Day 62 - 1 John

One of my former Youth Pastors used to say that 1 John played hardball.  It's a challenging book to read.  John means business.  It deals with the earliest Christians learning to navigate this new found faith in Jesus.  It deals with the competing worlds of light and darkness, the ways of faith and the ways of the world.  And John says that there has to be a difference for those that call themselves followers of Jesus.

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:5-7)

Then, later in 1 John 2:3-6...

3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4 The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

It's clear, Christians are supposed to be different.  Those who follow Christ are to be set apart from the rest of the world.  Light was a common metaphor in the Scriptures.  The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the Qumran caves where the Essenes Sect lived and shared life together.  They were a sect of Jews who called themselves the Sons of Light.  I got to go there a few years ago when I visited Israel.  It's a fascinating place.  Some scholars believe Jesus even spent time there as part of that sect before he went into formal ministry at the age of 30, which would explain the "light" imagery we hear from Jesus.  John follows up on Jesus' teaching about light here, though, because he teaches us that WE are the light.  The light doesn't just come from God, we live in it and it shines through us.  Okay, so what does light look like in a Christian.  Easy -- love.

⁹ Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. ¹⁰ Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. ¹¹ But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. (1 John 2:9-11)

Light looks like loving others.  We live in a world filled with cynicism, hate, and plain rudeness.  Those who follow Christ love people.  All kinds of people.  Mean people and nice people.  Hateful people and happy people.  People that love us back and people that are hard to love.  People we count as friends and total strangers.  Christians love because love looks like light and light points people to it's source.