Let Your Light Shine

1 John 1:1-10

 

 

She dumped me! I couldn’t believe it! We were planning to get married. I’d given her a ring, and although we hadn’t set a date yet, it was understood. Apparently though it wasn’t understood, and she dumped me for another guy. I thought our relationship was strong and would last a life time; now it was broken.

 

What does it take to break a relationship? Unresolved anger; a lack of trust; secrets and lies? There’s a long list of possibilities, but the bottom line is that it means there is a barrier between you and the other person, and until that barrier is torn down, the relationship is broken.

 

The heading in my NIV Bible preceding verse 5 reads: “Light and Darkness, Sin and

Forgiveness”. If you apply those words to human relationships, they pretty much describe how a relationship could break, or be reconciled.

 

If one person sins against another, or hurts another, they need to make amends; to ask for forgiveness. If they don’t, a wall has been built. Communication stops. Anger builds. Resentment follows. Soon the relationship breaks.

 

The same is true in our relationship with God. If we sin against Him, we need to ask for forgiveness; to make amends; to communicate. Otherwise, our relationship is broken.

 

John uses the word fellowship several times in this passage. In our culture, that word has become virtually meaningless, typically referring to having a meal together. But John means it in a much deeper way. It is a form of communion; of sharing; of relating, not just to one another, but to our Lord and Savior.

 

Have you ever been in a cave when all of the lights have been turned off? (The guides do that on one of the tours at Mammoth Cave.) You literally can’t see your hand in front of your face.

 

That’s what it’s like to be out of fellowship with the Lord. You’re in the dark. Living in the light doesn’t mean living without sin, it means turning back and repenting when

you do sin; it means letting your light shine.