The Condition of Fellowship: Walk in the Light
1 John 1:5-2:2
There is much about the fact that God is light that is comforting. It means He is transparent, and wants to disclose Himself, with no hidden agendas or secrets. He wants us to know everything about Him, not that we ever will, but He will disclose as much as we can handle. God wants to be known; it is His nature as light. But there is a side to this which is also a threat. Light also means purity and holiness, and it means exposure of everything that isn’t. Turning on the light shows us the truth. And coming near to God in fellowship exposes who we really are, and that isn’t always an easy thing to accept. Our instinct is to run away and hide in the darkness, so John tells us to stay, abide, live, walk in the light.
Walking in the light means we need to be prepared for self-disclosure as well; not hiding our sin, or denying it’s seriousness, or pretending that it is anything different from what it is. Most likely the heretics of chapter 2 (verses 18-19) were denying they were sinners. We don’t do anything so ridiculous, but we confess it only generically, not specifically. We are happy to admit we are sinners in a general sense but confront us about an actual sin and we deny it or get defensive. John is teaching us here that sin is the biggest barrier between us and fellowship with a Holy God who is light. The closer we come to Him the more He exposes of us and we will never get anywhere in this fellowship unless we are willing to let it be exposed, as uncomfortable as that is. With slimming world or Alcoholic Anonymous, the power is in the honesty. We need to become accountable for what we eat and drink then these things start to lose their grip on us. It is the same with our sin, it thrives in the dark and dies in the light, like a vampire.
John’s gospel chapter 8 is a great example of Jesus as ‘the light of the world’ exposing sin in everyone He meets. The lady caught in adultery was a sinner, she couldn’t deny it, and she didn’t try to. Instead she stayed in the light, not excusing herself, or denying the seriousness of her sin, but instead looking for mercy. And she found it, Jesus did not condemn her. But that did not mean He was taking her sin lightly. The rest of the chapter shows how God Himself, the great I AM, her Creator, had become a man to go and pay for her sin, fully and completely with His own blood. And when she came to understand that, and saw what her sin did to her Saviour, it would loosen the grip sin had on her even further. That’s how Christ deals with sin in us; not through rules and Law and guilt and condemnation but through a relationship of love with Himself.
The Pharisees sensed that they would be exposed as sinners so they scurried away, like woodlice exposed to the sun, but in doing that they would find no light, no life, no fellowship with God, just eternal darkness. They missed out on coming to know and love the Son, they never found out that He was faithful and just and able to forgive them, because they didn’t do the one thing necessary, they didn’t walk in the light.
This is the way to overcome the barrier sin causes in our fellowship with God. We can’t beat it by ourselves but it begins to lose its power in the light. This is not saying to have fellowship with God we need to read our Bibles so many times a week. It is not even saying we need to want to read it. John is not asking us to clean up our life before coming to God. He is saying we just need to be real, honest and authentic before God. We need to come with all our doubts and fears, sins and weaknesses, not putting on a nice front, or denying the seriousness. Come as we are. And not only come but stay, remain, in the light. We need to let God continue to expose us, painful as that is. It is the only way we will ever enjoy true fellowship with the God who is light.
Does our Christian culture actually encourage this authenticity?
