Ezekiel 42-44 1 John 1

“So if we say we have fellowship with God, but we continue living in darkness, we are liars and do not follow the truth. But if we live in the light, as God is in the light, we can share fellowship with each other. Then the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from every sin.” (1 John 1:6-7 NCV)

John looks at life in dark and light. You are either in the light, or you are in the dark. There’s no twilight in John’s understanding of life. If you want to live in the light, then you must be in fellowship with God. If you aren’t in fellowship with God, then you live in darkness. If you claim to have fellowship with God, but you live in the darkness of sin, then you’re either self-deceived or you’re lying. John didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to be that blunt. On the other hand, if you live in the light, we not only can fellowship with each other, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins.

John saw life as a battle between good and evil. Good, of course, was life lived in fellowship with God. Evil was life lived outside of fellowship with God. You might be able to do a lot of good things even if you weren’t in fellowship with God, but that wouldn’t make you good. When you live in fellowship with God, a couple of things happen. The first is that your life becomes good. You do good things. You help people. You can fellowship with God and with His people. The second thing is that if you do sin, the blood of Jesus will cleanse you from every sin. Now, the other side of that equation is that when you choose to live outside of the fellowship of God, not only can’t you do and be good, sin has become such an integral part of your life that you won’t even seek forgiveness. You can see that attitude in people who live in ways contrary to God’s commands and see nothing wrong with their lifestyle. Our culture sees things in shades of gray. In a society that sees gray as an acceptable way of life, those who shine a light on its ways aren’t always accepted. Still, we shine the light of Christ on the ways of the world because our joy comes from fellowship with God and with His people.

Lord, society would blur the lines between right and wrong. Help me to live right in Your eyes, and show other people the joy of fellowship with You. When I do wrong, Lord, convict me of my sin and forgive it through the blood of Jesus.

Scripture taken from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.