The Authentic Christian LifeExemplo

God is light … so live right

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.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. —1 John 1:5-6

You and I – and probably everyone who’s ever caught a wave – have met the talker who is proven to be faking it. You know, the one who’s endlessly claiming to know a secret break no one else knows or boasting of pulling off maneuvers that even the best pros can’t manage.

But Jesus is not like that. He talks the talk, and He walks the walk. There’s no faking, no exaggeration. When He claims He’s come to give you abundant life (John 10:10), He means exactly that.

And He calls you and me to walk in His footsteps as people of integrity.

As we can see from 1 John 1:5-10, God is pure light. And light = right. God does not just do the right thing; He is in His essence right. There is no darkness in Him, which means he cannot do the wrong thing; He always wills and acts right. Our source of ‘right’ is the very character of God.

For you and me, it’s impossible to claim to know and love the God who is light if we don’t conform to living right. Knowing the ideas, doctrines or concepts is not going to cut it. It’s more than just believing and behaving, it is becoming! If you are claiming a life in Him, you need to be living in Him, because living a lie makes you a liar.

So what do we do when we get it wrong and don’t live right? This passage shows the ongoing habit of living wrong –when we “go on living in darkness” – is proof that we really don’t know God.

But we inevitably will lapse into sin, the darkness. So we’re also told that to say we are without sin is a false claim.

So what’s the solution? It’s to come clean and bring it into the light. The power of sin is in the lie. The deliverance from sin is to tell the truth – and Jesus covers it all!

Go deeper:

• When has your life been lived inconsistently with your knowledge of God? How did you feel in those times? What was the outcome?
• Read the full passage of 1 John 1:5-10. Consider the two “false claims” of living a lifestyle of sin or denying sin all together. What dangers do these claims bring? How can you avoid them in your life?