God Revealed As Light Which By Its Nature Constantly Reveals Man's Sinfulness and Calls Him To Repentance (1 John 1:5 to 1 John 2:2).
‘And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.'
If you asked most people what the message of Jesus, the Word of Life, was, they would probably reply, ‘it is that God is love'. But John here tells us differently. He points out that the message of Jesus is that ‘God is light', a light in which there is no darkness, a light of self-revelation (compare Psalms 27:1; Psalms 36:9; Isaiah 49:6), a light where there is no alienation for those who walk in the light, a light where there is no moral deviation, where all is true, and pure, and good. But for that reason for those who are in darkness, both intellectually, because they have spurned God's self-revelation (Romans 1:18-23), or morally, because they spurn their consciences, there is no place in the presence of God. This was the first essential basic of the teaching of Jesus, that God is holy, and pure, and true, and righteous, and none can come to Him but those who can bear the light. That was why He declared that He Himself had come as a light into the world so that people might let that light shine on them revealing the truth about them, and then respond to that light by turning from sin and receiving forgiveness through His name, and by that means thus coming to Him Who is ‘light'.
This is of crucial importance. His later declaration that ‘God is love' (1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16) must be seen in this context. ‘God is light' is primary. In His essential being He is light. And in the context this means both moral light and self-revealing light. And the result of coming to that light and walking in it is that such men will love one another and will love God and keep His commands (1 John 5:3), both because they are loved by Him (1 John 3:16; 1Jn 4:9-11; 1 John 4:16; 1 John 4:19), and because they see truly, and they will thus experience the glorious reality that God in His essential being is love, pure love, holy love revealed in that sphere of light (1 John 4:7-9; 1 John 3:14). But it is not a love that tolerates darkness. It is not a love that overlooks or tolerates sin. It is a love revealed in His begetting as His own those whom He draws to Himself (1 John 4:7; John 6:44), in supplying them with ‘life' (1 John 4:9) and in providing for them propitiation for their sins (1 John 4:10). It is a love revealed in light. It is thus impossible to walk within that sphere of light and not reveal love for the brethren (1 John 4:11; 1 John 4:21; 1 John 5:1). We note here that the love of which he speaks is love for God and for one another in Christ. Love for outsiders is not mentioned here although it will result. For God's people walk in the sphere of light and love, and have love for one another.
He said elsewhere that in the coming of Jesus, God's light had come into the world (1 John 1:9; 1 John 3:19), for He had come from Him Who was light, revealing and shining out that light (Hebrews 1:2), but that because men were sinful they loved darkness rather than light and turned from His light and thus they turned from God. They were like crawling insects hiding from the light under a stone, who once the stone is removed scuttle immediately for cover seeking a welcome darkness. But He also indicated that there were those who would respond to the light, letting it shine on their lives revealing all their moral ugliness, so that they might then turn to Him to have that ugliness removed and be transformed. Then they might walk with God and be approved by Him (John 3:19-21).
Isaiah saw that light in Isaiah 6, and it made him cry out, ‘Woe is me, for I am destroyed. For I am a man of unclean lips -- and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.' And it was only through the blood shed on the coals of the altar that he was able to find forgiveness and restoration. So it is with all who come to God. At some stage they become aware of their total unworthiness as the light of God shines on them revealing their true condition, and then they seek forgiveness through the blood of His cross. Only then can they know Him and rest content in His presence.
This is no easy believism, no being mollycoddled into the Kingly Rule of God. It cries out that men recognise that God is pure light, and that if we would know Him and enter into His presence it can only be by being made fully clean, fully whole, able to face the light. There is no exemption from this, no exception, for God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. That is why the offering of Jesus Christ once for all as a sacrifice for sin was so necessary. Only through His pure righteousness being put to man's account, and man's sin being punished and paid for through His cross, could men ever come to the God who is pure light.
So John stresses that God is pure light, and that there is no place in His presence for those who walk in darkness. The ideas of light and darkness as related to the divine were ones that were well known in John's day and were found in a number of religions, and especially from this point of view in the writings of the Qumran community (included in the Dead Sea Scrolls) and thus current in that time. But the idea as taken up by Jesus and by John is given its own unique moral significance. God is light in that He is wholly moral and wholly self-revealing to those who can receive it, with the result that sin and spiritual ignorance, which are symbolised by darkness, are abhorrent to Him, the sin and ignorance which are due to man's rebellion against Him, and result from the refusal to respond to His light. And God's light makes men aware of sinfulness (John 3:19-21), and reveals their spiritual ignorance (John 1:4-5; John 1:9-12) and is consonant with His life which He offers to men (John 8:12) which brings them light.
In the light of John 8:12 we can indeed say that ‘God is light' could be equated with the idea that ‘God is life'. Jesus there declared that He was the Light of the world and as such brought men the light of life, the life which can be the light of men when they respond to Him, eternal life, relieving their darkness, illuminating their souls and bringing home to their hearts His moral demands. For His life is light. Thus the Word of life (1 John 1:1-2) brings home to men the God Who is light and makes them aware that if they come to Him they come to the light. They cannot have the One without the other.