LIGHT AND DARKNESS - 1 JOHN 1:5

Verse 5: This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. (ESV)

 John now reflects upon a particular message that “we have heard” from the ultimate source of Him, Jesus Christ, that “God is light.” However, there is no recorded discourse of Our Lord stating precisely that God is light. This is the outcome of John, inspired by the Holy Spirit using his deductive reasoning when he declared the deity of Christ—“the Word was God” (John 1:1)—with Jesus’ declaration, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). This verse is the essential link in understanding the character of Jesus Christ and the Scriptural basis for the believers’ authentic fellowship with Him.

What follows is evidence of John’s obedience to the instruction the apostles received from Our Lord:

“What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.” (Matthew 10:27)

Light and Darkness

Light as we know it is emanated from a source: the sun, a lamp, a fire. And conversely, darkness is devoid of any of these sources of light. But there is a supernatural light that God can radiate without the aid of a physical source—from His glorious nature. Prior to God’s creation of “the two great lights” (Genesis 1:16), the sun and moon, God declared in Genesis 1:3: “Let there be light”; and there was light—a light that must have come from “some fixed light source outside the earth.”1

Examining John’s use of the word light, we learn that it is used figuratively of holiness and purity.2 That God is holy is His essential essence means that His character is separated from that which is evil—darkness. Isaiah supports this fact when he heard the Seraphim calling out: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3; cf. Revelation 4:8). Ryrie asserts that “The threefold repetition means that God is uniquely holy.”3 And what still holds true today is the Old Testament decrees that the Apostle Peter reminds us of: “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16; cf. Leviticus 11:44).

Darkness is also used figuratively here as the opposite of holiness—that which is evil and “emblematic of sin, as a condition of moral or spiritual depravity.”4 John is adamant in his assertion that in God there is absolutely no darkness. This is brought out by a literal translation of the Greek: “And darkness in Him does not exist, not even one bit.”5 The Apostle Paul explains this could not be said about ourselves prior to salvation.

For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true). (Ephesians 5:8–9 ESV)

Who is the arbiter of what is holy and evil—light and darkness? For the answer to this we cannot rely upon human viewpoint. Our culture today is driven by the philosophy of secular humanism and refuses to advocate a clear distinction between that which is holy or evil. Instead, we turn to the source of absolute truth: the Word of Life. Scripture is God’s Word and the final objective authority in determining what is holy and righteous.

Mankind Loves Darkness

The reason our culture subjectively declines to make a distinction on moral issues was declared by Our Lord as the premise for His coming:

“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” (John 3:19–20)

The world of mankind lies in the domain of darkness, rebellious towards God, even though He has made a way of escaping the judgment for their unbelief and their hatred of the Light. For those who have believed in Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, the Apostle Paul explains exactly what God has provided:

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. (Ephesians 1:7)

And thus, Paul states: For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Colossians 1:13). This domain of darkness describes how “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one [Satan]” (1 John 5:19). Paul states that Satan is the god of this world and that he: “has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

This is the motivation for John’s command to believers to avoid the source of the unholy evil of darkness:

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. (1 John 2:15–16)

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[1] Ryrie, C. C. (1995). Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update. Chicago: Moody Press, p. 4 note.

[2] Unger, M. F. (1988). Light, In The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary (Harrison, R. K., Vos, H. F., Barber, C. J., Eds.). Chicago: Moody Press.

[3] Ryrie, p. 1057 note.

[4] Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996). Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 2.144–145.

[5] Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans, 13.100.

 

© 2024 David M. Rossi