1 JOHN 1:8-10

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

1 JOHN 1:8-10 NASB

John cuts to the the heart of the supposed “light,” innate to all men. The proto-Gnostics had treated Christ as an example of the light within us, but John finishes his opening about light by demonstrating the clear divide between us and Jesus. Namely our affiliation with darkness. We are not by nature of ourselves the Light. To be the light is a privilege given is through the work of Christ on the cross. It is a continual choice, and it bears a consequence of relationship. To choose to deny or ignore the reality of our sin, or to choose our own path to the light effects our standing with him. It necessarily calls him a liar. This is tacitly damaging to whatever relationship we claim to have with him. Instead, we must first admit our difference from God and then our fallen state, and we must choose him, and to remain in him. It not then can we really call ourselves in good standing with him because only then will he acknowledge that about us. Many never take these steps with God.