How Do We Walk in the Light

Introduction

‌The New Testament calls the Christian life a “walk.” This walk begins with a step of faith when we trust Christ as our Savior. But salvation is not the end—it’s only the beginning—of spiritual life. “Walking” involves progress, and we believers are supposed to advance in the spiritual life.

Just as a child must learn to walk and must overcome many difficulties in doing so, a Christian must learn to “walk in the light.” And the fundamental difficulty involved here is this matter of sin.

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Of course, sin is not simply outward disobedience; sin is also inner rebellion or desire. For example, we are warned about the desires of the flesh and the eyes and about the pride of life, all of which are sinful.

Sin is a refusal to submit to the Law of God. If a believer decides to live an independent life, how can he possibly walk in fellowship with God? “Can two walk together except they be agreed?”

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The Bible does not whitewash the sins of the saints.

In escaping famine, Abraham became weak in his faith and went down to Egypt to lie to the Pharaoh. Later, the patriarch tried to “help God” by marrying Hagar and begetting a son.

In both cases, God forgave Abraham for his sin, but Abraham had to reap what he had sowed. God can and will cleanse the record, but He does not change the results. No one can unscramble an egg.

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The fact that Christians sin bothers some people—especially new Christians. They forget that receiving a new nature does not eliminate the old nature they were born with. The old nature fights against the new nature which we receive when we are born again.

No amount of self-discipline, no set of man-made rules and regulations, can control this old nature. Only the Holy Spirit of God can enable us to “put to death” the old nature and produce the Spirit’s fruit in us through the new nature.

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Sinning saints are not mentioned in the Bible to discourage us but to warn us.

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Therefore, all of us must deal with our sins if we are to enjoy real life. John explains three approaches to sin.

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We Can Try to Cover Our Sins (1 John 1:5–6, 8, 10; 2:4)

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When we were saved, God called us out of darkness into His light. When light shines in on us, it reveals our true nature.

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Light produces life, growth, and beauty, but sin is darkness, and darkness and light cannot exist in the same place. If we are walking in the light, the darkness must go. If we are holding on to sin, then the light goes. There is no middle ground, no vague “gray” area, where sin is concerned.

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So, how do Christians try to cover up their sins? By lying! First, we tell lies to others (1 John 1:6). We want our Christian friends to think we are “spiritual,” so we lie about our lives and try to make a favorable impression on them. We want them to think that we are walking in the light, though in reality, we are walking in the darkness.

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The problem now is not deceiving others but deceiving ourselves. A believer can live in sin yet convince himself that everything is fine in his relationship with the Lord. Once we begin to lie to others, it may not be long before we believe our lie.

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But the spiritual decline becomes worse: the next step is trying to lie to God 1 John 1:10. We have made ourselves liars; now we try to make God a liar! We contradict His Word, which says that “all have sinned,” and maintain that we are exceptions to the rule.

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We apply God’s Word to others but not to ourselves. We sit through church services or Bible studies and are not touched by the Bible’s teachings. Believers who have reached this low level are usually highly critical of other Christians but strongly resist applying the Word to their own lives.

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David tried to cover his sins, and it cost him his health, his joy, his family, and almost his kingdom. If we want to enjoy real life with the Word of Life, we must never cover our sins.

So, what should we do?

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We Must Confess Our Sins 1 John 1:7, 9

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John gives Jesus Christ two interesting titles: Advocate and Propitiation. It’s important that we understand these two titles because they stand for two ministries that only the Lord Himself performs. Let’s begin with Propitiation. The word “propitiation” means to satisfy God’s holy law.

How can a holy God uphold His own justice and still forgive sinners? The answer is in the sacrifice of Christ. At the cross, God, in His holiness, judged sin. In His love, God offers Jesus Christ to the world as Savior.

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God was justin that He punished sin, but He is also loving in that He offers free forgiveness through what Jesus did at Calvary.

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Christ is the Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, but He is Advocate only for believers. “We believers have an Advocate with the Father.” The word “advocate” used to be applied to lawyers. John uses the same word Jesus used when discussing the coming of the Holy Spirit. It means, literally, “one called alongside.”

When a man was summoned to court, he took an advocate (lawyer) with him to stand at his side and plead his case. Jesus finished His work on earth by giving His life as a sacrifice for sin.

Today, He has an “unfinished work” in heaven. He represents us before God’s throne. As our High Priest, He sympathizes with our weaknesses and temptations and gives us grace. As our Advocate, He helps us when we sin. God forgives us when we confess our sins to God because of Christ’s advocacy.

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All He asks is that when we have failed, we confess our sins.

‌Confession is not praying a lovely prayer, or making pious excuses, or trying to impress God and other Christians. True confession is naming sin—calling it by name what God calls it: envy, hatred, lust, deceit, or whatever it may be. Confession means being honest with ourselves and God, and if others are involved, being honest with them too. It is more than admitting sin. It means judgingsin and facing it squarely.

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When we confess our sins, God promises to forgive us. But this promise is not a “magic rabbit’s foot” that makes it easy for us to disobey God!

When should we confess our sins? Immediately when we discover them! “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” By walking in the light, we can see the “dirt” in our lives and deal with it immediately.

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This leads to a third way to deal with sins.

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We Can Conquer Our Sins (1 John 2:1–3, 5–6)

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John makes it clear that Christians do not have to sin. “I am writing these things unto you that you may not sin.” The secret of victory over sin is found in the phrase “walk in the light.” To walk in the light means to be open, honest, and sincere.

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To walk in the light means to be honest with God, with ourselves, and with others. When the light reveals our sin, we immediately confess it to God and claim His forgiveness. And if our sin injures another person, we ask for his forgiveness, too.

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But walking in the light means something else: it means obeying God’s Word. “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” To walk in the light means spending time daily in God’s Word, discovering His will, and then obeying what He has told us.

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Obedience to God’s Word is proof of our love for Him. There are three motives for obedience. We can obey because we have to because we need to or want to.

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An enslaved person obeys because he has to. If he doesn’t obey, he will be punished. An employee obeys because he needs to. He may not enjoy his work, but he doesenjoy getting his paycheck! He needs to obey because he has a family to feed and clothe. But a Christian is to obey his Heavenly Father because he wantsto—for the relationship between him and God is one of love. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

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Walking in the light means living here on earth the way Jesus lived when He was here and the way He is right now in heaven.

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This has extremely practical applications in our daily lives. For example, what should a believer do when another believer sins against him? The answer is that believers should forgive one another “even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

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God has made provisions for us in these ways to conquer sin. We can never lose or change the sinful nature that we were born with, but we need not obey its desires. As we walk in the light and see sin as it is, we will hate it and turn from it. And if we sin, we immediately confess it to God and claim His cleansing. By depending on the power of the indwelling Spirit, we abide in Christ and “walk as He walked.”

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But all this begins with openness and honesty before God and men. The minute we start to act a part, pretend, and impress others, we step out of the light and into the shadows.

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Before walking in the light, we must know ourselves, accept ourselves, and yield to God. It is foolish to deceive others because God already knows what we really are!

All this helps to explain why walking in the light makes life so much easier and happier. When you walk in the light, you live to please only one Person—God. This really simplifies things!

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John makes it clear that the life that is real has no love for sin. Instead of trying to cover sin, a true believer confesses sin and tries to conquer it by walking in the light of God’s Word. He is not content simply to know he is going to heaven. He should want to enjoy that heavenly life right here and now.

“As He is, so are we in this world.” He is careful to match his walk and his talk. He does not try to impress himself, God, or other Christians with a lot of “pious talk.”