The message we declare

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. 1 John 1:5 NLT

John begins the epistle by proclaiming who Jesus is and His message. And in our text, John continues to proclaim the nature of God. Being an eyewitness to what Jesus has done and to the teachings he and other disciples received from Him, he now says that this is what he and others are declaring, “God is light.” Our fellowship with God not only involves life and truth but also the recognition that He has brought us out of darkness because of sin and now we live experiencing His light. John not only emphasizes the importance of the message being conveyed but also the timeless significance of it. The message never changes for it came from God and was revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ. The disciples were aware for they were taught from the Old Testament that one day, God will come and reveal Himself. This is what David had written about: “For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see” (Psalm 36:9). “God is light.” God is not a light among many other lights. He is not a light-bearer. God does not have light as one of His characteristics, but He is light. Furthermore, the light of God is visible in Jesus, who said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). And whoever has accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, His promise to them who follows Him, “…you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life” (John 8:12b.) Just like John, each of us who had received Christ in our lives, we, too has this message we declare: “God is light.” The message we declare is not just for information but a command. We have to make it known. The message John declared in his time is good news and it is still good news in our time. But it can be still a new message to many today. When John declared this truth that “God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil” (John 3:19), is the same situation we are in right now. Sin radically affects fellowship with God. The only way to experience true fellowship with God is to receive the message that He is light. “To all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). When you say that you are a Christian, light will shine in your life, your walk will match your talk, and you will take sin seriously. The message we declare should match the life we live.

Blessings,