1 John 1:7, ‘but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.’
V6, ‘If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;’
God Himself is Light and He does not want any darkness in us also. God wants us all to walk in Light; because He is pure and He is holy.
Apostle John is giving us the message about the fellowship, the Light and love. We need to have all these in our lives. We need to be closer to Him; walk more closer in the Light. Each of us have a portion of Light, which God is giving us, every day, we need to walk in that Light!
Darkness, is what keeps us apart from having fellowship with one another! The self-centeredness, the pride is what keeps us from moving forward, to open up ourselves and submit to our Lord.
‘but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another’.
Holy Spirit is encouraging us to walk in Light and have fellowship with one another. We should walk in Light as He Himself is Light and have fellowship with one another. We need to die to our self and open up ourselves and submit to our Lord.
Apostle John is saying that He had seen Jesus Christ, His life, how He lived. He is giving us his testimony about Jesus.
V1, ‘What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us. 3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.’
To have this life, we need to come to that Light. This is our necessity that we open up ourselves to submit to our God and to come out of all our self-centeredness!
Whatever John received from Jesus; he wants to impart to others. Only the brothers who walk in the Light can have fellowship with each other. Those who live in darkness, don’t want to come to Light! What is it, that is hindering the brothers to come to Light, which God is giving? Let us examine ourselves and come into the Light as and when, God is giving us Light.
If we walk in the Light, we have fellowship with the Father, His Son Jesus Christ and with each other, as a Church too; so, our joy may be made complete.
V5, ‘This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;’
How can we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness? This cannot go together!
There is a clear separation of Light from darkness; that we see in Genesis.
Genesis 1:3, ‘Then God said, “Let there be Light”; and there was Light. 4 God saw that the Light was good; and God separated the Light from the darkness.’
God separated the Light from the darkness. Let us come to Him, we need to walk in the Light that God is giving us each day and have fellowship with the Father and Jesus and with each other and the blood of Jesus, will cleanse us from all sin.
When the brothers and sisters rely on the Holy Spirit and have fellowship with the Father and will have more clarity in their lives; where God is more exalted in their lives.
1 John 1:8, ‘If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’
It is the Pharisaical attitude which says that we do not have any sin! When we walk in this Light that God gives us; we can see that every day, the Un-Christlike nature is coming up; and when we confess our sins; He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He is ready to do this, but are we ready to receive? and do we submit ourselves to Him? And walk in the Light that He is giving us each day?
There is a Church, where we are involved, it is holding us, where like-minded brothers and sisters, are working together for the same perfection in their lives. There is a Church which is praying for all the brothers and sisters and who know each ones’ needs, holding them in prayer, and who is working with shoulder to shoulder; we know each one of them, we know the base they are holding on to; we know what is in their innermost heart’s desires and cry of their lives! If we are able to know this, we are able to walk in the Light! Open yourselves to the Lord.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness!
1 John 2:11, ‘But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.’
This is a state where we do not even know where we are! The one who hates his brother is in darkness, because the darkness has blinded his eyes!
Hatred will blind us! Hatred is darkness and it blinds our eyes; we won’t be able to know where we are going! Knowingly or unknowingly, we go through these situations! Holy Spirit convicts us, not to have hatred towards our brethren. We need to come out of this darkness as soon as possible and submit ourselves to God.
Hatred stirs up strife but love covers all transgressions. There should be unity among us. We need to preserve the unity among us, dying to our self.
We need to understand the spirit behind every Word, not just having the familiarity of the Word. We need to humble ourselves and submit to the Word.
John 1:3, ‘All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
V6, ‘There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.
V9, ‘There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.’
If we want to have His life, there is a price which needs to be paid! We need to walk in that Light, daily in our lives, to have the life of Jesus Christ. Darkness will not comprehend it! John was sent to testify about the Light, so that all might believe though him. His mission was to testify about the Light. This true Light will enlighten every man. It is up to us, to decide to have this Life.
John 3:19, ‘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. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”’
Man’s motives and deeds are all evil! There is an element of fear, which is hindering the man to come to the Light! But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.
Matthew 7:14, ‘For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.’
To have this life of Jesus Christ; in us, we need to walk the narrow way!
Our body has this wonderful mechanism that it fights off the foreign bodies. The immune system does this. When an organ is transplanted, the body rejects it, so the doctors reduce the immunity so that the body can accept the new organ transplant! In the same way, our self is in enmity with the Light! When we die to our ‘self’, we can experience His Life in us.
There should be a death in our lives, to accept the life in Jesus Christ. The immunity power should go down in our lives in order to accept the Lord Jesus Christ.
V13, ‘“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.’
If we narrow ourselves, if we submit ourselves, we can have the life of Jesus. We need to come to zero immunity to accept the life of Jesus.
Matthew 16:24, ‘Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.’
If we decide to follow Him, we must deny ourselves, take up the cross and follow Him. Every form of saving our lives, we need to lose it, when we lose it for Jesus’ sake, we can gain our real life!
We need to lose our unforgiveness, our reputation, self-centeredness, we need to open ourselves, we need to submit ourselves and walk in the Light, so we can have the life of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 2:5, ‘Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name’.
Let us empty ourselves of all the hatred, unforgiveness, self – centeredness, ego and open ourselves and submit ourselves and empty ourselves and take the form of a bond-servant. Jesus submitted Himself to His Father, denied His own will. Then we will be exalted by having the life of Jesus Christ. He will be helping us to walk in that Light.
Hebrews 10:19, ‘Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh.’
Let us do that, let us have the confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by this new and living way; which is the way of ‘self-denial’, which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh. As and when the Holy Spirit prompts us, let us try to enter through the narrow way and let us have this attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Thank God for His Word.
