The last couple weeks with the Youth Group, we've been talking a lot about light and darkness. These can be interpreted in many ways. God and Satan. Good and Evil. Truth and Lies. In the Bible, I think its safe to say former of those is the root of all the others. In 1 John 1:5, God make this clear to us.
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5 NIV
God is light. Now that we've cleared that up, what is darkness this time? In this verse, darkness is sin. What our good friend John is saying here is there is no sin in, with, or around God. The next 2 verses really hit hard.
6. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 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. 1 John 1:6-7 NIV
In verse 6, John really lays it out. If we call ourselves Christians and live in repetitive sin, were liars. In that case, can you really still call yourself a Christian? Before we answer that, we all have sin we struggle with in our lives (Romans 3:23). If we are truly in Christ, we try to fight these sins (Romans 7:7-24). Now for those who clearly don't fight it (and believe me, as much as they try to hide it, it shows), can they be called Christians? According to John, no. The meaning of Christian is "Christ like" and if you are walking in darkness you are not "Christ like". Now verse 7, "walk in light" is the key term here. Remember, God is light. If we walk in God, just like Jesus did (being God himself), we receive 2 blessings. One, we have fellowship with other Christians. This way, if you have nothing in common with anyone else, you are still united in Christ. Two, we are no longer under the punishment of a life of sin. So we have an option. We can call ourselves Christians and continue to walk in darkness. (If I call an apple a ribeye steak, it's still an apple) Or, we can walk in light and and earn the title "Christian".
I want to earn that title....
1 comment:
I like what you're saying, but be careful. This could easily turn into a "what can I do to earn God's favor?" thing. Just make sure to be clear about the distinction between working for your salvation and working out your salvation.
Also, another cool light and darkness thing was discovered by the guys and I in Bible Study yesterday. In Job 3, Job is cursing the day he was born and the day he was conceived. During this he makes the clear distinction between light (creation) and darkness (chaos).
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