God is Light; 1 John 1:5
1 John 1:5 NASB
“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.” We have seen that this is
talking about a message of life that the apostles proclaim. In verse 3 we saw
that the understanding and application of this message is related to having
fellowship. This fellowship is an active thing: “have
fellowship.” We are enjoying fellowship with God; it is a movement
thing; it is like walking; it is talking the Word of God and applying it in our
lives. We are told that this is the message, and the result of this message is
that we going to enjoy this active concept of having fellowship. So we have
here the clear statement that there is a message that we have to understand,
and what John is saying is that the core of that message is a principle: that
God is light.
Verse 5 is controlled by the
purpose statement in 2:1, “that we might not sin.” So in order to understand
the concept of dealing with sin in our lives and getting to a point where we
sin less and not more we have to understand the concept of fellowship, and it
starts with person of God. Everything starts with the essence of God. What
happens in human viewpoint reasoning is we always start with some aspect the
creation and start to argue with God. That is always going to cause problems.
As a believer you always start with God, and that is the methodology that John
has here. So to understand everything else we have to understand what it means that
God is light.
First of all we see that this
is a metaphor. God is not literally light; it is a comparison, and what we have
to understand in any metaphor is what the field of comparison is. Any word
defines a field of meaning. It has an inherent logic to it, there are certain
things that apply to the concept and certain things that don’t. A word by
itself is an absolute. So we have the word “God,” and then we have the concept
of light. There are many things we can say about light. Some things may not apply
to God; some things do apply to God. So we have to come to understand what is the overlap in meaning, then that is the point that John
is making. How do we understand that? We realise that light as a metaphor for
God has a very ancient tradition both in terms of the Bible and in terms of
false religion. The dichotomy of light and darkness was popular in Platonic
thought, and it became a major doctrine in Gnostic thought and in the dualistic
thinking of the Persian Zoroastrianism. To understand what John means by light
we have to go back into the Old Testament.
The doctrine of light
1.
Light translates
the Hebrew word or and the Greek word
phos [fwj], both of which mean, in terms of straight literal
meaning, light, brilliance, brightness, illumination. They also can refer to
sunlight, torchlight, daylight, fire light, or other
forms of light. These words are used metaphorically for a number of different
concepts. They are used life: “In Him was life; and
the life was the light of men.” It is used for justice, righteousness,
judgment. The presence of judgment in the Tribulation period is called a time
of darkness and the coming of the Lord is referred to in terms of light, the
ending of judgment. So light and darkness related to judgment. The glorious God
is clothed in light. Light represents truth and divine revelation, that which
comes forth from God. So since all these are related by the word “light” there
must be connections between those concepts. What is the connection between
light and truth? Ultimately in God they are related so there are points of
application from this that are going to work themselves out in and unpack what
John means by this.
2.
Light is used
also as a metaphor fore the
3.
Light is
frequently a metaphor for God’s essence. Psalm 104:2 NASB “Covering
Yourself with light as with a cloak, Stretching out
heaven like a {tent} curtain.” Light is His garment. His presence is indicated
by light when He appears to Moses in Exodus 13:21; Daniel
Continued……