This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. - 1 John 1:5-10
Oooh, "walking in the light" - it has always seemed like a complicated process; kind of an idealist concept. I just realized that all my life I've read the verse as if it said "if we walk in perfection, as he is in perfection, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin... if he can find any."
Well, light doesn't mean perfection... sorry I'm a little slow. Here's what Paul says in Ephesians 5 about the true nature of light:
Therefore do not become partners with them [the sons of disobedience]; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.
Walking in the light is simply seeing things as they are. Light doesn't ignore or erase flaws, it only makes them more visible and honest. When we see ourselves in comparison with the light that is perfect, Jesus Christ, it's impossible to say we have no sin. That light is also how we are able to see others. We see other Christians exactly as they are in the light of Christ, which is to "in humility count others more significant than yourselves (Philippians 2:3)". We see the rest of the world as truly in darkness: and we discern how to delicately yet deliberately expose the darkness so that it can be made light.
