Walking in the Light
1 John 1:5-22
May 7, 2006
Last weekend I started our study of the book of 1 John. As we begin our time together I expressed 2 wishes for you. Two dreams that I have for us as we study the great book.
1. The first wish was that you and I would be free. Free to live into the life God has for us.
A life of complete joy (1:4).
A life of full love (2:5).
I illustrated this point by talking about Luke and I going on a bike ride. Today I brought the pictures.
No longer was Luke propped up by training wheels.
No longer was he slowed down by training wheels.
He was now free to cruise around and explore, to crash, to fall.
He was free.
That is my 1st wish for us. That we would take off the things that hold us up/that make us look good. That we would learn of God and let God set us free.
2. Last Sunday, I talked about climbing up Big Rock and seeing the Olympics to the west and the Cascades to the east. And I noted that the book of 1 John finds itself between 2 great other books written by John - the Gospel of John that looks back at Jesus’ life and the book of Revelation that looks forward.
John places 1 John between these 2 books intending to teach how we are to live well in the valley/in the here and now.
This is my second wish - that you and I would live well here and now, in the present.
John was writing to a people who didn’t think that was really possible. They had been under the influence of some false teachers who believed anything physical; anything earthly was entirely evil. But John wants to rework God’s truths into them. He desires to train them in the truth. He wants his words to be a marinade that softens and flavors them to the Truth of God. Why? Because he wants them to experience God where they are, in their lives, in their church and families. In their friendships with each other.
And that’s my desire and I trust, yours. That me, you - ordinary people would in an ever increasing way grow in our relationship with God that we would encounter Him, love Him and know His love. That we would allow ourselves to simply be. Be. Having surrendered our lives to Him.
John is a masterful writer. He will use 3 primary images, in this book. 3 images that describe God but also are to describe his people. And in our text for today we encounter the first one.
Light.
In 1 John 1:5, John uses this word. He uses it to tell of God. Read 1 John 1:5.
John sitting at his desk, his heart hurt and desperate for these people who like sheep have been led astray by false teachers. John is thinking, racking his brain to impress upon these wayward people an image that would cause them to get back on the righteous path of God. And then he remembers what he had written previously in John 8:12. Jesus says, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life."
That’s it. That’s perfect. That’s what these people need to hear. Thru and in him they can get back on his track. God is Light
To these people off course in their sincere religious pilgrimage, John’s image is of a God who reveals, guides, and makes known. God shines. It is in his character. It is who he is to illumine his path for all who are willing to walk into that light. No matter the circumstances, the situation one may find himself/herself in.
God is light - in him there is no darkness at all.
God does not create fogginess.
God does not desire you and I to live by false notions or ideas.
He does not seek to make life for you and me one big complete mess.
But instead, he desires to be our light, to guide our path, to be the way for us.
God is light.
When we find ourselves in the dark
confused
uncertain
When we feel not the warmth of a light.
When we see no light at the end of a tunnel.
When our circumstances are nothing but fogginess and murky.
When your mind is confused having been led astray. John writes to these people wanting to get back on track in 1:5, "God is light in him there is no darkness at all." That’s the message/the theme/the controlling fact that John wants to get across in these initial verses.
But what is he hoping for?
What is his desire?
What is he intending to happen I the people as a result of writing this?
Well in 2:1, he tells us.
Notice he begins with calling the people. Not
You "wayward people."
You "directionally challenged folk."
Not "you misguided sheep."
But instead with, "My dear children."
John sympathizes with them and their confusion.
He doesn’t berate them.
He identifies with them/jumps into their situation calling them "my" and then "dear."
There is not distancing.
There is no "I wish I didn’t know you."
But instead:
My dear children, children not adults, children needing direction.
Like a parent who doesn’t kick a child out of the house after they make a mistake, saying you’re pointless. But throughout their lives, day after day, prays for them, counsels them and directs them so too is this? John’s intent - wanting to coach them I the way to leave sin/darkness behind - to enter the light.
Read 2:1 - My dear children I write this so that you will not sin.
John’s intent is that they not sin, but knowing how he is and the nature of humanity he goes on - "But . . ."
God so desires you to live in, walk by, journey toward him, that he has sent his son Jesus to take up our case before the Father.
Jesus Christ, the righteous one, my dear children - would not let anything stand between you and God so he did - hanging in the middle, taking upon himself your dark deeds, receiving the sentence and punishment we deserved so that we could enter God’s light.
John is a pastor, a skillful writing pastor who desires these wayward people to know that-
Their sin has inhibited life.
Their wrongdoing that debilitates life.
Their misdeeds that remove them from being free have been dealt with and
triumphed over in Jesus.
My dear dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.
My dear children, your wounded broken hearts, your embarrassed nature, your life-constricted mindset has been dealt with. Jesus the Righteous One has taken care of it.
You need not have to let sin be your master.
Jesus triumphed over it. You can get back on course.
You can be free to live again. Free again thru Jesus Christ.
This truth is the first priority of our church only we say it this way. We want to offer to people new beginnings in Jesus Christ.
In Jesus - the past is forgiven.
In Jesus - new beginnings start.
In Jesus Christ - we can find healing and hope. The deeds and darkness that has constricted, confined and has been sabotaging us can be done away with.
You can be free to live again in Christ. Christ is light. I write this so that you will not sin.
This life of being set free begins by allowing the light of God excavate the inner recesses of our lives and allow God’s Spirit to expose us for who we truly are.
Life and freedom do not come from adding on stuff
Buying things
Surrounding ourselves with bigger and better.
Life is lived and freeness given when our misdeeds are exposed by the light of God.
When we confess these are cleansed by God.
Apparently back then, just like it is now, there were some people who paid no attention to this. There were people in the church and outside of it who claimed that they didn’t think they really needed forgiving. That they were on the right track.
They were not necessarily opposed to the light of God but neither did they let it enter into their lives. They inhibited God from having his way in them.
John won’t let his people live this way, so he exposes them. In verses 6, 8, and 10, he identifies the common claims/excuses/deceptions that people make that prevent them from living in the light of God.
Notice each of these verses start with "If we claim."
The 1st excuse (v. 6) - some claim to have fellowship with God yet walk in darkness.
Some have all kinds of God talk but no God actions.
They claim to live by and in the light.
They blab about all day long, but when the spotlight isn’t on them, they stumble, they fall. Their words don’t match with their behaviors. They are hypocrites.
The 2nd claim people make to avoid God’s light is they claim to be free from sin. (v. 8)
They claim that sin doesn’t bother them. They’ve triumphed over it. They lack the capacity to sin. John writes, they deceive themselves, not God, for if they would simply confess their sins, God would forgive them and cleanse them. They are in denial.
The 3rd claim people make to ignore the light of God is they claim they’ve never sinned. They claim to be in the light already. That they have no need for God because they are perfect.
Such people make God out to be a liar. "God’s lying," they would say. "I’m fine - you’re free" so get on with life. Such people have a high view of themselves and a limited understanding of god. They are content to live mediocre lives.
It is the reality of Jesus that he came to save the world, to redeem the world by being light to the world. He exposed the situation humanity found itself in and provided the way out.
A beautiful poem illustrates what it means to enter God’s light and to live there.
It reads:
Christians by Maya Angelou
When I say… "I am a Christian" I’m not shouting, "I’m clean livin’." I’m whispering "I was lost, now I’m found and forgiven."
When I say… "I am a Christian" I don’t speak of this with pride. I’m confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.
When I say… "I am a Christian" I’m not trying to be strong. I’m professing that I’m weak and need His strength to carry on.
When I say… "I am a Christian" I’m not braggin of success. I’m admitting I have failed and need God to clean my mess.
When I say… "I am a Christian" I’m not claiming to be perfect, my flaws are far too visible. But God believes I am worth it.
When I say… "I am a Christian" I still feel the sting of pain. I have my share of heartaches, so I call upon His name.
When I say… "I am a Christian" I’m not holier than thou, I’m just a simple sinner who received God’s good grace, somehow!
When Deb and I were becoming better and better friends, there was a decisive moment that will stick with me for the rest of my life. We were sitting on my living room floor and I began to take off:
my masks,
my costumes
The illusions that I was projecting to her, thinking that these false things could attract her for if she knew the real me, the true me. If I allowed her into me, she would run away.
I remember crying,
Sobbing,
And opening up like I had never done before.
I exposed myself, my heart, my past.
I came out into the light because I could trust her.
No more illusions.
No more fakeness.
No more sharing her the good side and hiding the bad, but instead me. Training wheels off. It was one of those times when I felt the free.
In nearly every verse that we’ve read so far, John writes that Jesus longs to:
forgive us
cleanse us
be our advocate
our light
the one who leads us out of darkness.
Living a double-life.
My dear children, for some of you it’s time. You claim all kinds of things about yourself but there are truths that you hide. God can heal. Come walk in the light.
My dear children, some of you are propping yourself, making yourself look good, having problems, eating disorders, a son or daughter who is in trouble, an addiction and yet you say I’m fine. Because your are afraid to let down and be real.
God’s safe. God’s safe.
Let his light shine. Allow it in.
Let’s learn to walk in his life. Amen.
Jesus says Come to me all you who are weak and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.
Jesus says come.
He invites us to come,
As broken, wounded people to sit down with him for a meal.
This meal isn’t for the perfect.
isn’t for the pure.
but for those who like him have been beaten and betrayed.
This meal is for us to remember that we have a God who does sympathize with us.
This meal is for all that are trusting in him.
Prayer:
Our Father, in this moment of quietness, search our hearts. We have not come here merely to play at being Christians; we want to really be Christians. We need this probing, searching light of the Spirit to expose us, and to unveil to us the closeted areas, these closed doors that we have shut away from you. Make us open, make us to be honest, make us to stop this eternal excusing of ourselves and to face up to the wonderful reality of challenge and promise, that nothing can keep us from being what we ought to be, or no one can keep us from it. May we begin to live in that way, a fragrance in Jesus Christ. We pray in His name. Amen.
