What does it mean that God is light?
John opens his letter with a message he says was heard directly from the Son and passed on unchanged: that God is light, with no darkness in Him at all. It is a statement about what God is by nature — and it raises the hard questions of how anyone can stand before such a God, and how this squares with the equally famous words "God is love."
A Message, Not a Metaphor
The wording is deliberate. It states the case twice — once by affirming, once by denying — so that no room is left for shading.
C. CrainNotice also the form of the announcement. It is stated both positively and negatively. "God is light" declares what He is positively. The negative statement is, Darkness is not at all in Him. Through the Son of God become Man, God is in the light. Faith knows what He is morally as revealed in His Son.
Purity That Cannot Be Stained
Light is used because of what light does when it meets filth — it touches corruption without ever picking any up.
William J. HockingTo have fellowship with God, we must know that He is light. Light is the purest element in existence. Its intense purity cannot be defiled. A ray of light shining on a stagnant pool of corruption stays perfectly pure. It cannot be contaminated in any way. So the light of God resists all that is corruptible and evil, arising out of moral darkness. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." God is not one part light and one part dark; He is light, absolutely.
Light Exposes
Because light shows things as they are, this message doubles as a test. It measures every claim to know God.
J. N. DarbyHe has a message, "that God is light," which is, that He is absolute purity, and reveals everything. This is what light does, it makes all things manifest. "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all" — no mixture. "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth." It is the nature of God in its purity, applied as a test of communion.
For the person who has never faced God, that exposure is unwelcome before it is healing.
W. T. TurpinIt is a terrible moment when the light of God first shines into a sinner's heart, and shows him what he is, and shines on the sinner's ways, and shows him what they truly are in God's sight. "In Him is no darkness at all." In His light all is light, and darkness is reproved. Man himself is seen and known through and through — not as he has been used to seeing himself in self-satisfaction.
Why This Truth Cannot Be Dropped
Writers note that this half of the revelation is the one people quietly leave out. One tells of a shop that stocked "God is love" in many designs and had no call at all for "God is light."
A. J. PollockOne would have thought it impossible to over-emphasize these wonderful words, "God is love." This is certainly true, if this grand truth is held in due proportion to other truths of Scripture. But when emphasis on the truth "God is love" is made to such an extent that it obscures the truth that "God is light," there is something very fundamentally wrong.
Light and Love Meet at the Cross
The two statements are not rivals. One explains why the cross was necessary; the other explains why it happened.
C. Knapp"God is light." This is His character, which made the death of His Son a necessity. "God is love." This is His nature, which led Him to give His Son so that His death might become an accomplished fact. Grace reigns "through righteousness." God is showing grace, and the death of Christ at Calvary proclaims Him "a just God and a Saviour."
Standing in the Light Without a Spot
The curtain in the temple once kept God hidden; now it is torn, and the believer is placed in the full blaze. Far from being terrifying, that is where the value of Christ's blood is best seen.
J. N. DarbyThe same stroke which tore the veil, so that God was revealed in His holiness, has at the same moment taken away the sin which forbids our standing before His unveiled face. The full light which shines around us, and in which we are, shows that we are without sin before the face of God; and that our garments are washed in the blood of the Lamb. The nearer we are to the light, the more clearly will our perfect purity before God be seen.
Walking in the Light
This is a matter of position before it is a matter of performance — though it changes performance too.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinWhat is this walk in the light? It is not the same thing as walking according to the light. It does not mean living a perfect and sinless life. Walking in the light is not the question of how we walk but where we walk, and the place where the believer walks is the light. It means walking daily in His presence, with our will and conscience in the light and presence of God, judging everything that does not answer to that light.
Summary
- Light means purity. God is not partly light and partly dark. Light cannot be defiled by what it shines on, and neither can He.
- Light exposes. Its first work is to make everything manifest — including what a person really is, beneath his own good opinion of himself.
- Light demands. Because darkness cannot share His company, the claim to know God while walking in darkness is simply a lie.
- Light and love met at the cross. His character as light made the death of His Son necessary; His nature as love gave the Son.
- Light is now where we live. The torn veil put believers in the full light, where the blood is as effective to cleanse as the light is to detect.