in order to get a good read of this passage you have to look at the whole book. John uses some words that if you define them wrong, you get into a lot of trouble with the rest of the book. the whole light vs darkness is one of them. Being in the "light" is being in Christ, in darkness is not in Christ. vs 5 says God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. Being in Christ is having God in us, therefore there can be no darkness. The word "fellowship" is the the greek word
koinonia which means to "share in a common point", this implies that we share in our faith in Christ, so the term "fellowship" simply means salvation. Another word is "commandments", this often gets interpreted as keeping a set of rules or the ten commandments. This would lead us to have no sense of security in our salvation, since we all fall short of those types of commands everyday, thereby we would not "know Him" as I John 2:3 says of those who keeps His commands. Vs 4 says that the one who says "I know Him" but doesn't keep His commands is a liar and the truth is not in Him. If the truth is not in you, you are not In Christ, you are in error, and Christ is the truth, therefore He is not in you. So what are the "commands"? IJohn 3:23-24 makes it clear that His commands are that "we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us." the person who keeps these commands abides in Christ and Christ in Him, this is proved by the Holy Spirit (paraphrase). The other word is "sin" The greek word here is "hamartia" which mean "a violation of the law" in this case God's law. If this were to mean the individual sins that we commit on a day to day basis, once again, we would all pretty much not make it. The law that we all have broken is that of being in unbelief. In John 16 (the same writer of I John) Jesus says "When he (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of guilt, in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me;" Sin is unbelief in what the Spirit has testified of the Son, that He died to take away our sins, and rose to give us His life. I recognize some of you might not agree with this form of interpretation, that's ok, just take the time to plug in these definitions and give I John a read with those in mind, it makes a lot more sense that way. I've written a lot here
, there is much more to say on the subject but I've gotten too long winded already. Just know that these defintions are based on the way these words are also used in other parts of Scripture. I hope this might be a challenge to your thinking as it was to mine the first time I heard it, until I heard it this way, I John was one of the most confusing books I've ever read
"I shall now descend from the pulpit"
"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation (satisfaction) for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world." I John 2:1-2
