Walking In Darkness

I John 1:5-10

In 1899, Methodist minister Henry Zelley published the song Heavenly Sunlight. The words of the song are as follows:

1 Walking in sunlight, all of my journey, over the mountains, through the deep vale; Jesus has said, "I’ll never forsake thee," promise divine that never can fail.

Refrain: Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine: hallelujah, I am rejoicing, singing His praises, Jesus is mine.

2 Shadows around me, shadows above me, never conceal my Savior and Guide; He is the light, in Him is no darkness; ever I’m walking close to His side.

3 In the bright sunlight, ever rejoicing, pressing my way to mansions above; singing His praises gladly I’m walking, walking in sunlight, sunlight of love.

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"This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and 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 Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."

I John 1:5-10

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John started by telling his readers that Jesus was the manifestation of God. He is also eternal life. Notice what I said -- Jesus does not give eternal life, He is eternal life. When we are in Christ, we have eternal life. When we are saved, we begin a life of fellowship with God. Eternal life is just one part of that fellowship. Now, John continues that idea of fellowship with God. He tells us that God is light and that darkness cannot exist in light. When we walk in fellowship with God, we cannot walk in darkness. The two simply cannot coexist. So, if we are walking in darkness, then we are not in fellowship with God. At the same time, it is impossible to walk in light if we are not in fellowship with God. Some have taken this to mean that Christians cannot sin. John addresses this in verse 8 -- If we say that we do not sin, we deceive ourselves and truth is not in us. Walking in the light is not about never sinning, but rather about having a sensitive spirit toward the correction of the Holy Spirit and repenting when we do sin. The light exposes sin in us, and when this happens, we repent and turn from that sin. The more we walk with God, the more God reveals those deeper rooted, more subtle sins. A good example of this is Job.

Satan loves to tell us that if we sin after we are saved that we are no longer worthy of salvation. We forget that we were never worthy of salvation to begin with. When we confess our sin as Christians, God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. If He forgave us when we were His enemies, how much more will He forgive us when we are sons and daughters? On the other hand, to say that we do not have sin is to call God a liar. The truth does not reside within us. To deny sin in our lives is to ignore the sin in our lives. It is to refuse to become more like Christ through His sanctifying work. We proclaim perfection and therefore live as though we no longer need God. It is pride, it is wrong, and it is sin.

Father, how easy it is for us to ignore sin in our lives. Many of us would never claim to be without sin, but we live as though we are. We ignore the sin in our lives and in so doing ignore the conviction of Your Holy Spirit. We declare through our actions that we are no longer in need of Your saving work in our lives. Forgive us of such an attitude.