Scripture:
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. v6
Observation:
Walking with Jesus requires us to not walk in darkness.
Application:
This is an easy verse to misunderstand & miscontru, that is why I wanted to tackle it today. See, John’s stating that if you walk in darkness, you cannot have fellowship with Jesus.
But I thought Jesus forgave my sin?
What if I find myself in sin, or struggling in sin, does that mean I have no fellowship with Jesus?
Does that mean I have fallen away or have no hope?!
By no means.
To walk with darkness is to have your eyes set on & fixated on you. Your own way. Your own life. Your own hopes. Your own dreams. To walk in darkness is to walk your way, when you want to.
This means that if you find that Jesus is only a part of your life, the salt to your meal, and you are walking in darkness, then yes, you have no hope in him, you have no fellowship with him.
Having fellowship with Jesus means more than simply praying a prayer, it means to die to self, it means to give your life to him that he would own it and be king over it. To walk with Jesus is to give him all.
Have you given him all? If the answer is yes, you have fellowship with him.
But what if I find myself in sin? Or struggling still?
Look to him. Run to him. Run from darkness.
The person fighting sin, struggling against sin is not “walking in darkness” as John puts it here. They are walking with Jesus but fighting the flesh.
Do not let the enemy use this verse to make you believe you aren’t walking with Jesus. Take hope in him, run from darkness. And also to the sinner, who claims Jesus, but still enjoys in and revels in darkness, John says there is no fellowship in this darkness with Jesus. Flee the darkness & run to Jesus!
Prayer:
I hope and pray that this speaks to your people! I pray they run from darkness & find hope even in their sin that you are enough.