If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 1 John 1: 6 [NIV]
In my quiet times, I sometimes use the general confession from the Communion Service in the Prayer Book which contains the words:
We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we, from time to time, most grievously have committed...
Sins are one-off events. We sin from time to time – sometimes the same sin, sometimes different sins.
But what John talks about here in 1 John 1: 6 is quite different. Walking in the darkness is more than just sin: it is a wrong choice we have made which results in us moving away from him. To walk in the darkness is to live a lifestyle where we have decided to exclude God from one part of our life.
Some people, even when they are walking in the darkness, claim that they are Christians and have a relationship with God. They want both a sinful lifestyle and a relationship with God, but they cannot possibly have both. What they have done is to try to redefine sin. They reject God's revelation – what he is really like – and substitute their own ideas of the sort of God they want. This is the very heart of rebellion – refusing to let God be God in their lives.
You hear these ideas expressed by people when they say, "But I like to think of God as..." So God is not real and objective, but becomes whatever we want him to be. A God who doesn't mind that I'm in a wrong relationship; who doesn't mind that I have been cheating the tax man for years; who doesn't mind that I harbour a hatred for someone.
But we cannot fool God. We need to come out of the darkness and to submit every part of our lives to his scrutiny.
Dear Lord, help me to see you as you are and to walk with you in the light. Please forgive me for the times I try to hide from you in the darkness.
David Long
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