September 21 | Love Obeys | Text: 1 John 2:7-14

Good morning. In our series Love Does, we’re exploring how the love of God is an active, transforming force in our lives. Today, I want to cast a vision for the person God created you to be.

This past week, a friend texted me about last Sunday’s sermon and reminded me of a Scripture I’d forgotten—Ezekiel 47. In that chapter, the prophet Ezekiel sees a vision so solid and beautiful that our world looks like a faded photograph in comparison. He sees the River of Life, flowing like a waterfall from God’s presence out of the Temple. This river teems with life, even turning the Dead Sea fresh and full of fish. And you know where I’m going with this—my wife is already rolling her eyes. Ezekiel was given a vision of the trout stream of Heaven!

He even writes: “Fishermen will stand along the shores of the Dead Sea… Fish of every kind will fill the Dead Sea.” (Ezekiel 47:10) On its banks are fruit trees bearing new fruit every month, their leaves bringing healing.

Can you picture it? A river more real than anything we’ve seen, lined with trees producing endless fruit, their leaves healing every wound. In my nerdy imagination it looks like Rivendell from Lord of the Rings. But the most breathtaking part is not the scenery—it’s the people. Sons and daughters of the King, radiant and solid, able to bear the full weight of God’s glory without being consumed. Joyful, strong, free, glowing with His goodness.

That is who you were made to become. Real. Solid. Heirs to the Kingdom.

Not everyone here is into fishing or figs—that’s fine. The point isn’t trout or fruit; it’s transformation. God created us to shine with His dignity and divinity, capable of living in His presence forever. You may have met people like this—those who radiate God’s goodness and make you feel more alive. That’s your destiny.

As Dallas Willard said: “The most important thing in your life is not what you do; it’s who you become. That’s what you will take into eternity.”

God created you and me to be sons and daughters of glory. But tragically there’s another path—twisting away from the light.

C.S. Lewis described it powerfully in The Weight of Glory:

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations... There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal."

Lewis wasn’t saying we become little gods. He was pointing to the biblical truth that we are eternal image-bearers, created to rule and reign with God as His children. That’s the glorious destiny at stake.

And also the danger, we can become something far less. In The Great Divorce, Lewis paints a haunting picture. A bus carries “grumpy ghosts” from a gray, joyless town, meant to symbolize Hell, on a day trip to the outskirts of Heaven. But Heaven is so real it’s unbearable to them. The grass, too sharp for their translucent feet, cuts like shards of glass, the light blinds their eyes, the air is too solid, it suffocates their lungs. Radiant beings invite them to stay, but the ghosts must first release their favorite sins—grumbling, self-pity, pride. And one by one, they refuse and return to the shadows. Lewis concludes: Hell is locked from the inside.

Now, I want you to hold these two pictures in your mind: radiant beings of light or twisted ghosts of darkness. We’ve all seen both. Some as they do they grow, grow more joyful, solid, and full of peace, they grow more human! While others shrink into bitterness or addiction until they’re only a shadow of what they could have been.

And here’s the hard truth: every day, every choice, is a step. You’re either becoming a glorious creature fit for that riverbank in Heaven or a corruption of what God intended. There is no middle ground.

That’s the setup for our text in 1 John 1:5–2:6. And the question I hope to answer: How do we become radiant people of light and not grumpy ghosts of darkness?

John’s answer is simple: Love walks in the light.

And the path John lays out for us is narrow but clear.

Here’s what John says walking in the light looks like. This our Big Idea for the sermon: Walking in the light looks like being honest about your sin and living intentionally with your Savior.

Before we dive into the text, I want to give you a clear roadmap of the path John lays out. First, he'll establish the Foundation: the non-negotiable reality of the God who is Light. Second, he'll show us the First Step into that light: the necessity of being honest about our sin. Third, he'll reveal the Power that makes this honesty possible: our Advocate, Jesus Christ. And finally, he'll describe the Daily Walk: what it looks like to live intentionally with our Savior.

Let’s look at the text together.

1. The Foundation: Fellowship with the Light (1:5-7)

How do we become people who can bear the weight of God’s glory? Not by sheer willpower or by trying harder. The gospel isn’t “tolerate sin now and hope for heaven later.” John shows us an invitation to be transformed now—through fellowship with God and His people.

Before John tells us what to do, he shows us who we’re dealing with. Listen:

1 John 1:5-7 NLT

5 This is the message we heard from Jesus* and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

John says, “God is light.” This isn’t a trivia fact; it’s an introduction to a Person. We’re not only meant to know about the God who is Light—we’re invited to step into His light. And how do we do that? By having fellowship—union, partnership, a shared life—with Him and with His people.

This is far more than showing up at church. It’s interacting with God as a real person and having “fridge-friend” closeness with some of God’s people. Real fellowship means relating to God as He actually is: Light.

What does that mean? He is ultimate reality—truth, goodness, the One who gives definition to everything we experience. He is the illumination, the cipher that deciphers the code of the universe. And we’re not just to believe facts about Him but to know, agree with, and love Him and His people.

To walk in the light is to enter into this partnership with the God who defines all reality.

And here’s why this matters: some of us feel like the gospel hasn’t really changed us. We believe the facts, but our lives lack joy, love, or transformation. Why? Often because we’ve reduced the gospel to information, like there’s going to be a theology exam at the gates of heaven. As if Peter will say, “Sorry, before I let you in, can you explain the Trinity and recite the five points of Calvinism?”

No! The final reality is relational. Jesus will either say, “I know him—he’s mine, step aside, let him in” or the most terrifying words in Scripture: “Away from me, I never knew you.”

To walk in the light is to walk in relationship with the God who is Light, and notice the text says we also have fellowship with each other. Translation: there is no such thing as a “me and Jesus” faith in isolation. You are saved into a family, called to love and live life with other believers.

To claim relationship with God while isolating yourself in the shadows is, as John puts it, a lie.

So if this walk in the light is about real relationship, where does that relationship begin? Think about your closest relationships. What’s the non-negotiable ingredient? We could probably come up with a few, but I think Honesty would be near the top. You can’t truly know someone, or be known by them, if you’re hiding.

And that leads us to the first step out of the shadows.

Let’s look at verses 8–10.

2. The First Step: Honest About Sin (1:8-10)

The first thing God’s light does—when we actually enter into fellowship with Him—is reveal the truth about ourselves. Before His light comforts, it exposes. John names two deadly lies that keep us in the dark. Listen to verses 8–10:

1 John 1:8-10 NLT

8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

John exposes two lies that keep us in the shadows. Let’s look first at verse 10: “If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar…” This is the lie of "Secret Sin Sam." Sam is a believer, but he has a secret pornography habit that is rampant in our culture and is eroding his soul. He knows it’s wrong, but he lives in the shadows, armed with an arsenal of excuses. He tells himself, “It’s not that bad. I’m used to it. Everybody does it. Nobody knows. Who does it really harm? It’s just stress relief…” He downplays, he disregards, and he persists in his sin, making it a practice, a habit in his life. He is, in effect, acting as if he has not sinned. We act as if we have not sinned when we persist in it and change nothing about our lives! And John’s words are a hammer blow: when you do that, you are calling God—the God who is Light and who died for that sin—a liar.

Then there’s the lie in verse 8: “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves…” This is the lie of Self-Righteous Sally. Sally prided herself on doing everything “right.” She pursued purity, saved herself for marriage, and built her identity on her moral integrity. A few years into a godly marriage, her husband confesses a secret, long-term struggle with pornography. He repents, he gets help, and he begins to walk in a new freedom. The church rallies around them with grace.

But inside, Sally is wrestling with a cold, hard knot of resentment. She says the words, “I forgive you,” but in her heart she can’t stand it. She’s disgusted that he gets to walk in freedom while she is left to pick up the pieces of a mess that wasn’t her fault. The injustice eats at her. Self-Righteous Sally finds herself grumbling under the weight of a grievance she can’t release. Why does he get grace when she was the one who was faithful? She is so convinced of her own righteousness that she cannot be honest about the blinding pride and bitter unforgiveness now growing in her own heart. Unlike Sam’s, her sin is “respectable.” It’s internal. And because of that, she can tell herself she has no real sin problem. Is she walking in the light? Not according to John. Verse 8 tells us she is fooling herself, choosing the shadow of her grievance rather than the light of the glorious gospel of grace!

Whether it’s Sam’s secret immorality or Sally’s respectable self-righteousness, the only way forward is the same: confession—agreeing with God. Both sins need to be named before God (and when appropriate, before His people) so that Christ may bring cleansing and healing—even into the deepest places, like the intimacy of marriage.

But why would anyone risk such honesty? Life has taught many of us: don’t tell people the ugly parts of your story. You’ve tried before and been rejected. Satan’s kingdom wields shame like blackmail: “If people knew this about you, they’d never love or respect you.” No wonder we hide.

Yet John gives us the power to step into the light—and it’s the same gospel you just heard in verses 5–7. Where Satan shames and silences, Christ invites: “Bring it into the light. I have already paid for it. I am faithful and just to forgive and cleanse you.”

This is the first step out of the shadows: honesty before God. Not perfection. Not image-management. Honesty. Because on the other side of confession is not rejection but cleansing.

3. The Hope: Jesus Forgives, Cleanses, and Defends! (2:1-2)

The reason the path into the light is safe—the reason confession isn’t suicide—is Jesus. John knows we will stumble, so he gives us this incredible hope. Listen to 1 John 2:1-2: NLT

My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. 2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

“My dear children…”—what tenderness. And what hope! We have an Advocate. But don’t picture a frantic defense attorney trying to win a still-undecided case. Jesus doesn’t beg for a verdict; He proclaims a verdict already rendered. From the cross He cried, “It is finished.” His advocacy is the ongoing announcement of that finished work.

If you are in Christ, the case is closed. The verdict is in: Found. Forgiven. Freed. This is the power that shatters the darkness.

For Self-Righteous Sally, whose heart is cold with resentment, this truth means she can stop building a case for her own righteousness. The Advocate declares that her worth and standing are not based on her moral performance compared to her husband's. Her worth is based entirely on Christ’s perfect performance. She is freed from the burden of being "the good one" and can finally be honest about her own sin of unforgiveness because her identity is secure in Jesus and her husbands sin was atoned for by his Cross!

For Secret Sin Sam, who is terrified of the light, this truth shatters Satan's blackmail. The Advocate steps forward and says, "That sin? That secret? I know. And it is paid for." The case is closed. The verdict is "Forgiven." This gives Sam the unshakeable security to finally step out of the shadows. The light is not a place of condemnation or shame, but the only place to experience the freedom that has already been won for him.

This is not freedom to sin but freedom from sin—the freedom to love God and walk in the security of His grace, the promise that because of Jesus God is always glad to see you. This love is the only power capable of pulling us up and out of the shadows.

Notice John’s realism: “I write this so you will not sin. But if anyone does…” He isn’t saying Christians live sinless lives. He’s saying: don’t excuse it, minimize it, or live as if it doesn’t matter. To deny our sin is to make God a liar and to cheapen the cross—as if Jesus didn’t need to die, or as if our sin isn’t deadly enough to require His blood. Both lies come from the darkness.

Sin destroys. The only way to deal with it is not to celebrate or hide it but to flee into the arms of our Advocate, who pleads our case by His own blood. That means keeping short accounts with God and His people—confessing quickly and admitting our constant need for Christ’s cleansing.

Friends, God does not require perfection from His children, but He does require honesty and agreement. Sin is evil. The sons and daughters of God don’t celebrate it; they confess it. And they celebrate their Savior, who frees them from its power so that, instead of cowering in the darkness, they can walk with joy in the light.

4. The Intentional New Life in the Light. (2:3-6)

This brings us to John’s fourth and final point. The struggle of growing in godliness—the joy of it, too—requires daily diligence. Once we face the truth (“I am far more sinful than I ever dared to imagine”) the beauty of God’s love shines even more brightly in our hearts (“Jesus is far more gracious and loving than I ever dared to hope”). That kind of honesty before God and His people naturally leads to greater intentionality.

John explains that the proof of knowing God isn’t a claim, but a new and intentional way of living. Listen to verses 3–6:

3 And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. 4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 5 But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. 6 Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

John says the proof of knowing God isn’t in our words but in our walk. Our obedience is not the root of salvation—it’s the fruit. Good works don’t make us know God; they’re the undeniable evidence that we do.

Why? Because a real, living relationship with Jesus is transformational. That’s what love does. The Father’s love, secured by the Son, pulls us out of darkness, teaches us honesty about sin, and fuels us to walk with Him in the light. We don’t obey out of fear—Jesus bore that punishment. We obey out of love and joy, because our Advocate, who defeated sin and death, is always glad to see us.

So what does this look like?

For Secret-Sin Sam, his energy is no longer spent hiding. Now he builds new habits of holiness, walking with brothers who can help him.

For Self-Righteous Sally, her energy is no longer spent rehearsing her grievance. Now she hands it to God’s debt-collection agency and practices forgiveness, celebrating the grace that saved both her and her husband.

That is walking in the light: an honest life of confession and an intentional life of obedience—lived not in our own strength but in the joyful security of Jesus and His people.

To walk in the light is to be honest about sin and intentional with our Savior. If we start and continue on that path, we grow as true sons and daughters of the King, ready to bear the weight of heaven’s glory. But if we persist in darkness, we risk cementing ourselves into the kind of grumpy ghosts who—even if we could get into heaven—wouldn’t want to stay, because the light would be unbearable.

Conclusion

We’ve talked about these characters. But the real question is: which story is yours? Do you see yourself in Self-Righteous Sally or Secret-Sin Sam?

The good news of the gospel is that you don’t have to stay in the shadows. You don’t have to pretend or hide. You don’t have to carry the weight of your own righteousness. Be honest about your sin. Step into the light — your Advocate is already there. He is not surprised by your sin, and He has already paid for it.

And for those already walking in the light, keep walking. Live intentionally with your Savior. Don’t drift back toward the shadows. This is how we become who we were made to be — true sons and daughters of the King, able to bear the weight of heaven’s glory.”

Let’s pray.