Walking in the Light

 

God is Light, and there is No Darkness in Him at all. 1 John 1:5

When people bring the sins of others to Jesus, demanding a response; demanding what they believe to be justice, He turns his attention to the “accuser” addressing their sin, while showing mercy to those who are being accused:

There was a woman who was thrown at the feet of Jesus by a mass of people who were ready to stone her to death. As she lay at His feet, knowing her life may come to an end, the people addressed Jesus saying, “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

“No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” John 8:4-11

What I love about this story is it shows the Heart of God, God is Love. When we find ourselves or witness others accusing “others” for their sins, we see the Lord each and every time, show Mercy, as Mercy Always Triumphs over Judgment. James 2:13, There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.

When we step out of Love and choose to judge our brothers and sisters, we have stepped out of the Light (God is Light and in Him there is No Darkness) and into Darkness, and when we step out of that Light, we are stepping out of fellowship with the Father and Jesus Christ His Son, let’s take a look at this in scripture: 1 John 1:5-9 NLT,

This is the message we heard from Jesus, and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in darkness; we are not practicing the truthBut if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

In Order for God’s Presence and His Peace to be present in our Lives and in our churches (the body of Believers who Obey Jesus) there can be NO Darkness, there can be NO Hate. You may be saying, “Well, I don’t hate anyone.” Did you know that the Greek word for Hate is Indifference? Are you indifferent to others? Are you indifferent to people of color, or to those of a different race? Are you indifferent to groups that you do not agree with, are you indifferent to those whose lives are bound by Satan due to sin? When you see someone hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and in prison, or those who are homeless, do you pass by and think, “They made their bed…” That my friend is what it means to hate, that is what it means to be indifferent. Or maybe the thought of all the unborn children stirs you to anger. Did you know that the Word of God says, Anger works not the Righteousness of God. When we are indifferent to those whose lives are ensnared by sin, when we choose Judgment over Mercy, we have moved out of Light and into Darkness, we have made ourselves the Judge, and when we do this, we can no longer be in fellowship with God and His Son Jesus Christ.

Satan is the God of this World (2 Corinthians 4:4), He is the author of sin and death, and until he is thrown into the lake of fire for eternity, he will continue to be the god of the world, he will continue to be the Ruler of the Darkness of this World, spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6, Armor of God) and just as God who is Rich in Mercy extended His merciful hand of Kindness to us, we are commanded to extend that same mercy for others. We think we’re fighting people, we think our warfare is with sin, but Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, while he was in “chains” in prison, said, “Our warfare is not with people, our warfare is with Satan, the devil, our warfare is with spiritual wickedness in high places, and the Only way to overcome the Ruler of Darkness is by putting on the Armor of God, and part of that Armor is walking in the Light, Walking in Love.

There is no Darkness in God

When we judge others, when we accuse them of their sin (Satan is the Accuser of the brothers and sisters, Devil in the Greek is Diablos, which means, Accuser, slanderous) when we accuse others and slander them we are speaking and acting just like the devil and the Lord says, this should not be so. Our best example to follow is Jesus Himself. He is God come in the Flesh, (John 1)

If we are going to walk in the Light as He is in the Light, we must humble ourselves and repent, turn to God, and in doing this, as we turn from indifference, as we turn from acting like Satan and accusing others of their sin, the scriptures tell us we are Resisting the Devil and he flee’s, that means he runs away from the situation, why? Because Darkness and Light cannot be in the same arena, when Light, Love shows up on the scene, Darkness (the devil) flee’s for Love (Light) covers a multitude of sin, Light dispels Darkness. And when we walk in the Light as He, God is in the Light, we have “fellowship with one another, and the Blood of His Son Jesus Christ cleanses us from All sin.” Glory to God! We overcome darkness with Light, we overcome sin (our sin and the sins of others) by showing Mercy.  For Mercy Triumphs over Judgement.

If we want to walk with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit and Hear His voice, there can be no indifference toward anyone, there can only be Love:

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. 1 John 4:7-12.

Matthew 7:1-5, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.

“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eyec when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend,d ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.