GOD IS LIGHT
By A. Gene Veal

“This is the message we have heard from Jesus and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” 1John 1:5

When you ask the question, “Who is God?” the most common answer is, “God is Love.”  The idea of God is too often a grandfatherly, cuddly type of deity.  The problem here is not the phrase itself but the meaning we attach to the word “love”.  The Scriptures tell us “love” cannot be understood apart from “light” and given our culture’s warped view of love, it will be beneficial to consider how the connection of love with light gives us a more balanced idea of God.

In another article I pointed out that in our daily life as Christians we tend to become however we perceive God to be.  That is to say, whoever God is and however God acts is for us the perfect picture of what we are supposed to be.  It is no wonder, then, that a good many believers practice a spineless “tolerance” and a “do-goodism” simply because love, to them, is equivalent to uncritical acceptance.  Thus, it is thought that God being love means He uncritically accepts everyone and thus accepts everything they believe.

Before the Scriptures declare that "God is love" in chapter four of John’s epistle, John takes great effort to show first of all that “GOD IS LIGHT”.  He said, “This is the message we have heard from Jesus and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1:5).  This verse sets up the central message of the entire epistle showing us that God’s character demands certain characteristics of anyone who calls himself a Christian.  Our life as a Christian will reflect the character of our God Who is light.

At the time of John’s writing, the Roman pantheon had many examples of this slogan.  Sol, the son of Jupiter and Latona, was the sun god, while his twin, Diana, was the goddess of the moon.  Both were hailed as gods of light.  Not least, the emperor of Rome himself was deemed a god and worshiped as the presence of divine light on earth. 

Gnostics (early Christian heretics who denied the goodness of creation) got in on the fun too, constantly referring to the human soul as light, that it came from light, and that it must return to the light.  All of these mistook the created light for God, and so they worshiped it instead of Him.   Like Paul declared of them, that they “worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.”  But John asserted that the Person, God, is light, and John knew full well the challenge couched in that simple phrase (speaking of the God of Israel) “God is light.”

Even though many ancient religions long before Rome worshiped gods of light, the people of Israel had their own, distinct tradition with respect to the God who is light.  So John’s statement, “GOD IS LIGHT,” is pregnant with Old Testament symbolism.  Light was a common symbol for Jehovah, chosen by God Himself. 

On various occasions, God revealed Himself in fire and light.  “Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment.”  “His glory covered the heavens ,,, His brightness was as the light.” “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.”  Also, God is light in revelation:  “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”  “For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.” 

The light is transcendent glory; thus its antithesis, darkness, is sin and impurity.  “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”  Light symbolizes the absolute perfection of God, as well as the revealed truth of God: “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.” “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” As darkness is the absence (not the opposite) of light, even so darkness is the absence of revelation.

In Paul’s description of our situation in this world, he uses this reference to the contrast of light and darkness: ”And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.  Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.”  He describes our Lord’s return in these terms: “Who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts.”

Describing the condition of the lost and our redemption Paul says, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.  For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Paul admonishes us, not only to pursue the Light, but to reprove the darkness: “Be not ye therefore partakers with them; for ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth), proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord; and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of.  But all things when they are reproved are made manifest by the light: for everything that is made manifest is light.  Wherefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.”

Paul’s description of us is totally aligned with John’s description of our God Who is Light:  “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief: for ye are all sons of light, and sons of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep, as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober.  For they that sleep sleep in the night: and they that are drunken are drunken in the night.  But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.”

This is NOT to say that we are to TRY to be light (as in religious exercise), but that “ye are all sons of light and sons of the day” and “we are of the day.”  So we are to BE WHO WE ARE, not try to become who we are already declared to be in Him.  We are not called to some religious self-discipline of the flesh.  We are called to “a righteousness of God from faith unto faith: as it is written, but the righteous shall live by faith.”  We do not want to be like those Pharisees who “being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves (by faith) to the righteousness of God” or a righteousness that God provided in Christ.

Notice, too, that in 1 John 1:5 John quickly adds for emphasis after the statement “God is light” that “in Him there is no darkness.”  In other words, God is revelation, salvation, and holiness, and in Him there is no befuddlement, cloudiness, impurity, or abandonment. 

The point is that living in the darkness is incompatible with claiming to be in fellowship with God of light: “If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”  As was typical, we see that lightness and darkness are given an ethical emphasis, which leads us to see that it will become obvious who is of the God Who is LIGHT and who is not of God.

When Paul wrote Titus, he warned “For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”  We need to understand that John in his epistle is saying the same thing as Paul, just in metaphor: As a Christian you will walk in the light, because God is light.

Learning about God, then, we will reflect Him in the way we live.  So if we are to be love because God is love, then we must first understand that “GOD IS LIGHT.”  He is a blazing glory.  Far from being a huggable old grandfather type, our Lord is a glaring light, a devouring flame, a burning bush, and a pillar of fire. 

So shine, beloved Christian, as Jesus told us: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

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