No Darkness At All, part one

1 John 1:5  God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all.

Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory!  (Hebrews 1) In Him, we see all that we need to. 

If we’ve seen Him we’ve seen the Father.  We do not look elsewhere. Only in Christ has God chosen to reveal all that we need to know; only Christ is the exact representation of what our finite minds can know about God.   

In these latter days, God speaks through His Son–yet we sometimes wish for more.  Have you thought about that? You want more than God’s constant presence in your life?  You want more than Scripture, more than the Holy Spirit annointing you and filling you and praying for you and leading you along?  

You want more than what God has written.   You may not even realize this stems from ingratitude, or pride, because our hearts deceive us.  We are easily distracted, easily deceived, easily disheartened.  

Light is knowledge

But God is Light.  Here in 1 John 5, and in other passages we’ll look at next week, light is true knowledge.  Think about being in a dark room, you do not know what anything looks like because you cannot see.  With the addition of a light you see and know, and can act on that knowledge. In that light you will not trip over furniture, or walk into a wall.  Light is truth, deeper than surface knowledge of circumstances or surroundings, so this analogy falls short as most do. In God’s light, you won’t be mistaken about what is ultimate, what is eternal, and Who God really is, what He loves, what He hates, what He is doing as His plan of redemption plays out.

In God there is no darkness at all.  None. Darkness is in constant battle with Light.  A losing battle that usually rages in our souls. Light will always overcome.  Light chases away the darkness (Light does not adopt or redeem the darkness, more on that next week).  We were all once slaves of darkness, with minds and hearts filled with darkness. Whether we consider our worldview, our conscience, our desires, or our opinions–all were tainted by darkness.

Consider Light as knowledge, of truth, of reality, of the world’s true condition, your true identity in Christ, and our true home. The Spirit enlightens us, giving us the possibility of knowing, and of remaining in His Truth. As we abide in His Truth, we become more like Him, reflecting His glory.

He transforms us into His likeness; we are created anew, in His image in which there is no darkness at all:

True Knowledge, Wisdom, Prudence

Affections realigned to match God’s

No ignorance that will not be touched by His light

No more snark, sarcasm, harsh words, judgement of one another

No more excuses for ‘personality’

Darkness in these passages represents an inability to see or know God.  Falsehood, deceit, a veil even. We were rescued from the domain of darkness, where we operated by fear, as slaves of darkness, unable to have God’s perspective of the world or of our own lives.  Unable to act on truth or hope, because of our love for the tainted dark worldview we lived in. In Christ, the darkness no longer fills us! In Him, we grow in grace and knowledge, and are renewed to a true knowledge (a great study for this week would be Colossians 2:8-10 and 3:5-11; and Ephesians 4:17-25).  

In God is Light, we find it nowhere else.  Christians’s are warned nevertheless, in Colossians, Ephesians, 2 Corinthians, 1 Peter, 2 John and elsewhere, of how easy it is to look away from Christ and be deceived once again.  We will look next week a few more passages about Light, Darkness, and how to continue in the Light that we would not be deceived.