We'll now proceed with the exposition of 1 John by Arthur W. Pink, Chapter 6, Fulness of Joy, 1 John 1, verse 4. They desire that their converts should be bright and buoyant Christians, whose heart would rise above the trials and troubles of this life, rejoicing in the Lord, finding the satisfying and everlasting portion in Him. They, one and all, in both their oral and written ministry, employed themselves in setting forth the person and perfections, the offices and work, the lordship and example of the Christ of God, knowing full well that it was only by means of the spiritual knowledge of His Excellency and interest in His salvation, the maintaining of a close walk and daily communion with Him, that fullness of joy would be experienced in the soul of those whose welfare they had so much at heart. Those words that year joy may be full, were not penned by an inexperienced visionary or a youthful dreamer aglow with an enthusiasm which would shortly be dampened by bitter disillusionment. Instead, they were written by a very aged person who was thoroughly acquainted with the dark side of life, with the sins and sorrows which beset a Christian, and he knew that it was through much tribulation that any entered into the kingdom of God, Acts 14, 22. But it was no mere natural emotion he had referenced, and exuberance of spirit suited only to high festivals and enthusiasm raised to a point of excitement. Radically different is the spiritual joy which he had in view. This is the divine grace communicated to and situated in the depths of the soul which the storms of this world cannot reach. It is something which is suited to everyday life and work, for it is a calm and serene frame of mind as well as a happy state of heart. Far more was implied than actually expressed in John's language. For where fullness of joy existed, there is a separation from the world, a close fellowship with God in Christ, a treading of wisdom's ways, and thus the Lord is honored and his people helped. Fellowship with the Lord is the grand marvel of redemption, and a fullness of joy and redeemed is its crowning blessing. In Christ there is matter for perpetual light. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound parenthesis of the gospel, they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day, and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. Psalms 89, 15, 16. Such is a believer's right and privilege if it be not actually realized in his experience, the fault is all his own. The ministers of the word are helpers of your joy. 2 Corinthians 124. The one who feeds thereon will exclaim, Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart. Jeremiah 15, 16. How the heart is gladdened by answered prayers. Psalm 116, 1. We have great reason to call the Sabbath the delight. Isaiah 58, 13. To rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118, 24. Contemplations of God's perfections My mediation of him shall be sweet, I will be glad in the Lord." Psalm 104, 34. The one who is baptized should go on his way rejoicing. Acts 3, 8, 39. The Lord's Supper is a spiritual feast for the everlasting of the Christian's heart. Piety, peace, and joy are what ought most to characterize the saint. To worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Philippians 3, 3 are the marks of the true circumcision. There are three things in connection with that rejoicing. First, an apprehension of our saving interest in Christ and of the glorious benefits we have by him. For otherwise, how can we glory in him? Second, corresponding affections which result therefrom. Love to him, exaltation of soul, feasting upon him, joy in him. Third, an open expression of the same, evidencing that our satisfying portion in Him has made us lose all relish for the things of the world. What we prize most best demonstrates what we are, for where a man's treasure is, there will his heart be also. Matthew 6.21 Each of us is discovered by his complacency or displacency. They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit do the things of the Spirit. Romans 8.5. Thus to be comparatively miserable manifests a Christian to be in a back-student state and places a question mark on the genuineness of his profession. A miserable believer is no credit to Christ and has a depressing effect upon his brother. The advantages and benefits of spiritual joy are real, many, and great. It diffuses sunshine over the whole life, supplying vigor for service, lightening our cares, animating our conflicts, and making obedience a delight. Joy enlarges the heart and quickens us in the way of God. The joy of the Lord is your strength, Nehemiah 8.10. It overcomes that natural deadness and dullness in holy duties which arise partly from indwelling corruption and partly from the remission of our wills toward heavenly things. But when there is rejoicing in Christ, irksome and difficult tasks become pleasant and easy. The joy of the Lord is His cordial to fortify us against the infelicities and calamities of this world, whether they be the common afflictions incident to man or persecutions for righteousness' sake, making bitter things sweet to us. See Habakkuk 3, 17, 18. It enables us to bear opposition and reproaches with courage and constancy. They departed rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. Acts 5, 41. It greatly encourages and cheers our fellows. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord, the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. Psalm 34, 2. We cannot prosper in our soul, nor flourish in the house of the Lord, unless we be assured of that peace which He has made by the blood of His cross, and are daily delighting ourselves in Him. Yet though the Savior has not only made His redeemed secure for eternity, but would have them happy in time, The fact remains that many of them are frequently oppressed with dullness and despondency. God does not appear to be the light of their continents, and their spirits seem to have caught little of heaven's luster. If they be children of light and of day, why is it that they so often are gloomy and cast down, and manifest so little of their brightness, which should mark those who have been given everlasting consolation and good hope through grace?" 2 Thessalonians 2.16. No doubt cases differ considerably, and a variety of causes account for the failure of so many to enjoy their birthright. Space will permit us to name only two or three of the principal hindrances. Prominent among them is the defective ministry. In view of our text, we place this first. How few ministers could warmly say, These things preach we unto you, that your joy may be full. What numbers of them are almost forever talking about the increased wickedness which is in the world, the likelihood of another war, the menace of the atom bomb, or the waning spirituality of the churches, things that tend to horrify rather than edify, to depress rather than delight their hearers. Many others confine themselves very largely to a dwelling upon the shortcomings and failures of God's people as though it were most desirable for them to cherish doubts and fears. Others are all for the performance of duty and discharge of obligations which as stressed disproportionately, can but promote a proud and legal spirit. There is so very little of that preaching of Christ which draws out the renewed heart unto him, which leads to a closer walking and more intimate communing with him, and which not only fills the saints with joy, but at the same time instills a deeper abhorrence of sin and inspires a stronger desire to honor and please him. Second, the lack in many Christians of a definite assurance of their acceptance How can one experience the peace of being reconciled to God, or the joy of knowing his sins are forgiven while he be constantly debating whether or not he be his child? Not a few of his people dishonor the Father's gift to them of his Son, in whom they have redemption and eternal life, by not estimating that gift at its true value. They do not take God at his word, and believe that the death of Christ has canceled all the guilt of his people, that he will by no means cast out any sinner who comes to him for salvation, and that through him they have full access and welcome to the Father's house and heart. They have not really learned the first lesson of the gospel, a sufficiency of divine love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the perpetuation for our sins, 1 John 4, 9, 10. And consequently they withheld from him that full confidence with the manifestation of such love calls for and what he delights to receive from those upon whom he has bestowed such favors. Third, even when a Christian is well assured of his salvation, he may dim and dampen the joy of it by failing to walk as a child of light, Ephesians 5, 8. To do so, he must cast off the untruthful works of darkness, so far and so soon as he discovers them to be such. God hates sin and sent his Son to save us from sin. If then we turn again to folly, yield to the lust of the flesh, allow evil in our hearts and minds, then the Holy One will withdraw from us in the light of His comments. Yet, even in this case, He has made most gracious provisions for our immediate and complete restoration to the knowledge of His favor and joy, and the joy of His smile. 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 The moment any emotion, thought, or deed is revealed to us as sin, we should penitently confess the same. and then rejoice in the divine declaration that the blood of Christ has washed away all the stain of it. Thus, if we live up to our holy privilege, not even our sins should cloud the sunshine of God's love or destroy the happy consciousness that He dwells in us and we in Him. When John penned the words, These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full, it is highly probable that he had in mind those statements which he had heard from his master. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy may be full, John 15, 11. These things speak I in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves, in John 17, 13. It is to be carefully observed that both these utterances fell from the lips of the Savior upon the night of his betrayal. Yet remarkable and blessed it is to hear, with the terrific crucifixion stirring him to face, to hear him speaking of his joy. What a proof of that spiritual joy is in no wise created or regulated by circumstances or external conditions. And how those striking declarations ought to correct a one-sided view of which only too many have taken of Christ their full life. Here, too, there is a balance to be preserved. He was indeed a man of sorrows and an equator with grief, in a measure and in a degree which none else ever has been or can be. for his human sensibilities were more refined than ours. His were undulled by sin, and therefore he felt the effects of sin more keenly and had a greater capacity for pain than we have. The sorrows and sufferings of Christ for many were poignant and inconceivable. He could not be otherwise with one of infant purity surrounded by those who were hostile to God and enduring the contradiction of sinners against himself. And while we must also keep sight of the fact and be deeply affected with the same in our souls, it is not to exclude from our view and thoughts the other side of his experience. Because he was a man of sorrows, we are not to conclude that he was a miserable and melancholy person, that during the years he trod this earth he was a stranger into joy. Admittedly, we enter here the realm of mystery and need to tread very cautiously and reverently with unshodden feet. yet we must not close our eyes to what is clearly revealed in the scriptures. Not only must we bear in mind that the one who then tabernacled in this scene of wickedness was God as well as man, not only need we to distinguish sharply between what he endured officially and what he experienced personally, but we are also required to take into careful consideration what is said of him in the Psalms as well as in the Gospels if we are to obtain the complete picture. that the Lord Jesus possessed a real, deep, and abiding joy is clear not only from his own utterances in John 15 and 17, but is equally evident from other considerations. He could aver, the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup, and add, therefore, my heart is glad, Psalm 16, 5, 9. Jehovah was unto him a fount of ceaseless consolation. As the connection between 1 John 1, 3, 4, in parts joy is inseparable from fellowship, and since the Son enjoyed unbroken fellowship with the Father until the three hours of darkness, fullness of joy must have been experienced by Him. Again Christ found infinite satisfaction in discharging the commission assigned to Him, My need is to do the will of Him that sent Me and to finish His work. John 4.34 God's commandments were never irksome or grievous to Him in the slightest degree, but rather were most blessed As his, I delight to do thy will, O my God. Psalm 48. Attest. Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness. Proverbs 3, 17. And Christ ever walked therein. He found his joy in concurring with the Father's appointments. Since God had ordered his lot, though he had not worked like his head, he declared, The lions are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Psalm 16, 6. Contemplating a Father as Lord of heaven and earth, sovereignly handling the truth from one and revealing it to another, Christ rejoiced in spirit and said, Even so, Father, for it seemed good in thy sight. Think not, then, of Christ during his earthly life as but a man of sorrows. Contemplate him, too, as one who was filled with joy, that the two things are in no wise incompatible, as clear from the apostles' experience, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Christ's joy consisted not only in the things which we have mentioned above, but also in the assurance of the Father's approbation that was ever his, that he did always those things that pleased him, John 8, 29. He found, too, unspeakable comfort in his consciousness of the Father's abiding presence. He that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone, John 8, 29. Since holiness and happiness were inseparably co-joined, Deep joy must have been the portion of the Holy One, for He ever walked in the light of God's countenance. Hot joy was His in the saving of sinners, appears from His laithet, or, parenthesis, recovered sheep, on His shoulders rejoicing, Luke 15, 5. Finally, He endured the cross, for the joy that was set before Me, He was felt too. In faith's apprehension and hope's anticipation of the reward of His perfect work, He rejoiced. We come now to the question, Is fullness of joy attainable by the Christian in this life? Assuredly it must be, or John had never written our present text. Assuredly it must be, for why did the Lord Jesus say unto his disciples, These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. John 15, 11. Therein Christ told of the fullness of his own heart, intimating his desire, connecting his own. If it were not attainable, then why has the Savior also bidden us, Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. John 16, 24. Ah, is not the littleness and feebleness of our joy due to the paucity of our faith in the smallness of our hope? Has not the Eternal Lover of our souls freely invited us? Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly. Song of Solomon 5, 1. If fullness of joy be not experienced by us, then certainly we are living far below our privileges. The straightness is in ourselves and not in him or his revealed will. The Lord knows all about our temperaments, circumstances, trials, and corruptions, yet notwithstanding, bids us rejoice every more, 1 Thessalonians 5.16, having made full provision for us to do so. Did not this same John say to those whom he addressed in the second epistle, I trust to come unto you and speak face to face? that our joy may be full, verse 12, nor can we legitimately set aside the force of all those passages by saying they express the ideal rather than the actual that they set before us the standard of which we are to aim and not what is realized by any soul in this time state. Such an evasion is that once ruled out of court by Acts 13.52, and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit, and they were men subject to like temptations and passions as we are. As pardoned sinners accepted in Christ, made sons and heirs of God, we should rejoice in the Lord always. We must not be content with a fitful unoccasional joy, but rather see to it that we keep this holy fire ever aflame upon the altar of our hearts. It is both our privilege and our right to feed and feast upon the Lamb and satisfy our souls unto a holy satiety. Throughout our exposition of 1 John 1 4 we have followed the authorized version, but a word requires to be said upon the revised rendering that our, the Apostles, joy may be full. Really it comes to the same thing, for the joy of the minister is largely bound up in the spiritual prosperity of those to whom he ministers, their happiness being mutual. Paul called the Philippians his joy and crown, for one, and said of the Thessalonians, You are our glory and joy, 1 Thessalonians 2.20. While John said to those addressed in the second epistle, I rejoice greatly that I have found of thy children walking in truth, verse 4. And in his third epistle, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth, verse 4. As the saints are partakers of the joy of God's so they in turn have theirs, for they rejoice in the same Savior. Chapter 7, Light and Darkness, 1 John 1, 5, 6. This, then, is the message which we have heard of Him in declaring to you that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. Verse 5. We shall now consider first the connection of this verse with the immediately preceding ones, Its bearing on the epistle as a whole will be shown under our acquisition of verse 6. Second, its message or assertion. Third, its scope in view of the teaching of scripture on light and darkness. Fourth, its design or the reason why this declaration is here made. The advanced version is rather misleading, for the then suggests that the apostle is drawing an inference or pointing out a consequence from what he had stated previously. But such is not the case. The literal meaning of the Greek is, and this is the message, and is so rendered in the Baxter's Interlinear and the Revised Version. The opening end intimates not only a direct connection between this verse and the foregoing ones, but a continuation of the same subject. As usually, the Holy Spirit has graciously hung the key on the door for us by announcing the theme of this epistle in its opening verse, and namely, fellowship with God, with the Apostles, with fellow Saints. Considering that fellowship, we have already seen that it has been made possible by the Son of God becoming incarnate and giving His people an experiential knowledge of Himself as the Word of Life. It is regeneration which capacitates us to enter into this inestimable privilege. Not only is it a fellowship of spiritual life, but also, in truth, consisting of a saving knowledge of Christ and the Father. It is likewise a glad fellowship which, if entered into intimately and constantly, produces fullness of joy. Now we are informed it is a holy fellowship, for it is exercised only in the light. The blissful fellowship which the Apostle was speaking of is radically different from anything known to natural man. The joy of which it produces is greatly superior to any experience by the senses. It is in no wise carnal, but holy spiritual. It transcends all natural emotions. It was necessary to insist upon this so that neither congenial social intercourse nor religious excitement should be mistaken for it. There has always been a mixed multitude who attach themselves to the people of God, making a profession of Christ and claiming to enjoy communion with God. While this fellowship is open and free for all who are partakers of the Holy Spirit, yet no unregenerate person can participate in this high favor. It was therefore a point of great practical importance that the Apostle should make a clear statement thereon as to guard against all erroneous conceptions of it and its joy. Thus he does by most searching description of the one with whom such communion is had and by the solemn assertion that if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie. Again, one can perceive almost at a glance that and this is a message which we have heard of him and declare unto you is intimately related to the contents of the previous verses. Both in the first and third verses John had made mention of what he and his fellow apostles had heard from that blessed one who had been made manifest unto them and what it was their mission to declare unto his redeemed, verse 3. And now he gives an epitomized statement of what Christ had made known unto them, this is the message, the Revised Version rendering it preferably heard from Him, for it is not merely something about Christ which the Apostles proclaimed, but rather what they actually heard from His own lips. The from Him clearly has reference to the Incarnate Word, because He is the principal person spoken of in the immediate context, because he was the sender of the apostles and because he is the next antecedent in verse three. The apostles and ministers of the gospel are the messengers of the Lord Jesus, and it is their business to communicate his mind and will to the churches and to the world. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached to me is not after man, for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ, Galatians 1, 11, 12. The Greek term translated message has several different shades of meaning when rendered into the English. Young defines it as promise, for that word in 2 Peter 3.13 is derived from the same root and indicates its benign character. In Acts 22.30 it is translated commandment, which emphasizes its orderly nature. These agree with the first two statements made in the New Testament concerning our Lord's oral ministry. His hearers wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, Luke 4.22, the people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having authority, Matthew 7.28.29. But here in our text it is used to express the sum of the revelation communicated by him. John here puts into a terse sentence what the apostles had gathered from Christ's announcements. Or if we place the emphasis on, and this is the message which we have heard from him, its force would be, this was the dominant and central doctrine our Master proclaimed, around which all others rotated and from which all others issued. This message was one of the greatest importance, both in itself and also in the consequences of it, for it respected the ineffable purity of the divine nature and the imperishable glory of the same. John's style here is similar to his opening words in the Apocalypse the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to show unto his servants what he sent, unto his servant John, who bare the record of the word of God. As the Son said unto the Father, I have given them the words which you gave me. So they in turn communicated the same unto their converts. See 2 Timothy 2.2. Christ came here to declare and reveal the true and living God, John 1.18, and John here summarizes his teaching. This is the message which we have heard from him, and declare unto you that God is light. This was not a discovery which the apostles made for themselves, nor an inference which they drew from the divine works and ways. No, it was an authoritative communication which they had received from the Savior, and therefore is to be accepted without question. We heartily agree with J. Morgan, who said of the substance of this message, Its simplicity and comprehensiveness are amazing. It is so simple a child perceives its meaning while it is so comprehensive as to render full exposition of it impossible. God is indefinable, because to define is to limit, and to speak of limiting infinitude is an absurdity. Names are ascribed to God in Scripture and attributes that they convey only some faint notions of His exalted perfections, but sufficient is revealed to preserve the mind from vain imaginations or gross conceptions of His being. Man knows nothing of God, and can know nothing except what He has revealed. In condescension to our capacity, God has revealed Himself under names and notions which may best strike our senses, the channel of all our reasoning, and the medium by which we know. 3 statements are made, we dare not call them definitions, concerning what God is in Himself, which, for want of better terms, may be said to tell us something of His nature or character, and they should be reverently pondered in the order in which they occur in Scripture. God is Spirit, John 4.24, God is Light, 1 John 1.5, and God is Love, 1 John 4.8. God is Spirit. The absence of the article in the Greek imports that God is Spirit in the highest sense. The indefinite article in the English, A Spirit, is objectionable because it places deity in a class with others. He is Spirit, absolutely and alone source of spirit. The word spirit signifies a man's lisping speech, air, or breath, or wind being that subtle fluid by the respiration of which all things live. What the air is in motion in the natural world that the divine spirit is in the spiritual world. The Deity is revealed under the name of Spirit in order to declare that all existence, both corporate and incorporate, derive their spiritual life and being from Him. He is Spirit in the fount, the creatures are only so as streams proceeding from Him. Acero wrote that. Life is a principle or power to act or move, planet in the substance or being. A living creature, then, is one which can act from within itself, yet is wholly dependent upon its giver the living God, the author and sustainer of life. Negatively, God his spirit signifies that he is both incorporeal and invisible. That declaration was necessary in order to correct the erroneous view entertained by those Jews and Samaritans who had from the elaborate Richard of Judaism formed the wrong concept of God. It was Jehovah himself who ordained the imposing furnishings of the tabernacle and temple and with their vessels of silver and gold, their brightly colored curtains, the gorgeous vestments of the high priest. But these things were never intended to intimate that the great God derived any personal satisfaction from them. Rather were they appointed as types and emblems of Christ. The Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, Acts 7.48, nor is he charmed by elaborate services therein. God is spirit, immaterial, and therefore not sensual or influenced by the senses. God cannot be gratified with carnal things. It is not costly architecture, beautiful music, lovely flowers, fragrant incense which pleases the eyes, ears, and nostrils of the creature, but that which issues from renewed hearts, he requires. God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth, spiritually and sincerely. God is light, tells us very much more than the former statement. God is not only light, but light itself, absolute, essential, infinite. the source of all light. Scripture speaks of God in a peculiar and immediate relation to light. The pillar of fire was a symbol of his presence with Israel in the wilderness. Daniel tells us his throne was like the fiery flames. 7.9 Habakkuk declares his brightness was as the light. 3.4 The palmist of hers, who covers thyself with light as with a garment, Psalm 104.2, on which Spurgeon remarked, The concept is sublime, but it makes us feel how altogether inconceivable the personal glory of the Lord must be. If light itself is but His garment and veil, what must be the blazing splendor of His own essential being? Perhaps the nearest we can come in framing an answer to that question is to employ the words of 1 Timothy 6.16, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, which no man has seen nor can see. And in James 1.17 he is denominated the Father of Light. God is light, expresses all the excellency and glory of deity. It is to be taken in its widest sense as including the divine essence and the three persons therein, for though the Father be primarily in view, yet the Son and the Spirit are equally possessed of the divine nature, and therefore are equally light. God is light is a word to search and ask, for we were sometimes darkness, Ephesians 5a. Such being our woeful condition by nature, But it is also a word to gladden and warm us, for light shines for the benefit of others, as darkness is wrapped up in itself. Thus there is the gospel in this word, for it tells us that deity has been pleased to reveal and make himself known to men. Light maketh all things visible on which it falls and from which it is reflected, but it becomes visible itself only in radiant points or disks, like that of the insufferable sun from which it floods the world. So God is unknown except in the person of Christ, Jesus Samaritan. That is why Christ designated himself the light of the world and why prophecy pointed to him as the son of righteousness, Matthew 4.2, for where he is unknown, men sit in darkness and in the region of the shadow and shadow of death, Matthew 4.16. A supreme thing in the physical world is light. Apart from this, there could hardly be a world at all, for all life and movement depend on it. It was the first of God's creations, and it is the last thing that will fade before the approaching glory of the New Jerusalem. And yet of all things, light is the most mysterious. The distance of the sun from the earth can be measured, the rate at which light travels across space can be gauged, and rays can be passed through the prisms, divided and analyzed. But the sun itself still dwells in light inaccessible. No eye can search its burning depths, and no mind can wrest from it its profound secret, El Palma. God is light. He is all the beauty and perfection that can be represented to us by light. He is self-acting, uncompounded, spirituality, purity, wisdom, holiness, and glory, and then the absoluteness and fullness of that excellency and perfection, T. Reynolds. Most appropriate and comprehensive is the metaphor here used, God is light, as a summarized expression of the divine perfection. It tells us that he is a living God, for the rays of the sun exert a quickening influence, being a minister of vigor, health, and growth to all creatures. It is the parent of all fruitfulness for those regions, the poles where the sun scarcely shines, that all are barren waste, so it is spiritually. It announces that God is a most gracious being, for light is a thing of luster, dazzling the eyes of its beholder. It proclaims God's excellency, truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun, Ecclesiastics 11 7. If it be a pleasant thing to behold the natural light, how much more so for the eyes of faith to behold the king and his beauty. It declares that he is a beneficent being, the fount of all blessedness. Light is a source of helpfulness and gladness to all who bask in its bright and genial rays. No beauty can appear anywhere without the light. excluded, and all charm once disappears from every object. Nor can there be any beauty in the soul until God commands the light to shine in our hearts. 2 Corinthians 4.6. More distinctly, light is an emblem of God's holiness. Light is simple or pure, and it is neither mixture nor pollution, nor can there be. Its very nature and property repels defilement. It traverses unstained, each object and medium of uncleanliness. Snow is so bright that there is no other whiteness equal to it, but man's step mars and defiles it. Water sprinkles brightly as it issues from the spring, but man's hands soil it. But none can make light's purity less pure. Such is God in his ineffable purity. Again, light is a symbol of God's omnipresence, for it is diffused throughout all creation, scattering its rays everywhere. In like manner, Do not I fell heaven and earth, saith the Lord, which made the psalmist exclaim, Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? Light is on the hill and in the valley, on sea and on land, in the city and in the desert. With its crystal fingers it clasps the round earth and throws its mantle of brightness over all worlds. In most striking way, light also adumbrates God's omniscience, not only because it is a figure of the knowledge and wisdom, but because of its searching power, entering into every corner and cranny of creation, revealing the hidden things of darkness. All things that are discovered, margin, are made manifest by the light, Ephesians 5.13. Light is all-revealing, equally so are the rays of divine holiness, detecting sin and unshaking the world as a monster lying in the wicked one. as light reveals, so nothing can be hidden from God. He cannot be deceived, but sees things as they actually are. Our motives and aspirations are as pliable to Him as our bodies. O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising. Thou understandest my thoughts afar off, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but though, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee, But the night shineth as the day, the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. Psalms 139, 1 through 4, and verse 12. In scripture, darkness and light are used in quite a number of figurative senses. Among them is signifying ignorance and knowledge, Ephesians 5, 8. A state of nature and a state of grace, 1 Peter 2, 9. Heaven, Colossians 1, 12, and hell, Matthew 25, 30. Thus, God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all, and necessitates and draws the essential moral distinction between good and evil, holiness and sin, innocence and guilt. It also intimates that it is possible for creatures, yea, fallen creatures, to have fellowship with God, for light is diffusive, self-communicating, shining upon and illumining dark bodies. Therein lies both its beneficence and its ascendancy over the darkness, as in Genesis 1, 2, and 3. But more, this most comprehensive message elucidates the whole plan of redemption wherein God acted throughout in this character, both exhibiting his opposition to the darkness and yet triumphing over it. In the person of his Son, the Light came to save those in darkness, yet preserving inviolable his own ineffable purity. Nor was there any surrender of the Light to the darkness, no concession, and no compromise. For when made sin, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, God spared not his own son. Likewise, we are made to hate sin and repent before forgiveness is ours. Salvation is not only a miracle of grace, but a triumph of holiness. And in him is no darkness at all. In the Greek, there is a double negative. God is absolutely perfect. There is no blemish, no ignorance, no sin, no limitation, not contrary to his perfection, nothing to mar or dim the splendor of his character, no possibility of any deterioration, for with the Father of Light there is no bearableness, neither shadow of turning." James 117. God is light, which is never clouded, which never wanes. Therein we behold his paramount excellence. How radically different is the true and living God from every God of human invention or conception. While the heathen enjoy their imaginary deities with certain virtues, They also attributed some vice or other to them. In the God of pantheism and other systems of philosophy, the distinction between good and evil is only seeming and relative and not real and absolute, for He is identified as much with one as the other. Hence, once more, we have illustrated the uniqueness of Holy Writ, for here alone is one made known to us in whom there is no darkness at all. That could not be said of the holy angels whom he charged with folly, Job 418, because prior to their establishment in holiness they were liable to fall. Nor could it be said of Adam in his innocency, for his holiness was but a mutable one. But God is immutably holy, impeccable, for he cannot be tempted with evil, James 113. We cannot conceive of the least defect in God for his holiness is his very being and not a super-added thing like ours. God is light. He not only clothes himself with the light and dwells in the light, but he himself is light, only light, and there is nothing in him but light. Now to make this affirmation yet more emphatic, the negative is added to the positive, and in him is no darkness at all. No kind of darkness in any degree of manner whatever falls under the appellation of darkness is excluded from his being. This has the value of intimating that we are to regard the term light in its widest possible latitude and not to restrict it to holiness, for the anathesis darkness includes more than sin. No element enters into his light to obscure it. There is no limit to his knowledge and no stain on his holiness and no hindrance to his blessedness. The design of the apostle in verse 5 may be briefly summarized thus. First, to indicate the nature of that fellowship with which the saints are called, it is a holy one in the light, that is, its distinctive character and is necessarily determined by the nature of God. Second, to impress upon believers the deep reverence of the divine majesty, that is, light cannot mix with darkness, so they cannot converse with God except that their hearts are in a suitable frame and their minds filled with proper apprehensions of the great, holy, and glorious being they are approaching. Third, to intimate to all succeeding generations of Christians that the holiness of God shines in and through every doctrine, every part of the truth, every ordinance He has appointed. Fourth, to prepare His readers for what follows in His epistle. Chapter 8 Light and Darkness 1 John 1 5 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. In those words we have a lofty avertment, claiming to have fellowship with God. Two, a flat contradiction, walk in darkness. Three, a solemn indictment, such are denounced as liars. Four, a sweeping inclusion, the we taking in the apostles themselves, if the cap fitted, they too must wear it. The connection between this verse and the one immediately following With verse 5, may be readily perceived, John is writing on the subject of fellowship and having described the character of the one with whom that fellowship is had, he makes application of his message into two radically different classes which together make up what is known as Christendom or the Kingdom of Heaven. In the parable Matthew 13 and 25, one through ten, which includes tares as well as wheat, bad fishes as well as good, foolish virgins as well as wise ones. The first class comprises those who have a name to live, but are dead. The second, those who actually possess spiritual life. More specifically, the relation of verse 6 to verse 5 is that here we hold the light, detecting and exposing what is contrary thereto. Since in God there be no darkness at all, true piety is to be distinguished from its counterfeit by a walking in the light. By this criterion, or test, must we judge all who claim to hold converse with God, their characters must harmonize with His. In verse 6, John was not referring to the unregenerate as such, but to unrenewed professors who boast of their enjoying communion with the triune God. It was not the openly wicked and profane which he had in view, but those who unwarnably bore the name of Christians, those who were in church fellowship. In his day, as now, there were in the Christian assemblies those who were born of God and those who were not so. This is clear from the mention in 2.19, they were not from us, but they were not of us. original members, later apostates. Jude refers to certain men who crept in unawares, ungodly men, who were turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, verse 4. Hence, there was a real and pressing need for a lip professant to be tested by the character of daily life. This is done here by immediately following up on the statement in verse 5 by a solemn warning against self-perception, insisting that fellowship with God is to be gauged by a conformity unto Him in holiness and righteousness. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes and videos at great discounts is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at S-W-R-B at S-W-R-B dot C-O-M, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue, Edmonton, that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N, Alberta, abbreviated capital A capital B, Canada. T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Kelvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart, from his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions. since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important. When he says, that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.