Things of Earth grow strangely dim . . .

Anywhere in the Bible, the contrast between light and darkness is always a contrast between saved and lost; between the true fellowship and the counterfeit.

I John 1: 6-7 gives a test of the genuineness of someone’s profession of faith:

 [6] If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
[7] But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

“This test is not a contrast between two classes of saved people,” stresses Jordan. “This passage is taught over and over and over and over--practically any commentary you pick up--to say here’s some people in the family of God who are in fellowship with the Father, and here’s some other people in the family of God who aren’t in fellowship with the Father.

“The problem with all that is it’s just silly talk. It has nothing to do with anything in the Bible. The word ‘fellowship’ means ‘to share in common.’ ‘Koinonia’ is the Greek. It means a partnership; a sharing together, a communion. ‘Fellows in a ship’ is exactly what the English word means; it’s exactly what the Greek word means. It’s exactly what the concept is.

“John’s saying, ‘I’m writing these things so you can KNOW you have fellowship with the Father.' There’s a whole bunch of people in Israel out saying ‘We do!’ when they don’t.

“There were people in John 8 who said, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ And Jesus says back, ‘If Abraham were your real father, spiritually, you’d believe on me. You are of your father the devil.’

“How can the devil be their father? Spiritually. Physically they could say, ‘We’ve got Abraham.’ But Christ says, ‘Hey, it isn’t being born of man, or the will of the flesh or blood; that isn’t the issue. It’s a spiritual connection. God is a spirit; you’ve got to do it on that level.’

“I John 2:9 says, [9] He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. I John 3:14-15 says, [14] We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
[15] Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

“Here’s a guy who doesn’t love his brother. He’s in darkness. What kind of spiritual condition is he in? He’s dead spiritually. Are saved people dead spiritually? Not very likely. Somebody says, ‘Well, you were in the fellowship, but now you’re out of fellowship with God.’

“You know what you are when you’re out of fellowship with God? You’re dead! You’re a dead duck! When I was a kid they had a song, ‘Dead skunk in the middle of the road, stinking to high heaven.’ That’s what you are! If you doubt it, look at verse 15. You can’t miss that when you read I John 1, or 2 or 3.

“When A equals B and B equals C, A and C equal each other. We’re talking about a lost condition; you’re not talking about some kind of conditional fellowship for Believers in the family where you have fellowship with Him one minute and not the next, and you need to confess your sins to get back in.

*****

“There’s this POWER of darkness. Satan had a right to work in your life because you were a part of a program called darkness where God’s knowledge, and God’s glory, and God’s presence, and God’s integrity was totally absent.

“When you trusted Jesus Christ He took you out of that and placed you in the light, into Himself. That verse in I John is obviously talking about lost people becoming saved people and saved people not being lost people anymore,

“As Paul writes in II Corinthians 4:4, ‘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.’

“That issue of light being there or not being there goes all the way back to Genesis 1:1, when it says, [1] In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
[2] And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
[3] And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
[4] And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.’

“You see, God’s presence was gone. Darkness and light all through the Bible are used to contrast the glory of God and the absence of that glory. So when He says ‘God is light,’ literally, physically, the manifestation of His glory to His creation comes that way.

*****

“Now, when you think what would light intellectually convey to you, it would convey the issue of God’s knowledge. God knows everything. If you want to see something and the room’s dark, in Genesis 1 when He said, ‘Let there be light,’ what was He doing that for? He wanted the angelic host to see what He was doing.

“On that first day of re-creation there in Genesis 1, all He did that whole first day—every other day was filled with teeming activity, but on that day He just said, ‘Let there be light.’ It was so they could see.

“Intellectually, this dazzling display of the light of His presence brings the ability to see and it tells you there’s nothing that God doesn’t know; there’s nothing that escapes Him. Ephesians 5:13 says, [13] But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.

“When we think about God’s light in a moral sense, we think about the issue of His integrity, of the holiness of God. Because if something is going to be made manifest, the Bible says ‘God is of pure eyes and cannot look upon sin.’

“If His presence brings to light everything that’s there, and ‘men love darkness more than light because their deeds are evil,’ well, then morally, ‘God is light’ has to do with the fact that His integrity, His holiness, is involved.

“God’s integrity is made up of two of His attributes—His justice and His righteousness. The righteousness of God is the standard of His integrity. His justice is the enforcer of His integrity.

*****

“James 1:17 says, [17] Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.’

“Now, that’s fascinating. Not only is there no darkness in Him; there is not even any shadow. No place where even the light of His glory, and the intense gaze of His integrity, is even shielded just a little bit.

“There’s no shadow. That’s saying God never turns Himself away from light so there would be a shadow on the side. He’s always looking one way—steadfast. He never changes. That’s the issue I John’s dealing with. We’re dealing with the manifestation of His glory. We’re dealing with the fact He knows it all and that He holds everything to that standard of what He knows.

*****

“Notice Verse 5 again in I John 1: [5] This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

“This is something John had already taught them about. There’s a strange little passage in John 1 that’s often not paid a lot of attention to.

“John 1: 4-5 says, ‘[4] In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
[5] And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.’

“When you read that, you say, ‘Man, what kind of darkness can remain when the light goes on?! That’s a strange kind of darkness.’

“Darkness is the absence of light, but when light shows up, darkness flees away. Here’s a darkness that’s still there! Obviously it isn’t literal darkness. It’s a special kind of darkness; he’s talking about spiritual darkness.

“He’s talking about the spiritual darkness that existed in Israel. People who should have been the light to the world sat in darkness and when the source of light, the S-u-n of righteousness, when the light showed up in the darkness of Israel, when Jesus Christ came as the light, they still didn’t get it.

“John 8:12 says,  [12] Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

“Notice very carefully the definitions here. Spiritual light came into the darkened, unbelieving nation Israel, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they didn’t comprehend Him. He came unto His own and his own received Him not.

“Remember what Jesus said to the blind man in John 9: 4-5? [4] I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
[5] As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world..

“While He was there, the light shone, but some of them didn’t get it. John 12:35 says, [35] Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.’ ”