Light

When I was little we had a strict, no snacking policy in our home. You ate at meal times, and that was that. Sometimes at night my tummy would growl and I would think about that yummy home-made bread in the fridge. When mom and dad were tucked away in their room I’d sneak as quietly as possible into the kitchen, open the fridge door, sneak a couple pieces of bread, and then quietly head back to bed. Sometimes my sister and I would share in the scheme. You can argue all you want about whether we should have been allowed to snack or not, or whether what we did was right or wrong. That’s not really the point. The point is that we knew we were breaking the rules and so we hid. On more than one occasion a parent would come into the room after I had already gotten some bread and I’d have to quickly hide it under the pillow and pretend I was asleep. But I didn’t hide it well enough. Eventually mom would come help with my bed and find bread crumbs under the pillow.

When I was hiding things from my mom I would be afraid she’d find out. Hiding made me not want to be around her. I’d stop being as friendly to her for fear that she’d find out my secret. Hiding one thing caused me to hide my whole self. The pattern of hiding would last as long as I kept the secret, or until she found out on her own.

Have you ever hidden something from someone you love? If so, then you know that hiding things creates a break in your relationship. It’s as though we put up a wall—a barrier—between us and the person we love so that they can’t see that thing we want to hide. Every new thing we hide from them makes the wall grow taller.

The hiding wall can get so tall that by the time you’re a teenager all you want to do is grab your phone, put on some earbuds and disappear into your own world—hiding in plain sight.

Children hide from their parents.

Husbands hide from their wives, and wives hide from their husbands.

Friends hide from friends.

Hiding for fear of being found out. Hiding for fear of being condemned. Hiding for fear of being exposed.

Fellowship

We’re starting a new series on the book of first John that I’m calling Little Children. We’ll start the first couple of chapters this month and then finish it up during the summer.

John was a special friend of Jesus. He was probably the youngest disciple among the twelve. Many scholars think that he was between 17 and 20 when Jesus called him from mending nets by the sea of Galilee. He had the kind of close friendship with Jesus that you would see in life-long friends. It wouldn’t have been uncommon or awkward to see him leaning up against Jesus with his arm around his shoulder. They were best friends.

Its no surprise that the Gospel according to John is the most intimate look into the heart of Jesus of any of the other gospel books.

After Jesus’ ascension John didn’t go off to become a missionary like Peter who started the Roman church or like Paul who started churches all throughout Turkey and eastern Europe. John was a mender of nets, not an adventurer. So, John’s ministry was as a local pastor. When persecution by the Jews drove him out of Jerusalem John ended up in Ephesus. He remained there as something of an elder statesman in the that church until Roman officials imprisoned him on the Island of Patmos. Like other apostles, John had an interest in the whole movement of Christianity, and so when he wrote the letter of 1 John he wrote to all the churches, even though it was probably first read in the church in Ephesus.

Let’s read the first four verses of 1 John chapter 1:

1 John 1:1–4 ESV

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

John is writing about “that which was from the beginning” and “the life” and “that which we have seen and touched,” “the word of life.” In other words, John is writing about Jesus and the gospel of Jesus’ Kingdom.

The gospel, to John, includes the manifestation of the Word in Jesus, and the promise of eternal life with Him and with the Father. This is big, motivating stuff for John, and he’s especially excited to share about it because he had personal experienced Jesus. He’s one of Jesus’ best friends!

But notice his so-that statements. These are the reasons he’s writing—the desired outcome of this letter.

So that you may have fellowship with us

So that our joy may be complete

That word, fellowship, is the greek word κοινωνία. It’s a word used to describe the church—the fellowship—as well as any close relationship. When you have κοινωνία you have a close mutual association. You’re willing to communicate. You have things in common.

The new Christians in Acts saw that there was persecution and many people were losing their homes and livelihood when they chose to accept Jesus. Acts 2:44 says

Acts 2:44 ESV

44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

the words common and fellowship have the same root — κοινά. In Acts this meant that people who had property sold it to help provide for the needs of those who had lost everything. In a very real sense, they shared their lives and livelihood with each other. They had everything in common.

John wants Christians to have fellowship—to have a shared life—with him by having all things in common with Jesus and the Father.

He says that the result would be that their joy would be complete or full.

Wouldn’t you agree that this “all things in common” is less than an ideal arrangement? If you’re on the receiving end, you feel helpless and guilty. If you’re on the giving end you feel a little bitter for having lost your posessions. Besides that, it sounds a lot like a weird hippie commune, or worse yet, like communism. There is very little about this idea of having things in common that we like. At best, we look at it as an unachievable idealism.

And yet, it also seems like something that would be fantastic if your benefactor has endless resources. That is the promise of fellowship with God. He wants to share his infinite resources with you—to have all things in common with you. That sounds like a really good arrangement.

And that is exactly John’s point. Our joy is full when we have fellowship with Jesus — when he shares his endless resources with us.

But there is a problem with this whole fellowship thing. Fellowship, or communion, requires a bi-directional relationship. God will share everything with you but you also have to share everything with Him—and with HIs children.

And that’s the rub. We have a problem that keeps us from sharing with God.

Sin.

Light

If you keep reading in John’s letter, he introduces the problem with a stark comparison between light and darkness.

1 John 1:5–8 ESV

5 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. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice 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 cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

God is light, with no darkness at all.

I did some research about light and darkness in the Bible. There are several themes that come up over and over again.

Light is synonymous with

Truth and Knowledge

Righteousness

The Messiah

God is the source of light. He dwells in light.

In contrast, darkness is synonymous with

Ignorance and foolishness

Wickedness and death

Light and dark are not equal opposites, like the dualism of the yin and yang. Light and dark do not exist in a perpetual struggle. No, light is something, and dark is the absence of something.

Light is the smallest quantity of energy that can be transported — a photon. A photon doesn’t really have a size. It can’t be split. It is kind of a wave, and kind of a particle. When we refer to light we’re talking about the light that you can see, but the electromagnetic spectrum, which includes visible light, also includes radio waves, radar, infrared light, ultraviolet light, x-rays and gamma rays—each having a different size of wave pattern based on the amount of energy the photons produce.

Without light, most of the plant and animal species that now exist would not be able to live.

Light is produced as an energy product of heat, and carries that energy with it. The light of the sun brings heat to the earth, allowing us to have a climate that is suitable for life.

It makes sense that the creator of all things would be associated with the most fundamental requirements for life—light.

You might think of air or nutrition as the basic requirements of life, but without light, we wouldn’t have a climate that would be hospitable for the gasses that form our air, or the plants that make nutrition available to us, or a temperature that we could survive in.

When John says that “God is light,” he’s not saying that light is God, but that God himself is the source of light and life.

Several of the psalms tell us that God dwells in indescribable light, or that God’s face radiates light. Every time a prophet saw God, light was a big part of what they saw. When Moses came down from spending a month with God on the mountain, his face shone so brightly they had to put a veil on him so people could look at him. In Daniel and Revelation, Jesus is described as shining brightly with eyes that are “a flame of fire.” When God appears in history or in prophecy, the Bible describes a light as bright as a flash of lighting.

God radiates energy, light and life. He is the source of everything.

But, as we all know, light and life and love and goodness are not always with us. We live in a world divided by darkness, overwhelmed with death, and teaming with evil.

John’s equation goes something like this:

Fellowship with God (light) = righteousness, goodness, love for one another

No fellowship with God (darkness) = lies, sin and evil.

And then he says we have all sinned. We are all impacted by the lack of fellowship with God.

Are we destined to die in an evil darkness?

Is there any solution? Is there any hope for us?

Read on in 1 John 1:9-10 to find the solution:

1 John 1:9–10 ESV

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Continue reading in 1 John 2

1 John 2:1 ESV

1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

John’s hope is that we won’t sin, and the promise of the gospel is that the light of Jesus in our lives will purify the darkness of sin out of our lives. But John recognizes the probability of our sin when he says “if anyone does sin.” In Greek this phrase is in the subjunctive case. This is the mood of possibility. Not absolute certainty, but also not a remote possibility. John recognizes that we have a tendency to fall into sin.

Conclusion

Hiding from God is our default.

But we don’t have to hide.

That little kid who ate a snack without permission can either hide from his parents, or own up to his sneaky ways. If he says, “I was hungry, and I got a snack without permission,” a loving parent would forgive him. And if he does confess, then there’s no barrier between their relationship. No reason to hide in the dark. That little kid can live in confident light.

That’s John’s goal for you and me too. For us to have the joy of full and unrestricted fellowship with the Father and with Jesus and with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Every time we sin we built onto the barrier that hides us from God and from each other. But every time we we confess and ask forgiveness, that barrier gets torn down and relationship can thrive.

And so, John invites us to “walk in the light.” Sure, we’ll all step into darkness, but John doesn’t want us to stay there. He says, step back into the light by confessing and being forgiven and cleansed by Jesus.

The only that will keep us from walking in the light is that we prefer the darkness.

John 3:19 ESV

19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

Walk in the Light

How have you been hiding from your friends, from your parents, from your spouse, or from God? What barriers have you erected to protect your secrets from being found out? Your secrets are not worth the cost of living in darkness. God invites us to live in the light. All that is required is that we expose ourselves—stop hiding—and confess.