1 John 1:8-10 warns that denying our sinfulness deceives us and shows that God’s truth is not shaping our lives. Instead of pretending we are sinless, God calls us to confess our sins and He will faithfully forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. To deny that we have sinned is to contradict God Himself, revealing that His word is not dwelling within us.
In 1 John 1:8-10, John explains that believers must not deny their sin but confess it, because God is faithful to forgive and cleanse, whereas denying sin rejects God’s truth and makes Him out to be a liar.
John is writing to believers about how to experience the fullness of eternal life which includes fellowship with God and the community of those who follow Him and our joy being made complete.
In the previous section of scripture (1 John 1:6-7), John began a series of conditional statements that describe what breaks our fellowship with God and what leads to fellowship with Him.
The first two conditional statements were.
"If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." (1 John 1:6)
"But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)
The first two conditional statements contrast each other.
These first two verses are contrasted between what "we say" about ourselves (1 John 1:6) against what our actual state is (1 John 1:7). If we deliberately sin, we walk in darkness and do not have fellowship with Jesus (1 John 1:6). But when we walk in the Light, we have fellowship with Him and the blood of Jesus continually cleanses us of even our unintentional sins (1 John 1:7).
In this section of scripture (1 John 1:8-10), John continues his series of conditional statements. 1 John 2:1-3 will complete this series.
If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us (v 8).
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (v 9).
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us (v 10).
1 John 1:8, 10 are negative examples of what not to do and say about ourselves—namely that we have no sin or have not sinned. Deception, darkness, and broken fellowship arise from denying our sins. This makes it clear that our flesh, our sinful nature that is our old man, is never reformed. Paul says that our flesh is constantly getting worse and "being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit" (Ephesians 4:22). Our goal is to set our flesh aside and walk in our new nature in the power of the Spirit (James 1:21,Galatians 5:16).
1 John 9 is a positive example of what we should say about ourselves. We see ourselves with reality and are truthful in our own thoughts, so that it leads us to confess our sins. Deception, darkness, and broken fellowship are the consequences from denying our sins. Cleansing and continued fellowship are the consequences from confessing our sins.
THE THIRD CONDITIONAL STATEMENT
The third conditional statement is: If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us (v 8).
The third condition: If we say that we have no sin (v 8a).
This condition is a self-report. A self-report is something that we claim or say about ourselves. In this case, what we report about ourselves is thatwe have no sin. And John points out that it is a false, self-deceiving claim.
The declaration—we have no sin—is in the present tense. In Greek, the verb that is translated as we have is in the present continuous tense. Its present-tense expression describes an ongoing condition or status that we have no sin.
Believers who say they have no sin are wrong and self-deceived.
This verse serves to correct any potential misunderstandings about sin and walking in the Light.
The misunderstanding that John is correcting is the idea that any person who walks in the Light no longer sins and has become morally perfected. This is not what walking in the Light means, because while we live on this earth, we will continue to sin. This tells us that our fallen state will remain fallen until we shed this body (Romans 7:24-25).
As mentioned in The Bible Says commentary for I John 1:6-7, the expression "walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light" is to live and act like Jesus. Jesus overcame temptation to sin by trusting in His Father’s plan and relying on the Spirit’s strength and guidance. For this He was greatly rewarded. And as Jesus overcame sin, so are we to overcome sin. Jesus promises us that if we follow His example in overcoming sin, He will greatly reward us (Revelation 3:21).
So, walking in the Light entails avoiding deliberate sins. John describes continuously walking in deliberate sins as walking "in the darkness" (1 John 1:6). A willful sin is one we decide to do even though we know it is wrong, and for which we are unwilling to confess and repent. Romans 1:18 says the "wrath" of God is poured out on such willful disobedience. God’s wrath is giving us over to our lusts, which turn into addictions then result in a loss of mental health (Romans 1:24, 26, 28).
Walking in the Light does not mean that we will not sin. It means we will not engage in willful sin, and when we are convicted of sin we will confess and repent. When we walk in the Light, the sin of which we are unaware will be cleansed by Jesus’ blood. Sin is part of the human condition: "all have sinned and [continue to] fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
Paul never teaches that believers cease to sin. Instead, he teaches that there is no longer condemnation of sin for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). To the extent we choose to sin, we put ourselves back into the condition from which we were delivered, which is why Paul argues we should strive to avoid sin and walk in faith that God’s ways are for our best (Romans 6:16).
Note: By "back into the condition from which we were saved," we do not mean that we can lose the Gift of Eternal Life (John 10:28-29,Romans 8:38-39, 11:29) What we mean is that we lose fellowship with God and become entangled and enslaved by our sin).
There are two basic variations of what different believers might mean when they say—we have no sin. Both variations are wrong and detrimental to a believer’s fellowship with God.
1. Believers who say—we have no sin—could mean: "We are not tempted to sin."
Believers who claim that they are no longer tempted to sin mean they have grown to a point where they are beyond temptation and sinning; that temptation to sin is no longer a struggle for them. In effect, they are saying they no longer have a sin nature. They claim that the lust of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life no longer have an appeal.
While God may sometimes remove certain temptations from individuals’ lives so that it is no longer a struggle for them, God does not remove our flesh altogether. He allows us the opportunity to grow in our faith throughout our lives on this earth by denying our flesh and choosing to walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16).
When a person believes in Jesus, He becomes a new creation and is given a new spiritual nature that seeks to please God and avoid sin (2 Corinthians 5:17). But this does not mean that our old nature is abolished. It remains with us until we die. It means we now have God’s power within us to crucify the flesh and walk in the Spirit.
This is why Paul exhorts us to
“lay aside the old self [our sin nature], which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” (Ephesians 4:22b-24)
According to this passage from Ephesians, our sin nature is constantly “being corrupted” and getting worse (Ephesians 4:22). We must choose to put on our new nature if we are to overcome our old nature.
If we are to overcome sin, we must daily choose to:
Deny our self and take up our cross (Luke 9:23-24)
Walk in the Light as He is in the Light (1 John 1:7)
But as we overcome sin, our temptations and sin nature is never fully defeated or removed from us until after we die. To claim otherwise is false and self-deceptive. This self-deception will likely set ourselves up for a great fall, because our confidence is not grounded in reality and is based in our own righteousness and weak ability, and not in the blood of Jesus or the power of His Spirit (1 Corinthians 10:12-13).
2. Believers who say—we have no sin—could also mean: “We have learned how to overcome our temptations so that we no longer sin.”
This second meaning is similar to the first meaning. The main difference between the two meanings is that this second meaning admits to being tempted while the first version claims to be beyond temptation.
Believers who claim to have completely overcome sin are reporting that they have become fully like Jesus in regard to sin. They are saying that every action that they do, every word that they speak, every attitude they indulge, and every thought they entertain is holy and righteous and altogether pleasing to God in every way.
They are saying they no longer commit any sin (intentional or unintentional). This lie says that Jesus’s blood is no longer necessary for us to maintain fellowship with Him. It infers we can now follow Him in our own power.
If this lie is believed and acted on it will not lead to fellowship with God, but rather will become a festering obstacle to our fellowship with Him and with those who follow Jesus.
We can infer from this that the false teachers that John was writing to counter were claiming they did not sin.
The consequence of the third condition: we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us (v 8b).
John’s first conditional statement (1 John 1:6) described believers who lied to others by trying to deceive believers and God that they had fellowship with them even as they knew that they themselves were walking in darkness.
Now here in John’s third conditional statement (v 8) he describes believers who not only are lying to others, but who are also lying to themselves.
Deceiving ourselves means lying to ourselves to the point where we convince ourselves of something that is not true. Self-deception comes from rejecting what we know to be true.
We deceive ourselves by avoiding and/or ignoring reality and embracing what we want to be true instead.
The truth is not in us when we exchange the truth of reality for our own “truth.” When we make this foolish exchange, our own false opinions and dark desires are in us, instead of truth.
God’s word accurately defines and describes reality. God created and He sustains the universe and all that is in it (Genesis 1:1,John 1:3,Colossians 1:16-17). God’s word is truth (John 17:17). And when we listen to and accept God’s word as truth, it is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path (Psalm 119:105).
God’s Light shows us the truth about our sin. It exposes the full reality of ourselves and our need for Jesus’s blood to continually cleanse us (John 3:20-21,1 John 1:7).
If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves about the reality of our condition and our constant need for God’s mercy. We are not living in reality if we are not aware that we are continually sinning and therefore constantly in present need of Jesus’s “blood to cleanse us from all our sin” (1 John 1:7) so that we can remain in fellowship with Him.
There appears to be a progression, or rather digression, from John’s first conditional statement to his third conditional statement.
John’s first conditional statement (1 John 1:6) described believers who lied to others by trying to deceive believers and God that they had fellowship with them even as they knew how they themselves were walking in darkness. The consequence of their lie was that they were not practicing or doing the truth.
Now here in John’s third conditional statement (v 8), he describes believers who not only are lying to others, but who are also lying to themselves. And this time, the person making the claim is confused about what the truth is. They are not only not practicing the truth (1 John 1:6), but the truth is not even in them.
THE FOURTH CONDITIONAL STATEMENT
The fourth conditional statement is: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (v 9).
This fourth conditional statement contrasts the third (If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us—v 8) and fifth (If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us—v 10) conditional statements.
The third and fifth statements negatively describe what we should not claim about ourselves and our sin, while the fourth statement positively describes what we should confess about ourselves and our sin.
The fourth condition: If we confess our sins, (v 9a).
To confess our sins is the opposite of saying we have no sin.
The pronoun our in this statement is personal and significant. Its inclusion indicates that we are specifically called to confess oursins, meaning the particular sins we know we have committed. We are not to merely confess our general sinfulness, but rather, we are to confess the specific sinful actions we have done and rebellious heart attitudes we have had against God.
The word that is translated as confess is a form of the Greek word ὁμολογέω (G3670—pronounced: “homo-log-ō”). It is a compound term derived from the Greek words “homo” which means “same”; and “legō” which means “speak” or “say.” So, to confess literally means to speak the same thing or to verbally agree.
When the Bible says to confess it means to agree with God about the things we are confessing. Context determines what the thing is that we to agree with God. The two main things the Bible exhorts us to confess are that:
"Jesus is Lord" (Romans 10:9) When we confess “Jesus is Lord,” we verbally agree with God that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah.
"Your/our sins" (James 5:16,1 John 1:9) When we confess our sins,we verbally agree that our actions and heart have disobeyed God’s commands.
In the context of 1 John 1:9, John exhorts his readers to confess their sins and to not delude themselves that they have no sin (v 8) or have not sinned (v 10).
When John writes: if we confess our sins, he puts the verb confess in the present continuous tense. This means that confessing our sins is to be a constant and frequent part of a believer’s way of life.
Confession of our sins is the first step of repentance of our sins.
Confession is an outward admission and acknowledgement that our behavior, heart, and choices were sinful and disobedient to God’s word.
Repentance takes the next step. It is a change of mind and perspective from what was bad to what is good. A change of mind and perspective leads to a change of behavior.
Confession and repentance of our sins are a regular part of living in fellowship with God as His Light brings to light our sins (John 3:20-21,1 John 1:9). Confession and repentance of our sins are works of faith and are the enacted belief that God’s ways are better than our ways. Because confession and repentance of our sins are works of faith, they are not part of receiving the Gift of Eternal Life.
The Gift of Eternal Life includes salvation from the eternal penalty of sin. And the Gift of Eternal Life is received solely through believing in Jesus through God’s grace and has nothing to do with our works (John 1:12, 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9). Our works of faith do not save us from eternal condemnation and death—only Jesus’s perfect work of obedience and sacrifice on the cross can save us from eternal condemnation and death.
Because the Gift of Eternal Life is received through faith alone and not by works, and because confession and repentance of our sins are works, we do not receive the Gift of Eternal Life by confessing or repenting ofour sins. We receive the Gift of Eternal Life by believing on Jesus (John 3:14-16).
Also, when the Gift of Eternal Life is received once, it is received forever. The Gift is to be spiritually born again (John 3:3). Just as with physical birth, a person is not continually being born, they are born and then they grow. Because the Greek verb for confess (“homologō”) is used in the present continuous tense here, it means that our confessing is an action we should constantly be doing. Therefore, because the Gift of Eternal Life is received once and forever, constantly confessing our sins is not a requirement to receive or maintain the Gift.
As works of faith, confession and repentance of sins are an important part of inheriting the Prize of Eternal Life—which includes joy and fellowship with God. The Prize, unlike the Gift, is experienced and inherited in this life constantly through our works of faith.
John is writing to believers who already have the Gift of Eternal Life and had their sins eternally forgiven (1 John 2:12). And John is writing to help them experience the fullness of eternal life by entering into fellowship with God and maximizing their joy (1 John 1:3-4).
Therefore, when John is talking about confessing our sins, he is not saying that we should do this if we wish to receive the Gift of Eternal Life. Rather, John is saying what we should do to fully experience the Prize of Eternal Life.
John’s admonition to confess our sins means to confess the sinswe are aware of. We know wehavesins that we are not aware of because the blood of Jesus is always cleansing us as we walk in the Light as He is in the Light (1 John 1:7). God’s Spirit makes us aware that we have sinned in specific ways, and we should confess our sins and agree with God as soon as possible.
If we do not confess our sins when God’s Spirit convicts us, then our disagreement with God breaks our fellowship with Him and wearedeceiving ourselves and begin to walk in the darkness.
Before moving on to discuss the consequence of this conditional statement, we should point out that there are two different kinds of confession of sins.
There is false confession and true confession of sins.
False confession is when a person operates as though confessing their sins allows them to sin again. False confessing uses words or thoughts that pretend to acknowledge that a behavior was offensive to God, even while intending to continue in this sinful behavior. If we intend to or hope to repeat the behavior we are “confessing,” then we are not really agreeing with God that we have sinned. False confession of sins is not confessing our sins to God. It is foolishly trying to deceive God and is akin to saying we have not sinned, which is calling God a liar (v 10).
God is not fooled by false confession. And the blood of Jesus does not cleanse us of our sins so we can have fellowship with Him if we falsely confess our sins.
True confession is aimed at the prevention of sin. True confession wants and prays for victory over recurring sin. We can still have fellowship with God while pursuing that victory, but the intent is not that we will stay or remain in sin. The purpose of and heart behind true confession of sins is to leave the darkness of our sins behind and to enter into fellowship with God and the Light.
When John says: if we confess our sins… he is talking about true confession of sins.
The consequence of the fourth condition: He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (v 9b).
The result of confessing our sin is that He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The power of the confession does not lie in the one who confesses, but in God who will forgive and cleanse.
That God forgives sins means that He cancels the debt the sins have caused (Matthew 6:9-15, 18:21-35). That God cleanses us from unrighteousness means that He removes the stain oursins produced (Isaiah 1:18). The cleansing and forgiving go hand in hand, for Hebrews says that “without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).
The description of God as being faithful and righteous echoes the language of the Old Testament covenant/treaty God had with Israel (Deuteronomy 7:8-10, 32:4). Jesus is the One who is faithful and righteous to forgive us and to cleanse us.
God is faithful to keep all His promises.
God promised to forgive sin under the old covenant (Exodus 34:6-7). Under the old covenant, sacrifices were required to atone for the sins of the people (Leviticus 4, 16:30). The old covenant pointed to the new and better covenant when God would write His law upon our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33).
This new and better covenant was established by Jesus (Hebrews 8-10). God’s promises to forgive and cleanse us are fulfilled through His Son Jesus and His righteousness.
We are now under this new and better covenant.
Christ’s blood has covered everything. Because of Jesus and His perfect sacrifice, ritual sacrifices are no longer required for the forgiveness and cleansing of sin (Hebrews 10:10, 12, 18). God has promised to save everyone who believes in Jesus from their sins (Matthew 1:21,John 3:14-16,Acts 10:43, 13:43, 1 Timothy 1:15,1 John 4:14). If we have believed in Jesus, we are saved from condemnation of our sins because Jesus isrighteous. He fulfilled the Law without sin (Matthew 5:17,1 John 2:1). And it is because He is righteous that we can be counted as righteous in Him (Romans 4:5, 8:1, 2 Corinthians 5:21).
The moment we believe in Him, the atoning blood of Jesus’s applies to us. Accordingly, God then forgives all our sins and we receive the Gift of Eternal Life (Colossians 2:13-14). Once we have received the Gift of Eternal Life, we no longer stand in condemnation for our sins (Romans 8:1), and the penalty of eternal separation from God is no longer a possibility we can suffer (Romans 8:38-39).
But forgiveness and cleansing are still required if we are to maintain fellowship with God.
They are still required because we still sin. We are constantly sinning even as we walk in the Light (see The Bible Says commentary for I John 1:6-7), therefore we constantly need forgiveness and cleansing for our sins through Jesus’s blood to maintain fellowship with God. And it is by the mercy of His sacrifice and through the confession of our sins that we receive Christ’s ongoing cleansing of our sins.
Just as Jesus’s sacrificial death provided the means by which we can receive the Gift of Eternal Life, so His sacrificial death abundantly provides the means to constantly cleanseusof our sin which allows us as imperfect believers to have fellowship with God.
The picture of cleansing John mentions refers back to the ritual washing from the Old Testament, where uncleanliness was a barrier to going into the temple (Exodus 40:12-15). Once we have established eternal relationship with God through Christ, our present sinfulness is not a barrier to our position before God. But it is a barrier to our fellowship with Him while we are on earth. Just as those in the Old Testament needed to wash before entering the temple, New Testament believers need to confess when approaching the throne of Grace to find help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16, 10:19-22).
Jesus referred to our need for cleansing as He washed His disciples’ feet. He told Peter:
“If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” (John 13:8)
Peter responded:
“Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” (John 13:9)
Then Jesus answered:
“He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean…” (John 13:10)
Jesus’s response to Peter in John 13:10 illustrates John’s point about the believer’s need for cleansing in 1 John 1:9.
The cultural image Jesus is referring to is that of a person who returns home from a bath. This person is completely clean from the bath, but their feet have gotten dirty from the dust of the street on the way home from their bath. Therefore, they need to have their feet washed when they get home. They do not need to return to the bath and take a whole new bath. They “only” need to rinse their feet (John 13:10).
This image of a bath and rinsing of feet symbolizes the believer and their forgiveness and cleansing.
“He who has bathed” (John 13:10a) is a description of a believer—someone who has had their sins forgiven and no longer stands under condemnation because they have been declared righteous by God and have received the Gift of Eternal Life. God has forgiven them of all their sins. That is why Jesus says: “He who is bathed… is completely clean” (John 13:10).
But all believers who have bathed in the righteous blood of Jesus and whose sins have been forgiven still need to regularly have their feet washed (John 13:10). Just as a bathed person upon returning home with dusty feet does not need to return to the bath for a full scrubbing and only needs to rinse his feet, so too do believers not need to be “re-saved” or receive the Gift of Eternal Life again, they only need to have the dirt of their daily sins rinsed off their feet.
When we confess our sins, we allow Jesus to wash our feet and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Then we are cleansed and ready to have fellowship with Him.
We need not be afraid that God will reject us for our dirty feet. God will not reject believers (His children—John 1:12) for sinning against Him. Even when we sin, His grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20). We should not be afraid to confess our sins to God because He is faithful and His righteousness has already and forever forgiven our sins.
When we confess and repent of our sins to God, He is faithful to His promises to forgive and He is righteous to forgive us of our sins and not allow our sins to remain an obstacle of our fellowship, and He will cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
God is loving and kind like the father of the prodigal son, who welcomes us back home (Luke 15:20-24). Jesus says and then repeats how there is much rejoicing in heaven when a sinner repents (Luke 15:7, 10).
The benefit believers get when we confess our sins is that Jesus forgives us of our sins and cleanses us from their stain and we remain in His joy and fellowship.
The expression all unrighteousness means that God will cleanse us from the unrighteousness of the sinswe are aware of and confess, and He will cleanse us from the unrighteousness of the sins we have committed and are not yet aware of. All ourunrighteousness is cleansed away if we confess oursins we know about.
But if we do not confess the sins we know about, then we will not be cleansed of either the sins we knowingly deny, nor will we be cleansed of the sins we are ignorant of. If we do not confess our sins, all our unrighteousness will become an obstacle to our fellowship with God.
THE FIFTH CONDITIONAL STATEMENT
The fifth conditional statement is: If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us (v 10).
The fifth conditional statement reminds us of the negative alternative of confessing our sins.
The fifth condition: If we say that we have not sinned (v 10a).
In this scenario, John describes believers who do the opposite of confessing their sins. Instead of agreeing with God, they disagree with God. Whenever God makes them aware that certain actions they have done are sinful, they reject His opinion of their behavior. They reject the Holy Spirit’s conviction of their sins.
It is possible (but tragic and foolish) for believers to disagree with God about the sinfulness of their choices. And John is describing this very possibility in this conditional statement.
In verse 8, John described a believer who claims that they do not sin. They say: we have no sin. These believers are deluded in thinking that they never commit sin or that they are not constantly sinning (even in ignorance).
But here in verse 10, John is describing a believer to whom God has revealed one or more sins which they have committed but who defy God and disagree with Him about the sinful nature of their behavior.
1 John 1:9 described the constructive way for believers to respond. These believers recognize that they do sin (unlike the believers of verse 8) and they confess their sins as God reveals their sinful actions to them (unlike the believers of verse 10).
Saying we have not sinned whenever God makes us aware of our wrong behavior is the opposite of confessing our sins. It is a defiant posture and claims: “I am right and God is wrong.”
Whenever God brings certain behaviors to mind and draws attention to our sinfulness, we should not disagree with Him. We should agree with God’s opinion of our lives, adopt His perspective, and confess our sins.
The fifth consequence: we make Him a liar and His word is not in us (v 10b).
There appears to be a retrogressive trajectory in the negative scenarios John is describing.
In the first scenario, John describes believers who knowingly sin but claim to have fellowship with God despite their sinful lifestyle (1 John 1:6a). The consequence to this claim is: “we lie and do not practice the truth” (1 John 1:6b)
In the third scenario, John describes believers who claim we have no sin (v 8a). The consequence is that they are deceiving themselves and the truth is not in them (v 8b).
And finally in this scenario, John describes believers who reject God’s conviction of their sins and say: we have not sinned. The consequence is that we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
What John means by make Him a liar is that we accuse God of being a liar when His Spirit points out our sin to us. Instead of agreeing with God that we have sinned (confessour sins), we say that God is in the wrong and lying when He makes us aware of our sins.
The Greek word translated as word in the phrase His word is not in us is λόγος (G3056—pronounced: “logos”). “Logos” means “word,” “message,” “speech,” or “statement.”
John uses the Greek term “logos” to refer to Jesus as the Word (John 1:1, 14, 1 John 1:1). But “logos” can also describe God’s message to humanity and the expression of His will. In this second sense, “logos” refers to the Mosaic Law, the word of the prophets, and the rest of the scriptures—including the teachings of Jesus; it could even mean the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
In the context of verse 10, the expression His word appears to describe the scriptures, the teachings of Jesus, and the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
Believers who reject the convictions of the Holy Spirit have hardened their hearts to the point where even God’s word is not in them. They might be “seared in their own conscience” as described in 1 Timothy 4:2.
If they persist in their rejection of God and Hisword, Christ will be ashamed of these believers at His return (Luke 9:26). And they will suffer loss at His judgement of their works—but they “will be saved so as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:11-15).
Believers who say we have not sinned are like:
The Hardened Soil beside the road in Jesus’s “Parable of the Soils” (Matthew 13:3-8). Their hearts have become so callous that they refuse to even try to understand what the Holy Spirit is telling them, “…and the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart” (Matthew 13:19).
The man whom James describes as a hearer of the word but not a doer (James 1:23). He “looks at his natural face in a mirror… [but] has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was” (James 1:24).
The believers in Hebrews who “go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins” (Hebrews 10:26). For such believers: “but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:27).
John, by stating that His word is not in those who say we have no sin, directly counters their implied claim that they have fellowship with God.
There is a digression in how we speak about reality. The digression is that we first lie to others about our sin (1 John 1:6), then we lie to ourselves about our sin (v 8), and finally, we accuse God of being a liar about our sin (v 10).
There is also a digression in our relationship to the truth. The digression is that first we do not practice the truth (1 John 1:6), then the truth is not in us (v 8), and finally His word is not in us.
John explicitly stated that his goal was to promote fellowship and joy (1 John 1:3-4). John does not seek to condemn. John seeks to instruct his children in the Lord to choose life.
As believers, we do the following whenever we deny that we have sinned when God says otherwise:
we miss the joy of being in fellowship with God and His Light (1 John 1:3-5)
But one thing these believers will not lose is the Gift of Eternal Life because the Gift is based solely on God’s grace and His perfect faithfulness to keep His promise. It is not at all based on our works (Ephesians 2:8-9). We are His, even if we live in faithlessness.
As Paul told Timothy: "if we deny Him, He will deny us [our opportunity to reign with Him]" (2 Timothy 2:12), but Paul assures him, "if we are faithless, He is faithful, for He cannot deny Himself" (2 Timothy 2:13). Paul argues that since all believers are placed into Christ, to deny us would be to deny Himself, which is not going to happen.
John (like Paul and the rest of the New Testament writers) is writing to believers to urge them to live by faith so they will not miss out on life. He is not saying that believers can lose the Gift of Eternal Life. But John is saying that they can lose fellowship and the Prize of Eternal Life if they walk in darkness and make God a liar when he writes that truth is not in them and His word is not in them.
In the next section, John urges his readers to not sin and concludes his series of conditional statements with the blessed assurance that believers cannot lose the Gift of Eternal Life, even if we continue to sin (1 John 2:1) and he lets them know how they can know that they are experiencing the Prize of Eternal Life (1 John 2:3).
1 John 1:8-10
8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
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1 John 1:8-10 meaning
In 1 John 1:8-10, John explains that believers must not deny their sin but confess it, because God is faithful to forgive and cleanse, whereas denying sin rejects God’s truth and makes Him out to be a liar.
John is writing to believers about how to experience the fullness of eternal life which includes fellowship with God and the community of those who follow Him and our joy being made complete.
In the previous section of scripture (1 John 1:6-7), John began a series of conditional statements that describe what breaks our fellowship with God and what leads to fellowship with Him.
The first two conditional statements were.
"If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth."
(1 John 1:6)
"But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin."
(1 John 1:7)
The first two conditional statements contrast each other.
These first two verses are contrasted between what "we say" about ourselves (1 John 1:6) against what our actual state is (1 John 1:7). If we deliberately sin, we walk in darkness and do not have fellowship with Jesus (1 John 1:6). But when we walk in the Light, we have fellowship with Him and the blood of Jesus continually cleanses us of even our unintentional sins (1 John 1:7).
In this section of scripture (1 John 1:8-10), John continues his series of conditional statements. 1 John 2:1-3 will complete this series.
If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us (v 8).
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (v 9).
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us (v 10).
1 John 1:8, 10 contrast 1 John 1:9.
1 John 1:8, 10 are negative examples of what not to do and say about ourselves—namely that we have no sin or have not sinned. Deception, darkness, and broken fellowship arise from denying our sins. This makes it clear that our flesh, our sinful nature that is our old man, is never reformed. Paul says that our flesh is constantly getting worse and "being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit" (Ephesians 4:22). Our goal is to set our flesh aside and walk in our new nature in the power of the Spirit (James 1:21, Galatians 5:16).
1 John 9 is a positive example of what we should say about ourselves. We see ourselves with reality and are truthful in our own thoughts, so that it leads us to confess our sins. Deception, darkness, and broken fellowship are the consequences from denying our sins. Cleansing and continued fellowship are the consequences from confessing our sins.
THE THIRD CONDITIONAL STATEMENT
The third conditional statement is: If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us (v 8).
The third condition: If we say that we have no sin (v 8a).
This condition is a self-report. A self-report is something that we claim or say about ourselves. In this case, what we report about ourselves is that we have no sin. And John points out that it is a false, self-deceiving claim.
The declaration—we have no sin—is in the present tense. In Greek, the verb that is translated as we have is in the present continuous tense. Its present-tense expression describes an ongoing condition or status that we have no sin.
Believers who say they have no sin are wrong and self-deceived.
This verse serves to correct any potential misunderstandings about sin and walking in the Light.
The misunderstanding that John is correcting is the idea that any person who walks in the Light no longer sins and has become morally perfected. This is not what walking in the Light means, because while we live on this earth, we will continue to sin. This tells us that our fallen state will remain fallen until we shed this body (Romans 7:24-25).
As mentioned in The Bible Says commentary for I John 1:6-7, the expression "walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light" is to live and act like Jesus. Jesus overcame temptation to sin by trusting in His Father’s plan and relying on the Spirit’s strength and guidance. For this He was greatly rewarded. And as Jesus overcame sin, so are we to overcome sin. Jesus promises us that if we follow His example in overcoming sin, He will greatly reward us (Revelation 3:21).
So, walking in the Light entails avoiding deliberate sins. John describes continuously walking in deliberate sins as walking "in the darkness" (1 John 1:6). A willful sin is one we decide to do even though we know it is wrong, and for which we are unwilling to confess and repent. Romans 1:18 says the "wrath" of God is poured out on such willful disobedience. God’s wrath is giving us over to our lusts, which turn into addictions then result in a loss of mental health (Romans 1:24, 26, 28).
Walking in the Light does not mean that we will not sin. It means we will not engage in willful sin, and when we are convicted of sin we will confess and repent. When we walk in the Light, the sin of which we are unaware will be cleansed by Jesus’ blood. Sin is part of the human condition: "all have sinned and [continue to] fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
Paul never teaches that believers cease to sin. Instead, he teaches that there is no longer condemnation of sin for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). To the extent we choose to sin, we put ourselves back into the condition from which we were delivered, which is why Paul argues we should strive to avoid sin and walk in faith that God’s ways are for our best (Romans 6:16).
Note: By "back into the condition from which we were saved," we do not mean that we can lose the Gift of Eternal Life (John 10:28-29, Romans 8:38-39, 11:29) What we mean is that we lose fellowship with God and become entangled and enslaved by our sin).
There are two basic variations of what different believers might mean when they say—we have no sin. Both variations are wrong and detrimental to a believer’s fellowship with God.
1. Believers who say—we have no sin—could mean: "We are not tempted to sin."
Believers who claim that they are no longer tempted to sin mean they have grown to a point where they are beyond temptation and sinning; that temptation to sin is no longer a struggle for them. In effect, they are saying they no longer have a sin nature. They claim that the lust of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life no longer have an appeal.
While God may sometimes remove certain temptations from individuals’ lives so that it is no longer a struggle for them, God does not remove our flesh altogether. He allows us the opportunity to grow in our faith throughout our lives on this earth by denying our flesh and choosing to walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16).
When a person believes in Jesus, He becomes a new creation and is given a new spiritual nature that seeks to please God and avoid sin (2 Corinthians 5:17). But this does not mean that our old nature is abolished. It remains with us until we die. It means we now have God’s power within us to crucify the flesh and walk in the Spirit.
This is why Paul exhorts us to
“lay aside the old self [our sin nature], which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
(Ephesians 4:22b-24)
According to this passage from Ephesians, our sin nature is constantly “being corrupted” and getting worse (Ephesians 4:22). We must choose to put on our new nature if we are to overcome our old nature.
If we are to overcome sin, we must daily choose to:
(Luke 9:23-24)
(Galatians 5:16-25)
(Ephesians 4:22-24)
(1 John 1:7)
But as we overcome sin, our temptations and sin nature is never fully defeated or removed from us until after we die. To claim otherwise is false and self-deceptive. This self-deception will likely set ourselves up for a great fall, because our confidence is not grounded in reality and is based in our own righteousness and weak ability, and not in the blood of Jesus or the power of His Spirit (1 Corinthians 10:12-13).
2. Believers who say—we have no sin—could also mean: “We have learned how to overcome our temptations so that we no longer sin.”
This second meaning is similar to the first meaning. The main difference between the two meanings is that this second meaning admits to being tempted while the first version claims to be beyond temptation.
Believers who claim to have completely overcome sin are reporting that they have become fully like Jesus in regard to sin. They are saying that every action that they do, every word that they speak, every attitude they indulge, and every thought they entertain is holy and righteous and altogether pleasing to God in every way.
They are saying they no longer commit any sin (intentional or unintentional). This lie says that Jesus’s blood is no longer necessary for us to maintain fellowship with Him. It infers we can now follow Him in our own power.
If this lie is believed and acted on it will not lead to fellowship with God, but rather will become a festering obstacle to our fellowship with Him and with those who follow Jesus.
We can infer from this that the false teachers that John was writing to counter were claiming they did not sin.
The consequence of the third condition: we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us (v 8b).
John’s first conditional statement (1 John 1:6) described believers who lied to others by trying to deceive believers and God that they had fellowship with them even as they knew that they themselves were walking in darkness.
Now here in John’s third conditional statement (v 8) he describes believers who not only are lying to others, but who are also lying to themselves.
Deceiving ourselves means lying to ourselves to the point where we convince ourselves of something that is not true. Self-deception comes from rejecting what we know to be true.
We deceive ourselves by avoiding and/or ignoring reality and embracing what we want to be true instead.
The truth is not in us when we exchange the truth of reality for our own “truth.” When we make this foolish exchange, our own false opinions and dark desires are in us, instead of truth.
God’s word accurately defines and describes reality. God created and He sustains the universe and all that is in it (Genesis 1:1, John 1:3, Colossians 1:16-17). God’s word is truth (John 17:17). And when we listen to and accept God’s word as truth, it is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path (Psalm 119:105).
God’s Light shows us the truth about our sin. It exposes the full reality of ourselves and our need for Jesus’s blood to continually cleanse us (John 3:20-21, 1 John 1:7).
If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves about the reality of our condition and our constant need for God’s mercy. We are not living in reality if we are not aware that we are continually sinning and therefore constantly in present need of Jesus’s “blood to cleanse us from all our sin” (1 John 1:7) so that we can remain in fellowship with Him.
There appears to be a progression, or rather digression, from John’s first conditional statement to his third conditional statement.
John’s first conditional statement (1 John 1:6) described believers who lied to others by trying to deceive believers and God that they had fellowship with them even as they knew how they themselves were walking in darkness. The consequence of their lie was that they were not practicing or doing the truth.
Now here in John’s third conditional statement (v 8), he describes believers who not only are lying to others, but who are also lying to themselves. And this time, the person making the claim is confused about what the truth is. They are not only not practicing the truth (1 John 1:6), but the truth is not even in them.
THE FOURTH CONDITIONAL STATEMENT
The fourth conditional statement is: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (v 9).
This fourth conditional statement contrasts the third (If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us—v 8) and fifth (If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us—v 10) conditional statements.
The third and fifth statements negatively describe what we should not claim about ourselves and our sin, while the fourth statement positively describes what we should confess about ourselves and our sin.
The fourth condition: If we confess our sins, (v 9a).
To confess our sins is the opposite of saying we have no sin.
The pronoun our in this statement is personal and significant. Its inclusion indicates that we are specifically called to confess our sins, meaning the particular sins we know we have committed. We are not to merely confess our general sinfulness, but rather, we are to confess the specific sinful actions we have done and rebellious heart attitudes we have had against God.
The word that is translated as confess is a form of the Greek word ὁμολογέω (G3670—pronounced: “homo-log-ō”). It is a compound term derived from the Greek words “homo” which means “same”; and “legō” which means “speak” or “say.” So, to confess literally means to speak the same thing or to verbally agree.
When the Bible says to confess it means to agree with God about the things we are confessing. Context determines what the thing is that we to agree with God. The two main things the Bible exhorts us to confess are that:
When we confess “Jesus is Lord,” we verbally agree with God that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah.
When we confess our sins, we verbally agree that our actions and heart have disobeyed God’s commands.
In the context of 1 John 1:9, John exhorts his readers to confess their sins and to not delude themselves that they have no sin (v 8) or have not sinned (v 10).
When John writes: if we confess our sins, he puts the verb confess in the present continuous tense. This means that confessing our sins is to be a constant and frequent part of a believer’s way of life.
Confession of our sins is the first step of repentance of our sins.
Confession and repentance of our sins are a regular part of living in fellowship with God as His Light brings to light our sins (John 3:20-21, 1 John 1:9). Confession and repentance of our sins are works of faith and are the enacted belief that God’s ways are better than our ways. Because confession and repentance of our sins are works of faith, they are not part of receiving the Gift of Eternal Life.
The Gift of Eternal Life includes salvation from the eternal penalty of sin. And the Gift of Eternal Life is received solely through believing in Jesus through God’s grace and has nothing to do with our works (John 1:12, 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9). Our works of faith do not save us from eternal condemnation and death—only Jesus’s perfect work of obedience and sacrifice on the cross can save us from eternal condemnation and death.
Because the Gift of Eternal Life is received through faith alone and not by works, and because confession and repentance of our sins are works, we do not receive the Gift of Eternal Life by confessing or repenting of our sins. We receive the Gift of Eternal Life by believing on Jesus (John 3:14-16).
Also, when the Gift of Eternal Life is received once, it is received forever. The Gift is to be spiritually born again (John 3:3). Just as with physical birth, a person is not continually being born, they are born and then they grow. Because the Greek verb for confess (“homologō”) is used in the present continuous tense here, it means that our confessing is an action we should constantly be doing. Therefore, because the Gift of Eternal Life is received once and forever, constantly confessing our sins is not a requirement to receive or maintain the Gift.
As works of faith, confession and repentance of sins are an important part of inheriting the Prize of Eternal Life—which includes joy and fellowship with God. The Prize, unlike the Gift, is experienced and inherited in this life constantly through our works of faith.
John is writing to believers who already have the Gift of Eternal Life and had their sins eternally forgiven (1 John 2:12). And John is writing to help them experience the fullness of eternal life by entering into fellowship with God and maximizing their joy (1 John 1:3-4).
Therefore, when John is talking about confessing our sins, he is not saying that we should do this if we wish to receive the Gift of Eternal Life. Rather, John is saying what we should do to fully experience the Prize of Eternal Life.
John’s admonition to confess our sins means to confess the sins we are aware of. We know we have sins that we are not aware of because the blood of Jesus is always cleansing us as we walk in the Light as He is in the Light (1 John 1:7). God’s Spirit makes us aware that we have sinned in specific ways, and we should confess our sins and agree with God as soon as possible.
If we do not confess our sins when God’s Spirit convicts us, then our disagreement with God breaks our fellowship with Him and we are deceiving ourselves and begin to walk in the darkness.
Before moving on to discuss the consequence of this conditional statement, we should point out that there are two different kinds of confession of sins.
There is false confession and true confession of sins.
False confession is when a person operates as though confessing their sins allows them to sin again. False confessing uses words or thoughts that pretend to acknowledge that a behavior was offensive to God, even while intending to continue in this sinful behavior. If we intend to or hope to repeat the behavior we are “confessing,” then we are not really agreeing with God that we have sinned. False confession of sins is not confessing our sins to God. It is foolishly trying to deceive God and is akin to saying we have not sinned, which is calling God a liar (v 10).
God is not fooled by false confession. And the blood of Jesus does not cleanse us of our sins so we can have fellowship with Him if we falsely confess our sins.
True confession is aimed at the prevention of sin. True confession wants and prays for victory over recurring sin. We can still have fellowship with God while pursuing that victory, but the intent is not that we will stay or remain in sin. The purpose of and heart behind true confession of sins is to leave the darkness of our sins behind and to enter into fellowship with God and the Light.
When John says: if we confess our sins… he is talking about true confession of sins.
The consequence of the fourth condition: He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (v 9b).
The result of confessing our sin is that He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The power of the confession does not lie in the one who confesses, but in God who will forgive and cleanse.
That God forgives sins means that He cancels the debt the sins have caused (Matthew 6:9-15, 18:21-35). That God cleanses us from unrighteousness means that He removes the stain our sins produced (Isaiah 1:18). The cleansing and forgiving go hand in hand, for Hebrews says that “without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).
The description of God as being faithful and righteous echoes the language of the Old Testament covenant/treaty God had with Israel (Deuteronomy 7:8-10, 32:4). Jesus is the One who is faithful and righteous to forgive us and to cleanse us.
God is faithful to keep all His promises.
God promised to forgive sin under the old covenant (Exodus 34:6-7). Under the old covenant, sacrifices were required to atone for the sins of the people (Leviticus 4, 16:30). The old covenant pointed to the new and better covenant when God would write His law upon our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33).
This new and better covenant was established by Jesus (Hebrews 8-10). God’s promises to forgive and cleanse us are fulfilled through His Son Jesus and His righteousness.
We are now under this new and better covenant.
Christ’s blood has covered everything. Because of Jesus and His perfect sacrifice, ritual sacrifices are no longer required for the forgiveness and cleansing of sin (Hebrews 10:10, 12, 18). God has promised to save everyone who believes in Jesus from their sins (Matthew 1:21, John 3:14-16, Acts 10:43, 13:43, 1 Timothy 1:15, 1 John 4:14). If we have believed in Jesus, we are saved from condemnation of our sins because Jesus is righteous. He fulfilled the Law without sin (Matthew 5:17, 1 John 2:1). And it is because He is righteous that we can be counted as righteous in Him (Romans 4:5, 8:1, 2 Corinthians 5:21).
The moment we believe in Him, the atoning blood of Jesus’s applies to us. Accordingly, God then forgives all our sins and we receive the Gift of Eternal Life (Colossians 2:13-14). Once we have received the Gift of Eternal Life, we no longer stand in condemnation for our sins (Romans 8:1), and the penalty of eternal separation from God is no longer a possibility we can suffer (Romans 8:38-39).
But forgiveness and cleansing are still required if we are to maintain fellowship with God.
They are still required because we still sin. We are constantly sinning even as we walk in the Light (see The Bible Says commentary for I John 1:6-7), therefore we constantly need forgiveness and cleansing for our sins through Jesus’s blood to maintain fellowship with God. And it is by the mercy of His sacrifice and through the confession of our sins that we receive Christ’s ongoing cleansing of our sins.
Just as Jesus’s sacrificial death provided the means by which we can receive the Gift of Eternal Life, so His sacrificial death abundantly provides the means to constantly cleanse us of our sin which allows us as imperfect believers to have fellowship with God.
The picture of cleansing John mentions refers back to the ritual washing from the Old Testament, where uncleanliness was a barrier to going into the temple (Exodus 40:12-15). Once we have established eternal relationship with God through Christ, our present sinfulness is not a barrier to our position before God. But it is a barrier to our fellowship with Him while we are on earth. Just as those in the Old Testament needed to wash before entering the temple, New Testament believers need to confess when approaching the throne of Grace to find help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16, 10:19-22).
Jesus referred to our need for cleansing as He washed His disciples’ feet. He told Peter:
“If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
(John 13:8)
Peter responded:
“Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”
(John 13:9)
Then Jesus answered:
“He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean…”
(John 13:10)
Jesus’s response to Peter in John 13:10 illustrates John’s point about the believer’s need for cleansing in 1 John 1:9.
The cultural image Jesus is referring to is that of a person who returns home from a bath. This person is completely clean from the bath, but their feet have gotten dirty from the dust of the street on the way home from their bath. Therefore, they need to have their feet washed when they get home. They do not need to return to the bath and take a whole new bath. They “only” need to rinse their feet (John 13:10).
This image of a bath and rinsing of feet symbolizes the believer and their forgiveness and cleansing.
“He who has bathed” (John 13:10a) is a description of a believer—someone who has had their sins forgiven and no longer stands under condemnation because they have been declared righteous by God and have received the Gift of Eternal Life. God has forgiven them of all their sins. That is why Jesus says: “He who is bathed… is completely clean” (John 13:10).
But all believers who have bathed in the righteous blood of Jesus and whose sins have been forgiven still need to regularly have their feet washed (John 13:10). Just as a bathed person upon returning home with dusty feet does not need to return to the bath for a full scrubbing and only needs to rinse his feet, so too do believers not need to be “re-saved” or receive the Gift of Eternal Life again, they only need to have the dirt of their daily sins rinsed off their feet.
When we confess our sins, we allow Jesus to wash our feet and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Then we are cleansed and ready to have fellowship with Him.
We need not be afraid that God will reject us for our dirty feet. God will not reject believers (His children—John 1:12) for sinning against Him. Even when we sin, His grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20). We should not be afraid to confess our sins to God because He is faithful and His righteousness has already and forever forgiven our sins.
When we confess and repent of our sins to God, He is faithful to His promises to forgive and He is righteous to forgive us of our sins and not allow our sins to remain an obstacle of our fellowship, and He will cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
God is loving and kind like the father of the prodigal son, who welcomes us back home (Luke 15:20-24). Jesus says and then repeats how there is much rejoicing in heaven when a sinner repents (Luke 15:7, 10).
The benefit believers get when we confess our sins is that Jesus forgives us of our sins and cleanses us from their stain and we remain in His joy and fellowship.
The expression all unrighteousness means that God will cleanse us from the unrighteousness of the sins we are aware of and confess, and He will cleanse us from the unrighteousness of the sins we have committed and are not yet aware of. All our unrighteousness is cleansed away if we confess our sins we know about.
But if we do not confess the sins we know about, then we will not be cleansed of either the sins we knowingly deny, nor will we be cleansed of the sins we are ignorant of. If we do not confess our sins, all our unrighteousness will become an obstacle to our fellowship with God.
THE FIFTH CONDITIONAL STATEMENT
The fifth conditional statement is: If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us (v 10).
The fifth conditional statement reminds us of the negative alternative of confessing our sins.
The fifth condition: If we say that we have not sinned (v 10a).
In this scenario, John describes believers who do the opposite of confessing their sins. Instead of agreeing with God, they disagree with God. Whenever God makes them aware that certain actions they have done are sinful, they reject His opinion of their behavior. They reject the Holy Spirit’s conviction of their sins.
It is possible (but tragic and foolish) for believers to disagree with God about the sinfulness of their choices. And John is describing this very possibility in this conditional statement.
In verse 8, John described a believer who claims that they do not sin. They say: we have no sin. These believers are deluded in thinking that they never commit sin or that they are not constantly sinning (even in ignorance).
But here in verse 10, John is describing a believer to whom God has revealed one or more sins which they have committed but who defy God and disagree with Him about the sinful nature of their behavior.
1 John 1:9 described the constructive way for believers to respond. These believers recognize that they do sin (unlike the believers of verse 8) and they confess their sins as God reveals their sinful actions to them (unlike the believers of verse 10).
Saying we have not sinned whenever God makes us aware of our wrong behavior is the opposite of confessing our sins. It is a defiant posture and claims: “I am right and God is wrong.”
Whenever God brings certain behaviors to mind and draws attention to our sinfulness, we should not disagree with Him. We should agree with God’s opinion of our lives, adopt His perspective, and confess our sins.
The fifth consequence: we make Him a liar and His word is not in us (v 10b).
There appears to be a retrogressive trajectory in the negative scenarios John is describing.
In the first scenario, John describes believers who knowingly sin but claim to have fellowship with God despite their sinful lifestyle (1 John 1:6a). The consequence to this claim is: “we lie and do not practice the truth” (1 John 1:6b)
In the third scenario, John describes believers who claim we have no sin (v 8a). The consequence is that they are deceiving themselves and the truth is not in them (v 8b).
And finally in this scenario, John describes believers who reject God’s conviction of their sins and say: we have not sinned. The consequence is that we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
What John means by make Him a liar is that we accuse God of being a liar when His Spirit points out our sin to us. Instead of agreeing with God that we have sinned (confess our sins), we say that God is in the wrong and lying when He makes us aware of our sins.
The Greek word translated as word in the phrase His word is not in us is λόγος (G3056—pronounced: “logos”). “Logos” means “word,” “message,” “speech,” or “statement.”
John uses the Greek term “logos” to refer to Jesus as the Word (John 1:1, 14, 1 John 1:1). But “logos” can also describe God’s message to humanity and the expression of His will. In this second sense, “logos” refers to the Mosaic Law, the word of the prophets, and the rest of the scriptures—including the teachings of Jesus; it could even mean the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
In the context of verse 10, the expression His word appears to describe the scriptures, the teachings of Jesus, and the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
Believers who reject the convictions of the Holy Spirit have hardened their hearts to the point where even God’s word is not in them. They might be “seared in their own conscience” as described in 1 Timothy 4:2.
If they persist in their rejection of God and His word, Christ will be ashamed of these believers at His return (Luke 9:26). And they will suffer loss at His judgement of their works—but they “will be saved so as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:11-15).
Believers who say we have not sinned are like:
John, by stating that His word is not in those who say we have no sin, directly counters their implied claim that they have fellowship with God.
There is a digression in how we speak about reality. The digression is that we first lie to others about our sin (1 John 1:6), then we lie to ourselves about our sin (v 8), and finally, we accuse God of being a liar about our sin (v 10).
There is also a digression in our relationship to the truth. The digression is that first we do not practice the truth (1 John 1:6), then the truth is not in us (v 8), and finally His word is not in us.
John explicitly stated that his goal was to promote fellowship and joy (1 John 1:3-4). John does not seek to condemn. John seeks to instruct his children in the Lord to choose life.
As believers, we do the following whenever we deny that we have sinned when God says otherwise:
(1 John 1:10)
(1 John 1:10)
(1 John 1:7, 9)
(1 John 1:8)
(1 John 1:8)
(1 John 1:6)
(1 John 1:6)
(1 John 1:3-5)
But one thing these believers will not lose is the Gift of Eternal Life because the Gift is based solely on God’s grace and His perfect faithfulness to keep His promise. It is not at all based on our works (Ephesians 2:8-9). We are His, even if we live in faithlessness.
As Paul told Timothy: "if we deny Him, He will deny us [our opportunity to reign with Him]" (2 Timothy 2:12), but Paul assures him, "if we are faithless, He is faithful, for He cannot deny Himself" (2 Timothy 2:13). Paul argues that since all believers are placed into Christ, to deny us would be to deny Himself, which is not going to happen.
John (like Paul and the rest of the New Testament writers) is writing to believers to urge them to live by faith so they will not miss out on life. He is not saying that believers can lose the Gift of Eternal Life. But John is saying that they can lose fellowship and the Prize of Eternal Life if they walk in darkness and make God a liar when he writes that truth is not in them and His word is not in them.
In the next section, John urges his readers to not sin and concludes his series of conditional statements with the blessed assurance that believers cannot lose the Gift of Eternal Life, even if we continue to sin (1 John 2:1) and he lets them know how they can know that they are experiencing the Prize of Eternal Life (1 John 2:3).