Conditions To Be A Companion

From: March 15 – 21, 2011 TOPIC: "Conditions To Be A Companion" I John 1:5-10

Our character is determined considering the character of the God whom we worship. As John does in these verses we also need to establish the nature of God the Father and of Jesus Christ. If this is the God who we worship then let us consider what is being said to us: that He is light and that there is no darkness in Him. There is nothing more glorious than the brightness of the light crossing the darkness. The Word says that God is light; we can see his ineffable splendor. So God reveals himself. The light is seen upon everything illuminating the darkness and its surroundings. To say that God is light indicates that there is nothing hidden or furtive (what is done secretly) in Him. God wants to be seen and known by men. His light speaks to us of purity and holiness. There is no darkness that can disguise any evil in Him. His light declares to us his diaphanous purity. The light of God is also so that we may have clarity in the direction we take. One of the great functions of the light is to lighten up the way, as in a highway that is well illuminated. That highway is the most secure one. To say that God is light is to say that He offers a secure direction in our steps. The light also reveals the imperfections of any work or material. The faults and stains that are hidden by the shadow appear immediately with the light. So the imperfections of life are made visible in the presence of our God. The darkness is the life without God. It is the life without God that we lived before knowing him. The darkness also comes when one is separated from Him. God has delivered us from the power of the darkness and has transferred us to the kingdom of His Beloved Son. Colossians 1:13 Christians are not in darkness because they are children of the day. I Thessalonians 5:4, 8 Darkness and light are natural enemies. The darkness can never eliminate the light. Those who are in darkness represent the ignorance of life without Christ. My friend who is listening to me, the darkness represents the chaos of life without God. The darkness represents the immorality and sins of a life without Christ. In Romans 13:12 Paul exhorts the Christians to give up the deeds of the darkness. Nothing spiritual can grow or flourish in the darkness. In the darkness there is hatred and disaffection. For someone to hate his brother is a sign that he walks in darkness. I John 2:9-11 Hatred is proper of the darkness. Love is brightness. The darkness is the dwelling of the enemies of Christ and the final destiny of those who refuse to accept Him. It is necessary to walk in light. Some believe that they are too intellectual and spiritual. Those who think they are intellectuals say to themselves: "Sin is no longer important to me and the laws no longer

exist." John makes it clear that in order to have communion with God who is light one should walk in the light. In Leviticus 19:2 it was said centuries before Christ, "Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy." We must be holy as He is holy. When someone fails he repents, because he is conscious that sin separates us from the love of God. Sin becomes more terrible to us when we come closer to God. The truth is the complete life in God. One must obey the truth, follow the truth. Those who say they are in Him and are in darkness are liars. Those who allow things that are completely prohibited and say that they are in Christ are liars. There cannot be any hidden sins in those who say that they are in God. Light and darkness cannot exist simultaneously in the life of a person. Someone that says they have communion with Him and walks habitually in darkness has absolutely never been really saved. We must also have communion with our brothers and sisters in Christ. If the brother is in the light then he is a member of the family of God. We all have the nature of sin, but they were sins that we had done in the past. Now there is a new nature that comes from God with power to live victoriously over sin that lives in us. Therefore, we live in communion with God and with our brothers and sisters in Christ although we know that the Devil wants the separation. So it is our duty to confess our sins, the thoughts of public and secret acts. We confess every sin of commission and of omission. Sins of commission means: every bad thing that we have done and the sins of omission are all that good things that we have not done and that we should have done. We must drag all these sins to an open field before God; call them by their names, put ourselves in God’s side against them and abandon them. This is so, because we need to be forgiven by our Father. Proverbs 28:13 Those who confesses and amend themselves will reach God’s mercy. We should not deny in any way to have committed acts of sin. God has said in His Word that we have all sin; to deny this is to make God a liar. It is like denying that Jesus came to suffer, to pour His blood and die. Every sin must be exposed to the light in front of His presence; it must be confessed and abandoned with clarity and frankness. In this way we will do and live in the light and not in darkness. And that is why we are companions. Amen