1 John 1:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

God, says the apostle, is faithful. This means the same as true. For the word faithful is used not only of one to whom something is entrusted, but also of one who is himself most faithful and who, by his own faithfulness, can make others such. In this sense God is faithful. He is righteous in the sense that He does not drive away those who come to Him, however sinful they may be (Jn 6:37).

Therefore, to those who flee through repentance to holy baptism, He undoubtedly forgives sins, even if they have sinned against Him and against others. If, he says, we confess, then we shall receive the forgiveness corresponding to confession.

In what, then, shall we hope? First of all, in confession. Let no one consider himself righteous. Let man, who was not and is, not lift up his neck before the eyes of God, who sees what this man is. Therefore first comes confession, then brotherly love. For what is said of love? “Love will cover a multitude of sins” (cf. 1 Pet 4:8).

Let us now see whether he counsels us to take refuge in this love precisely because of sins that creep in unnoticed, since only love destroys transgressions. Pride extinguishes love. Humility, on the contrary, strengthens love, and love destroys transgressions. Humility is made known in confession, in which we acknowledge ourselves sinners.

Humility does not mean saying this only with the tongue, as one might do in order not to provoke people’s dislike by self-satisfaction if he calls himself righteous. Mad and impious people act in this way: “I know that I am righteous, but what shall I say before men? If I call myself righteous, who will endure it or tolerate it? Let my righteousness be known to God, but I will call myself a sinner, not because I am such, but so that people will not dislike me for self-satisfaction.”

Tell men what you are. Tell God what you are. For if you do not tell God what you are, God condemns what He finds in you. Do you not want Him to condemn? Condemn yourself. Do you want Him to forgive? Acknowledge yourself, and then you will be able to say to God, “Turn Your face away from my sins” (Ps 50:11). Say to Him also these words from the same psalm: “For I know my iniquity” (cf. Ps 50:5).

He calls Him righteous because He justly forgives a sin honestly confessed: “He will forgive us our sins,” says the apostle, “and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” In this life He forgives the elect their daily, minor transgressions, without which it is impossible to live on earth. After separation from the flesh, He cleanses them from all unrighteousness and brings them into that life in which the righteous will neither wish nor be able to sin any longer.

Here He forgives great temptations to those who pray, so that they may not yield to them. He also forgives small ones, so that they may not cause harm. There He cleanses from all, so that in the eternal Kingdom there may be no unrighteousness among the blessed.

But “if we confess our sins,” then He, the merciful God, “being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” If we sincerely recognize our sins before God, are contrite over them. And ask God to forgive them for the sake of the merits of the Lord and Savior, and if we confess them before our spiritual father, while nourishing the desire and firm intention to avoid sins in the future, then the all-good God will forgive us. As the One who promised to forgive sins and is faithful in His promises, by His divine righteousness He accepts the merits of His Only-begotten Son as propitiation for our sins. He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from every unrighteousness and every moral impurity to which we may be subject through our inclination toward sins, through our instability, carelessness, forgetfulness, ignorance, or any other weakness.

“If we confess our sins.” To confess one’s sins is a necessary condition for receiving their forgiveness. We must always confess our sins before God, recognizing our unworthiness before Him. With sincere contrition and pain we must ask Him to forgive our guilt each time we recognize our sins by examining our conscience. We must do this daily and at every time when we can attend to ourselves and compare our outward and inward actions with the law of God.

At the appointed time, under the guidance of the holy Church, every Orthodox Christian must confess his sins before his spiritual father. Through him he may receive remission or absolution of his sins from the Lord Himself, according to His promise.

“He, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins.” In the Old Testament, God repeatedly promised forgiveness of sins to repentant sinners (Ezek 18:21-22). In the New Testament, Jesus Christ says: “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Mt 6:14). He also taught us to pray, “Forgive us our debts,” or our sins, so that we would not give ourselves over to faintheartedness and despair, but would hope to receive, and would receive, forgiveness of our sins according to the boundless goodness of the heavenly Father.

As faithful in His promises and righteous in all His works, He will undoubtedly fulfill what He promised when we ask Him for mercy with true repentance. “And cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The remission of sins and cleansing from every unrighteousness, or sinful impurity, are the fruit of the redemptive merits of Jesus Christ. His blood, as Saint John said before, “cleanses us from every sin” (1 Jn 1:7). Our sincere recognition of our sins, contrition over them, and prayer to the merciful God for forgiveness and mercy are only the conditions on our side. Through them we become able to appropriate the saving action of the merits of the Redeemer, who intercedes for us before the heavenly Father.

Thus the meaning of the saying is this. If a Christian sincerely recognizes his sins before God, is contrite over them, and asks God’s forgiveness for them for the sake of the merits of Christ the Savior on the Cross, and if he confesses them before his spiritual father, while nourishing the desire and intention to avoid sins, then he will receive their forgiveness from God. The mystery of repentance is thus the necessary condition of the Christian’s reconciliation with God by the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.

“The apostle repeats his discourse several times, so that through abundant and frequent rebukes he may show them the whole greatness of the transgression and incline them to confession. How great a good is born from confession is clear from the following words: say your sins first, that you may be justified (Is 43:26). It is customary for a teacher to repeat the same thing often for a beginning disciple, first briefly, then more fully, in order to impart clearer knowledge” (Theophylact).

“Faithful and righteous.” God manifests His faithfulness in His promises and in fulfilling them (cf. Heb 10:23; Heb 11:1; 1 Cor 1:9; 10:13; 1 Thess 5:24). What He promises to do, He will do, because He is always faithful to His word, as true in all His words and deeds. “And righteous” means just, rendering to each and to all according to deeds, fair and impartial.

Or, as blessed Theophylact interprets it: “God is faithful. This is the same as true. For the word faithful is used not only of one to whom something is entrusted, but also of one who is himself most faithful and who, by his own faithfulness, can make others such. In this sense God is faithful. He is righteous in the sense that He does not drive away those who come to Him, however sinful they may be” (see Jn 6:37).

Applied to the forgiveness of human sins and the cleansing of their unrighteousness, the expression has this meaning. However heavy our sins may be, we must not be troubled or despair, fearing God’s righteous judgment and wrath. He will forgive us our transgressions, because He cannot be unfaithful to His known promises concerning the reception of sinners being saved. For by Christ’s blood the justice of God is fully satisfied, and by His sacrifice every sin is forgiven to man and every unrighteousness is cleansed.

“He will forgive,” or leave. He will not only remove the guilt of sins as Judge, but will destroy or wipe out the very sins, so that no remembrance of them will remain either in thought or in deed. He will cleanse, or wash, by the blood of Christ, and destroy impurity. The cleansing of sins and the removal of every impurity are the fruit of the redemptive sacrifice of Christ the Savior. Our confession of sins and contrition are the conditions on our side, so that we may be able to appropriate the saving action of the Redeemer’s merits.

Third, confession of sins: "If we confess our sins," not merely acknowledge them or repent of them, but openly confess them before God and before His witness, authorized to bind and loose (Jn 20:22-23), "then He, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins" (1 Jn 1:9).

Blessed Theophylact, interpreting these words of the apostle, says: "How great a good is born from confession is clear from the following words: 'Declare your sins first, that you may be justified'" (Ps 63:26).

"If we say," the apostle continues, strengthening his preceding thought about confession of sins, "that we have not sinned," through self-conceit, or perhaps even through the sickness of refusing confession, "we make Him," God, "a liar." It is as though we reject the whole revealed teaching about Christ's redeeming sacrifice for men's sins. "And His word," that is, His truth, "is not in us" (1 Jn 1:10).

Blessed Augustine says: “As long as man bears flesh in himself, he always has sins, though perhaps slight ones. But beware of despising those which we call slight. You despise them when you weigh them, but you will be afraid when you count them.”

Godlike holiness is only the object of endless striving for the Christian, who gradually passes from strength to strength. The blood of Jesus Christ especially helps us in this. Through it, when sins are confessed before the face of the pastor of the Church, remission of sins is given (see Mt 18:18; Jn 20:22-23).

If we repent of sins and openly confess them, then our sins will be forgiven, however great they may be. They will be forgiven to us because Jesus Christ came to save sinners (see Mt 9:13). He said to His apostles: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Mt 18:18).

The heretics boasted in their supposed wisdom, as though they possessed true knowledge, or faith, concerning God. From the Greek word gnosis, meaning knowledge, they were called Gnostics. Yet at the same time they led a sinful and sensual life, wholly attached to the goods of this sinful world.

In refutation of these heretics, the apostle writes that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. For communion with God, a morally pure life is necessary. If we say that we have communion with Him, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not act according to the truth.

Communion with God requires constant care for one's moral purity. While living in the world, man cannot remain without sin, and only by confessing his sins before God is he cleansed from defilement. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, then He, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (ch. 1). For we have an Advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world (2:1-2).