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1 John 1:5,7

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. 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.

In our Tuesday Bible study we have been looking at the first letter of John. Last week we looked at chapter one and there were two verses that caught my attention, verses five and seven. In verse 5, we have a declaration about God’s nature: He is light. What could the apostle John be inferring when making this declaration? If we conclude that darkness represents being in sin, then we can say that the light speaks of the purity and holiness of God. I remember, during the COVID pandemic, hearing about the benefits of going outside and getting exposed to sunlight; one very interesting benefit is the ability of the sun’s rays to kill airborne pathogens like bacteria and viruses. This got me thinking about the benefits we receive from the natural light of the sun and the similarity to the light of God, which is greater than the physical light from the sun. What’s amazing is that God not only created the sun in order for life to exist but also with the ability to act like a disinfectant and a cleaning agent. Did you know that the sun’s light whitens and deodorizes fabrics that are left out in a clothesline? Did you know that the sunlight purifies water and destroys contaminants through photochemical and oxidation processes? How much more can God, who is light, do to us when we are exposed to him?

In the book of Exodus chapter 34; we see the appearance of Moses change after he descends from Mount Sinai after speaking with God and receiving the two stone tablets. The Bible says that Moses’s face and skin were radiant. Moses had been in the presence of the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights and apparently God’s glory had rubbed off on Moses. After seeing Moses’s appearance the people of Israel were afraid to see him and had to cover him with a veil.

When we are exposed to God’s light our impurities and flaws are revealed. God begins his work of transforming, cleansing and purifying the impurities in our lives to allows us to have fellowship with him. As followers of Jesus we know that anyone who comes in contact with His light is never the same. This is what the apostle John says in verse seven, “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.” Having fellowship with God means we are walking in his ways. It is because of his light that we are able to see where we are going. Like the psalmist said, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”. (Psalms 119:105) Walking in the light means we recognize that God’s ways are righteous, his word guides us, He gives us power to live for him, and continue growing in his grace.