“The Revealing and Restoring Light”

Scripture: 1 John 2:3-17

Last week, we discovered that when we claim Jesus as Lord and Savior, we also gain the Light of Christ. We don’t seek the light, and we can’t hide from the light – it simply is when we are in Christ. But what is the Light, and what is it for us?
First, we discovered that it is revealing. When we are walking in his light, the truth of God comes to the forefront, and nothing else can claim that power.
Second, it is only when we are in the Light of God that true Christian fellowship can be experienced. And Christian fellowship will always be complete for us – it includes not only all who love the Lord, but also the fullness of his presence.
Third, by the Light of Christ, which allows us to fellowship in the Lord, we will be cleansed by the Blood of Jesus. Again, it is this issue of unity with the Lord that brings divine blessings into our lives.

But the writer of this letter isn’t about to leave us wondering if this is all there is, and wondering what it is all about. He continues in our text for today with a few more issues that revolve around that holy illumination.

Read 1 John 2:3-6

Last week, we read that if we claim to be sinless, we are proven to be liars, and liars have no place in Christ. Today, the text gets a little more specific when it tells us that if we refuse to follow Jesus’ commandments, we also have no light within us.
Now just in case this causes a little confusion for you, don’t feel bad! We have just read that if we fail to follow the teachings of Jesus, we sin and have no truth, but if we claim to be sinless, we are liars. It’s a Catch-22, isn’t it? It’s bad if we sin, but if we say we are sinless, that, too, is bad! Can’t win!
But the truth is that we are human beings, and as such, we are prone to failure. Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t make us perfect – it simply gives us a desire, a will to set sinful ways aside, and provides us with an avenue for forgiveness.
In Matthew 9:10-13, Jesus says that he has come, not for the righteous, but for the sinner. And in Romans 5:8, we are told that Jesus died for us while we were all still immersed in sin. Remember the term “atonement” from last week? Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary makes us worthy to be forgiven and to be one with God. Nowhere do we read that following Jesus makes us sinless – our love for him enables forgiveness for our sin, and it makes us worthy to be in his presence.

But that’s not all - the writer continues to offer additional wisdom regarding living within the teachings of Jesus. He says that when we do obey Jesus’ words, we show our love and admiration for God, and are acknowledging and accepting the Lord’s love for us.
Are we obedient all the time? No. It just goes to prove, though, that we have human faults, which in and of itself proves just how much we need the Lord’s presence in our lives! And when we do our very best in trying to walk in his way all the time, we show our commitment to Christ and prove our love for him. And as time goes on, we will discover that we walk more closely with him every day.

Read 1 John 2:7-11

Once again, the writer’s thoughts become a bit convoluted. He says that he is writing an old command and not a new one, and yet he is offering a new command, just the same. And what is the old command? What is the new command?

John 13:34-35 – “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” It’s very possible that this is the “old command” that is no longer “new”! In the Old Testament, we see many pleas for “love”, but very little acknowledgment that it has been received and recognized. But the New Testament is fully evidenced in the love of God for his people. And since God is unchanging, his love was just as full for the ancients as it was for the people in Jesus’ time, and just as complete for them as it is for the people of today.

I think that the intent of this passage is that the “old” commandment – that we are to love just as we have always been loved – has been made new for us through the Light and Love of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, that love is constantly being renewed in us, so that we might be renewed by it.
And the issue of walking in the Light of Christ is now directly connected to the Love of Christ. The redeeming and renewing love that is within us, and offered to others through us, is not only evidence that we are walking in the Light, but that it is overpowering the darkness that lingers in our lives. And just to make the analogy complete, we are told that hatred, the opposite of love, can only be proof that our lives are still under control by the world’s darkness.

Read 1 John 2:12-14

Two thoughts. First, this may seem to be an odd interlude in the midst of John’s call to walk in the Light of God. It does have a connection, though. And second, don’t get hung up with the masculine terms in these verses. It isn’t, I believe, referring to men as much as it is alluding to both the ages of people in the Church, as well as to the varying degrees of faith within the Church. And as we read through these verses, we begin to see faith in action.
Even the youngest, the newest in faith, will know forgiveness and by knowing Jesus, have come to know the Father as well.
Youth, those who are strong and confident in faith, are already battling the evil that comes from the one who is evil through the strength that comes to them from Christ.
And those who are highly mature in their faith – they not only know God, but they have an understanding that is greater still. They have come to know the depth of God, and this is wisdom.

This isn’t about some people having greater faith than others - it is about the power, by faith in Jesus Christ, that continues to grow and thrive in all who will walk in the Light of Christ.

Read 1 John 2:15-17

One more call to put your whole trust in what is eternal, and to set aside those things that are temporary in nature. And again, another comparison between loving “the darkness” versus loving “the Light”. Note that we are told that we can’t have it both ways – we can’t love the things of earth AND love God at the same time. We can’t love sinful ways AND love the way of Jesus. We can’t straddle that proverbial fence – Revelation 3:14-22, in its chastisement to the church at Laodicia, warns them against being “lukewarm” – trying to walk in Christ’s Light while at the same time being immersed in the ways of earth. They are told to seek the eternal riches of God, instead of the temporary things of this life.

This letter tells us that the things of earth are but sinful desires, and lustful thoughts, and nothing more than boasting over what we have gained and created, and that not one of these will ever come from Almighty God. “The World and its desires pass away, but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

The hopes and dreams that come from the world have no lasting power. They deceive us, they call us away from God, and they will always fail to satisfy our eternal needs. But do we need jobs? Food? Shelter? Family and friends? Purpose? Of course we do, but the point here is that we aren’t to LOVE these things, we aren’t to commit our lives to those things, we aren’t to put our hopes and dependency in them. They are to sustain us and bring nourishment to our physical being, but they are not to be worshipped and adored and bragged about.

Put first things first, put your first love first, put Jesus first, and let the second things take a distant back seat in your life. That’s what “walking in the Light of Christ” is all about.