The Test of Fellowship (Part 1)
1 John 1:5-6
God is free
from darkness (5b)
“…and in Him is no darkness at all.”
This
added assertion that there is no darkness in God, not even the tiniest or
minutest speck of darkness stresses the absoluteness of His nature as pure and
holy light.
In
God’s being there is not a single trace of darkness.
Keep
this in mind, that John never implies that the darkness is simply the absence
of light. John believes that darkness has a moral quality. This moral quality
that defines darkness is in direct opposition to the moral character and
quality of God.
This might not mean much to
you but to the pagans and especially the Gnostics, this was a startling
statement.
George
G. Findlay wrote:
“They [he means the Romans and Greeks] had
gods that could cheat and lie, gods licentious and unchaste, gods spiteful and
malignant towards men, quarrelsome and abusive toward each other. They had been
accustomed to think of the Godhead as a mixed nature like their own, only on a
larger scale-good and evil and cruel, pure and wanton, made of darkness and
light.” [1]
When
men create their own god they create them in their own image. So the gods of
men condone evil or allow them to live as they please and might eve participate
in sin also.
But the truth of the matter
is God cannot have fellowship with anything or anyone that does not share a
moral likeness to Himself. God cannot condone or have fellowship with anything
that is contrary to His nature.
So, John makes it very clear
from the beginning of His letter that there exists two, completely separate
spheres or realms that cannot be mixed in any way shape or form. Light and
darkness are two distinctly separate spheres that cannot be mixed. They do not
overlap.
The Christian life is viewed
as fellowship.
This claim to fellowship is
tested on practical grounds.
The first test by practical
grounds is that of the necessity of moral likeness.
The first truth that we learn
about this moral likeness is that:
God is the standard.
[1] George
G. Findlay, Fellowship in the Life
Eternal, An Exposition of the Epistles of St John, (1909; reprint ed.,
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), p. 96
My Gregg this was awesome to read, Thanks for showing a preview.
ReplyDeleteYvonne.