When you turn a light on in a dark room, the darkness disappears. Today we are talking about light and dark.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
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Watch the video of this teaching at https://www.celllifechurch.tv/light-and-dark/
Introduction
We don’t often teach from an expository standpoint, that is reading a passage of scripture and breaking it down. We typically teach topical subjects and bring in scripture that is foundational for those topics. Today we are going to read a passage of scripture and apply it to our lives to help us be better children of God in our groups and fellowships and better witnesses to this lost and dying world.
We are going to read the whole passage of scripture and then break it down into a few pieces and apply each to our lives today. Let’s start by reading 1 John 1:5-10:
1 John 1:5-10
(5) This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. (6) If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. (7) 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, purifies us from all sin. (8) If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. (9) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (10) If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
The Apostle John is encouraging believers in this passage to walk in the light of God and avoid the darkness of the world. He is teaching us that we all sin, but as we live in the light of God, that sin can be cleansed through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and we are purified. This leads us to the forgiveness of our sins and the ability to live on in the light and further avoid the darkness of the world.
God Is Light With No Darkness At All
The first part of this passage we want to look at is defining who God is and the vast difference between Him and the world. John uses the concept of light and dark to describe the vast difference between God and the world.
When we enter a dark room with no light we cannot see anything. However, as soon as we turn on a light we can see. The darkness is now gone. Everything is in view. The brighter the light the less there are shadows and dark spots in the room. The closer you get to the light the brighter the room is and there are fewer shadows. The same is true with God. Let’s read 1 John 1:5-6:
1 John 1:5-6
(5) This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. (6) If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.
John is declaring that God is light. God is brighter than the sun. We cannot look at the sun and God is even brighter. He illuminates everything. There can be no shadows cast when God is the light. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and invite him into our hearts, we join the family of God. We leave the darkness of the world and start to live in the light of God where there can be no darkness.
The more we walk in the light of God, the dark spots in our lives start to be identified and driven out. Just as an electric light in a dark room drives away the darkness. The two cannot co-exist. A life in Christ cannot coexist with the sin of the world either. This leads to our purification in the light as we leave the darkness of the world.
Sin is Purified in The Light and Grows in The Dark
The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We are born into the darkness of the world. That is the curse from Adam and Eve’s initial disobedience to God in the garden of Eden thousands of years ago. But God loves us more than anything. He loves us so much, John 3:16 tells us, that he sacrificed his one and only son so that we could be rescued from the results of sin. Look deeper at 1 John 1:7-9:
1 John 1:7-8
(7) 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, purifies us from all sin. (8) If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
It is the blood of Jesus that purifies us from sin. Jesus’ shed blood is what cleans away the stains of a life in this fallen world. We spend our natural lives in this world of darkness that the devil has been given control of. We cannot help but pick up sin as we live our lives. It is like walking down a dusty road. You can awake in the morning and wash, put on fresh clothes and clean shoes, and then start walking down a dusty road. It doesn’t take long for your shoes, ankles, and clothes to start getting a layer of dust on them that needs to be cleaned off. Life in this dark world is the same way.
We walk through life, even a life in Christ, and we pick up some of the darkness of this world. We take on sin. Sometimes it is so slight that it isn’t noticeable at first. This sin builds upon itself and we are often unable to see it in our own lives. Much like the dirt that builds up on us as we spend a day out working and playing, sin builds up in us. We get so busy with life that we don’t see the build-up of this sin. God’s light is what makes it show.
There is an answer to this sin that we take on while we are in the darkness of this world and that is found in God’s forgiveness.
Forgiveness is Found In The Light Not In The Dark
We must continue to gather together as brothers and sisters in the Lord and this is one of the purposes of gathering. When we come in from a time of being outside it takes others looking at us sometimes to point out the dirt and dust that has accumulated on us from the day; we don’t see it ourselves. By being in fellowship with other believers, the sins of the day can be pointed out to us and we can confess those to God and He is faithful to forgive us through Jesus. God is light and he pushes away the sin of darkness that we accumulate daily. Let’s look at 1 John 1:9-10 again:
1 John 1:9-10
(9) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (10) If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
It is good for us to live our lives in a way that other believers can see our sin and point it out to us. The difficulty is our sin can be embarrassing, and we want to hide it. Sometimes we want to point out other’s sins to make our sins look not as bad. Again, Paul’s teaching in Romans 3:23 is very clear that we all have sinned and fallen short. None of us is perfect and until we move on from this life and into an eternity with God in Heaven we are subject to the results of living in this dark world.
We must confess our sins to a trusted brother or sister in the Lord who can help us avoid entering into that sin again. We do not need to mark ourselves or punish ourselves. We only need to find someone we can trust and listen to and pray with. Then, as Jesus often said, go and sin no more.
God is faithful to forgive us of our sins. One of the biggest sins is to claim we have no sin. When we claim we have no sin, verse 10 tells us that we are calling God a liar. We know from verse 5 that God is light and no darkness exists in Him, so we know he cannot be a liar. We must live in fellowship with other believers and love one another helping each other see their sin and celebrating the cleansing of our sins through the shedding of Jesus’ blood.
Conclusion
Friends, God is light. In Him, there is no darkness. We, as members of God’s family and co-heirs with Christ, must live a life in fellowship with other believers and help each other identify the sin caused by the darkness of this world so we can confess it and receive forgiveness from God through Jesus Christ. This is the witness we are to have to the world and as such be a reflection of the light of God in the darkness of this world. We encourage you to reflect the light and dispel the darkness of the world.
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