SCRIPTURE:
“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.
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.
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.”
1 John 1:5-7
OBSERVATION:
John has a way of making simple what can become a complex illustration of what it means to have an intimate relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
He first assures the reader that he, among his contemporaries the other disciples, actually lived and spent time with Jesus, He whom we have heard about. For many, they did not have the opportunity nor privilege of such a close and personal relationship.
And then John makes it simple; God is light. How easy that is to see!
The light is what guides us, reveals flaws, gives us clarity to make corrections; that is, do surgery to remove dead or cancerous tissues, and also, to heal us as a heat lamp would dry out a wet and festering wound.
Such as these things are so with virtual light, so is our God with spiritual light. We have guidance in the light of His word (Psalm 119:105), revelation of our shortcomings (John 3:19-21), ability to repent and turn from dead and dying behaviors, and healing for our raw and bared souls.
And thusly, to merely claim to be in the spiritual light of God yet live in spiritual darkness is what John says blatantly...lying and not living in truth.
What would cause us to do such a thing? Paul called out the believers in the Galatian church by asking,
"How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?"(Galatians 3:3 NLT).
When we stop seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, we seek instead to seek our own righteousness, for God, but by human effort instead of humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God, where HE will tweak our character and position us to submit to Him.
In this way we have fellowship with God and Jesus indeed cleanses our sin. Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
APPLICATION:
What a simple yet difficult thing for us to submit to! I hear the skeptics and those who turn down my invitations to come to Christ (not church, but come to know God), that "I'm not good enough for church, that church is only for good people." I correct to say that church is not a place where we say whether you are good or bad.
Church is where we are all bad, under the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is He who we come to in our frailty...the question now stands, are we REPENTANT of our sins, or are we unrepentant and refuse the light that brings us into fellowship with Jesus where He can and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness!
We can claim fellowship with Christ, sing songs, read along, even pray and fellowship; but if we don't come into the light, we fool only ourselves into remaining in spiritual darkness.
I must set the pace to come in my brokenness before the perfection of Christ, surrender my pride and sense of self-reliance, and confess my sins daily before Him, and the light of God does all that John assures us it would.
I walk in the light justified, not by my efforts but by His love and His blood! O how glorious He is!
PRAYER:
Lord Jesus, how amazing Your ways, how awesome Your love.
May I be one to run to, and not from, Your light. May I become less so You can become greater! IJN, amen!
