“Walking in the Light”
I. GOD IS LIGHT
A. THE MESSAGE 1:5
John reminded his readers that this message was not his but came directly from the Christ the source of life who eternally existed with the Father and came down to live among men.
“This is the message” emphasis on “IS” as in the message of ultimate importance. This is the message we “heard” from Him. (Perfect tense = heard and it still lingers) This message we now announce to you through this letter.
What is the message? “God is light”
Nothing complicated about those three words yet monumental in their meaning. Not God is the light or a light but simply God is light drawing attention to ones essential nature.
God’s essential nature is light. John being labeled the “Apostle of Love” one would expect him to start out with God is love. He actually doesn’t get to that declaration until chapter 4.
John draws us to focus first on God’s fundamental character and nature as light. Until we understand God as light we won’t appreciate His love.
The use of the term light communicates at several levels.
• Indicates intellectual perception – truth, knowledge, ultimate reality (God is truth)
• Indicates moral purity – holiness, purity, sinlessness, faultless (God is holy)
• Indicates ethical perfection – righteousness, justice, truthfulness, faithfulness (God is right)
• Indicates social passion – love, compassion, kindness, mercy, grace, goodness (God is love)
• Indicates spiritual awareness – wisdom, understanding, insight (God is all-knowing)
• Indicates power and influence – energy, power (God is all powerful)
• Indicates physical manifestation – seen and felt (God is self-revealing)
God spoke light into being even before there was a sun and stars. There is no life without light in both the material and spiritual dimensions of life. God is light.
God is life. John’s declaration that God is light, even though profound, is not new.
King David declared…
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread? Psalms 27:1
How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; and You give them to drink of the river of Your delights. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light. Psalms 36:7-9
His words are a light to illuminate our way.
O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your dwelling places. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God. Psalms 43:3-4
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalms 119:105
Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul observes them. The unfolding of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple. Psalms 119:129-130
John earlier wrote of Jesus as the Light.
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. Jo 1:1-9
Jesus claimed it regarding himself.
"I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." John 8:12 "I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. John 12:46
Paul proclaimed…
We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Peter, James and John got a glimpse of the blinding light of His glory on the Mount of Transfiguration.
…He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen. 1 Timothy 6:15-16
James affirmed that…
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. James 1:17
Revelation reveals that God will be our source of light and life for eternity.
Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever. Revelation 22:1-5
The message Jesus passed on to the Apostles and declared by John…
God is light! Jesus is light! He is the only reliable source and sustainer of life and truth
He reveals the ultimate reality. He is absolutely pure. He is perfect love and compassion.
His glory fills the earth. He has NO dark side. John’s Hebrew heritage influenced him to employ a common Hebrew literary device known as parallelism where you emphasize your point by restating it again in different words or by stating it negatively.
“there is no darkness in Him at all”
John used a double negative to make it clear that there is no darkness in God; not even one speck. Darkness is the absence of light.
The term darkness communicates on opposite parallel levels as light.
• Indicates intellectual darkness – ignorance, deception, lies, disconnect with reality.
• Indicates moral depravity – impurity, greed, evil desires, immorality, no moral standard
• Indicates ethical depravation – cheating, stealing, lies
• Indicates social disconnect – hatred, murder, abuse, jealousy, gossip,
• Indicates spiritual deadness – no spiritual awareness, separated from God
• Indicates death – weakness, depravity, darkness, depression, hopelessness, helplessness
B. The Implications 1:6-4:6
Since God is light, what are the implications for us? I think that John uses the first several chapters of his letter to focus on the personal implications of the truth that God is light.
Since God is light what implications are there for the followers?
John exposes with both faulty beliefs and faulty behavior. John encourages proper belief and behavior.
1. Continually walk (live) in the Light
a) Failure to walk in the light
John employed an “if/then” grammatical structure to make his points. He first approached it from a negative perspective and then from a positive perspective.
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
IF we say we have an intimate partnership with God and yet continually live contrary to God’s ways (walk in darkness).
THEN We neither speak the truth or live the truth.
There were those who claimed to have divine connection without corresponding godly conduct.
The reality is that we really do not have a divine partnership if we do not embrace His ways.
Conduct doesn’t make partnership but merely demonstrates partnership.
I could claim a close partnership with Bill Gates. You would say, “Prove it!”
How could I prove it? Partnership would be indicated by any number of things; time with him, contribution to the company that goes beyond using the company stuff. You could ask Bill Gates. Partnership requires a mutual investment.
There are those who claim partnership with God but whose lives demonstrated nothing of the kind. Partnership with God must be a mutual thing. We must be committed to the goals, principles and policies of the company (kingdom). There must be time and energy invested in the partnership. If we claim to have partnership with God but live contrary to all that God stands for we lie and we do not practice the truth.
“walk in darkness”
The word for “walk” refers to ones way of life; our everyday course of living. Living in the darkness indicates one whose life choices are contrary to the light. Hate, ignorance, sin, fantasy, immorality. One who lives contrary to God’s light but claims to have intimate partnership with the God who is light neither speaks the truth or lives the truth.
b) Walking in the light
However John indicates the reality of one who lives their life in the light.
but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7
IF We walk in the light as He Himself is in the light.
THEN
We have fellowship with one another.
The blood of Jesus His Son continually cleanses us from all sin.
God is “in the light.” God is completely surrounded by light because it emanates from His own essential being.
John does not say “if we walk according to the light” all though that is the goal.
If our fellowship depended a life perfectly lived according to the light we would be in trouble.
If that were the case the following discussion concerning sin, failure to live according to the light would be unnecessary. He is asking us here to walk in the light. He wants us to surround ourselves with His light.
John recorded Jesus’ explanation in his Gospel.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." John 3:16-21
To live in the light is to expose ourselves to God’s truth.
The benefits of living in the light
1. We have fellowship with one another
Who is the “one another”?
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Other believers
God and all His other followers
As the light exposes the dirt we are able to deal with the stuff that blocks relationship.
2. The blood of Jesus Christ continually cleanses us from all sin.
Light exposes the dirt. Those who love God and want to partner with God must be willing to let the light expose the dirt that hinders that partnership. Light also purifies. The more we live in the light the more dirt gets exposed by the light and the cleaner we become.
Paul called us children of light.
Ephesians 4:17-5:1-14
He followed that with the instruction to walk wisely according to God’s will and be continually directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Live in proper relationship with one another.
Be fully armed
But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:4-8
If we want fellowship, partnership with God, we must first make the decision to live in the light. We must allow our lives to be completely open to God’s light. Stop hiding. Stop protecting. Stop denying. Stop lying to ourselves. John says in the next verses to deny there is a problem is to deceive our selves and ultimately call God a liar. Come to the light. Live in the light.
Psalm 139 must become our prayer.
2 Corinthians 4:6-7
