James Nisbet Commentary - 1 John 1:7 - 1:7

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

James Nisbet Commentary - 1 John 1:7 - 1:7


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

LIGHT AS THE EMBLEM OF TRUTH

‘If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.’

1Jn_1:7

Light is an emblem of truth.

I. Because it is a manifester.—‘That which maketh manifest is light.’

(a) In the darkness of night beauties and deformities are confounded. So in the darkness of error and falsehood. But when the day opens everything is seen in its true character.

(b) The clearness of the manifestation is proportional to the strength of the ray. In a diffused light the atmosphere of a room seems faultless. Let a strong beam come in, and millions of motes will be seen to float about in it. So when we measure ourselves with our fellows, we may esteem ourselves faultless; but in the light of Divine purity we are humbled.

II. Because it is a vitaliser.

(a) Sunlight and moonlight exert powerful influences in vitalising vegetable nature (Deu_33:14). They also exert powerful vitalising influences upon animals. Flies in torpor placed upon a sheet of white paper under the direct beams of the sun are roused by the light, and will fly away. It is said that the tadpole, if excluded from the light, will not develop into the frog. The cretinism of the deep gorges of the Alps is frightful.

(b) Truth carries conviction; conviction inspires energy. A man of shallow convictions is a feeble character. The truth of God is of all truth the grandest; religious convictions are the most inspiriting.

III. Because it is a purifier.

(a) The matter of light is the purest. It pervades the pores of the densest solids, in one or other of its forms. If a diamond, then as light; but if an opaque body, then as heat, or magnetism, or electricity. These all appear to be but conditions of the same substance. It is itself imponderable, because it is also the cause of gravity.

(b) As the purest and most active matter it is the greatest purifier in nature. It purifies the atmosphere itself.

IV. Because it is a beautifier.

(a) Light transforms into its own likeness the objects upon which it shines. The colours of the flowers are reflections of the light. Apart from light, flowers are colourless.

(b) So all that is morally lovely in the saints is the reflection of the loveliness of Jesus. St. James eminently reflects the rays of justice; St. John the rays of love; St. Peter those of courage. Christ Himself is the White Light—the perfect union and harmony of all virtues.

V. Because it is a gladdener.

(a) Darkness represses; but with the morning ray the lark rises and sings; the groves are vocal; the bee and the butterfly are among the flowers; man goes forth with an elastic step.

(b) So the believer rejoices in the witness of the spirit of truth. With the sense of truth there is the sense of purity and all joy-inspiring experiences.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

WALKING IN THE LIGHT

I. Walking in the light we have fellowship with God.

(a) What a mark of human greatness! It is something to be the friend of an earthly monarch; but to hold friendly correspondence with the King of kings is honour in the superlative.

(b) What a sign of Divine condescension! For God’s grace found us in rebellion.

(c) The intimateness of that fellowship is expressed in Christ. ‘God and man is one Christ.’ The reciprocity of love, flux, and efflux, between the Creator and the believer.

(d) The condition of this honour is that we ‘walk in the light.’ To do this we must first get into the light. By nature we ‘walk in darkness.’

II. Walking in the light we have mutual Christian fellowship.

(a) Truth is the bond of society. Where would our commerce be without confidence? Where would national happiness be without law and order?

(b) Society in heaven will be perfect. Why? Because in it there will be no hypocrites. Confidence is boundless where every man is true.

(c) Church fellowship is the purest on earth. Every member should strive to make it a worthy type of the society of heaven.



HOLINESS AND THE ATONEMENT

‘But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.’

1Jn_1:7

There is a widespread desire after holiness amongst those who love the Lord. It is well, therefore, that our attention should be carefully directed to this great subject.

I. What do we mean by holiness?—It is a very sacred thing, and one better known by experience than definition; but some things seem clear as respecting it.

(a) It is a work in the heart, and strikes its roots down deep into the inmost affairs of the soul. No amount of religious action can take its place. Men may be active in good works, strict in religious services, and liberal in religious gifts; but all these count for nothing if the heart is not right with God.

(b) It is holiness before God. It is something far higher and far deeper than respectability, morality, honour, virtue, uprightness, or religious activity.

(c) It may be defined as consisting of three things: (i) nearness to God; (ii) likeness to God; (iii) separation to God. In the Communion Service we say, ‘Here we offer and present unto Thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto Thee.’ It is not a heart consecration only, but a yielding up to God of all we have and all we are. We are like the man of whom we read, that he shall ‘sanctify his house to be holy unto the Lord’; and we produce what are described in Exo_28:38 as our ‘holy gifts,’ to be presented by the great High Priest before our God.

II. The connection of this sacred work with the great atonement through the blood of Christ.—There are two great truths to be well established in all our minds.

(a) It is atonement which renders holiness possible. How can there be nearness to God without reconciliation, and how can there be reconciliation without satisfaction for sin? If a guilty sinner is lying under the curse of the law, how can he be living in nearness to God? How can there be fellowship so long as there is the yawning gulf of unforgiven sin?

(b) It is atonement which supplies the motive. I do not deny that there are other motives. There is gratitude, sense of goodness, and the power of the moral sense. But they are all feeble and inferior. They will not force a man to kneel down with a full heart, and say, ‘Lord, I am Thine.’ It is when a man discovers that he was lost but is saved, and saved because of the marvellous mercy shown in the fact that the Father sent the Son to be the propitiation for his sins; it is that which moves, which opens, which softens the heart; that which draws forth all the tenderest affection of the soul; leads to the thankful surrender of every power to His service. It was when St. Paul was convinced of the vicarious death of the Lord Jesus that he was drawn, moved, or constrained by love, for he said, 2Co_5:14, ‘For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead.’

III. What, then, is our practical conclusion?—Surely this, that in all our pursuit of holiness we keep the great propitiation continually in view as the great foundation of all peace and holiness. From whatever point of view we look at it, we may depend upon it that full, perfect, complete, and finished propitiation is the great subject of the day. I can imagine few things more fatal to a man than to imagine himself so far advanced as to be beyond the necessity of perpetually falling back on atonement. He may be walking in the light, even as God is in the light. He may enjoy fellowship with the brethren, and even fellowship with the Father, and with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. But the light of that fellowship does not throw atonement into the shade, for it is the crowning privilege of that walk in the light that ‘the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.’ Not ‘did cleanse’ us, either when we were first converted or baptized, or when we entered into it; but ‘cleanseth’ us, or ‘is cleansing us habitually,’ now; so that we may safely conclude that the brighter the light, and the more intimate the fellowship, the keener will be our experimental appreciation of the hatefulness of sin and the cleansing power of the great propitiation.

Rev. Canon Edward Hoare.

Illustration

‘Nearness leads to likeness. Intimacy leads to assimilation. We see this continually in common life. Not only do people catch from each other the habits, ways, expressions, and tone of voice of those they love, but in some cases the very features begin to grow alike. Thus when there is this habitual nearness to God, and when we are habitually holding intercourse with Him, there is a gradual assimilation of character by the power of the Holy Ghost. People are transformed into His likeness. We begin to love what He loves, and to hate what He hates. Thus when there is godliness there is holy conversation and an abhorrence of sin. It is not a forced obedience, but a oneness of heart according to which His character becomes our standard, as in 1Pe_1:15, “As He Which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.” ’