Read
God Is Light
5Jesus told us God is light and doesn't have any darkness in him. Now we are telling you.
6If we say we share in life with God and keep on living in the dark, we are lying and are not living by the truth. 7 But if we live in the light, as God does, we share in life with each other. And the blood of his Son Jesus washes all our sins away. 8If we say we have not sinned, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth isn't in our hearts. 9But if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away.
10If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and his message isn't in our hearts.
Christ Helps Us
1My children, I am writing this so you won't sin. But if you do sin, Jesus Christ always does the right thing, and he will speak to the Father for us. 2Christ is the sacrifice that takes away our sins and the sins of all the world's people.
Reflect
What an incredible passage: light, sin, darkness, and honesty! In John 8, Jesus tells the woman caught in adultery and everyone standing there that he is the light of the world. What does this mean? The religious people were trying to cover up and hide their sin, acting dishonestly. However, Jesus would have none of it, saying in essence, Those who haven’t committed sin can go ahead and start throwing stones at her.
As the light of the world, Jesus unmasked the darkness of their sin in such a way that they had to deal with it. Light confronting darkness. Truth confronting lies and deception. Here in John’s first letter, drawing on events like the woman caught in adultery, John declares the tremendous love, forgiveness, and kindness of God to us in Jesus when we sin.
John uses language Jesus first used to describe God: light to show us more fully who he is and how he relates to us and we with him (v 5).
It seems hiding and masking the truth of our lives was as much a temptation in the first century as it is today. Jesus comes to each and every one of us, challenging us to live honestly. Which means being willing to quickly confess our sins, to stop hiding behind our professional title, self-made masks or education, and to live truthfully. God doesn’t want us to deceive or fool ourselves (v 8). He longs for us to be upfront and candid with him. Why? So that he can forgive us and wash us thoroughly from things like guilt and other emotions which keep us from living in his life and joy.
What would you say is more true of you – are you trying to cover up and mask your behaviour, your lifestyle choices, and your persona? Or are you more like the woman caught in adultery, aware of your sin to the point of surrender and confession to God?
Respond
Thank You, Lord, that in my sin and self-centeredness you don’t cast me aside. I’m amazed that your love for me is completely honest about my sin, but also utterly ready to forgive me for it. Thank you, too, for always speaking to the Father about me. Today, I’m ready to be honest in surrender and confession. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.
Meg Saunders
Meg has a passion to see men and women mature in Christ through reconciled, healed relationships. Recently, she launched The Crossing Ministries, www.thecrossingministries.com to invite others to think about who they are, who God is, and how the relationships in their lives can be reconciled and healed. Before ordination to the priesthood, she had a unique career on Capitol Hill, concluding with Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie and RADM Dr. Barry Black in the US Senate Chaplain’s Office. She also worked collaboratively with Dr. Francis Collins, the former director of the National Institutes of Health, producing: Belief: Readings on the Reason for Faith. Currently, she’s working on a new book called: The Risk of Ordinary Suffering: When We are Ready to Give up on God.