Welcome back to
Daily Bread! This is the first in a series of
three letters written by the Apostle John that are
in the New Testament. If you've read the Gospel
according to John, you know that he's a writer that
appeals to your emotions. He is very spiritual, and
you can sense his desire to make you feel what he
feels.
What does Live in the Light mean? The Bible is clear that we are to
live in the Light but what light are we to live in?
|
1 John 1:7
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. |
We will get to the explanation of what
Live in the Light means as we look into what is shared in 1 John.
In
this first letter John begins talking about Jesus. You'll notice that he
refers to Jesus as the "Word" of God, just as he did in the very beginning
of the Gospel of John. He also stresses, that Jesus existed from the very
beginning with God, and later on in his epistle, he clarifies further, that
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are truly one.
JESUS
who was from the beginning,
who we have heard,
who we have seen with our eyes,
who we have looked upon,
and our hands have handled,
of the Word of life;
(For the life was made known, and we have seen it,
and testify, and show to you that eternal life,
which was with the Father, and was shown to us;)
That which we have seen and heard
we declare to you,
so you also may have fellowship with us
and truly our fellowship is with the Father,
And with His Son Jesus Christ.
And these things we write to you, that your joy may be complete.
This, then, is the message which we have heard of 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 (speak) the
TRUTH: 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 cleanses
us from all sin. (John
8:12)
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.
LIVE IN THE LIGHT BIBLE TRUTH WITH LIVE IN THE LIGHT BIBLE BLESSINGS BRINGING FORTH LIVE IN THE LIGHT BIBLE HOPE LIVE IN THE LIGHT? WHAT LIGHT IS IT THAT WE ARE TO STRIVE TO LIVE WITHIN?
God is Light and Light = TRUTH
When you turn off the light, you can imagine all kinds of things that aren't
really there. But turn the light on, and it's very clear to you, that what
you imagined isn't really there at all, it wasn't true. When we sin, we're
turning off the light. We can feel our distance from the Lord (the light).
It's the darndest thing, but the world con-vinces you to sin. Immediately
you can feel that you've fallen into darkness. You know, that empty, thick,
heavy, horrible feeling. Here's the aggravating thing about sin; you even
know that what you're doing is wrong, and you do it anyway. If you didn't
know it was wrong, then, it wouldn't be sin. Now, you've knowingly,
voluntarily, walked right out into the darkness, where you've been thousands
of times before, and all you want to do is be back in the light again. You
wanna know the curious thing about it all? You're gonna do it again. John
says, if you deny that, you make God a liar. Ouch. Okay, you're feeling
about as low as you can feel now, but you're waiting for the good news,
right?
IF ...
We
confess our sins, God just flat out forgives us, and cleanses us from ALL
unrighteousness. That's right. He just reaches out His loving, comforting,
forgiving hand, and pulls you up out of that deep, DARK, ugly mess
you're in, and it's all gone in His eyes. What about other people? Yes,
there will be people who don't forgive you, but those people don't
understand what you've learned about sin and they're walking in darkness
themselves. You just read what John said ...
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 cleanses us from all sin.
Fellowship is a
state of being in harmony, and that would mean that forgiveness is mandatory
if you're a child of the light. So if you're worried that someone knows
about what sin(s) you've committed, and that they look down on you for them,
you may want to remind yourself that God has forgiven you, and that's about
all you have to worry about. Remember this, the world cannot provide the
light that it takes you out of, only God can. So once you've found yourself
in a dark corner, there's only one way out, and that is to ask your Father
for the Grace that
only He can give you.
Guess what. You can confess your sins to Him daily, hourly, even momentarily
if you need to. You don't have to retain your sin until a certain day and
time of the week, and you don't have to tell a minister or a priest, just go
straight to God.
David said:
|
Psalms 32:5
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my
transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
|
LIVE IN THE LIGHT BIBLE WARNING OF LIVE IN THE LIGHT BIBLE CONCERNS AND LIVE IN THE LIGHT BIBLE DANGERS
Go straight to the source. When you're in the dark, you walk over to the light
switch and you turn it on. Let me ask, who's forgiveness are you in need of,
anyway? Any given moment is the perfect time to confess your sins to God. In
fact, each moment that you don't confess, it's kind of like you're trying to
keep it a secret from Him.
You
can sense when you're about to step into the darkness again, you can just
feel it. That's when Satan and his friends are saying to one another, Watch
what I can make him/her do. Then when you do it, and you're stumbling around
in the darkness again, they're giving each other high fives, and waiting in
line to tell God what you've done now. Yes, that's right. The Bible says
that Satan waits in line to accuse us night and day for our sins. (Revelation
12:10 and Job
2:1-5) It always turns out better when you beat Satan to the punch and
confess your sins. Wouldn't it be better if, when Satan reaches the front of
the line and tattles on you, God says to Satan ... I already know, he/she
told me, and I have forgiven them ... NEXT!
While we're on the subject of confessing, there's something that should be
discussed. Let's say you committed a sin. You slip into that all too
familiar darkness that John described for us and you go off to your private
place (Matthew
6:6) kneel down and say ... Dear Father, please forgive me, BUT the sin
was so appealing and I haven't sinned in three weeks, and I forgot and
that's why I did it.
Friend, that's not a confession at all. That is just giving excuses as to
why you think it's okay that you did what you did. It's always a good idea
NOT to use the word "BUT"
at all in your confessions. It may be a more sincere request for forgiveness
if you simply, from your heart, said, God, I have sinned, and I was wrong,
and I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Amen. Confession is admitting your guilt
and your sincere repentance for it. Period. No excuses of why you did it. No
explanations are needed. God knows why. Your job isn't to con-vince Him that
you had a good excuse. That really defeats the whole purpose of repentance.
Try
this. The next time you feel anything luring you out of the light, look down
at your hand. Imagine God holding it, and His eyes asking you to stay close
to Him, and not to go away again into the darkness. Then enjoy the
fellowship of being in the light with Him. What about that spare time you're
gonna gain by not having to wallow in the darkness? Maybe you can do
something cool for God during those times, like fellowship with Him or share
TRUTH with another for the cause!
As
you live in the light, you will regularly confess your sins to Him,
but keep an eye out for the things that most frequently lure people into the
darkness, and that is the world and the unrighteous things
that it offers, and the alluring lies of Satan and his imps. Those are
things that you experience each and every day. They're everywhere. But so is
the Holy Spirit.
John's message in this first chapter of his first epistle, is that God is
LIGHT. Light up your life! Confess your sins, and walk in the light with
Him, in the freedom of TRUTH. In the next chapter, John explains that God is
LOVE, too. Let's discover what he has to teach us about that, together, in
our next Daily Bread. Until then, may you walk in the light and fellowship of
the Lord, and may His face SHINE upon you!
LIVE IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH
CONTINUE TO THE NEXT STUDY
