11th May 2014To walk in the light – 1 John 1:5-7
This
is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: 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. 1 John 1:5-7
We continue our look at St John’s letters to the
churches that he started in order to eradicate the false teachings that had
begun in his absence.
Last time we heard that:
John wrote this letter
about Jesus, who is the Word of lifeJesus came from God to
show us real lifeWhen we believe God’s
message, we join God’s family
The command to walk in the
light seems on the surface more an act of sensibility than anything theological
or biblical. Why would anyone WANT to walk around in darkness? Anywhere? Inside
you are very likely to end up with bruised shins, and outside (especially here
where there are no streetlamps – as we have no pavements/sidewalks) well, there
are ditches, trees and huge cows to walk into, and trust me, they don’t move
when a daft human stumbles into them!
I finished the last
session saying, ‘In the same way, let
your light shine before others, so that they may see your
good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.’ This is one
of my favourite dismissals from the liturgy, and we hear it often, but firstly
do we actually hear the words…by then most of us on a Sunday morning are
already into ‘what shall I cook for lunch’ or ‘did I wash and dry the kids’
games kit or was that last week?’ mode. But even if we do manage to hang on to
those last precious, uncomplicated moments in church before the chaos resumes,
what do those words actually mean?? This time, John wants to explain
that the light he talks of isn’t necessarily a physical light – although that
is a characteristic of God – but the light that drives away fear; light that
reveals truth, light that show us where to walk. Next time we will cover sin,
but for now let us go back to John’s first letter. He writes, ‘This is the message which we have
heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness
at all. If we say that we have
fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice 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
Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.’
1 John 1:5 - God is
perfect and people who know God must not do evil deeds.
John did not invent the
message. Remember that he says ‘we have seen’ more than once in his writings so
what John writes, we can pretty much assume is as a witness and says that he
received it from the Lord Jesus. Jesus, we know, taught those who were with him
and He showed them how to know God. He then sent them to teach this to other
people which is how the apostolic church was started, and in this way, everyone
may know God as well. This is the message that John heard from the Lord and that
God is light.
God is light by nature, as
we learn from the creation story in Genesis.
God said ‘let there be light, and there was light, and God saw that the
light was good and God divided the light from darkness’. As light shines, so
God shows himself. All light comes from God as God created it. John uses the
word light to mean all that is good, holy and right. This message shows
something about God’s character. God is good. He is always right, and holy.
God, who is light, sees all things. We can hide nothing from him. John uses the
word darkness to mean evil acts, sin and error. There can be nothing bad in
God. He is perfect and he can do nothing wrong.
The only Old Testament occurrence of this precise phrase is in Isaiah
2:5, ‘O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord.’ The
Psalms contain similar phrases (56:1
