Are You Walking in the Light or Stumbling in the Dark?

MIT engineers have created a blackest black coating from carbon nanotubes that is reportedly 10 times darker than any material created before... "Our material is 10 times blacker than anything that’s ever been reported," said Brian Wardle, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. The material absorbs 99.995 percent of visible light.

https://www.dezeen.com/2019/09/24/blackest-black-mit-material-news-vantablack/

Light and darkness are not simply opposites; darkness is nothing other than the absence of light.

D. A. Carson

The Old Command Vs. 7 You Should Already Know!

1, 2, 3 John (2) Learn the New Command and Love Others (2:7–11)

It is the good news that contains both the record of God’s saving work in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the instruction about how those who have received God’s grace are to live in this fallen world. These ethical commands had always been a part of the Christian community.

Leviticus 19:18 NASB95

‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

Romans 13:8–10 NASB95

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

The New Command Vs. 8 - You Should have no Doubts!

John 13:34–35 NASB95

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

1, 2, 3 John (2) Learn the New Command and Love Others (2:7–11)

The law of love is new in the sense that it is seen in Jesus and established by him through his death and resurrection. This command is also new in that Jesus by his obedience fulfilled the whole of the law and gave it “a depth of meaning that it had never known before”

1, 2, 3 John (2) Learn the New Command and Love Others (2:7–11)

In this explanation John contrasts the darkness, where there is confusion and no understanding of God’s revelation, and the light, where individuals can have fellowship with God and understand his revelation.

1, 2, 3 John (2) Learn the New Command and Love Others (2:7–11)

There are no shades of gray when it comes to John’s discussion of an individual’s relationship with God. One is either in the light or in darkness. One either loves his brother or hates him.

Ephesians 5:2 NASB95

and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

The Proof is in the Pudding Vs. 9-11 - The Test of Your Salvation

Vs 9

Romans 13:12 NASB95

The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Ephesians 5:8 NASB95

for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light

Intellectually, light is truth and darkness ignorance or error. Morally, light is purity and darkness evil.

John Stott

Vs. 10

1, 2, 3 John (2) Learn the New Command and Love Others (2:7–11)

“In it [light] there is no stumbling.”

John 11:9–10 NASB95

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. “But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

1, 2, 3 John (2) Learn the New Command and Love Others (2:7–11)

Christians can walk without stumbling because they see where they are going and the result is they do not cause others to fall.

Vs. 11

1, 2, 3 John (2) Learn the New Command and Love Others (2:7–11)

a state of darkness where there is not just an absence of love, but an absence of God. In this darkness the individual is exiled from fellowship with the Father, his Son, Jesus Christ, and the believing community.

2 Corinthians 4:4 NASB95

in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The nearer you get to the light the more you are aware of the darkness.

The Sons of God, 187–88

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers and Writers 384: Light

Bob Woods, in Pulpit Digest, tells the story of a couple who took their son, 11, and daughter, 7, to Carlsbad Caverns. As always, when the tour reached the deepest point in the cavern, the guide turned off all the lights to dramatize how completely dark and silent it is below the earth’s surface.

The little girl, suddenly enveloped in utter darkness, was frightened and began to cry.

Immediately was heard the voice of her brother: “Don’t cry. Somebody here knows how to turn on the lights.”

In a real sense, that is the message of the gospel: light is available, even when darkness seems overwhelming.