So we’re in the middle of a small sermon series on the church to kick off the new year, called Gospel Culture. The reason we’re doing this, is to emphasize how the gospel itself ought to shape our whole life together as a church. God has welcomed us in Christ, that’s the beauty of the gospel. That the eternal Son of God willingly and voluntarily took onto Himself a human nature and accomplished everything needed for our eternal redemption! This is an astounding welcome.
But God doesn’t intend His welcome of us…to stop with us. No. God intends His welcome of us…to continue on through us to others.
When we do this, when we welcome one another as God in Christ has welcomed us…a new kind of community, a new kind of culture is born, where the grace of Christ is woven into every aspect of a church. That’s what we’re after in this series.
So once again we’re reminded of our great need to be ever in pursuit of both a robust gospel doctrine and robust gospel culture. And it just so happens our text today, has both!
It’s 1 John 1:5-7…and since we’ve not been in 1 John very much recently, brief words are in order to set the context. The Apostle John is writing this letter to a group of Christians struggling with a false teaching called Gnosticism. Gnosticism taught, among other things, that God and all that is divine is solely concerned with what is spiritual and not what is physical. That the spiritual is good and the physical is always bad. So as you can imagine, Gnostics were known for having deep opinions on spirituality but they were also known for living very immoral lives, and spreading the teaching that God didn’t really care about how you live since all that is good is spiritual and not physical. Well, apparently these Gnostics and their teaching had come near the apostle John and his community. So John responds to them in this small letter, 1 John. And John’s main emphasis is twofold: right teaching and right living. 1 John is split into two halves. The first half is consists of chapters 1-2 where John emphasizes one big truth and one big application: that God is light, and that we therefore ought to be those who live in the light. The second half consists of chapters 3-5 where John emphasizes one big truth and one big application: that God is Father, and that we therefore ought to live as children of God. That’s a quick summary of 1 John.
Our text today comes in the first half, 1:5-7. I’ve split it into two headings, see first…
The Affirmation (v5)
“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”
So John wants us to know that he and other apostles actually have a message to share. But also, it’s not a message John made up on his own, or heard from any of the other apostles, no. This is a message he and the other apostles actually heard from Jesus Himself. What is the message? “…that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”
This is one of those verses that is so short its almost surprising because it contains a summary of all that God is. Who would’ve thought you could summarize all that God is in just a phrase? Some of the deepest doctrine in all the Bible is contained right here, distilled down into 11 words.
That God is light and that there is no darkness in Him is a reality He revealed long ago. Over the dark watery abyss in Genesis 1 God spoke and there was light. In Exodus 3 God’s light is seen as a fire in a bush. In Leviticus 10 this light is present as fire in the priestly sacrifices. In the book of Numbers this light shows itself again as a fire that lights Israel’s path in the wilderness. It was this same fire that burned in the golden lampstands within the Tabernacle, signifying God’s very presence. So no wonder Psalm 4 says, “Lift up the light of Your face upon us O Lord!” And no wonder Psalm 102 says, “God covers Himself in light, as with a garment.”
Further on into the OT Isaiah said the coming of the Messiah would be like a great light coming to those who sit in darkness (Isa. 7, 9, Matt. 4). So we would expect John to speak of light when he speaks of Jesus in the opening words of his gospel, in John 1:4-9, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.”
All this leads to that great moment in John 8:12 when Jesus Himself says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
In his first of three smaller letters John makes much of this very thing, in telling us that God is light. Theologically this refers to three realities in God.[1]
First, the phrase “God is light” is a description of the visible manifestation of God’s glory. Meaning, God is like the sun, light unapproachable, light inaccessible, light so bright it would obliterate us in a moment. 1 Tim. 6 speaks like this when it says God is “…the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see…”
Second, the phrase “God is light” is a statement of God’s own self-revelation. Meaning, as light enables us to see, so too does the light of God’s revelation. God Himself enables sinful man to see Him. When Jesus was born and Simeon is rejoicing in seeing the Messiah with his own eyes he praises God saying in Luke 2:29-32, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory to your people Israel.” So Jesus, as light, makes the invisible God visible, but that He is God’s self-revelation it also means He reveals our true nature to us. We do not see ourselves as the sinners we are until we see ourselves in the light of Christ. His light exposes the darkness for the darkness it is. But while it exposes it, His light also causes the darkness to flee! Like we read in John 1, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Third, the phrase “God is light” refers to the moral perfection of God. In this sense God is both like the sun and unlike the sun. He’s like the sun in that He is light unapproachable, we’ve seen that. But God is unlike the sun, in that He has no dark spots like the sun does. God is light, and there is not one dark blemish, not one stain, not one spot that diminishes His purity at all. God is, in other words, absolute perfection. Not one fault, failure, of feeble falsity exists in Him. Unlike you and I who are a mixture of light and dark, of holiness and sinfulness, God, in His nature and being is absolutely flawless, pure light with no darkness at all.
This doctrine, we affirm.
Now, while all of this doctrinal discussion is good, true, and beautiful, be sure to see it Church…this is no idle talk for John, and it should not be idle talk for us. It actually leads somewhere.[2] So we’ve seen this affirmation, now see…
The Implications (v6-7)
“If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 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 cleanses us from all sin.”
Before we even get to the content of v6-7 see the direction this goes. Clearly, truth in the Christian life is certainly something to be believed, we saw that in v5. But now see that truth is also more than just something to just be believed, truth is something to be practiced, something to be lived out. So what we believe matters, and how we live matters. That’s the basic gist of v6-7.
Looking further in now though we have two implications of v5 given to us in v6-7. v6 frames it negatively while v7 frames it positively. So let’s take them as they’re given to us, in that order.
“If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” Behind v6 stands the truth and reality of v5, that God is light and that there is no darkness in Him. So, if anyone says they have fellowship with God (who is light) you would expect the verse to continue on saying, ‘If we say we have fellowship with God we will walk in the light, because God is light.’ But that’s not what it says, because the person in view isn’t walking or living in such a manner. See it. Here is one who says they’re with God, one who says they love God, one who says they enjoy God, one who says they have come to the light, and yet, v6 says they walk in the dark. This is a contradiction. It shouldn’t be like this. One does not follow the other. God is light, sin is darkness. God has no darkness in Him. So, God and sin are as mutually exclusive as light and dark.[3] Or, those who claim to be with God should be different from the rest of the world, as different as light is from darkness.[4] Or yet another way to say it, if you’re in fellowship with God you won’t be in fellowship with sin.
So v6 is clear, it says two things about one who tries to live in this contradiction. First, it says this person is a liar, and second it says this person doesn’t practice the truth. Think about those.
We generally think of lying as something we do with our mouths. Lies are just things we tell…right? Wrong. Here we see we can just as easily lie by how we live. So, it is very possible for you to believe and say you believe all the right things while you live in all the wrong ways. John says to live like this is to be a liar. And also, to say you have fellowship with God and yet live in fellowship with sin means you’re not only a liar, but that you do not practice the truth. This is a bit unexpected too isn’t. I think most of generally think of truth as something we believe, a set of facts we confess, or a doctrine we theologically adhere to. It is that, surely, but here we find truth is also something we can practice. Or in other words, truth is something we can live.
v7 says very similar things but frames it positively. “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 cleanses us from all sin.” If we say we have fellowship with God (who is light), and we actually walk or live in the light…see what it says will happen? How surprising isn’t it? v7 stuns us here. We would expect v7 to say “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we…” have fellowship with God. But it doesn’t say that. Instead it says, “…if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another…” All of sudden we’re right back at our life together, we’re right back in the realm of gospel culture.
How crazy is it that John says this?!
Our life with the Lord, our walking in obedience to Him, our walking in the light as He is in the light, all of that effects our relationships with one another in the church. v7 says that, but it also says more. If we’re walking as we ought to walk, that is, not walking in sin or living in fellowship with sin and darkness, but actually walking with God, or living in the light of Christ, v7 makes a great promise. v7 actually promises and guarantees that we will have fellowship with one another. Church, this is how genuine fellowship is possible. A true fellowship is not just a group of people who believe the same things. A true fellowship is a group of people who believe the same things and live with one another in accord with those things.
This is one of the reasons why J.R.R. Tolkien called the group that sets out with Frodo to take the ring to Mordor a fellowship. They not only believed the same things, that the ring was evil and that it must be destroyed. But their shared belief created a shared commitment as they all set out together to achieve a shared goal. They were true a fellowship.
Guys, the church is to be the same thing. Not a group that gathers together and only celebrates their common doctrine. The church is to be a gathering of those who share the same gospel doctrines as well as the same way of life that the doctrines create. When those shared beliefs leads to shared practice, gospel doctrine is firmly believed, and gospel culture is deeply cultivated.
And as great as this is, v7 has more! It also says when we live like this, “…the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” This does not mean that we’re saved again, or washed by the blood of Jesus totally anew in our fellowship together, no. It means that if we walk or live in the light, as God is in the light, we’ll have a true fellowship with one another. And one of the benefits of our fellowship together is a growth in, a renewed joy over, and a deeper knowledge of the work of Christ in our behalf. In this way the blood of Jesus that once cleansed us from all our sins, will still show its power in our fellowship with one another. Or we could say, the blood of Jesus that once cleansed us from all our sins, will still show its power in the culture of the church.
Can you imagine it? The blood of Jesus and His great washing and cleansing us of our many sins being powerfully present in our doctrine and powerfully present in our culture and relationships in the church?
Conclusion:[5]
Hear it clearly, we not only affirm the doctrine that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all…we also affirm that walking in fellowship with God brings each of us into a new kind of fellowship with one another, a fellowship characterized by the power of the cleansing blood of Jesus.
The question for us today is this: will our church accept and embrace this vision of God? Yes He is light in absolute perfection, and His light exposes our darkness. But He doesn’t expose to condemn, His exposes us to redeem us and clothe us anew in His own righteousness. So, at the same time, we ought to feel humbled by God and safe with God because of the gospel. Gospel culture then follows…because we feel so safe with God, we begin to feel safe with one another. So safe that we stop hiding in the darkness but come out into the light. So safe that we let others into our mess and ask for help. So safe that we feel free enough to ‘unsuck our guts’ with one another. That’s what walking in the light together looks like and feels like. When a church does this it will become a true fellowship, and the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross long ago, comes down on us in cleansing power, washing us again today.
So Church, stop hiding. Come out into the light. Face your sins, look at Jesus, look at His cross, enjoy the gospel anew…and look around you at all those here who are seeking to do the same thing, and enjoy gospel grace together.
Think of it like this guys. When we have gospel doctrine without gospel culture, we’ll be a hypocritical church. When we have gospel culture and no gospel doctrine, we’ll be a weak and un-grounded church. But when we have gospel doctrine and gospel culture, we will thrive in the Lord, thrive in fellowship with one another, and the world will see the beauty of Christ in us.
[1] David L. Allen, 1-3 John, Fellowship in God’s Family: Preaching the Word Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013) 33.
[2] Gary M. Burge, The Letters of John: NIVAC (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996) 67.
[3] Stephen S. Smalley, 1, 2, 3, John – WBC (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1984) 22.
[4] Douglas Sean O’Donnell, 1-3 John: Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2015) 22..
[5] Ray Ortlund & Sam Allberry, You’re Not Crazy: Gospel Sanity for Weary Churches (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023) 46-56.
