Walk In the Light

Walk In the Light

Shelby G. Floyd

The Bible teaches that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). God is the one who created the light in the beginning and he said it is good (Genesis 1:3-4). Light is good because it has the qualities to dispel darkness, direct and discover.

In the fullness of time, God sent his Son down to be the light of the world. “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8.12). The Bible declares that we can have fellowship with God if we walk in the light as he is in the light. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

We will not have fellowship with God if we make these false claims: (1) If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie to our fellow-Christians and there is no truth in us (1 John 1:6). (2) If we claim we have no sin when we do have sin in our lives, we lie to ourselves and we are not living by the truth (1 John 1:8). (3) If we claim that we have not sinned, we lie to God and prove that God’s word has not found lodging in our lives (1 John 1:10). God’s word declares that all have sinned and all do sin (Romans 3:9, 23). Solomon said, “There is no one who does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46). Sin means to miss the mark or to live in lawlessness, “For everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4).

The answer to these false claims is to walk in the light as God is in the light. Walking in the light does not mean that we can be perfect and live without sin. It does mean that we are to do the best we possibly can, and then when we do sin, we are to repent and confess our sins in order that the blood of Christ will continually cleanse us of our sins: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).