Light and Darkness
True fellowship with God and our brother is impossible while walking in darkness, but it is possible when we walk in the light and are transparent and honest.
Roy Hession emphasizes the significance of walking in the light to achieve genuine fellowship with God and others. He explains that light reveals our true selves, while darkness conceals our sins and leads to duplicity and pretense. Sin causes us to hide, just as Adam and Eve did in the garden, and this separation from God prevents authentic relationships with others. Hession highlights that God is pure light, devoid of any darkness, making it impossible to have true fellowship with Him while we remain in darkness. Therefore, to experience real communion with God and our brothers, we must embrace the light and confront our hidden sins.
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On what basis can we have real fellowship with God and our brother? Here I John 1:7 has come afresh to us. " I f we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." What is meant by light and darkness is that light reveals, darkness hides. When anything reproves us, shows us up as we really are - that is light. " Whatsoever doth make manifest is light."(Eph.5:13) But whenever we do anything or say anything (or don't say anything) to hide what we are or what we've done - that is darkness.
Now the first effect of sin in our lives is always to make us try and hide what we are. Sin made our first parents hide behind the trees of the garden and it has had the same effect on us ever since. Sin always involves us in being unreal, pretending, duplicity, window dressing, excusing ourselves and blaming others - and we can do all that as much by our silence as by saying or doing something. This is what the previous verse calls " walking in darkness." With some of us, the sin in question may be nothing more than self-consciousness (anything with " I " in it is sin) and the hiding, nothing more than an assumed heartiness to cover that self-consciousness; but it is walking in darkness none the less.
In contrast to all this in us, verse 5 of this chapter tells us that " God is light," that is, God is the All-revealing One, who shows up every man as he really is. And it goes on to say, " In Him is no darkness at all," that is, there is absolutely nothing in God which can be one with the tiniest bit of darkness or hiding in us.
Quite obviously, then, it is utterly impossible for us to be walking in any degree of darkness and have fellowship with God. While we are in that condition of darkness, we cannot have true fellowship with our brother either - for we are not real with him, and no one can have fellowship with an unreal person. A wall of reserve separates him and us.
Sermon Outline
- I. The Nature of Light and Darkness
- A. Light reveals, darkness hides
- B. Light makes manifest, darkness conceals
- II. The Effect of Sin in Our Lives
- A. Sin makes us try to hide what we are
- B. Sin involves duplicity, pretending, and excusing ourselves
- III. The Contrast Between God and Us
- A. God is light, the All-revealing One
- B. God is without darkness or hiding
- IV. The Impossibility of Fellowship with God in Darkness
- A. We cannot have true fellowship with God while walking in darkness
- B. We are not real with God or our brother in that condition
Key Quotes
“Whatsoever doth make manifest is light.” — Roy Hession
“God is light, that is, God is the All-revealing One, who shows up every man as he really is.” — Roy Hession
“In Him is no darkness at all,” — Roy Hession
Application Points
- We must be willing to be transparent and honest with God and our brother in order to have true fellowship.
- Sin and hiding are incompatible with true fellowship with God and our brother.
- God's revelation and light are essential for true fellowship with Him and our brother.