God Is Light: Walking in Fellowship
The first great test is stated with stark imagery: God is light, and there is no darkness in him. Fellowship with God cannot be separated from a life that comes into the light. John does not teach sinless perfection here; verse 7 immediately speaks of the continuing cleansing supplied by the blood of Jesus Christ. The contrast is between claiming fellowship while walking in darkness and actually walking in the sphere of God’s revealed light. This imagery belongs to a large biblical Thread that begins with creation’s light and darkness, runs through prophetic promises of light, is concentrated in the Gospel of John’s presentation of Christ as light, and reaches the new creation where darkness is finally excluded. In 1 John, the Thread becomes ethical and communal: walking in light produces fellowship with one another and depends on Christ’s cleansing blood.