That is the emphasis of First John 1:5-7. John begins this passage by reemphasizing his credentials. He heard Jesus declare this message first hand. John is a first hand witness passing on this information to these Christians. The phrase used, "God is light" sums up the essense of God. He lives in unapproachable light (I Tim. 6:16).
I Peter 2:9 reminds us that God called us, "out of darkness into His marvelous light." Quite obviously, where there is light, there can be no darkness. It's not possible. This verse from I John in the Greek text is especially pointed. What is translated to us as "no darkness at all" is saying there is not even a speck, not an iota of darkness. It's one or the other. We have light, His light or we don't. There is no middle ground.
I posted in May of last year about the next couple of verses. I encourage you to look at the index and find the post "Get Off The Spiritual Tight Rope...It Doesn't Exist". It covers the message of these verses as well as verse 9. There are two quick points I'll make here though. Walking in the light results in two things. First, we have fellowship with each other and with God and Jesus. Secondly, the blood of Christ cleans us and continues to clean us. The verb walk indicates this must be a continuous action, just as the cleansing of the blood of Christ is.
Another important word to consider here and elsewhere in this book is the word fellowship. From the Greek word koinonia, it means joint sharing, a partnership. Guy N. Woods summed this up nicely in his commentary of this book published by the Gospel Advocate. He writes, "Here in the most emphatic fashion, the writer points out that only in unity of faith is there communion in religion. It is possible to have fellowship only when there is a common bond established in faith, work and love." The bottom line? Only if we walk in the light do we bear each other's burdens (Galatians 6:2) and are then the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:26-27).
No comments:
Post a Comment