Today, we continue in our study of the first epistle from the hand of John the Mender -- the man who was called to follow Jesus when he was mending his nets. That act became symbolic of the ministry of this man, the one who mends things, who calls us back to the truth of God's definition of things.
As we saw in our last devotional, John began by presenting to us a life, a life which appeared in history in the form of a person, a person who was touched and seen and heard and handled. He was, therefore, no mere figment of the imagination.
He was not invented through the longings wishful thinking. He lived and walked among us, John said. We touched him, we saw him, we heard him, we handled him.
The message he has declared to us is that there is a way to share this life today. There is a way that you can have a personal relationship with this person, today. And, when you do, John says, you will experience two wonderful things:
First, fellowship: The experience of having everything in common with Him dwelling in you. This will result in joy -- that excitement which is not subject to circumstances, but continues to burn within you.
This eternal life, as the Bible references it, will occur as we come to know this living God.
Now, going on, he says that this life was also a message.
What is the message of his life? "God is light and in him is no darkness at all."
The Gospel of John includes these words: "In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in darkness, and the darkness can never put it out," {John 1:4-5}. The Lord Jesus himself said, "I am the light of the world. If any man follow me, he shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life," {John 8:12}.
A life that is light. Again, he said, "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world and men love darkness and will not come to the light because their deeds are evil," {John 3:19}.
"God is light". Notice that John does not say, "Light is God." We cannot reverse it. If it were, "Light is God," then, those who worship that ball of gas which is suspended in midair some 93 million miles away from us are truer worshipers of God than we.
No, it says, "God is light." That means that what light is, on a physical plane, God is on every level of human experience. What light does, God does. What light accomplishes, God accomplish in our yielded lives. Light is the fastest thing known in the universe. And we have learned that light does three things: 1) light reveals, 2) light measures, and 3) light energizes.
Tomorrow, we will consider how God is like light which reveals. Then, the next day we will consider how He measures. Then, the next day, we will consider how He energizes His people.
Finally, the Apostle John was known as the Mender of nets and people. How did he get there? He had the LIGHT within.
