Walking in the Light

Introduction

I’m going to be looking at 1 John 1:5-2:2 with you today so you can turn there.

In this passage John is going to be discussing light and darkness. The difference between light and darkness is easy to distinguish. On a physical level we have no trouble understanding the difference between light and darkness.

I heard a story a number of years ago about someone who was going spelunking. Spelunking is cave exploration. I haven’t done much of this myself, we don’t have many caves around here. The one time I explored a cave was in Southern Saskatchewan in the badlands where my wife is from and I was so scared of reaching out and in the dark cave and finding a snake, i didn’t get to really enjoy the experience.

But this spelunker told the story about how he was exploring this series of caves and he was only in this area for one more day and he couldn’t find anyone to go with him so he decided that he would explore this cave by himself.

He got his gear together the most important being a headlamp which was operated using illuminating pellets. He went into the cave and pushed through deep into the caverns only to stop at the edge of a deep chasm, so deep he couldn’t see the bottom. He took a moment to collect his breath he looked around to find himself in a large room filled with stalactites. I was quite beautiful, and then he noticed that his headlamp was sputtering. So, he reaching into the bag with the jar or pellets. He popped the old one out and then reached for the jar of new pellets only to hit the edge of the jar knocking all of the pellets over the edge of this deep chasm. He was plunged into a darkness so deep that he described it was almost as if he could feel it.

He was completely alone, he couldn’t see his hand in front of his own face. He knew that without light, there was a very good chance he would never safely find his way out of the caves, that nobody knew exactly which group of caves he was exploring that day and there was a strong likelihood that without light, he would die.

So, he carefully began to play his hand across the rocky floor and after a few minutes all of the sudden his hand brushed one of the pellets. One pellet had not been lost to the chasm. Very carefully his picked it up, popped it into his headlamp and suddenly the cavern was filled with the most spectacular light.

In this case the difference between light and dark was the difference between life and death and in a very real sense that something John will discuss in this passage.

Let’s pray.

What is the Light? (1 v. 5-6)

Our passage this morning is found in 1 John:

1 John 1:5-2:2 “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. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

This image of light and darkness is found throughout the Scripture. It’s a powerful image, but it’s also an image, especially in the way it’s presented here in 1 John that brings forward something that’s quite challenging to us. The challenge here is that we are called to walk in the light, yet we all know that no matter how hard we try, we still sin. So can I walk in the light and still sin? If I sin, am I no more walking in the light?

Let’s break this down:

1 John 1:5 “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.”

John says this message “we”, that is the apostles and the eye-witnesses of Jesus’s ministry, are bringing to all people is that God is light and in him there is no darkness. He’s making a theological statement. He is proclaiming that God, and Jesus, who is the light, as the manifestation of God, has no sin. There is no darkness in him. Light and darkness can’t exist in the same space. In him there is no darkness.

And then another truth is offered to us in this passage, that this light can be made known. This is truly unique. Other religious traditions can’t make this claim. In Islam, Allah is not a personal God that can be known. They are proclaiming the light, which means we can know the light, we can have fellowship with the light, and that’s exactly what John refers to in the following verses.

So, in verse 1, we know that God is light. The light is a symbol of Jesus, and we can know the light - we can seek to have fellowship with the light.

Let’s continue.

Light and Darkness (1 v. 6-10)

1 John 1:6-10 “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. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness we lie.” You can’t walk in the light and in the darkness at the same time.

“If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we will have fellowship”, and this is fellowship with Him (Jesus), and we can have fellowship with him “because he cleanses us from from our sin.”

So, we can walk in the light and still sin? Let’s read further.

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.” Again, no one is without sin.

So what must we do?

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

So, then what does is mean to walk in the light and have fellowship with Jesus? If we can walk in light and still fall victim to sin, what is this warning about walking in darkness? Darkness represents sin, so how can we walk in the light and still sin, for it seems as though if we are sinning we are walking in darkness.

So how does it work that a God who is light, in a world of darkness like this one, result in people who are originally darkened have fellowship with God. That should be our desire. That despite our sin, we walk in the light and have fellowship with God.

To gain a deeper understand of what John means when he refers to the light, let’s turn for a moment to the Gospel of John. If you permit me, we’re going to very quickly fly through a number of passages in John that outline the idea of light:

John 1:4 “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

The light is life for us. The light produces life. How does that life produce light in men?

John 8:12 “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.””

Life is given in connection with Jesus and that life enables us to both see and become light. See light and shine with light.

John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

We have seen his glory (that is light).

So, in the presentation of Jesus as the light, John points out that it is the light, Jesus that produces life.

When we are given life through Jesus we both see the light and shine this light.

Recognizing this light, or glory, enables us to recognize what is right and true. It orients our hearts toward the things that God wants for us.

The pharisees didn’t see this. The people that crucified Jesus didn’t see it. Those who were born of God, those who believe, see the light and once you see the light and then life has come into you, you become like the light.

Once we walk in the light, the better we see the darkness. Once you are walking in the light, the easier it is to distinguish between the light and the darkness.

For the brighter and more intense the light shines, the deeper and darker the shadows that it casts. Light exposes darkness.

This presents a real challenge for the believer, for just as the pharisees in Jesus’s time did not recognize the light, we live in a society today where many can’t recognize the light, and further still don’t even see the darkness for what it is.

And don’t be fooled, this is exactly Satan’s plan, for he does not come to bring a different truth, he comes to obscure the truth - he blurs lines. For it’s in the New Testament that the writers begin to refer to the devil as Lucifer - the fallen star. Something that was once light, but is not longer.

We live in a world that does not recognize the light and fails to understand the danger and hopelessness inherent in the darkness.

We live in a world that does not recognize the solution because it fails to see the problem.

It’s for this reason that the evangelist John Wesley said that we must preach 90% law and 10% grace.

He means that we should spend 90% of our time explaining our need for grace and 10% of our time on grace itself. 90% of the time on the problem and 10% on the solution. 90% of the time should be describing the problem presented by the darkness, equipping people to see the darkness and 10% offering the hope found in the light.

This might appear counterintuitive but how will we find people that will pay attention to the solution if they don’t recognize the problem.

We live in a world that doesn’t recognize that we have sinned against a holy God and need redemption. The good news, the solution, is that Jesus has already paid the penalty for our sin. He’s taken our place and all we need to to is acknowledge Jesus’s saving work on the cross and have faith in His power over sin.

And most people would admit that while they probably consider themselves to be good, that they have sinned. They may not use that wording but they will admit that they’ve done some things that are wrong but still struggle to understand the problem of sin.

Pastor David Platt told a story once of a cab driver in the middle east. A Christian man hopped into this cab of this and they began to discuss religion. They got onto the topic of salvation. The driver was a Muslim and so believed that he would pay for his sin for a short time and then surely be let into paradise, after all he had not done anything really bad - he was mostly a pretty good person. The Christian really challenged him on this and said that the weight of your sin depends on the one that you sin against. So if you sin against a car, well that’s really not a sin at all. If you sin against your fellow man, well that’s more serious, that’s truly sin, but if you sin against and holy infinite God, you deserve an infinite punishment. So the man asked the cab driver: What would happen in right now I slapped you across the face? The cab driver, a bit stunned, said well I’d kick you out of my taxi. Then the man said what would happen if I walked up to someone in the street and slapped them across the face. The man said that likely the one that was slapped would get his friends together and they would probably beat you up. The man said what would happen if I met a police officer and I walked up to him and slapped him across the face? The cab driver said there is no doubt that you’d be sent to jail and you’d definitely get beaten up, it would be very bad. The man paused for a minute and then asked: what would happen if I walked up to the the king of this country and I walked up to him and I slapped him across the face? The man did not take long to respond and with no hesitation said that surely you would be killed. And so you see, the weight of your sin is determined by the one you’ve sinned against.

This world was created by a holy, infinite God. Each one of us - has rebelled against our creator. We sin, we do wrong. We cannot approach a holy, infinite creator with the blemish of sin. Those that walk in darkness dwell in a place without hope. For those of us that walk in the light, we have hope. And we do not boast about ourselves and ones called to be worthy of this hope, no we boast in Jesus and the gift he offers to each one of us. The gift, that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin through his death on the cross is extended to each one of us. Both those living in darkness and those walking in the light fall victim to sin, but those in the light grab hold of the hope offered by Jesus and are secure in his presence. We recognize our wrong, confess our sin, and remain secure in the grace that’s given to us. Walking in the light is walking in hope.

But we have to remember that John is writing this passage first to those inside the church. Each of these statements in verses 6-10 begin with, “If we say”. It’s referring to believers.

So can we say that we are walking in the light and still fall victim to sin?

Verse 10 says, “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

John recognizes that even those who walk in the light, have fellowship with God, will fall victim to sin. So how can this be?

Bringing the Light to the Darkness (2 v. 1-2)

Let’s read the first couple of verses from 1 John 2:1-2 “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

We walk in the light and have fellowship with Christ only by the power of his grace extended toward us.

John begs us not to sin even though the verse before he acknowledges that nobody is without sin. He’s pleading with us that despite the fact that we fail we must seek to do our best to please God. That even though through confession and forgiveness this should not give us licence to sin, but instead it should motivate us to please the one that is extending forgiveness.

He’s reminding us that God is the propitiation for our sins. This means that he is our advocate. As the devil brings charges against us before a just God, Jesus advocates on our behalf.

Conclusion

So from this passage we can conclude that Jesus is the light of life and that this light can be known. That we can have fellowship with the light. Walking in the light is to have fellowship with the light.

As we have fellowship with the light we grow in both our understanding of the light and the darkness. By the light we begin to have a greater understanding of the depth of the darkness and grow in our understanding of our need for the light.

Those that don’t recognize the light often don’t even understand the darkness that the light is exposing. For this reason God calls us as believers to shine the light to expose the darkness. He calls us to point to the darkness, to point out the problem of sin to the world so that the world will recognize the light and all might have fellowship with Christ.

But we still have not really come a a conclusion regarding the difference between walking in the light and walking in darkness.

John shows that we as sinners can walk in the light. But how do we ensure that we are not just saying we’re in fellowship with him while we walk in darkness.

One of the most challenging passages in the Bible is Matthew 7:21-23 ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

Pastor AJ Greear said in his testimony that it was this passage that led him to be baptized 4 times. He had this constant struggle with his security of salvation. He constantly doubted whether he was truly walking in the light - whether he was truly walking in fellowship with God.

This is likely something that many of us have struggled with. How do I ensure that I’m truly walking int he light for John makes clear that there are many that claim to walk in the light but walk in darkness. Jesus makes clear that there are many who claim to have fellowship with him but he will say, I never knew you.

First, do not doubt the saving power of Jesus. If you’ve confessed your sin and called on Jesus to save you from sin and death, you are justified in the eyes of God. So, secure in your salvation seek to walk in the light. Seek to have fellowship with Jesus. This is the process of sanctification. Walking in the light means that you have a correctly-oriented heart.

AJ Greear presents an interesting analogy in regards to this idea of knowing if we’re waking in the light. He says that it’s much like assuming a posture. If we sit on a chair it doesn't really matter if you recognize when you began to sit on the chair, what’s important is that you are now seated. When you sit on the chair your full weight is supported by the chair - in no way are you relying on your yourself. Each day you make the decision to assume this posture and the more you do it, the more it becomes a habit.

Those that walk in the light rest fully and completely on God’s grace for their salvation. They recognize and confess their sin. They choose each day to seek to become more like Christ, and as they grow in relationship with Christ the greater their understanding of the darkness from which they are being saved.

My prayer for each one of us is that this passage in 1 John reminds us of the amazing gift we’ve been given to have the opportunity to have fellowship with the light - the have fellowship with Jesus. That this means having a heart that is oriented away from ourselves and our selfish ambitions and desires but rather a hear that seeks to do right. A heart that is quick to admit wrong and seek forgiveness. And a heart to shine this light for others to see that they too would desire this great gift that we’ve been given.