April 9, 2018 Monday

“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” (1John 1:5-10 NKJV)

            Three of the main types of sinners are those who know they are sinners and try to solve it themself, those who do not believe they are sinners and those who know they are sinners and seek through Jesus to be forgiven.

            The reality of the passage is that if we are walking in darkness it is impossible for us to know where the light is!  We are left either groping in the darkness for a way out or just enjoying the covering of darkness.  Like a person caught in a cave we cannot find the exit from the darkness.

            Since we cannot find our way out of the darkness we cry out to the God of light to drag us from our darkness into God’s light.  But the problem is we are so used to the darkness that the light can hurt and so we try to go into the shade (really darkness) out of fear.

            John tells us this must never be!  To return to the darkness is to reject the light and thus reject Jesus.  Only in the light can we have fellowship with God others who live in the light.  We must continue to strive to keep our face to the light even when it hurts our eyes.

            Without God’s light we not only lose our fellowship with God but are unable to truly fellowship with others.  The darkness grows our self centeredness and our selfishness.  Notice the self words which by their nature cut us off from others.

            The promise of God is that if we will confess our sin God is “faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.  In the midst of our unfaithfulness God is still faithful to His promises!

            God will not forgive us our sin but will also cleanse us!  God will remove the darkness of guilt, grief and fear from our life and free us to love God, those we are in fellowship with and even our enemies.

            Are you still living in darkness?  Are you weighed down by guilt, grief and fear?  Are you willing to walk into the light and be set free?