In this chapter John begins by backing up what he said at the beginning of his Gospel identifying that the ‘word of life’ as being God and being with God from the beginning, “That which was from the beginning“ [ESV] and that the Word became incarnate.

In this epistle John reminds us that we are meant to have fellowship with each other and with our Lord and Saviour. When John writes about us walking ‘in darkness’ he does not mean when we go through bad patches in our lives for instances grief, depression, unemployment etc. that we are walking in darkness. No John is warning us that when we are living our lives contrary to His Commandments, living a life of sin we are walking in darkness and are deluding ourselves if we think we are walking in the light.

When we walk in the light we are walking in God’s wisdom and truth through which we will be content in our lives as we have hope, peace, love and joy. For me personally walking in the light means I try and read Scripture daily, spending time in prayer, obeying His Word and asking Him to forgive my sins.

I don’t believe genuine Christians believe that they are ‘sinless’ but have allowed themselves to be deceived by Satan believing that some of their lifestyle choices are not sin, even though it’s stated in Scripture that those particular actions are in fact sin. And because ‘God is love’ they can live their lives how they want, forgetting that for God to be God He has to be ‘just’ and that there are consequences for the choices we make.

In verse 9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” [ESV] John in this text is comforting and reminding us, that no matter what we do God is waiting for us to repent where He will wipe away our sins and forgive us.

This coming week take time out and think of any lifestyle choices you have made, which may be going against Scripture.

All Bible links and quotes are taken from http://www.biblegateway.com