What Sneakers Do You Wear When You Walk in Darkness?

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life... that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and 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 Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:1-7)

A penetrating light exposes what we hide—not to condemn us, but to cleanse us.

A Challenging Passage

As I've read through this section over many weeks, I thought that if I were lecturing on this at a liberal arts university, I'd probably have to give what they call a trigger warning at the beginning. But the Bible doesn't really observe safe spaces. This is one of those challenging passages.

We are moving rather slowly through 1 John—three weeks in the opening verses already—and I think that's because God has something He wants to speak to us very clearly here.

The Context: John Against Early Gnosticism

This letter was written late in the first century, around 92-95 AD, a full 60 to 65 years after Jesus was crucified, buried, rose again, and after the establishing of the church we read about in Acts. By that point the doctrine of the church was already well developed.

The way John opens this letter is peculiar. It almost reads as if he keeps circling back, stuttering over what he wants to say. I make no statement about inspiration—I'm only describing how it reads—but there is a clear reason for it. John is writing to combat one of the earliest false teachings, a heresy that only fully took root in the second century, but whose seed was already sprouting in his day.

Most historians and Bible scholars believe John wrote from Ephesus. Ephesus takes a central place in the story of the early church. Paul planted the church there, wrote the letter to the Ephesians, and left his colaborer Timothy there to combat a false teaching that was starting to grow. Now, twenty to twenty-five years later, John is dealing with the same thing. That false teaching is what historians now call Gnosticism.

One Bible dictionary says, "Gnosticism holds that God cannot be observed with our senses nor easily grasped with our understanding." The basic premise was a dualistic world—a spiritual realm that is holy and perfect, and a physical realm that is evil, dark, and wicked. The two never touch. So the Gnostics said: you Christians teach that Jesus is God who came to this world, but the holy spiritual realm cannot mix with the fallen earthly realm. Therefore Jesus didn't really come in bodily form—he was just an apparition, a ghostly appearance.

Jesus Is God in the Flesh

But the church didn't teach that. Just before this letter John had written the Gospel of John, which opens with a powerful declaration of the incarnation—God becoming a man.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4)

The Greek word is logos. Among the Greeks the logos was a common concept, but John says it is not a thing—it is a person. And then a few verses later:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

The spiritual realm the Gnostics called holy and separate—the Word was there, but the Word became flesh and came to this earthly realm. And at the end of all four Gospels we have not just the incarnation but the death, burial, and bodily resurrection of Jesus. The Gnostics said he was just an apparition, not real, not physical, not tangible.

This is the point John drives home. Jesus is God in the flesh, come to enlighten a world in darkness. This is the core teaching of the New Testament. Jesus was not just a man, not a myth—secular and Christian historians alike agree he was an actual individual. He was not merely a good teacher, a miracle worker, or a prophet. From the very beginning the church taught that Jesus is God in the flesh.

"We Saw, We Heard, We Handled"

How do we know something is real? We perceive it with our senses. We see it. But our eyes can play tricks on us—we can be convinced we saw something that wasn't there. We hear it—but ears play tricks too. I'm down at the office on Fridays when it's quiet, and there are so many times I'm convinced I heard someone say, "Miles." "Yes, Lord, your servant listens!"

So John piles up his witness. "Which we have looked upon"—the word means to gaze with intent to discover, to examine. John is saying: I saw Jesus, I heard Him teach, I examined His teaching, I saw Him on the Sea of Galilee, I saw Him feed the multitude. "Which our hands have handled"—the disciples could touch and tell. He's not an apparition. I saw Him after His resurrection.

This is why he later writes:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist. (1 John 4:1-3)

Why does John write all this? "That you may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ... that your joy may be full." I received this message from Him, and I share it with you so that you can enjoy communion with the body of Christ, with God, and that your joy would be full.

The Message: God Is Light

What then is the message? "This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all." This is not the whole of the message, but it is the part John wants to drive home.

It is a message of light and darkness—not physical light and darkness, but a metaphor. And the meaning comes from Jesus Himself. After telling Nicodemus, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son," Jesus said:

And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. (John 3:19-20)

So darkness is the cover for wickedness—darkness equals sin and evil deeds; light equals righteousness, purity, and holiness. The Gnostics said God is perfect light that emanates but cannot fully touch the world. John says: not so. Light came into the world tangibly, physically, to expose darkness and to bring life.

When did John hear this message? At least on the day a woman caught in adultery was thrown down before Jesus. The scribes and Pharisees demanded that the law of Moses be carried out. Jesus stooped and wrote in the dust. He stood and said, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone," then wrote again. One by one, from the oldest to the youngest, they left, convicted.

Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?... Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more. (John 8:10-11)

He wasn't breaking the law—the law required at least two witnesses, and no one was left to condemn her. Then, in the very next verse, Jesus turned to His disciples:

I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. (John 8:12)

He said it again in John 9, before healing the man born blind who had lived his entire life in darkness. Jesus is the light of God that has come into the world, and in Him is no darkness at all. He is perfect light.

You Cannot Walk With Jesus and Walk in Darkness

What does that mean for us? "If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." This is where the reality of the light of God becomes challenging.

If you are a follower of Jesus, the Scriptures would call you a disciple—a student, a pupil, an obedient follower. And Jesus said, "He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness." Notice the wording. This is not a command in the imperative—"thou shalt not." In the Greek it is in the subjunctive: if you follow Me, you should not walk in darkness.

Actions speak louder than words. If we say with our words that we are united to Jesus—if we call ourselves Christians, followers of the way—but we walk in the practice of sin, then we lie and do not practice the truth. We lie to ourselves, we lie to others. Our words and our actions must align, or else we're living a lie.

You cannot walk with Jesus and walk in darkness. It is not possible to remain in fellowship with God and His church and walk in darkness at the same time. But we can certainly be guilty of trying.

How might we be walking in darkness? Maybe you're hiding your spending habits from your spouse. Maybe you're hiding your online history. Maybe you're hiding the problems in your marriage from those who could pray for you and counsel you. Maybe you're hiding explicit text messages, or that you're using again, or that you got a DUI, or that you've defrauded your business partner, or your true intentions toward the person you've been dating. Whatever it may be, hiding these things may indicate you're not walking in alignment with the one you say you follow.

But here's the amazing thing about the light of God: it is penetrating. God shines His light into the person who says, "I want to follow you," and exposes those things—for a very good purpose, as we'll see.

Three Things You Need to Know

If today the light of God exposes that you're walking in darkness, there are three things you need to know.

First, your way is not hidden from God. Twenty-seven hundred years ago Isaiah lived among people who went to the temple regularly with offerings—not just words, but a lamb slaughtered before them as a display that sin is so terrible it requires life to deal with. Yet through the week they kept idols in their homes and thought they were getting away with it.

Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the LORD, and their works are in the dark; they say, "Who sees us?" and, "Who knows us?" Surely you have things turned around! (Isaiah 29:15-16)

No one knows about your hidden sin? God knows.

Second, your sin will find you out. "Be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23). Jesus said, "For nothing is secret that will not be revealed" (Luke 8:17). Paul said, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap" (Galatians 6:7).

Third, your secret sins are destroying you, those you love, and the church. "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" (1 Corinthians 5:6). We'd say yeast—a small amount grows, permeates, and multiplies until the whole thing rises. In Joshua 7, when Israel entered Jericho, God said nothing of the city was to be taken; it was a dedicated offering. But Achan saw silver, gold, and a beautiful garment and said, "I have to have those." He hid them, and the whole nation experienced judgment. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

Choose This Day to Walk in the Light

So what do we do? "But 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." There's the good news.

Choose this day to walk in the light. Moses, in his final message to Israel in Deuteronomy, said, "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live." Walk in God's law and experience His blessings; walk against it and experience cursing. A conditional prediction: if you do this, then this.

Yet very quickly Israel returned to the idol worship of their fathers. So near the end of his life, Joshua gathered the people again:

Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served... choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve... But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:14-15)

Choose to walk in the light. Yes, walking in the light may mean that you are exposed—for the sinner you are. But here is the great truth: we are all sinners, and God's exposing light exposes us not so that He can condemn, but so that He can cleanse. Isaiah said, "Come, and let us walk in the light of the LORD" (Isaiah 2:5).

Repentance, Confession, and Faith

How do we walk in the light and experience His cleansing?

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

All of it. We walk in the light by repentance, confession, and faith, and He cleanses us by His forgiving grace. This is why this message is gospel—good news. The bad news is that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And our sin nature, our flesh, and the enemy—the accuser of the brethren, the father of lies—constantly tell us: don't come to the light, don't be exposed, hide it, keep it hidden in the tent. But God says: come into the light.

That word "confess" is fascinating. In the original it's the Greek compound homologeō—homo means "same," logeō means "to say." It means to say the same thing, to agree. It's to bring it out into the open and agree with God: "This is sin before you. It is unrighteousness."

Our culture may say it's fine. Our culture says you can do all kinds of immoral things that are perfectly legal. But God says, "I want you to walk in the light and experience my grace and forgiveness and fellowship—and you cannot while you are holding on to these things." So I bring it down. My sin nature and my culture may say this is fine, that it harms nobody and nobody knows. But I'm going to say the same thing as God: this is wrong, and it's the very thing destroying my life. So I confess it.

And what does God do? He is faithful to pardon, forgive, and cleanse. You do not have to walk in darkness. You do not have to live disconnected from true fellowship with God and His church. You do not have to keep walking in a lie—and there is no joy in a lie. You can have the joy of Christ's righteousness and the fullness of His forgiving grace.

That word "cleanse" shares its root with the word Jesus uses in John 15: "I am the vine, you are the branches... every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit." To prune is to cleanse. God wants your life, my life, and this church to bear much fruit—love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control. That can't happen if we're holding on to dead, unfruitful branches. So He shines the light, and as we confess, He takes it away, forgives, and cleanses us so we bear much fruit.

What's the first step? Step into the light and say, "God, will you forgive me?" And He says yes—on the basis of the death of Jesus on the cross. He is the propitiation for our sins, the payment, so that God can pardon and cleanse us.

Closing Prayer

Father, here in this place right now I pray that your light from your word would shine into our hearts and minds and expose those areas. God, you have an amazing ability by your Spirit to put your finger right on the thing in our lives that is offending you and holding us back from enjoying the fellowship we have with you. These things we hold in the darkness of our hearts destroy and hinder our walk; they keep us from worshipping you, from being witnesses of you in this world, and they ruin our walk, our worship, and our witness.

God, I pray that you would shine into our lives and expose those things so that we could come before you right now and bring them to you, saying, "God, will you please forgive me?" We thank you for your forgiving grace—that when we confess and ask you to forgive us, you say yes. So we come before you now and say: forgive us, and help us to be a fruitful people, shining your light to this world, because we are those who walk in the light with you, in fellowship with one another. We praise you, Jesus. It's in your name we pray. Amen.