What If I Live in Darkness?
Introduction
What does a Christian look like? Most church people know not everyone who says they’re a Christian is a true Christian. Sleezy politicians claim an ardent faith at the start of every re-election campaign, and we don’t believe them. God knows who the true believers are. But we don’t have eternity glasses to see who makes it to heaven. We don’t have spirit glasses to see who’s spirit really has been changed.
So, again, what does a Christian look like? John answers that question throughout this letter. Today, one of the answers is this: a true Christian lives in the light of God and under the blood of Jesus.
The Passage
This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:5–7
Summary of the Passage
Last week, John showed us his reason for writing this letter. God saves the world through Jesus and He wants to make sure everyone knows Jesus too. Today’s passage is the first of a series of what-if statements. I will go through the first two what-ifs today and go through the next set next week.
Today, John begins by telling us God is light and is without darkness. In scripture, the light of God has two traits. It reveals reality and morality. We talk about flashlights lighting the way for us to see at night. We also talk about the good guys in the movie fighting for the light.
He then poses the question: So, since God is light, what if we live in darkness? Are we true Christians if we live in sin? John answers his own question. If you claim to be a Christian, and live in sin, you are a liar and do not know the truth. But of you walk with God, you will walk in moral light—righteousness. And if you walk with God, you prove God already saved you.
God is Light
Throughout the Bible, God uses the metaphor of light many times to describe himself. Simeon called Jesus a light to the Gentiles (Luke 2:32). And Jesus said He was the light of the whole world (John 8:12; 9:5; 12:35). Sometimes light is so bright our eyes can’t look at it just like many of God’s attributes may dumbfound us (1 Timothy 6:16).
In John’s day, heretics claimed secret, hidden knowledge kept in the dark would save. If you learned this secret, you would be saved. John responds with God is light and in Him there is no darkness. God’s light shows reality and morality.
Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. Psalm 119:105
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Isaiah 5:20'
God’s light shows us what is real and how to live with it.
Live in the Light
Look at verse 6, everyone lives in darkness, but in verse 7, true believers live in the light. Now, who does everyone include? Those living in darkness are: those who never heard the gospel; those who heard the gospel but rejected it; finally, those who heard the gospel, professed faith in Christ, but still live in the shade. Imagine an eerie apartment building with no lights except one room. The one room with the light is where true believers are. They see the light and they see everyone else in this lighted room. They love everyone in the room. The rooms with their doors closed don’t know that there’s a room with light. Someone needs to tell them. Others have their doors open because the church told them about the light, they just rejected it. The last group heard the gospel, went down the hall into the room, but turned their back to the light and everyone else in there.
These people like associating with the church. They may even hold membership in a church. They usually like Bible stories and vote conservative. But they only like enough light to see their idol. They like the benefits of God and His people without fellowshipping with God and His people. These are the people who say they have the light but still live in darkness. They hide their sin from God. We call them “good people” but God calls them liars. Each Sunday morning, I preach knowing there are people who claim Christ but still reject Him. Eventually some of these people become apparent when they just drop church and the faith altogether.
Now look at verse 7. There are two traits in this verse describing a true believer. First, true believers love the light and everyone else in the light. True believers love God and God’s people. Second, true believers see their sin and give it to God all the time. Because we all still have a sin nature, everyone in the lighted room will turn from the light from time to time. We still sin. But because others in the room love us, they always call us back into the light. And because we still love God, we always turn back to God.
Saved people know they have been saved because they live where the light’s on and they see and love everyone else who lives where the light’s on. Living in the light of God causes you to become a person of light. God is light and those who have fellowship with God walk in the light. Christian ministry brings light to the darkness (e.g., see Paul in Acts 13:46-47; Acts 26:18, 23). Jesus commanded us to be lights in the world.
“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16
So, in this lighted room, when we see a brother or sister turn their back from the light. And when we check closer, we see them polishing their sin, we need to love them. And the loving thing to do in that moment is to tell them to drop the sin and turn to Jesus. This is how we live as lights in the world.
Live Under the Blood
Next, look at verse 7. John says that those who live in the light have fellowship with God and Jesus’ blood cleanses them from their sins. Look at the word “cleanses”. The tense of “cleanses” in Greek indicates a continual cleansing. This shows that salvation doesn’t just happen once. It is a continual, lifelong practice. God always washes us from our sins.
Scripture describes reality in terms of light and dark. It also describes reality in terms of clean and sinful. Today, we clean objects with bleach and chemicals that kill bacteria. But how do you clean morality? All of us have sin that destroys out life. We would rather that sin be hidden. But how do you hide it? How do you clean a dirty life? With education? Hard work? Love? Bleach? You can only clean a dirty life with another life?
In Genesis 3, after Adam sinned, Adam felt shame for his sin. He hid himself with fig leaves. But later God covered him with animal skin. The life of the animal provided cover for Adam. In the Old Covenant, before Aaron and the priests began there work, they needed to be marked in blood. Cleansed. So, we can see with these two examples in the Old Testament, that sacrificial blood marks you and covers you. It marks you as separate and holy. It also covers you and cleanses you.
In Hebrews, we learn that all the blood spilt in the Old Testament was a placeholder for Jesus. Only His blood can clean because only his life was clean. His blood cleans dirty people actively, proactively, and retroactively. Jesus’ salvation goes back in time to save those in the inferior covenant. Adam’s shame was covered because we was covered in the blood of Jesus. Aaron could walk into the holy of holies because he was marked with the blood of Christ. Jesus salvation also goes into the future to us and cleanses us from our sins.
So, here is John’s point, only those who have fellowship with Christ are covered with the blood of Christ. The church is made of true believers and false believers. True believers are marked out by baptism and professed faith, and lived faith. They prove they’re clean because they abide with Christ. False believers are marked out by their baptism and professed faith. But at some point they turn away from Christ and choose sin. People like this either apostatize—reject Christ publicly, or they die in their sin.
Scripture says many people respond to the gospel but aren’t saved. In the parable of the sower, some seed falls on the road. These people never accept Christ. But some seed falls on the shallow ground and grows but eventually dies. Other seed grows among the weeds and gets choked out by the worries of this world. These are the people John is talking about here throughout his letter. Those who experienced growth in Christ but eventually fell away. Jesus saves. So, when anyone leaves Jesus, they leave salvation.
“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. John 15:6
Jesus also says those who were close to the light, who at one point found comfort in the blood, but reject it still, these people will face harsher judgment. Jesus said Capernaum will face a harsher judgment than Sodom because Capernaum heard the gospel and rejected it.
“And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. “Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.” Matthew 11:23–24
Peter says that false teachers, and by extension I think false believers fall into this category, will face harsher punishment.
For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.” 2 Peter 2:20–22
Finally, the author of Hebrews says clearly.
How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? Hebrews 10:29
Only those under the blood of Christ live in the salvation of Christ. If anyone leaves Christ for any reason at all, God says they have trampled the blood of Christ under their feet. The sanctification that Jesus gave them in his covenant community now condemns them.
Application
Let me bring this home. We have members of this church who do not live in the light. They have not fellowshipped with the saints for years and do not plan to do so. They do not live according to the Light of God. If they did, we would see them in the room with us. They either don’t see His word, or they obey His word. Many of these people I don’t know. But some of them I do.
What I’m here to tell you today is we hate these people. We hate them because we are too scared to tell them what they need to hear. They need to hear that God is light and those who follow Him live in the light. They need to hear that they aren’t living in the light. They need to hear they must turn from the darkness and trust in Christ. But because we love the status quo more than them, we say nothing.
By living in darkness, they prove they love the darkness more than the light. The fruit of their lives proves they do not love God. The wrath of God remains on them. Added to this, because these members have been baptized into the New Covenant, and because they continue in their rebelliousness, they are guilty of trampling the blood of Christ under their feet.
Some of you in here are living with unconfessed, unrepentant sin. God father calls you away from the snake and you pet it on the back. When people claim to know God the light and live in darkness, scripture calls them liars (v. 6). So, do you hate sin? Do you confess that sin to God or hide it from him?
When a Christian sins, he confesses it to God. He brings his sin to the light and the light of God bleaches out the darkness of your sin. This new, clean, free person is not free to pursue righteousness. Those enslaved to darkness will not do the right things. The darkness has a hold on them.
Conclusion
For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6
God always cleans sinners. The question all of you must ask this morning is are you a sinner living in the light or are you living in the dark. If you’re in the light, then you know you’ve sinned, you know God knows you sinned, so confess it to God and work on putting that sin to death. If you’re in the dark, you would rather keep on sinning than live in the light. If that’s you, all I can tell you is turn from your sin, trust in Jesus. He saves sinners like you because He’s saved sinners like me.