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SEPTEMBER: Life in Christ

September 28

WALKING IN THE LIGHT

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
1 John 1:6-7

John is fond of the phrase, "walking in the light"; how often this idea occurs in his Gospel, and here it is again. It is not obvious on the very surface that if you take this in an absolute literal sense it can mean only one thing, and that is absolute perfection. If to walk in the light as God is in the light is taken strictly literally, as it is expressed here, there is only one deduction to draw: As Christians our only hope of forgiveness and therefore of being Christians at all is that we should be absolutely perfect as God Himself is perfect.

But clearly that is impossible! Which of us is perfect? Which of us is without sin? "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (verse 8); we cannot, therefore, be absolutely perfect. So immediately we find that this phrase of walking in the light as God is in the light must be interpreted in terms of the way in which John customarily employs this picture. And the key to that is to be found in the phrase in 1 John 1:6 where we read about walking in darkness: "If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth."

We interpret this verse about "walking in the light" as the antithesis and the exact opposite of "walking in darkness." Therefore it does not mean that I claim absolute perfection; but it does mean that I claim that I now belong to a different realm, to the kingdom of light and to the kingdom of God.

A Thought to Ponder
I now belong to a different realm, to the kingdom of light.

From Fellowship with God, pp. 126-127.



Today’s devo is taken from Walking with God Day by Day © 2003 by Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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