“This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” (I John 1:5)

John could not be more clear in what he asserts here, and we Christians — and some who just claim to be — need to hear what he is saying.  He “announces” that “God is light, and in Him there is NO DARKNESS AT ALL.” John makes it clear in the next verses that “light” refers to holiness, and “darkness” refers to sin.  Understanding this, John proclaims that there is NO DARKNESS AT ALL in God.  He pure, perfect, holy. There is no sin in Him. He is not the source of evil — which has implications for our theology. And he says that there is no darkness in Him — which has implications for our lives if we claim to follow Him.

It is not uncommon today for people to claim that they know God, all the while continuing to “dabble” with certain sins. John says that this is incongruous with genuine Christianity and is unacceptable for a follower of Christ. The God with whom we claim to have fellowship is “light”; there is “no darkness at all” in Him. We cannot purposefully continue to sin and maintain that we have a close relationship with the Lord. He makes that very clear in the next verse: “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” (I John 1:6)

Sometimes Christians are tempted to “toy around” with evil, or to tolerate a certain amount of sin. After all, we might rationalize, we are all sinners; “no one is perfect.” God can put up with a “respectable amount” of sin in us. But with God there is no “respectable amount” of sin. In Him there is “no darkness at all.” He is absolutely pure and holy — and if we want to have fellowship with Him, we must seek to purify our lives from ALL sin. No compromise; no “respectable” amounts of sin. “NO darkness AT ALL” is acceptable to Him. Anyone making a serious claim to be cultivating a relationship with God MUST include a good faith effort to be cleansilng their life from ALL known sin.

You know that area of disobedience or compromise that you have become comfortable with, and you hoped that maybe God was overlooking it? He isn’t. NO darkness. AT ALL.

And in case there is any question about this teaching, John says this comes right from the throne: “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you.” It  isn’t up for a vote. God is a holy God. If we claim to be His people, and to be walking with Him, then we are to be content to strive for nothing less than “NO darkness AT ALL.”