1 John 1:5-10 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

“5And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6If we say we have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

“8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us.”

If We Say

Actions speak louder than words. Who we are and what we do and what we are made out of is not just in the words that we speak, but it is in the things that we do and in who we are in character and attitude and behaviors. So we can say, “I am a Christian,” and not be a Christian at all. We can say we love God, that we believe in Jesus Christ, that we are in fellowship with Christ and with His Body, His Church, i.e. the faithful in Christ Jesus, and be none of those. For if sin is still our practice, deliberately and habitually, and not obedience to our Lord’s commands, we lie if we say we are “In Christ.”

Light and Darkness

If truly we are in fellowship with Christ, and we know God intimately via biblical faith in Him, it should be evident by how we live, by what we practice with regard to our behaviors. And this is not to say that we will never sin again (see 1 John 2:1-2), or that we might not ever fall back into sin and be in need of restoration. It is also not saying that we will be absolutely perfect in everything that we do. But the Scriptures make it clear that those who make sin their habit (practice), and not obedience to God’s commands, they are not in Christ, even if they profess with their lips that they are.

In The Light

God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. Jesus Christ is The Light. And light is the opposite of darkness. Light represents God, the gospel, truth, righteousness, holiness, honesty, faithfulness, moral purity, and obedience to God. Darkness represents sin, evil, and wickedness. And our walk has to do with how we live, our practices, our behaviors. If what we do and how we live in practice is sinful and disobedient to our Lord, we are still in the darkness. But if how we live in practice is honest, faithful, obedient to God, and morally pure, we are In Christ, and our sins are forgiven us.

If We Confess

If we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But confession is not in lip service only. For to confess our sins is to speak to the same conclusion as God about our sins. It is to agree with God, not just that we sinned, but that if sin is our practice, and not obedience to God, that we will not have salvation from sin and eternal life with God. It is to agree with God that we must repent of our sins, turn away from them, and now walk in obedience to our Lord in holy living in moral purity, honesty, and faithfulness, no longer as slaves to sin.

If We Claim No Sin

All of us who were born into this world were born with sin natures in the image of Adam, the first man to sin against God. And we are not acceptable to God and approved by God in our sinful state. So God sent His Son Jesus Christ to the earth to be born as a baby to a virgin woman, but conceived of the Holy Spirit, and not of man, so He was not born with a sin nature as we are, and He never sinned. And He came to die on a cross to put our sins to death with Him so that, by faith in Him, we will deny self, die to sin, and obey God in life practice in the power of God. He died to deliver us from sin.

But if we claim that we have never sinned, that is a lie. And if someone is currently sinning actively and habitually while hiding or denying the sin and acting as though they are righteous, that is a lie. All of us have sinned and have come up short of the glory of God, and all of us are in need to submit to Christ as Lord, to die with Him to sin, and to now obey Him in life practice. Not all of us are actively sinning against God, but we still have the propensity to sin (1 John 2:1-2). But by faith in Jesus we were delivered out of slavery to sin so we will now serve God with our lives from now forward.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

If We Say But We Don’t
An Original Work / October 6, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Talk Video on Same Subject

The Great Redeemer

Lyrics by Francis Foster, 1915
Music by Samuel W. Beazley, 1915

How I love the great Redeemer
Who is doing so much for me;
With what joy I tell the story
Of the love that makes men free.
Till my earthly life is ended,
I will send songs above,
Then beside the crystal sea
More and more my soul shall be
Praising Jesus and His love.

He has purchased my redemption,
Rolled my burden of sin away,
And is walking on beside me,
Growing dearer day by day.
That is why I sing His praises,
That is why joy is mine,
That is why forevermore
On the everlasting shore
I shall sing of love divine.

Glory be to Him forever!
Endless praises to Christ the Lamb!
He has filled my life with sunshine,
He has made me what I am.
Oh, that everyone would know Him,
Oh, that all would adore!
Oh, that all would trust the love
Of the mighty Friend above
And be His forevermore.

He is everything to me, to me,
He is everything to me,
And everything shall always be;
I will never cease to raise
A song of gladness in His praise;
Here, and in the world above,
My soul shall sing of saving love;
Life and light and joy is He,
The precious Friend who died for me.

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