LEARNING DAILY

 

1 John 1:5-7, This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say 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.

 

The letters of John are good to look at in order to follow up on as we choose Jesus Christ over Barabbas, as we choose good over evil. We have chosen to believe He is who He said He was. Now our “walk” must match our “talk”’!  John writes that you and I will avoid a lifestyle of sin by loving Christ, loving others as He loved others, and not loving the world. We “walk in the light as He walked in the light” (v. 7). The question one might ask is how is this done? The answer is to walk with Jesus all day long. All day long the choice is Barabbas or Jesus!

 

When John wrote about walking in darkness, he was writing about professing to have accepted Jesus as Savior but continuing to walk in sin. It is deception from Satan to think because you give your life to Jesus Christ, now you can live any way you want and be without consequences. Living on the narrow way does not work that way.  Walking in darkness means to live in sin and immoral pleasures and live for the concerns of the world. People who continue to live this way do not have fellowship with Jesus. The DJSB gives more insight to what living in “darkness means” and we must be aware of it.  “In John’s day as well as today, the tendency to get involved with the complexities of church responsibilities, Bible-reading programs, spiritual gifts inventories, and attention to books that offer seven keys to this and ten steps to that. Unfortunately, too much attention to these things may prevent us from focusing on what really matters: Jesus Christ.” Those things can cause us to focus on “our works” instead of reading and studying to become more like Him.

 

If those things can cause us to “walk in darkness” what does it mean to “walk in the light”? John describes God as light, which indicates He is infinitely holy, righteous, and morally pure. Darkness is the absence of light and when people stray from obedience to God, they step into darkness. To do so causes them to act in ways that are not in His character; the next thing to happen is to try to avoid the light.

 

This can happen to any of us because of temptations we face every day. Remember Jesus said walking on the narrow way would be difficult. Here is the difference between true Believers and unbelievers. True Believers will turn from the darkness in order to walk in the light. True Believers believe in God’s Truth as revealed in His Word and will make every effort to walk in it (on the narrow way). “The blood of Jesus His son cleanses us from all sin”. This refers to an ongoing work of sanctification within you and me and all Believers; it is a continuous cleansing through the blood of Jesus Christ for “our sin that so easily entangles us” (Hebrews 12:1-2). The continual cleaning allows us to have intimate fellowship with God. We must walk back into the light, the truth of God through repentance, the process by which God forgives, restores, and cleanses us through the blood of Jesus.

 

The DJSB gives a great summary of this and I will end with it. “John says: Let me make it simple. Walk with Jesus. Cling to your faith. Stay in the light. When you sin, confess and move on. And show your love for Jesus by loving your brothers and sisters in His name.”

 

And I say, Amen!!!

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible