ssential nature of God. Light is in all
languages the symbol of knowledge, of joy, of purity. It is the source
of life. Its very nature is to ray itself out into and conquer darkness.
Its splendor dazzles every eye; all things rejoice in its beams.
Darkness is the type of ignorance, of sorrow, of sin. But, whilst the
symbol is thus rich in manifold revelations, probably purity and
self-communication are the predominating ideas here.

John has been honoured to give the world the three great revelations
that God is spirit, is light, is love. And this profound saying in some
sense includes both the others, inasmuch as light, which to the popular
mind is most widely apart from matter, may well stand for the emblem of
spirit, and, since to radiate is its inseparable quality, does represent
in symbol the delight in imparting Himself, which is the very heart of
the declaration that God is love. If, then, we grasp these two thoughts
of absolute purity and of self-impartation as the very nature and
property of God, John tells us that we grasp the kernel of the Gospel.

And he thinks that men never will grasp them certainly unless a
'message' from God, a definite revelation in historical fact, certifies
them. We may hope or doubt, or desire, but we cannot be sure that God is
light unless he tells us so by unmistakable act. John knew what act that
was--the sending of His only-begotten Son. To the positive statement
John, in his usual manner, appends an emphatic negative one: 'Darkness
is not in him, no, not in any way.' He is light, all light, only light.

II. With characteristic moral earnestness, John passes at once to the
practical effects which the message is meant to have. We are not told
what God is simply that we may know, but that, knowing, we may do and
be. If He is light, two things will follow in those who are in union
with Him--they will walk in light, and they will in His light see their
own evil. John deals with these two consequences in verses 6-10--the
former in verses 6 and 7; the latter in verses 8-10. The parallelism in
the construction of these two sets of verses is striking:

VERSES 6, 7. VERSES 8, 9.

If we say If we say

that we have fellowship with that we have no sin
Him, and walk in darkness,
we lie, and do not the truth. we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not