"God is Light"

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we 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 his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1John1:5-7 ESV)

Do you remember the old country song “Rose Colored Glasses”, where the singer declares that the glasses that “I’m looking through, show only the beauty because they hide all the truth.”? We see the world many times through our own set of “Rose Colored Glasses” where we see the evil things of this world as “not all that bad”. In reality, “this world” is full of darkness, deceit, and destruction.

The Apostle John has a straightforward view of things, which are either light or dark. John does not see a lot of “gray” areas as he looks at this world. John states, “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all”. I think that is our problem, we don’t see this world as black and white, the same as John does, and I believe that is one of the very successful tactics of Satan.

Satan is the great deceiver and “the father of all lies” (John 8:44). John equates “darkness” with sin and says people either “walk in light or darkness”, no side roads, no shortcuts. Either we believe and follow God’s word, or we don’t. We cannot have fellowship with light and darkness at the same time. A choice must be made and must continue being made for “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”

Many times, the evil one tells us that this little bit of darkness won’t hurt us, but that’s a lie. Every bit of “darkness” hurts us and those around us. John says we choose either light or dark. Albert Einstein stated, “Darkness is in reality the absence of light”. I think he had the right of it, that without God’s light the whole world is dark.

I’ve seen several memes on social media lately that say, “We are what we do, not what we say we do.”, which is what John says in Chapter 1. So many people don’t want to admit that they are sinners, that they walk in darkness, but John makes it very clear “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8). I believe the “we” and “us” that John is speaking of here is the unbeliever.

In the next verse, John shows the solution to the sins that “we” have committed, he says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9). Can you see the “dark” and “light” that John is talking about? The unbeliever on their own “walk in darkness”, but God offers everyone the opportunity to “walk in the light”. God, through the sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus, has made a way for each of us to “walk in the light” and have our dark deeds forgiven. If we live or walk in the darkness, we cannot have fellowship, intimacy, or sharing with God. The light of God and the darkness of sin cannot coexist; it’s either one or the other. The Apostle John tells everyone that the choice is ours to make. We can either choose the “Light of God” or the “darkness” without God. The choice is ours! We can either invite God into our lives to show us His light, or we can stumble around in the darkness of sin.

John saw the world not through “Colored Glasses” but through the eyes of our loving God. Are you looking through your own version of “Rose Colored Glasses”, or are you willing to “walk in the light as He Himself is in the Light”?

The choice is yours; choose well.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"