Daily Thought

Without needing to introduce himself, John announces his message that God is light, v. 5. Like the other apostles, John was well known among Christians. He was also singularly qualified to deliver this message, firstly because the apostles had heard and seen, and engaged mind and heart in contemplating the Eternal One who had come into time. Indeed He had come near enough for them to touch Him, vv. 1, 2. Their experience was unique. Neither their contemporaries nor those who followed them were so favoured. The apostolic testimony was declared to other Christians that they might all know fellowship with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, vv. 3, 4. John will also write of ‘fellowship one with another’, v. 7; which has been defined as each saint enjoying ‘exactly the same blessing of grace’, and so exactly the same joy, v. 4.

To those enjoying that grace John sets out his message that God is light, a message wholly consistent with the testimony of Old Testament writers. Moses’ face once showed the effects of the light of God’s glory, Exod. 34. 29-35. David and an unnamed psalmist associated light with God, Pss. 27. 1; 36. 9; 104. 2. Nonetheless, after the appearing of the Light of the world, John 8. 12; 9. 5, the apostle was able to write more boldly than Moses or David, that God is light. The Light of the world had identified ‘the sons of light’, John 12. 35, 36 RV, as those who walked in the light and not in darkness.

John’s message that God is light means that we cannot enjoy fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, v. 6; nor should we deceive ourselves into thinking that we have no sin and have not sinned, as some of John’s opponents were suggesting. If we are to enjoy fellowship with the Father and His Son, and with one another, we need to walk in the light, the light of uncompromising purity, the light that causes us to judge all that is not holy, all that is not pure. The apostle adds, ‘as he (God) is in the light’, v. 7. He is fully revealed in Christ, so we immediately accept John’s message and the responsibilities it brings with it, knowing the abiding efficacy of the blood and Christ our Advocate secure for us the joy of fellowship, as we walk in the light.