Now, this being the case, it appears to me that there are two great practical conclusions which irresistibly follow:— First, that those who are walking in the light have sin in them which needs the cleansing blood. I know very well, and thank God for the blessed assurance that ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace.’ I know, too, that our blessed Saviour is the great deliverer, and that He will so surely and so effectually save His people from their sins, that every one of them, without a single exception, will finally be presented without a single spot, or stain, before His throne. But that is not the question. The question is whether in saving us it pleases Him to put an end, while we are in the flesh, to the deep corruption of our human nature, or to give us invariably such a victory that we shall never have reason to repent and deplore its power. If this verse stood alone it would decide the point, for it shows the deep need of the cleansing blood, even for those who are walking in the light. It describes two gifts as the sacred privilege of their life in Christ Jesus: fellowship one with another, and cleansing through the power of His blood. It proves, therefore, beyond the possibility of doubt, that whatever meaning we attach to the word ‘cleanseth,’ there is sin which requires to be cleansed, even in those who are walking in the light. But it does not stand alone, for the 8th and the 10th verses explain to us the reason of the need: the one teaches that we ‘have sin,’ and the other, that we ‘have sinned;’ the one speaks of the deep corruption of our nature, the other of the action to which this corruption has given rise; and both teach the same thing,—viz., that those who are walking in the light have sin in themselves and in their conduct,—sin which requires cleansing; that if ‘they say they have no sin, they deceive themselves, and the truth is not in them;’ and ‘if they say they have not sinned, they make Him a liar, and His word is not in them.’