Walking in the Light

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?

• manifestation of energy
• drives away darkness
• brings greater freedom of and confidence in movement
• reveals the hidden
• things tend to look better; reassuring; comforting
• extinguished by disconnection from energy source
• generally required for life

What are some evidences of walking in the light?

• fellowship with others walking in light (1:7)
• a clean life (1:7)
• "no" to darkness (1:5; Romans 13:12; 2 Corinthians 6:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:5)
• love brother (2:10; Philippians 1:9)
• goodness, righteousness, truth (Ephesians 5:8-10)
• sacrificial holy transformed living (Romans 12:1,2)
• pursuit of excellence (Philippians 1:10)
• abounding in righteous fruit (Philippians 1:11; Galatians 5:22-25)
• life (John 1:4; 8:12)
• dependence on Jesus obvious (2 Corinthians 4:10; Galatians 2:20)
• increasing light and brightness (Psalm 36:9; Proverbs 4:18)
• a glory-to-God life (1 Peter 2:9; Matthew 5:16)

What does it mean to walk as Christ did?

• live by His values
  • delight to do the Father's will (John 4:34; Psalm 40:8)
  • seek first His kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33)
  • set affection on things above (Colossians 3:2)
  • savor the things of God (Mark 8:33)
• do His work
  • rescue and redeem and restore
  • seek and save that which is lost (Luke 19:10)
  • be a physician to the sick (Luke 5:31)
  • be light of the world (Matthew 5:14)
  • build and rebuild (Romans 14:19; 1 Corinthians 14:26; Ephesians 4:29)
• follow His example (1 Peter 2:21-23; 1 John 3:16; Matthew 11:29)
  • love, grace, self-sacrifice, humility, obedience

Why should I want to have fellowship with you?

• God has put us together in the same body.
• We are members one of another.
• I value your fellowship with Jesus.
• I need what the Spirit has given you to offer.
• You need what the Spirit has given me to offer.
• Our relationship contributes to my fulfillment.
• We are both in the light.
• I enjoy my own company but too much of just me leaves lonely.
• Together we are more safe.
• I love you and you love me?