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1Jn_1:7. This verse does not merely repeat in its antithetical form the preceding thought, but contains also—as is peculiar to John’s lively fertility of ideas—an expansion of it.
ἐὰν δὲ ἐν τῷ φωτὶ περιπατῶμεν ] is contrasted not only with the preceding ( ἐὰν ) ἐν τῷ σκότει περιπατῶμεν , but also with ἐὰν εἴπωμεν , ὅτι κοιν . ἐχ . μετʼ αὐτοῦ (so also Ebrard), thus: “if we do not merely say that we have fellowship with God, and yet at the same time walk in darkness, but if we really walk ἐν τῷ φωτί .”
ἐν τῷ φωτὶ περιπατεῖν is not “to strive after likeness to God” (Lücke), but so to walk that the light (by which, however, we are not, with Weiss, to understand only knowledge) is the element in which our light moves; this, however, is a life which does not consist in striving after likeness to God, but which has this already as its own, or which is an ἔχειν κοινωνίαν μετʼ αὐτοῦ with Him who is light. This unity between walking in the light and fellowship with God is even more clearly brought out by the following words: ὡς αὐτός ἐστιν ἐν τῷ φωτί ] ὡς , because it is the same element in which the true Christian walks and in which God “lives and works” (Düsterdieck, Brückner), inasmuch as the Christian has become θείας κοινωνὸς φύσεως (2Pe_1:4).
αὐτός refers back to αὐτοῦ , 1Jn_1:6, and is put for Θεός . The idea “that God is in the light” is the same as this “that God is light;” that which is the nature of God is also the element of His life; the expression used here is occasioned by the preceding ἐν τῷ φωτὶ περιπατεῖν ; Ebrard incorrectly explains: “God has chosen for His habitation the spheres of the sinless, holy, and pure life of the angels and those made perfect;” there is not the slightest hint at such a conception in the context. As Weiss denies to the expression φῶς an ethical reference, and explains ἐν τῷ φωτὶ περιπατεῖν = “to walk in a state of right knowledge,” the clause ὡς αὐτός ἐστιν ἐν τῷ φωτί necessarily causes him a difficulty, which he can only solve by the supposition “that an idea similar to that in 1Ti_6:16 was before the apostle’s mind, and that he institutes a parallel between the walk of the Christian in the light of true knowledge, and the dwelling of God in the brightness of His glory,” in which it is plainly ignored that the second ἐν τῷ φωτί must necessarily have the same meaning as the first ἐν τῷ φωτί .
ἐστι is contrasted with περιπατῶμεν ; the former is peculiar to God, the latter to men; the former (being) to Him who is eternal, the latter (walking) to him who is temporal.
κοινωνίαν ἔχομεν μετʼ ἀλλήλων ] Several commentators wrongly deviate from the statement of the apostle, by interpreting as if “ μετʼ αὐτοῦ ” were used instead of μετʼ ἀλλήλων , as indeed the reading of some is (see the critical notes); or by understanding—quite unsuitably
ἀλλήλων of God and men; so Calvin: quod dicit, societatem esse nobis mutuam, non simpliciter ad homines refertur, sed Deum in una parte, nos autem in altera; the same interpretation in Augustin, Beza, Socinus, Hornejus, Lange, Spener, Russmeyer, Ewald, etc. De Wette, it is true, interprets ἀλλήλων correctly, but supplies “ μετὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ ,” thus: “we have fellowship one with another, namely with God;” against this explanation are: first, that then John would not have mentioned the very leading thought; and, secondly, that a tautological idea results from it (Lücke), for a περιπατεῖν ἐν τῷ φωτί is only possible through the κοινωνία μετὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ , nay, even is the necessary proof of it. The subject here is much rather the fellowship of Christians with one another (Bede, Lyranus, Grotius, Wolf, Bengel, Semler, Lücke, Baumgarten-Crusius, Neander, Sander, Düsterdieck, Ebrard, Braune, Brückner, etc.), and indeed quite generally, not, as Bengel considers, so that the apostle and his readers (nos et vos) would be regarded as the two parts bound together. The brotherly fellowship of Christians with one another ἐν ἀγάπῃ presupposes therefore the walking in light, or in fellowship with God, of which it is the necessary consequence.
With such a walk a second element is, however, united, namely: καὶ τὸ αἷμα Ἰησοῦ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ καθαρίζει ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ πάσης ἁμαρτίας .
τὸ αἶμα Ἰησοῦ ] is not a metonymical expression for “the consideration of His death” (Socinus, Episcopius, Grotius, etc.),[55] but: the blood which Jesus (thus spoken of here as incarnate) shed as an offering at His death; or: the bloody sacrificial death of the Lord (Düsterdieck, Ebrard, Braune).[56]
ΤΟῦ ΥἹΟῦ ΑὐΤΟῦ ] is “not merely added as a name of honour,” but also not “to indicate the close connection between the cause of God and Christ,” as Baumgarten-Crusius says, but in order to bring out the identity of the crucified One with the Son of God (so also the incarnation of the Son of God); compare chap. 1Jn_5:6; at the same time, however, there lies in it an indication how the blood of Jesus can have the effect which the apostle attributes to it (so also Ebrard).
ΚΑΘΑΡΊΖΕΙ ἩΜᾶς ἈΠῸ ΠΆΣΗς ἉΜΑΡΤΊΑς ] may mean either the cleansing from guilt, i.e. the forgiveness of sins (Bede, Socinus, a Lapide, Calov, Lange, Baumgarten-Crusius, Erdmann, Weiss, etc.), or cleansing from sin itself, its eradication (Lücke, Frommann, “Düsterdieck, Ebrard, Myrberg, Braune, Ewald, etc.), or, finally, both together (Spener, Hornejus, Bengel, de Wette, Brückner). According to 1Jn_1:9, where ἀφιέναι τὰς ἁμαρτίας and ΚΑΘΑΡΊΖΕΙΝ ἈΠῸ ΠΆΣΗς ἈΔΙΚΊΑς are placed together and thus distinguished from one another, the second view must be regarded as the correct one,[57] as indeed the context also demands; for, as the fact that even the believer has still continually sin is in opposition to the exhortation to περιπατεῖν ἐν τῷ φωτί , the apostle had to point out that sin is ever disappearing more and more, and how, so that the walk which is troubled by it may still be considered as a walk in light, and that in spite of sin there may exist a fellowship with God, who is light. As ΠΕΡΙΠΑΤΕῖΝ ἘΝ Τῷ ΦΩΤΊ is given as the condition (not as the means, which the blood of Christ is) of ΚΑΘΑΡΊΖΕΣΘΑΙ , and as the subject here therefore is not the change, wrought by the blood of Christ, of man from a child of darkness into a child of light, but the growing transformation of him who has already become a child of light, the present καθαρίζει is not to be turned into the preterite, but is to be retained as the present; Spener: “He purifies us ever more and more until the final perfect purity.” Comp. Gospel of Joh_15:2.[58]
ἀπὸ πάσης ἉΜΑΡΤΊΑς , “from every sin;” sins are regarded as the single dark spots which still continually trouble the Christian’s walk in light. The καί which connects the two parts of the subordinate clause is explained by Oecumenius, Theophylact, Beza, Lange, Semler, etc. = nam. Sander recognises the grammatical incorrectness of this interpretation, but is of opinion that the second clause is to be taken as causal, as the basis and condition of the first; but even this is arbitrary. According to de Wette, “ καί connects directly with the idea of fellowship the progressive and highest perfection of it;” but this view is founded on the incorrect assumption that the subject of the first clause is fellowship with God. Ebrard thinks that John in these two clauses together expresses the idea of ΚΟΙΝΩΝΊΑ with God, while he “analyzes it forthwith into its two elements: the fellowship of believers with one another, and the fellowship and participation in the divine vital power;” but it is in the first place incorrect to describe the ΚΟΙΝΩΝΊΑ ΜΕΤʼ ἈΛΛΉΛΩΝ as an clement of the κοινωνία μετὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ , and in the second place the purifying efficacy of the blood of Jesus can much less be regarded as an element of it; besides, Ebrard has clearly been induced to add the word “participation,” through the perception that the idea of fellowship is quite unsuitable to the second clause. While the ΚΟΙΝΩΝΊΑ ΜΕΤᾺ ΤΟῦ ΘΕΟῦ is manifestly presupposed before the ΠΕΡΙΠΑΤΕῖΝ ἘΝ Τῷ ΦΩΤΊ , these two clauses express rather the “double fruit of our walk in light, of our living fellowship with God, who is light” (Düsterdieck); but when John puts ΚΟΙΝΩΝΊΑ ΜΕΤʼ ἈΛΛΉΛΩΝ first, he thereby indicates that it is the sphere within which the purifying power of the blood of Christ operates on each individual (Brückner, Braune). Besides, it may be observed that the second clause is intended to point out the progressive growth of Christian life, and cannot therefore suitably precede the first clause.
[55] That the operation of the blood of Jesus on us is to be regarded as conditioned by faith is evident; but there is no justification in this for paraphrasing τὸ αἶμα by “faith in the blood.”
[56] It is unjustifiable for Myrberg to say: quum hic sanguis nominatur, de toto opere Christi Mediatoris, immo de toto Christo Deum nobis et nos Deo reconciliante ac opus divinum in nobis operante cogitare debemus.
[57] Against Erdmann’s assertion: “Quum notio αἴματος J. Christi in s. seriptis aeque ac mors ejus semper vim expiandi habeat atque idem quod ἱλασμός signifleet (1Jn_2:2), etiam h. l. expiatio ab apostolo designatur, qua sola fieri potest, ut peccata nobis condonentur,” it is to be observed that in scripture the vis expiandi only is by no means ascribed to the blood of Christ; comp. 1Pe_1:18. In opposition to the assertion of Weiss, that “we cannot imagine how the blood of Christ should effect a deliverance from sin,” it may be stated that a forgiveness of sin which produces no deliverance from sin, is no true forgiveness; comp. Tit_2:14. Forgiveness is here to be associated with the thought only in so far as it is the necessary presupposition of that deliverance.
[58] In what this purifying efficacy of the αἶμα Ἰησοῦ is founded, John does not here say; but from the fact that in ver. 9 the ἀφιέναι τὰς ἁμαρτίας is put before the καθαρίζειν , and Christ in chap. 1Jn_2:2 is described as ἱλασμός , it follows, that according to John the purifying power is associated with the blood of Christ in so far as it is the blood of atonement. Ebrard improperly separates the two elements from one another, ascribing to the death of Christ “the power of purifying our hearts from sin, because in Christ’s death sin is condemned;” and, on the other hand, “the power of making atonement and obtaining forgiveness, because in Christ’s death the debt was paid and mercy procured.”—When Frommann says: “The power that purifies from sin does not exactly lie in the blood of Christ itself, but in the love of God, of which Christ in His bloody death is the most speaking token, and of the existence of which He supplies the most unquestionable evidence,” this is clearly an inadmissible twisting of the apostle’s words.