Darkness is the absence of light. God is light. If you don’t have God, you are walking in spiritual darkness. Do you really want to continue living that way? What’s really cool is that you have a choice of whether to stay in the darkness or walk in the light. How? Keep reading as we delve in to the letter of 1 John….
About 1 John
In the first century, there arose a false religion called Gnosticism. I’m not going to get into that here. You can click on the link to get Wikipedia’s info on it. So, Gnosticism became a popular Greek idea that the flesh is evil and only the spirit is good. Clearly, then, Jesus could never have been a human being. He was only divine. They denied that Jesus was the Messiah. Even still, as they lived immoral lives, they claimed to know God and belong to God. They had “spiritual insight”. Gee, that sounds like new age!
Those who still believed the truth, were faltering with uncertainty, which prompted the Apostle John to write his 3 short letters. I’m only going to cover the first one. I suggest you study the others using the free ThroughTheWord Bible app.
As you will see, the language is similar to the Gospel of John. Let’s dig in…
1 John 1
We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
Living in the Light
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.
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.
1 John 1 NLT
Let’s look at the Gospel of John
In the beginning the Word already existed.
John 1:1-5 NLT
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He existed in the beginning with God.
3 God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
Who Jesus Is
Let’s go over all the traits and characteristics of Jesus as John explains…
- Jesus existed from the beginning. We see proof of this in Genesis 1:26.
- Jesus was human. John and the disciples ate with Him, touched Him, spoke with Him.
- He is the Word of Life. In Greek, they came up with the word Logos. (Not the marketing kind.) We translate it as the “Word”.
- He is Life itself.
- Jesus is eternal life. He not only gives us life in this world, but eternal life with Him in Heaven.
- He came down from Heaven to be with us.
- He wants to be our friend — fellowship with God, the Father, as well as God, the Son. He wants a relationship with you!
- God is light. Darkness is the absence of light. Where there is light, darkness cannot exist. There is no darkness in Jesus at all!
- He cleanses us from all sin through His blood.
Jesus is Your Lighthouse
I love lighthouses. Having lived near the ocean for many years, and having worked on cruise ships, I know the sea at night is very dark. The job of the lighthouse is to illuminate the rocky and dangerous shoreline to guide the ship safely to the port.
For a sailor, that light was hope, salvation and assurance that they would not shipwreck on the rocks.
Our lighthouse, Jesus Christ, is our guiding light so that we don’t walk in darkness. He is our hope, salvation and assurance that we will have eternal life and not shipwreck into hell.
Why Keep Living in the Dark?
Without Jesus and His light you…
- Continue living in spiritual darkness.
- Are not practicing the truth.
- Are not really in fellowship with other Christians — that is, born again Christians.
- Not truly cleansed from your sins by His blood.
- Are only fooling yourself if you think you’re living without sin.
- Are calling God a liar.
- Don’t have His Word in your heart.
Do you want to walk in the light?
If you’re not sure if you’re saved or not, if you truly want to be born again and have the assurance of salvation, receive the Holy Spirit, feel His Shalom — a peace that surpasses all understanding, and get a 1-way, non-stop ticket to Heaven after you die, or that you won’t be left behind at the Rapture, which can happen at any moment, this is what you have to do…
