This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

John 1: 5-6

It is not uncommon to hear people discuss “gray areas” in terms of personal conduct, don’t you agree? What gray areas come to your mind when you hear the term?

When John wrote that “God is light and in him is no darkness at all,” he was not really writing about light, right? The light here is referring to God’s purity and holiness. Remember that when Isaiah encountered the LORD, He was described as “holy, holy, holy”(Isaiah 6:6). According to Bible scholars I’ve read, repeating the word three times in the Hebrew language communicates an additional weight to the phrase to say that God is completely holy..without a weakness.

So verse six tells us that if I make a claim to be in the “light” when I am walking in the darkness there is no blurring of the line. There is no gray area. I am actually in the dark.

Rationalization of our behaviors is more common than we think – especially when it comes down to our personal behavior. The lines are increasingly blurred when we consider the characteristics of holiness among followers of Christ. No wonder there is so much confusion in the larger culture!

I think the use of the word “walk” is a key element in John’s message as it pertains to the journey in the faith. In James, we are reminded that “we all stumble in many ways” (James 3: 2). In other words, none of us is perfect and sometimes we fail. The real problem stated in these two verses is that the kind of person John addressed was living a lie.

I do not want to be labeled as a liar or a hypocrite and I do not want to live a lie. The question requires an honest look at my daily walk. Am I walking in the light or has the darkness crept in and I’m living in denial?