In 1 John 1:7, John informs us that “…if we walk in the light
as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of
Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin”. Very simply, if we live
righteously avoiding darkness (sin), the blood of Christ will continually make
us clean (acceptable to God).
I would like to firstly make known
what “living in the light” is not. It is not going to services on Sunday morning,
it is not simply praying one time a day before you go to sleep, and it isn’t
even occasionally reading your Bible. Only attending Sunday morning worship and
not evening services or mid-week Bible study (without reason) is a direct
violation of Hebrews 10:25 “…not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together…”.
When one consciously decides that they do not want to fellowship with the
Saints, they are sinning and therefore they are not walking in the light. Next,
prayer is our greatest tool! It is foolish to take it for granted! In all honestly,
sometimes when I pray I feel disconnected. We, me included, need to make sure
that our prayer lives are of upmost importance, and not just a routine. The Bible
teaches that we need to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). This
does not literally mean that we need to pray every single second of our
existence, but that we need to continually pray, and not take the powerful tool
of prayer for granted. Lastly, we have two points to make with this topic. You
might ask “How can reading your Bible ever be unbeneficial?” Well, I cannot
tell you how many times I have sat down to read my Bible, and then stood up 30
minutes later not having learned anything. When we “study the scriptures” (2
Timothy 2:15), we ought to really study them! Again, it comes down to not
taking Gods gifts, or Gods tools that He’s given us for granted! The Bible was
given to us to learn from, not to casually read at our leisure. The second
point I would like to make is this: One can study the Bible all day long, but
if the knowledge gained is not applied, what use is it? The Bible is like Gods
medicine; we can buy all the medicine we want in order to cure our physical ailments,
but if we don’t use the medicine we’re never going to get well. The same is
true with Gods medicine; the Bible. We can read our Bible all we want, but
unless we take it in and apply it, it’s like we’re sick but we refuse to take
the medicine necessary to fix ourselves.
Finally, I would like to explain
(using the Bible) what it means to “live in the light”, and how one can do it.
According to the Bible and the principles it establishes, living in the light
is living in Christ. In John 8:12, Jesus affirms that He is “the Light”. In the
light there is knowledge and truth, which would lead one to logically conclude
that in order to be in the light (Christ), you must possess some knowledge of
the truth. Since Jesus is the light, and we know that there is no sin in Him (2
Corinthians 5:21), those who are in Him must be sinless. How can that be? Well coincidentally,
those who are in him cannot sin! 1 John 3:6 “Whoever abides in Him does
not sin”! This is only possible because we are continually cleansed from all
sin (1 John 1:7) if we take the appropriate steps to achieve this purification
(confession of sins, repenting, and striving to live a better life). As we have
established, those who are “in Him” are sinless, and righteous in His sight
(see Psalm 34:15). In order to become one of His and be “in Him” one must be
baptized. One must then repent, and keep His commandments till the end of their
life. As we’ve mentioned, studying His word makes this possible, along with
continual prayer. One cannot keep commandments he does not know!
In conclusion, all who are “in the
light” will inherit the kingdom of God following His appearing (see 1
Corinthians 15:24). These are the ones who are not of the world, but of Christ;
ones who keep His commandments, and ones who are sinless due to the
purification of Jesus’ blood. In order to come to the light you must hear the
truth, believe it, repent of the things you’ve done in the darkness, confess
that Jesus is the Christ, and be baptized! Upon baptism, Christ will pull you
from the darkness and you will be with Him in the light. Lastly, you must
remain in the light until His coming (revelation 22:14)!
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