John, the apostle and author of the Gospel, wrote much of light and dark in his records of Jesus. He continued the theme in a letter we now know at 1 John:

God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

No shadiness with the Lord, or dealing from the bottom of the deck. No need for doorbell cameras to keep him honest. Forget to hide your credit cards? No problem. The contract contains no surprises.

I expect a wink at my unsavory proclivities. As Satan told Eve, Did God actually say…? God can’t really be that strict, can he? He surely doesn’t expect me to live by a standard only he himself meets?

Actually he does. When it comes to absolute purity, God means it. In him is no darkness at all, only stark raving brightness. I cannot carry my darkness into any relationship with him. Light only lives with light. But how do I drag my murky crevices to one who dwells in unapproachable light?

Fortunately, the one who proclaimed let there be light hands us a beacon of our own. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. As I open my pitch black corners to the Lord he forgives and renews.

It just takes admitting what I already know—I’m sinful and enjoy sitting in dark places—then humbly turning toward the keeper of the light. Thanks to God’s grace I can enjoy his brilliance, no longer finding it searing, but now warm and enveloping.

1 John 1 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Jeremy Bishop