Living in the Light

Good day

We continue with the first Epistle of John.

“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,” (1 John 1:5-7).

There is an idiom that says something like ‘we all have a skeleton in the closet’ and another one that says ‘you are standing behind the door yourself’ if you judge someone. These refer to the fact that we all have something to hide. When we are sinning secretly we become experts in hiding our actions from people. In my life I have been hiding a lot of things from people, but the Holy Spirit is slowly but surely succeeding in getting it through my thick scull that peace equals transparency.  

What do you have to hide? What conscious sin are you entertaining that those around you should not find out about? What is your motive for doing and saying what you do? Do you have ulterior motives which people should not really discover? What is happening behind the scenes of your life?

Satan and your carnal nature do want you to live in undercover sin – keeping you in darkness. Our passage, however, states that the Lord is light and therefore wherever He is present light is present, which drives out any darkness. It is therefore impossible to have deeds, motives, attitudes and thoughts that are hidden in darkness, and have complete fellowship with the Lord, in His power, at the same time. He simply does not fellowship with sin, selfish motives, and in general with our carnal nature at all. John said that when we say we do it, we lie.

We know we always sin, so are we therefore ever going to get into fellowship with the Lord God? That is where Jesus comes in. In Jesus we are made righteous before Father God, which causes Him to be able to share our presence, but let us have a look at Philippians 2:12-16: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life...”

You may choose to be an orphan Christian, keeping your distance from God, because you actually want to do your own thing. If, however, you desire to walk in fellowship with the Light who cannot fellowship with darkness, and if you wish to receive revelation of what He is like, you need to get rid of anything you need to hide from people – in other words you need to change. The Holy Spirit helps with this by working in your life, like we read in Philippians 2 and you need to work consciously with Him, aiming to get to a point where the Light of God has nothing in your life to reveal.

Then “we walk in the light, as he is in the light, (and) we have fellowship with one another.” This is where we experience true fellowship and not the kind of pretence we often find in social gatherings.

Interestingly enough 1 John 1:7 concludes with these words: “and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin”. It seems that only when we live in the light as He is in the light, our sins will be cleansed by the blood of Jesus. We will be forgiven our sin every time we confess it, as stated in verse 9 later on, but to have fellowship with the light, we have to deal with continuous, conscious sin.

“Examine me, O God, and know my mind; test me, and discover my thoughts. Find out if there is any evil in me and guide me in the everlasting way, (Psalm 139:23, 24 GNB).