[Anabaptists: The Web's first conservative site introducing Mennonites, their history and their beliefs.] NewGuideHistoryDoctrineWritingsBookstore
EspañolChurch LocatorRSS
to the glory of God and the edification of people everywhere

Walking in the Light

(1 John 1:1 - 2:5)

Lesson 3 -- first quarter 2007
December 17, 2006

by Mark Roth
© Copyright 2006


No darkness at all

The darkness in the room had a disorienting intensity. I had only a vague notion of my location. The only sensation of my hand in front of my face was the contact between my palm and my nose. Then, with a blinding flash and uncompromising abruptness, the darkness was driven away in an instant. All the lightless blackness disappeared, leaving no trace or pocket of dark suspended amid the light. The flip of the light switch turned on the light and with a surging immediacy there was "no darkness at all."

As early innocency begins to fade, the human soul and experience darken with the essence and results of sin. The blackness of "anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication" (Colossians 3:8) invades our being. The darkness of "all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings" (1 Peter 2:1) floods our soul. And the lowering shadows of "Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like" (Galatians 5:19-21) saturate our nature with a bent toward and a potential for every manifestation of evil imaginable. We cannot drive away this overwhelming darkness of godlessness by flipping some magical switch. But there is hope: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).

When Jesus lives His life in us, light reigns supreme. When the light of Jesus Christ shines in our heart, it drives out the above darkness without compromise. When we begin to make room and excuse for traces or pockets of darkness, we begin to deny God in our lives. We cannot have fellowship with Him while deliberately resuming to walk in some darkness (1 John 1:6). Do not allow the devil to get you to question and then challenge this unchangeable reality: "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). None at all!


Walking in the light means....

Fellowship. To choose light is to choose God. Choosing God means friendship, companionship, and oneness with Him . . . and with all those who also have chosen Him and His light. Though I can't be with God's people all the time, I am with God all the time. My heart yearns to live with a greater awareness of that! I want to walk consciously in His presence and light.

Purification. Walking in light also releases in our life and being the effectiveness of the blood of Jesus. We are freed of the combined crushing weight of sin and guilt. Gone is the power of Satan and sin in us! But we absolutely must choose absolute light. If we allow and excuse any darkness at all, His blood cannot make us clean at all.

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).


What are some characteristics of physical light?


What are some evidences of walking in the light?


What does it mean to walk as Christ did?


Why should I want to have fellowship with you?


Share This Page


Thoughts for the Week:   Archive   |   RSS Feed   |   Sponsor adding more   |   Put it on your site!



TopHomeSite Map HistoryDoctrineWritingsBlogBookstore God's PostRSS Feed    
site status
Mark's ebook
[Panting (by Mark Roth)]
Panting
Need a quick sip? We've got those too!