1st John: God As Light, Holiness, And Love

We’re going to be looking at the themes of 1st John, and we’ll see various themes woven throughout the five chapters of first John. The chief theme that we’ll consider throughout 1st John is the theme of the love of God (1 John 1:3, 2:1, 5:13 NIV). We’ll also consider the themes of God’s light and the darkness, as well as freedom from sin and holy living.

First of all, we consider the theme of “God is light.” John himself encountered and witnessed Christ. It says that John walked and talked with Him. John heard it himself when Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12 NIV). He knew of God as one who was light, and there was no darkness in Him. In fact, John wrote in his gospel account: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God” (John 3:19-21 NIV). In other words, those who desire to distinguish themselves as Christians should recognize that God is light, and they need to walk in the light. And it doesn’t say that they walk in the light showing they’ve lived perfectly, instead it says they walk in the light to show that they’re willing to be honest about their deeds and life before God. They walk in the light. To me 1st John 1:5-7 expounds on this truth, making it more clear how it works, when one walks in the light. 1 John 1:5-7 says, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” So if we walk in the darkness, it’s like saying we don’t sin (v.8-10) and make God out to be a liar, but if we walk in the light and do sin, which does happen, we can confess those sins before God, in the light, and repent, and God’s light purifies us from all sin. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) puts it quite well when it says, “The first fact upon which the light of God impinges in human life is sin; and the first test of walking in the light is the recognition and confession of this fact. Such confession is the first step into fellowship with God, because it brings us under the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus...”

This theme of light and darkness was very much a present part of my life as an early Christian. I walked in the light sometimes, and I walked in the dark sometimes. I sinned a lot as an early Christian. Many times the Holy Spirit was grieved within me and I could tell it. The Spirit led me many times to go on my knees before God and ask for forgiveness with tears in my eyes for the things I’d done. I engaged in lust and sinned in many ways, walking in the darkness. But I always came back into the light and asked for God’s forgiveness. God had become the ‘light of the world’ in my life, but I kept sneaking back into the darkness and sinning whenever I could. I wanted to fulfill the desires of my flesh. In fact, I was at a Christian concert once, and a charismatic woman turned to me during the service and said, “Justin, I saw a vision in which you were standing halfway in the light and halfway in the darkness, and you came all the way into the light of God. I don’t know if that means anything to you.” And it certainly did at the time. I’ve always remembered what she said. I was slowly learning in my early Christian life that I needed to walk in God’s light, confessing sin, and repenting, instead of walking in darkness.

Second we consider the theme of freedom from sin and holy living. 1st John 2:3 (NIV) says, “We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.” To know God through Christ is to keep the commands of God, and John continues by saying that we show our love for Jesus by living as Jesus lived in the world. 1st John 2:29 (NIV) says, “If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.” It is evidenced by our freedom from sin and our right living that shows that we as believers are born of God, meaning that we are true Christians, and truly born again believers. 1st John 3:4-6 (NIV) says, “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.” Once again we see a necessity for freedom from sin in our lives. The idea of continuing in sin seems to be on a long term basis, indicating that in the long run, those who continue in sin are showing they never really knew God, but those who live holy lives are showing they belong to God.