellowship with God and other believers
• If I deny my sin, I’m alone
• If I’m feeling alone, that might be an indicator that I’ve been denying sin and so cutting myself off from companionship