SCRIPTURE
Studied: 1 John 1
OBSERVATION
1 John 1:5-6 ~ 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. 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.
APPLICATION
John actually went very deep in this short chapter. When he described God as light, we should actually understand the difference between light and darkness to best catch the implication here. I will illustrate this in two columns to give a good picture:
|
In Light |
In darkness |
|
Truth – 1:6,8; 2:21 |
Falsehood – 1:6,8 |
|
Love – 3:21; 4:7-12 |
Hatred – 1:9; 3:13,15; 4:20 |
|
Righteousness – 1:9; 2:1,29; 3:7 |
Impurity – 1:7,9 |
|
Eternal Life – 1:2; 2:17,25 |
Fear – 4:18 |
|
Hope – 3:3 |
Sinfulness – 2:16 |
|
Purity – 1:7,9; 3:3 |
|
|
Confidence – 2:28; 3:31; 4:17 |
I believe that we can see more clearly that God is everything described under ‘Light’, and that He has no qualities listed under ‘Darkness’. John is saying to those of us that have a personal relationship with Jesus, that we are to walk in such a way that our character/life reflects only the qualities listed under ‘Light’, otherwise we are fooling ourselves and not practicing the truth. We are being a phony/hypocrite to a world that needs to see Jesus/Light in us, because in many cases this is the only Bible that they read. We (our character qualities) may be all the sinner may know or learn about Jesus. Let’s not be a stumbling block for the advancement of the kingdom!
PRAYER
Father, You know all about us. You know when we are about to fall and You know when we are down already. I want to represent all the qualities that You have shown me in Your Word that describe Your perfect character. You know already how difficult and challenging this is for Your children that live in a world where there is so much darkness, but I am assured today that You have the power to see Your child represent You well to the lost and dying of this world, and in order to do that I must be a great example of Yours each and every day. May I be guilty of reflecting Your characteristics today, especially to a world that will reflect so much of the character of ‘darkness’. I believe that it is clear in Your Word that You will not fellowship with ‘darkness’, I pray that I will walk in the ‘Light’, as You are the Light!
Nuggets From God's Word 