Becoming Light

In his later years, Albert Einstein came to America, and lived near Princeton University. Once a young physics student was walking in a park near the school, and came upon Einstein looking over a bridge at a stream.


What a wonderful opportunity. Here was the greatest genius in physics the world had ever known. What secrets were locked up in that brain! He desperately wanted to have a conversation with the great man. So he came and stood on the bridge next to him, and looked down in the water.

There are two great relationships in every Christian’s life. The first is a relationship with God. The second is our relationship with others. Without both of these, then the Gospel will die.

The Devil attacks us on two fronts. First, he tries to destroy our relationship with God. If that does not work, then he tries to wreck our relationship with others. If we want to have a private relationship with God, the Devil usually leaves us alone. He has already neutralized us into having an ongoing relationship with others. But if we have a vital relationship with God along with openness to people inside and outside the church, then the Devil has something to fear from us.

We looked at the first relationship, that divine relationship with God through prayer last summer. We presented a series of prayer skills that enable us to have a strong relationship with God. For the next few weeks, we are going to work on developing our second relationship—the horizontal relationships we have with other people so that our relationship with God can have a real impact on the world, and the relationship that others have in God can have a real impact on us.

We are going to start our study in the first letter of John. Though it is a little book, it packs a powerful wallop. It can revolutionize our walk with the Lord and our walk with others. I know, because it has had a powerful influence on me.

We don’t know much about the circumstances of writing this letter. We do not know when he wrote it, or exactly to whom. It is a general epistle, which meant it was written to be the whole church, not just a part of it. We think it was written fairly late in John’s life, after the rest of the New Testament. Many of the apostles of Jesus were already dead. The church was falling into doctrinal disputes and organizational debates.

John saw his mission to restore and poetic and mystic side of the church. He was not mainly concerned with the fine details of what they should believed. As long as people accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, they were in. He was more concerned with how they believed what they believed. We can believe right and live wrong. We can have the right goal but have the wrong attitude. If all we do is to believe in Jesus, and do not believe on Him we have not understood the Gospel. Without a living relationship with Jesus and others, we are nothing.

John gets right into a discussion of relationships in 1 John 1:1-4



That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.



In verse 2 John tells us what he is talking about—the Word of Life. Not just the Word, but the life as well. The Word is not just propositional truth, but a living Person who we may know intimately. The word is Jesus, revealed by the Spirit in our lives.

John says four things about the word.

1. The Word has always been there. There is nothing new about it. The Word is like the stake you take out of your freezer and thaw for supper. All the ingredients are already there. It only takes the flame of the Spirit to bring it to life.

2. We have already heard the Word. Yes, the church already has its doctrine right. Christ is the God, the second person of the trinity. He died for our sins. John knew this, because he heard it from Jesus’ own mouth.

3. We have seen the Word lived before us. John saw this truth lived out by the Son of God. John did not have to wear a bracelet that said WWJD. He knew what Jesus would do, because he knew him personally.

4. We can still know the Word today. The eternal Holy Spirit is still with us, and is constantly revealing Jesus. John had the Holy Spirit with him constantly. His divine presence was revealed to him. He depended upon Him. He was his meat and drink.

So John intimately knew the Word of Life, and that life filled him with great personal joy. We write this to make our joy complete.

What do you do when you see a TV show or a movie you like, or hear a good song, or eat at a good restaurant? You can’t wait to tell someone about it. John is the same way. Once he has encountered the living presence of God in the Spirit, he wanted to share it with others, so that his joy—and ours—will be complete. Good things are so much better when there is someone we can tell about them.

John is not just joyful about the Word of Life—he is transformed by it.

In verse 5, John makes a “metaphorical leap.” He changes images. He no longer talks about the Word of life. Now he starts to talk about God as light. This is not really a change of subjects. A word is how we convey a thought or idea. The word we receive from God is more than a thought. It is a life. That life transforms us, and causes us to present a new word to others. The Word of Life becomes light not just to ourselves, but to others.

He has become a living container for the presence of God. Like electricity through a light bulb, the power of God was flowing through John, providing light to the world.

Who was John really? He was no one special. But the Word of Life in John was very special. God’s presence and power was inside of him. That made him very important indeed. He was part of God’s plan to occupy mortals, fill them with the Word of Life, until they illuminated the world.

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus said “You are the salt of the earth.” Their salt was mined from the Dead Sea in blocks. It was not pure salt, but had many inert materials in it. The substance the Bible calls "salt" is actually a complex substance, which contained salt, among other things. If the salt was not in the grain, then it was useless. If Christ is not in our hearts, we are no good to God.

In Matthew 5:14, Jesus said “you are the light of the world.” What good is a lantern without a flame? A light bulb is garbage when it no longer can burn. It is no good without a glow. It is God’s light inside that is important. That is why John says in verses 5-6



This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.



Did you know that race cars have no headlights? They don’t need them. Some race cars have fake headlights, but they do not work. They are fake. Many Christians are fake, too. The light inside of them has grown dim. We do not see unbelievers converted, nor do we experience genuine spiritual relationships with other Christians. We are just pretending to have a fake light inside of us.

How do we really show others the Word of Life? There are only two things we need to do. First, we must have a clear relationship with God. Then we must have a clear relationship with other people. We have to be real and transparent.

God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. God hides nothing. He pretends to nothing. His is honest and true.

Somehow, we think that witnessing is something we must work at. We treat Jesus like a product to be sold. We treat Christian fellowship the same way. We dress up to come to church, put on a churchy way of talking and acting, because we are afraid to be ourselves. But if the Word of Life is really inside, we do not have to pretend. All we will need to do is to be Christian. We don’t have to hide our doubts and deficits and put on a pretend piety. If the light of Jesus is in us, we just need to get out of the way and let the light shine through. John says in verse 7



But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.



“Walking in the light” is how John describes our relationship to each other. All we have to do is to be honest, and we will win the world for Jesus.

Why is it so hard to have real Christian fellowship or witness? There are several obstacles that to being real with others. In upcoming weeks, we are going to look at five of them.

1. Distance—before we can be real with others, we must physically be with them.

2. Dishonesty—we must trust that God can use us even when we are not perfect He will shine as brightly through our failures as through our successes.

3. Rejection—we need to learn to accept people who are different, and who do things that are sinful, without judging them.

4. Resentment—it is hard for us not to want to hurt back but we must learn to forgive people who have hurt us. We cannot be salt and light to people we resent.

5. Indifference—the opposite of love is not hate but indifference. We cannot be salt and light without also being lovers of those whom God loves.

In order to answer these five blocks, we are going to offer five answers—hospitality, honesty, acceptance, forgiveness, and love. These traits are not something we learn one time. They are skills to be honed and practiced. The more we practice, the more we become the Word of Life in the world. It is not easy to do any of these things, but the closer we draw to Jesus, the easier it can become.

Come back next, week, and we will begin to learn what it means to walk in the light.