23 Sep God is LIGHT

1 John 1:5-2:2

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. 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.

 

2 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. ² He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

 

Introduction

For many years, surveys in US have shown that about one-third of Americans claim they are “born again” Christians. From this data, it does look like Christianity is thriving in the United States. Big churches are always full. Many people attending their services every week. However, when they were asked if they regularly attended church, prayed, and followed some basic Christian beliefs. The number dropped from 32 percent to just 8 percent. This suggests that while many people might say they’re Christians, fewer actually practice their faith regularly. They just claim that they are Christian but it does not change their life. John said in this pericope, with very very strong word, ‘you are liar!”

When we learn who God is, we cannot help but to worship him; not only on Sunday but Monday to Friday. It is because there is nothing else like him. The common problem is so often we only focus on other things that not important, or we focus on ourselves; our desire and it makes our worship might feel forced or fake. But when we take time to see God as the Bible shows us, worship comes naturally, because God truly deserves it. He is worthy of our worship. That’s why we spend time as church to study who God is. 

Today, we’re going to talk about something that can really change the way we see God and understand our relationship with Him. The Bible says, “God is light,” and this short but powerful phrase is packed with meaning. But what does it really mean when we say that “God is light”? How does that affect the way we live our lives? And, How learning who God is will change our lifestyle? Let’s start.

 

 

1. God is Light

This is the letter written by John. To find the reason why John wrote this letter, let’s read a few verses before this. 1 John 1:3 ESV “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.”

The apostle John begins his letter by saying that one of the main goals of the Christian message is to invite us into the same close friendship that the apostles have with God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ (1:3). This close relationship with God is at the heart of being a Christian. Christianity isn’t mostly about following rules or doing rituals; it’s about having a personal relationship with the living God. Look what John said in verse 5.

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.

In other words, John said that to have fellowship with God, we must begin with God and His Character; not ourselves

Fellowship with God begins with understanding who He is. But often, we start with ourselves. We come to Christianity asking, “Can God make me happy?” or “Can God give me what I want?” We think about how Christianity can help us with our problems and needs. But real fellowship with God starts with focusing on Him, not just on what He can do for us.

To have fellowship with God, we need to know that God is light. The phrase “God is light” means that light is part of who God is—His very nature. God is the source of all light. He’s not just a light, or one type of light; He is the essence of light itself. Light is what God is like—He is holy, good, and perfect. There is no evil in Him at all.

Think about the sun for a moment. The sun is incredibly powerful—it lights up our whole world and makes life possible. But even the sun isn’t perfect. It has dark spots and sometimes it’s hidden by clouds or eclipses. But God’s light is different. It’s perfect, pure, and unchanging. There’s no darkness in Him at all. This means that God is completely holy, without any sin, mistakes, or evil. He’s the ultimate source of goodness, truth, and life. Therefore, in verse 5b – God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

When the Bible says, “In Him there is no darkness at all,” it’s making a really important point about who God is. The writer, John, is using strong language to make sure we get the message loud and clear. In the original Greek, John uses a double negative to say, “There is no darkness in Him, none.” Now, in English, double negatives usually sound like bad grammar (like saying “I don’t know nothing”), but in Greek, it’s the strongest way to say that something is absolutely true. John is emphasizing that not even a tiny bit of darkness exists in God.

What is Darkness? In this context, darkness represents everything that’s wrong, bad, or evil—things like sin, lies, and anything that goes against God’s perfect nature. So when John says there is no darkness in God, he means that God has absolutely no sin, no mistakes, and no evil in Him at all.

 

Church marketers might say, “‘God is holy’ won’t attract people. It’s not popular. If you want to bring in a crowd, start with ‘God is love’ because that’s what people want to hear.” But John starts by saying, “God is light.” People do not like this truth. Why? Because it means that God hates sin. He cannot tolerate any sin.  The world does not like this and they want a God who overlooks their mistakes, who doesn’t care if they do something wrong, who is always nice, and never holds them accountable. They might want a god who rewards them no matter what they do, even if they’re not genuine loving God. This kind of god wouldn’t care about right or wrong and would let people get away with anything. But that’s not our God. Our God is light; pure and holy.

But it’s not just nonbelievers who need to remember that “God is light.” Even as Christians, we sometimes mess up and sin, hoping that God won’t be as strict about it as the Bible says He is. We might tell ourselves things like, “God is merciful, so He won’t be too hard on me,” or “God doesn’t really expect me to always be perfect and self-controlled. We try to make deals with God, thinking we can bribe Him or make excuses for our behaviour.

Unfortunately, we sometimes fool ourselves into thinking we can make deals with God or find ways to get around His expectations. But John’s clear statement that “God is light” is a strong reminder that God doesn’t change based on what we want. He is always holy and just, no matter how we might try to justify our actions.

We don’t need to hide or make excuses for our mistakes; instead, we can come to God, who is light, and let His truth and love guide us to live in a way that reflects His purity and goodness.

It leads me to next point.

 

 

2. Walk in Light

 If we know that God is light, it means that we should strive to live in God’s light every day. I love how John didn’t just tell us to live in the light but he gives us a serious warning as Christians. Listen to this.

 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

John says in verse 6: “If we claim to have a close relationship with God but continue to do things that are wrong (walking in darkness), we are lying, and we are not living according to the truth.” John is saying that some people claim to be close to God but are still living in sin. John strongly calls them out by saying, “You are liars!” This is a strong warning from John.

Now, some of you might be thinking, “I just argued with my wife half an hour ago because she couldn’t decide where she wanted to eat. Does that make me a liar? Does God expect me to be completely sinless? Does He expect me to be as holy as He is?”

When John talks about “walking in darkness,” he’s referring to a way of life, not just one-time sin. He’s talking about someone whose lifestyle is filled with sins again and again. It’s important to understand that John isn’t expecting people to be perfect or never sin. He knows that even Christians who try to live in the light, following God’s ways, will sometimes be tempted and sin.

So, when John talks about “walking in darkness,” he’s not saying that people who sin means you’re living in darkness. Instead, he’s talking about someone who consistently makes wrong choices, showing that their life is more about darkness than light. It’s about the overall pattern of their life, not just a few isolated mistakes. “Walking in darkness means being controlled by desires for this world instead of desires for God.” (John Piper).

From this, we learn that some people might say they have a relationship with God, but they actually don’t. They might believe they are close to God, but in reality, they are not. It’s possible to think you are in a good place with God when your actions and lifestyle show something different. Just because someone claims to have fellowship with God doesn’t mean it’s true, especially if their life doesn’t match what God asks of them.

Do you claim yourselves Christians, but still walk in the darkness? This verse says that people who are Christians yet walk in darkness are liars!

The good news is John did not stop here. 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.

“Walking in the light” is the opposite of “walking in darkness.” If I said I was walking to Chatswood, for it to be true, I would have to actually start moving toward Chatswood. If I didn’t make any effort to go there, then I’m not really going—I’m just talking about going. It’s the same with our Christian walk. We can’t just talk about following Christ; we need to take real steps in that direction.

What does it mean? The idea of “walking in the light” is about making progress. When you walk, you move forward—it’s impossible to walk and stay in the same place. So, when John talks about being in the light, he’s saying that if you’re following Christ, there should be some progress in your spiritual life. It’s not optional—if you’re walking in the light, growth should naturally happen; even if it is small progress.

What kind of progress am I talking about? If you’re a Christian, you should notice some growth from when you first started following Christ. When you look at your relationship with God, you should see that you’re becoming more like Christ in your attitudes and actions. You should be learning more about God and actively seeking His will for your life.

Now, I’m not saying you have to reach a certain level before you can call yourself a Christian. What John is saying is that if you claim to be a Christian, but there’s no evidence of any progress, then you need to reconsider  that claim.

Walking is a powerful image in the Christian life because it represents action. It’s easy to talk about walking, like following Christ, but actually doing it is much harder. You can talk all day about walking, even sound like an expert, but unless you get up and walk, your words don’t mean much. The value comes when your actions (walking) line up with your words. This idea reminds us that our faith must be lived out, not just spoken about. It’s the difference between talking the talk and walking the walk.

Parents, what we show to our children is more important than what we say to them. We tell them to read the Bible, but they never see us reading ours. We tell them to prioritize God, but we let them skip church for their activities. I also think it’s important to show them how to say “sorry” when we are wrong. They can sense when we, as husband and wife, have a fight at home, so it would be beneficial to show them how we apologize to our spouse and extend forgiveness.

 

 

3. New Way of Living

Have you heard about Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”? Imagine a group of people who have lived their entire lives locked in a dark cave. They are tied up in such a way that they can only look forward, staring at a wall. Behind them, there is a fire, and between the fire and the prisoners, people are moving objects, casting shadows on the wall in front of them. Since the prisoners can’t turn their heads to see the fire or the objects directly, they think that these shadows are the only things that exist. They believe that the shadows are their reality, because it’s all they’ve ever known.

But one day, one of the prisoners is freed and taken out of the cave. At first, stepping into the sunlight hurts his eyes because he’s not used to the brightness. He’s been in darkness for so long that he’s momentarily blinded by the sun. Gradually, though, his eyes adjust, and he begins to see the world around him clearly. He saw real trees, animals and other real things for the first time. He realizes that the shadows in the cave were just pale reflections of the real objects and that there’s a much bigger, richer, and truer world outside.

But just like in Plato’s allegory, stepping into the light isn’t always easy. It can be painful at first. Our eyes need to adjust with the brightness because we are not get used to it. That’s what happened when God brought us from darkness into the light. It is painful. Why? Because it forces us to confront our sins, face the truth about ourselves, and let go of our sinful habits. However, Christians believe that once we adjust to this light—the truth of God’s love and holiness—we see the real world as it really is, the way God intended it to be.

We are all like prisoners trapped in our own sin, living in darkness because we don’t see the truth. Sin keeps us stuck, just like the prisoners in the cave. But when we turn to Jesus, it’s like stepping out of that darkness and into His light. He frees us from our sin, and we become God’s people, living in the light of His love and truth.

It can be difficult to leave the cave because sin often feels comfortable and familiar. Like the prisoners who preferred to stay in the dark, we sometimes resist the challenge of stepping into God’s light because it requires change. We live in a world where it’s so easy to get caught up in things like money, possessions, or chasing success—just like how the prisoners in the cave were focused on the shadows. These things can distract us and make us think that they are the most important things in life.

But Christians believe that God invites us to see beyond these material things. He calls us to look at the bigger picture—life with Him, which is eternal and brings real peace and happiness. This is like leaving the cave and stepping into the light of God’s truth and love, where we can see what really matters in life.

The story did not stop there. When the freed prisoner comes back to the cave to tell the others about the good news; the amazing world outside, his eyes have adjusted to the light, so when he enters the darkness of the cave again, he can’t see clearly anymore. The other prisoners see him struggling to adjust and think he’s lost his mind. Instead of listening to him, they make fun of him and think he’s a fool because, in their minds, the shadows are still the only reality they know.

The world might think we’re foolish for following God’s way. As often happens when we find our faith and try to share it with others, they also will ridicule and refuse to believe. Sometimes, even your friends might see you as ‘crazy’ or too extreme because you’re choosing to live in a way that follows God’s truth and love—walking in the light. Just like the freed prisoner in the cave who was laughed at for knowing the real world outside, people might not understand why you live differently when they’re still focused on sinful things.

Gospel

Do we realise that we are like those prisoners? We don’t realise how much darkness we are in.

Last year, we attended a beautiful wedding of our friends. It was a beautiful place, and it looked like the countryside. We went to the reception at night. Because it was in the countryside, when the sun set, it became very, very dark. At that time, I had left my mobile phone in the car. When I was walking to get my mobile phone, it was so dark that I had to be very careful. I looked around and saw many small garden lights, but they didn’t help at all. Do you know why? It’s because the level of darkness was too great for the small lights to penetrate.

Do We Realize How Much Darkness We’re In? Sometimes, we don’t realize just how lost we are. When we disobey God, the consequences are much worse than we can imagine. The problems we face go much deeper than we think. The darkness inside us is very deep. Our wickedness demand perfect sacrifice.

Our sin and the wrong things we do create a darkness that’s so deep, it needs something perfect to fix it. But instead of turning to God, we often try to solve the problem on our own. We think we can find our way out of the darkness by ourselves, like using a small flashlight in a huge dark place. We try to be good people, thinking that will make the darkness go away. We think, “If I just do this or that, everything will be okay.” But the truth is, the more we try to fix things by ourselves, the more we get stuck in the darkness.

We need to find the way to satisfy God’s Holy requirements. Perfect obedience is the way to eternal life and hope. But the bad news is we are better at rebelling than obeying. Our actions will never pure enough. The truth is we will never righteous enough to satisfy God’s perfect and Holy requirements. It’s only when we admit who we are; sinners and hopeless that we can understand the needs of God’s grace.

 

But this is the good news:

2 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. ² He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

The good news is Jesus becomes our advocate. What does it mean? Imagine you’re in court, and you’re on trial for all the sins you’ve done. You’re sitting there, nervous and scared, because your sins are exposed. You feel hopeless. But then, Jesus steps in as your advocate

Jesus speaks on your behalf to God, the judge. Jesus is there to defend you, and He’s never lost a case! John then explains why Jesus is such an effective advocate: because He is the “propitiation” for our sins. Now, “propitiation” isn’t a word we hear often. It basically means that Jesus, through His death, took on the punishment we were supposed to receive. In other words, His death satisfied God’s need for justice. God’s anger towards sin was satisfied, and because of that, we are no longer guilty in God’s eyes. Jesus paid the price for us. It satisfies the wrath of God. Think about that. Jesus, who was flawless and pure, willingly allowed His body to be broken for us. His blood was poured out on our behalf. Jesus defeated the power of darkness through His sacrifice on the cross. A death that Jesus willingly took on to save us from darkness and bring us into the light.

So, Jesus isn’t just our advocate, but He also took our punishment, making Him the perfect advocate. When God looks at us, He sees us as forgiven because of what Jesus has done for us. Jesus gave up His perfect life for us—a life completely free from even the smallest trace of darkness. In exchange, He took on our broken, sinful lives.

So often, we say to Jesus: “Don’t worry, Jesus. We’ve got the light. We follow the law, we obey God, and we go to church every Sunday.” But no, we’re not the light; we’re walking in darkness. Just because we do a lot of religious activities, we think we’re walking in the light, but in reality, we’re in darkness. Unless you embrace Jesus, what you have is blindness. Unless you embrace Jesus, you will not have the light. Many people engage in religious activities, know doctrine, memorize verses, and go to church, but they don’t truly know Jesus. They go to church because it’s the right thing to do, but they lack intimacy with God. Have you actually embraced Jesus? He is the light. What area in my life am I clinging to; that is not Jesus?

So, is Jesus Christ your advocate—your defender? When you stand before God on the last day, will Jesus be there to protect you? Jesus can’t deny that you’ve sinned because we all have sinned. But the way He defends you is by telling God that your punishment has already been taken care of. “It is finished!” Jesus paid the price for your sins when He died on the cross. He did this for everyone who will confess their sins, repent, and turn to Him. If you don’t turn to Christ and trust in Him, the only thing left to face is God’s judgment.

The good news is that Jesus came specifically to save sinners! That’s why, in 1 John 1:7, it says, “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” And in verse 9, it says, “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Let’s pray

 

 

Discussion questions:

 

1. What struck you the most from the sermon?
2. Explain some of the implications that God is light.
3. What is the difference between walking in darkness and walking in light? Give some daily life examples.
4. Which part of Plato’s allegory of the cave stands out the most for you? Why?
5. How does the gospel enable us to walk in the light?