Holy Wit – Reflections #2 (Walking in the Light: Studies Through 1 John) Walking in the Light It started with a strange smell. Not a dramatic smell. Not the sort of smell that causes neighbors to gather in the yard pointing at the house. Just a faint smell. A suspicious smell. The kind of smell that whispers, "Something around here is wrong." The homeowner ignored it. Naturally. That is what homeowners do. For several days he convinced himself it was probably nothing. Perhaps the dog had rolled in something unfortunate. Perhaps a potato had reached the end of its earthly ministry. Perhaps it was simply one of those mysteries of life that nobody was meant to solve. The smell persisted. Eventually he began opening cabinets. Nothing. He checked the pantry. Nothing. He inspected the refrigerator. Still nothing. By this point the smell had become less of a smell and more of a personality. It seemed to greet him whenever he entered the kitchen. Finally, after exhausting all reasonable explanations and several unreasonable ones, he pulled a small storage bin away from the wall. Behind it sat a forgotten bag of onions. Forgotten might not be the right word. Abandoned would be more accurate. Those onions had clearly made peace with their own mortality some time earlier. The discovery was unpleasant. The cleanup was unpleasant. The smell was unpleasant. But afterward the kitchen was clean again. The mystery vanished the moment the hidden thing was brought into the light. Most of us would prefer our spiritual lives to work differently. We would like the smell to disappear without moving the bin. We would like the problem solved without examination. We would like cleansing without confession. Unfortunately, John seems entirely unwilling to cooperate with these preferences. In 1 John 1:5–10, he tells us that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. That is wonderful news right up until we remember that light reveals things. We enjoy light when it illuminates mountain ranges, sunsets, oceans, and photographs of grandchildren. We become slightly less enthusiastic when it illuminates us. John addresses a temptation as old as humanity itself: the desire to appear better than we are. "If we say..." The phrase appears repeatedly throughout the passage. "If we say we have fellowship with Him." "If we say we have no sin." "If we say we have not sinned." John is exposing the gap that can exist between our words and reality. The issue is not that Christians sin. John assumes they do. The issue is what Christians do with their sin. Darkness says, "Hide it." Pride says, "Deny it." Fear says, "Cover it." The gospel says, "Bring it into the light." That is one of the most freeing truths in the Christian life. God already knows everything we are trying to hide. Confession is not the moment God discovers our failure. It is the moment we stop pretending. And remarkably, the promise attached to confession is not condemnation. It is cleansing. John does not say that God is faithful and just to embarrass us. He says God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The Christian life is not a performance in which we convince God we are better than we are. It is a relationship in which we increasingly trust Him enough to tell the truth. The light can be uncomfortable. Anyone who has stumbled into a brightly lit bathroom at three in the morning knows this. But the purpose of God's light is not destruction. It is restoration. The hidden onion behind the storage bin may be a silly illustration, but the principle remains. Problems hidden in darkness rarely improve with time. They simply become more comfortable in their hiding place. John calls believers to something better. Not perfection. Not pretense. Not spiritual image management. He calls us into the light. And there, in the place we often fear most, we discover the grace we needed all along. #HolyWitBibleStudy #GordonMcGinnis #WalkingInTheLight #1John15to10