Walk in the Light

A passage from the Bible has stayed on my mind lately. “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1John 1:6-7). These words came into my mind recently when someone trusted me enough to tell me some truth. That truth telling allowed me more deeply into this person’s life. I felt honored that I had been trusted. I felt as if I was being invited into a personal journey

How did I feel toward that person after that revealing conversation? I felt more like a friend and a fellow struggler in life. What the Bible says in the First Letter of John became a reality: “We have fellowship with one another.” God has shown us in Jesus how to walk in the light. We don’t have to be afraid of bearing each other’s burdens. We can tell the truth about ourselves and increase the love that flows between us.

This truth from John’s letter is also challenging us to see that this is how we get our sins forgiven. We have to tell the truth about them. That is what it means to walk in the light as God is in the light. When we tell the truth to God and to a trusted person who can love us, we invite God to make us clean and get the sin out of our lives.

That is what I love about living life with other followers of Christ. We can tell each other the truth, come out of the darkness and walk in the light and we get to live a shared life in which love for God and love for each other grows and grows.

I’m glad that we members of New Hope are experiencing a shared life with each other. May our light and love increase as we celebrate the birth of the One whose life is light. This is the way the Gospel of John says it: “In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5).

Let’s learn some new truth about walking in the light this Christmas season. Tell your truth to God and to a trusted person. Then you will walk in the light of Christ and know fellowship and forgiveness.