The text for this afternoon's sermon was 1 John 1:5-2:2. In the first few verses of this book, the focus is on Christ, the Word of Life. The focus of this passage now turns to God Himself.
In telling us that He is light, God is communicating to us a measure of His essence. In Scripture, light is identified with truth and purity. Of course, evil is associated with darkness, and that is why nothing that is dark touches God at all. God has called us to walk in the light, to identify with the God who is light.
John provides a series of three false claims so that we can test whether we are, in fact, walking in the light. The first false claim occurs when a person says that he has fellowship with God, yet walks in darkness. Those who would claim this have no conception that God is light, that there is sin. They do not know who God is, or what His will (His law) is for their lives. In verse 7, the opposite is declared: "If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." Here John is contrasting a lifestyle of evil--walking in darkness--with a lifestyle of righteousness--walking in light. The cleansing of verse 7 is an ongoing process that moves us on in a lifestyle of walking in the light.
The second false claim is presented in verse 8: those who say they have no sin. There are actual churches who claim that once we are Christians, we have no sin. But true Christians recognize that they sin, and they confess that sin daily. We must mourn our sins and confess them. We also know that God will bring His child to a point of confession, and when we do confess our sins, we know that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (see Hebrews 10:21-22).
The third false claim is by those who say they have never sinned. The true focus of all of this is that we do have an Advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the only one who can truly say that He has no sin, that He has never sinned. This righteous one is our Advocate. The child of God cannot take sin lightly. It must be our desire to walk in the light. We look to Christ, the one who has borne God's wrath for our sin. Through Him our sin is forgiven, and through Him we walk in the light.
2 comments:
Our evening sermon dealt with Revelation 22:1-5 (and almost finished with his series on Revelation), and he mentioned how there will be no need of light, because God is our light.
I love the theme of light in Scripture. Only the Holy Spirit inspiring writers could maintain such consistent comparisons throughout the centuries and through so many different writers.
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