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,
cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:7
Jesus is the light of the world. Our Saviour came to shed light upon this dark world.
He casts out the darkness and calls people to follow Him, to repent of sin. He gives us His power to help the believer do works that bring light into the world.
As we walk in the light of Christ, our lives become brighter. We have fellowship with those we would have trouble relating to as we look towards Christ’s light.
In our sinful selves, we easily slough off the need to relate to those who are most difficult. Yet with Christ living in us and shining into our lives, we work at loving our enemies! What a difference!
Obviously, we learn to relate better to others as Christ’s light shines into our hearts! We don’t just snub those we don’t like. We attempt to be gracious to others. Soon enough, we realize we are fellowshiping with those we never thought we could have.
Christ’s light enables us to have positive interaction with others. We pray for those who hurt us when ordinarily we would rather not. But Christ’s love and light compel us. And soon enough, we think differently about those people as we pray for them.
As we walk in the light of Christ, we learn to have fellowship with others more and more, because His light gives us courage to walk confidently through this life. We relate to others more boldly. And as Christ compels us, we lead others to Christ’s love and light.
Think of the times you stubbornly refuse to walk in the light of Christ? How does your day go? Don’t you find it a dismal place to be? If we ignore the call, to walk right with others, we end up experiencing frustration and can’t help but feel we are groping in the darkness.
As we aim to fix things with others, to forgive others as Christ has forgiven us, or to speak the truth in love, our lives and our relationships are in tune with Christ. And that feels good and right. Who wants to walk in spiritual darkness for any length of time?
The second half of today’s scripture teaches us that the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s son, cleanses us from our sin.
How we need that cleansing daily. Christians will need to go to Christ daily in prayer for this cleansing. Sometimes our sins are glaring us in the face, other times we don’t even realize we have sin. These are the sins of omission. When there are things we should have done, felt the nudging of the Holy Spirit, but ignore it, these are the sins of commission. Without getting too complicated, we need to repent daily.
One thing I have noticed as I met many people, too many people are living in condemnation of sin. They don’t grasp, as I have struggled also with, that once you repent of a sin, Christ forgives you. Naturally, we are to try not to repeat the sin in God’s grace and with the power of the Holy Spirit living in us.
There is a Bible Verse that instructs us with this. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ.” Romans 8:1.
The opposite of living in unnecessary condemnation it to take God’s grace for granted.
May it be we not choose either of those routes as we walk in Christ’s light.
As believers, Christ redeemed (made us new, washed us in the lamb’s blood) us and we walk in His light.
Let us walk in this light, and with each other, choosing the light over darkness daily.