Walking in His light
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:5-7
It’s not all that surprising that John would portray God as light. In the Old Testament, Psalm 104:2 says that “He wraps himself in light.” In Psalm 36:9 says that in God’s light “we see light.” Then in Exodus 3, God appears as fire in the burning bush. Jesus is light. John calls him light in the prologue (John 1:4, 5, 9) and records Jesus himself declaring, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12; 9:5). In fact, John uses “light” to refer to Jesus nineteen times in his Gospel. We can draw from this that 1 John 1:5 is saying that God is light and Jesus, who is light, has come from God and shows us what God is like. He has also come to dispel the darkness of the world (John 1:5; 12:35). Speaking of God as light could refer to the glory of His person, His absolute knowledge or truth as opposed to falsehood. It also refers to His holiness as opposed to wickedness. The fact that John underlines his point by saying “in him there is no darkness at all” indicates that he has the ethical implications primary in mind. His light is all encompassing. Jesus came to the world to take the darkness, even the shadows, out of the world. He wants us, as His servants, to let the light He gives us shine before the world (Matthew 5:16). If God is light and I am God’s servant, I will choose to walk in the light. I will strive to live righteously because I want to be in-tune with Him. This means that I will shy away from unrighteousness as much as possible, even though I know I cannot outpace it entirely. I have to do this because unrighteousness distances me from God. God’s light won’t automatically shine in us unless we walk in it. We need not be complacent about our commitment. We need to be in constant fellowship with God by reading His Word, daily communing with Him in prayer, and being in fellowship with believers. God made us worthy to walk beside Him in the light through the sacrifice of Christ. Let us not then take this for granted instead let us pursue to be His honorable servants.
Blessings,
Noel De Guzman
www.my-wbc.com
