Our scripture this morning is 1 John 1:5-7 (NLT).
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
In this letter the apostle John continues the lesson he heard firsthand from Jesus Himself: “God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all”. This represents the darkness of sin and our blind groping when we are separated from God, and His light which reveals the truth and draws all people to Him. The pitfall we face is claiming a relationship with Him while still living outside His love and care.
One of John’s most prominent points is that we can’t continue living as we did before we knew Jesus and still be His followers. Accepting Him as our savior means changing our hearts and minds in order to live as He taught. We are to be the example of His love to the world, and that means engaging with the world.
If we live in the light of His love “we have fellowship with each other”. In Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus taught us that loving God and our neighbor as ourselves are the most important things we can do. Anything less than this means we are still outside the light and need to move closer to the source of all goodness.
Loving Lord, when we try to go it alone, we fail. We need Your love and we need to share that love with the world. Bless us to go in Your name, telling everyone the Good News of salvation. Amen.
