Walking in the Light 1 John 1:1-2:2
In today’s scripture, the Apostle John talks about walking in the light of the Gospel – and we know that means, the “good news” of the resurrection. When he wrote this letter, Christianity had been around for a generation. There had been persecution, but they had survived it. The main problem confronting the church now was the declining commitment of many believers who were starting to conform to the world’s standards rather than to God’s standards. (That didn’t take long did it?!) False teachers in the Church were trying to pull believers away from the true light of the gospel that Jesus taught. John was trying to get these believers back on track by showing them the difference between light and darkness. Who were the false teachers and what were they teaching that was so wrong?
One group was the Gnostics who believed that they didn’t need Jesus to forgive their sins. They believed that they were sinless. They didn’t believe that Jesus had come in the flesh as a real person and nor that he was the Messiah. They felt they didn’t need Jesus because they had special knowledge or special revelation. There was a group that was teaching that Jesus didn’t really die. These false teachers said that people had no tendency toward sin and were incapable of sinning. They wanted to be Christians, but they didn’t need to confess and repent. Some of the people in the Corinthian community said that sin had nothing to do with the spirit but just with the body and that as a result, moral principles no longer applied to them. Because the Gnostics said that Christians didn’t have any sin, they totally denied sin. Yet, they still lived a sinful life.
John responded to this kind of teaching in 1 John 1. In essence, he’s saying, “Whoa, wait a minute. No one can claim to be a Christian and still live a sinful life.” He let the believers know that sin cannot exist in the presence of a holy God. It’s like light and darkness – they do not mix. If they wanted a relationship with God, they needed to put aside their sinful ways of living and start walking in the light. The same goes for us.
An atheist who spent a few days with a good Christian said: “If I stay here much longer, I’ll become a Christian in spite of myself.” The Christian had used no word of controversy or even of persuasion. It was the quiet, convincing argument of a holy life that led to the remark. (Topical Illustrations)
This scripture applies to us today as much as it did to those 2000 years ago. What can we get out of today’s scripture?
First of all, we get (1.) A Solid Foundation.
John wanted to establish the fact that Jesus was the true light who came to earth – to live in the flesh – he was fully human and fully God. He points this out early in the chapter – God is light – Jesus is the Son of God. He’s also pointing back to the beginning of his Gospel.

“In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God and He was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he did not make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it.” John 1:1 NLT

When he says, “In the beginning…” he is pointing the believer back as far as Genesis 1:1 where it says, “In the beginning God…”
He refutes the belief of the false teachers when he clearly shows Jesus with the Father and his entrance into time as a human being. They needed this solid foundation on which to fix their belief. John had seen Jesus with his own eyes when he was on earth – some of these later believers hadn’t. John said,

We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 1 John 1:1 NLT

Of course, we haven’t seen Jesus either.
John is saying I want you to be as certain of your belief as I am. I want you to know that Jesus existed long before he came to earth in the flesh – that he did come to earth for a specific purpose – to save us from sin. That he died on the cross and was raised from the dead.
Many today believe Jesus was a good person, a great teacher, but they deny that He is God – that He’s able to forgive us our sins. We need this truth. You might say, “How can I believe this when I didn’t see it with my own eyes?” Thomas, the doubter, said,

“I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” John 20:25b NLT

When Jesus saw him later, he said,

“You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” John 20:29 NLT

We must accept many things by faith.

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. Hebrews 11:6 NLT

  1. Walking in the Light

Having re-established the deity of Christ this foundation of belief, John goes on to talk about walking in the light. How do you know you are walking in the light in a way that pleases God? How do you know that you are a Christian?
In verse 6, John says,

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. NLT

The Message translation puts it this way,

“If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth – we’re not living what we claim.”

Instead of trusting Christ, some people insist on using human wisdom alone for answers to eternal questions. The tragedy of this situation was illustrated in a humorous skit performed by Karl Valentin, a Munich comedian.
Walking on a stage where everything was dark except for a small area under a streetlamp, he began to look for something on the ground. He told the policeman who came on the scene that he was trying to find a key, whereupon the two continued the search. Finally, the officer asked, “Are you sure you lost it here?” “Oh, no,” said Valentin as he pointed to a corner, “It was over there, but here is where the light is!”
Do you ever feel like you’re in the dark? Once we come to Christ, how do we live? We need to immerse ourselves in the light. Avoid the darkness. How do you know you are in the light, living a life that pleases God?
John gives us some tests to see where we actually are in our walk. He says, “If you claim to be a Christian, keep Christ’s commandments!” (rough paraphrase of v3-4) If we say that we know him well, but we don’t keep his commandments, we are not passing this first test. We might say, “Oh, yes, we love the Lord.” But if we continue to do the same old things and live the same old lifestyle as we did before we came to Christ, we are not traveling in His light.
Sin isn’t our friend, it’s our enemy. It removes believers from the light. It separates us from fellowship with God. It destroys our fellowship with each other.
Someone once said, “Confessing your sins is no substitute for forsaking them.”

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light…” Ephesians 5:8 NIV

We must walk in His light on a consistent, daily basis. We need to get rid of our sinning lifestyle because it’s incompatible with walking in God’s light. We have to want to live up to his commandments. If we walk in the light consistently, it becomes integrated into our daily lives. It doesn’t just happen on Sunday morning.
Sometimes we want to know everything that is ahead of us. We want to know what the future holds. We don’t need to know that because it is unfolded to us as we walk in His light daily.
A boy was walking with his father along a lonely road at night carrying a lantern. He told his father he was afraid because the lantern showed such a little way ahead. The Father answered, “That is so, but if you walk straight on you will find that the light will reach to the end of the journey.” God often gives us light for only a little way ahead, but He always gives at least that, and so He always gives us light enough for the whole journey. (Christian Endeavor World)
Another test that John comes up with is, “Do you have fellowship with one another?”

If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness. 1 John 2:9 NLT

How do you feel about the consistency of your own life? How are you doing on your travels? Are you walking in the light, obeying Jesus’ commandments, and living in harmony with your brothers and sisters in Christ? In what areas do you need improvement?
So, our point to address is…

  1. What Do We Do About Sin?

It seems to me that sin is just lurking around every corner, ready to pounce. Anger is like that. Everything will be going along just dandy…and then POW! Something (or someone) flies in your face and that dander goes right up!
Or sometimes it’s that little glance of seduction that draws us in – that gets us to let our guard down. You see something on TV, or a magazine cover and you’re reeled in – the catch of the day!
Or have you ever been seduced by food? I’m diabetic. Overall, I stick to a more controlled diet but occasionally, especially when I’m by myself, I tell you, I can hear those peanut M&Ms calling out to me!
We all fall down but the thing that we have to remember is…don’t wallow around in it. Don’t mope around just feeling guilty and thinking, “Well, God must hate me now!” Quit your wallowing, get up dust yourself off, confess your sin, and put it behind you. Jesus is right there for you.
The bad thing is sometimes when people fall into sin they just quit coming to church – they stay away from the light. That’s what the devil wants us to do.
John tells us what to do about the sin problem. If we sin along the way, John says we have an advocate or someone “who speaks to the Father in our defense”. Jesus is our defense attorney.
We don’t deny our sin. We confess it. Walking in the light is demonstrated not by the denial of sin but by confessing it and abandoning it.
When missionaries first came to Labrador on the Atlantic coast of Canada, they found no word for forgiveness in the language of the native residents. So, they had to make one, which meant, “not being able to think about it anymore.”

“But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” 1 John 1:9 NLT

He doesn’t “think about it anymore.” If we confess our sins, He keeps on cleansing us from sin, keeps on forgiving us, restoring us, and putting us back into fellowship with him. He puts us back on the road, traveling in the light.
There was a man in England who was troubled with guilt. He was resting behind a hedge and soon heard two girls talking. They were discussing a sermon they heard. One of the girls said, “I heard him preach once, and I will never forget one thing that he said. It gave me a big lift.” The other girl asked what the preacher said, and the girl replied, “The world will always say, ‘You made your bed and you must lie in it’; but One greater than the world has said, “Take up thy bed and walk. Thy sins are forgiven.’” The despairing man on the other side of the hedge heard that good report, the discouragement lifted, and he went on his way rejoicing. (Gary Bowell p. 183, 184)
Don’t hesitate to turn to the Lord immediately. We don’t have to stumble around in sin and darkness anymore. To “walk” in darkness is the same as living in darkness and allowing sin to define our lives.
David prayed,

“For You, O Lord, are my lamp; The Lord illumines and dispels my darkness.” 2 Samuel 22:29 AMP

Let this be our prayer for we are meant to walk in the light. That’s His desire for us. Jesus made it possible for us to do just that and to live an overcoming life. The core of this sermon is from Dr. Marilyn S. Murphree at Iliff and Saltillo UMCs, October 30, 2005

Sept 20, 2020, Sun, 9:00 pm