by Jacob Ninan
Is this just a phrase that we Christians are so used to hearing that we haven't even thought about what it really means? Is it something that is connected to theology and not with practical life? Or is it something that is considered to be so high that it is impossible to follow in practical life? Let us look at some Bible passages to understand what it means in real life situations.
God is described as Light in which there is no darkness at all (1Jn.1:5,6). Let us think of Him as being light in all directions, without any spot or wrinkle. He is perfect in every way. He is holy, righteous, just, loving, merciful, kind, etc., without any flaw. What this verse is saying is that if we say we are Christians who live in fellowship with God, and yet carry on with areas of darkness in our life, we are deceiving ourselves.
"This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God" (Jn.3:19-21). 'Darkness' is what people use to cover their sinful deeds. We may think that if we close all the doors and windows and put off the light, no one can see what we do. So, if we try to cover up our sins in order to continue in them without being caught, we are walking in darkness. We may pretend we have not sinned, we may justify our behaviour or blame others for our sinful behaviour, that is how we try to cover ourselves with darkness. But if we do that, we cannot have any fellowship with God.
But actually nothing can be hidden from God. Even if we manage to fool people and give an impression that we are saintly, God can see through us, because for Him the darkness and light are the same (Psa.139:11,12). He may wait in order to give us time to repent, but if we harden our heart before Him, He may expose us.
Just as Israel came to the Promised Land, the first city they had to conquer was Jericho. God told them that they could not take any loot from that city because it was dedicated for Him. This was actually a test for them. A man called Achan saw some things there, coveted them, took them secretly and hid them in a hole under his tent. Later, when Israel went to conquer the next city, Ai, they got defeated. When they started questioning God about why He had let them get defeated, He told them that it was because they had sinned. Achan was discovered and put to death. If we walk in darkness, God may stop supporting us, may resist us and may even let a curse come upon us. We can see that all over the world God is also exposing sin in many lives of Christians.
If we want to walk in the light before God, we need to be completely open and honest with Him about every area of our life and stop covering up failures and sinful ways. Otherwise we will lose our anointing over our lives, our boldness before God will go. But God will accept a broken heart (Psa.51:17), and He will not break off a battered reed or put out a smouldering wick (Matt.12:20).
It is not just sinful deeds that we have to be careful about, but also sinful attitudes. If we hate someone in our heart, we will lose fellowship with God, even if we have not done anything yet externally (1Jn.2:9). It can be things such as jealousy, bitterness, love of money or fame, an unforgiving attitude, or a judgmental attitude that will make us dwell in darkness. The fact is that if we nurture such attitudes in our heart, sooner or later they will lead us to sinful action too.
Many Christians seem to be content to live at the level of their conscience. As long as it does not bother them, they consider themselves to be just fine! But we are all blissfully unaware of many sinful things we are all doing, that have not come to the notice of our conscience yet. Our conscience is a good indicator or right and wrong, but it is not a sufficient guide because of our lack of awareness. We all have blind spots. The apostle Paul understood this, that just because he could not see anything wrong in his life, that did not necessarily acquit him. He knew that the only one who knew him fully was God (1Cor.4:4). Even other people can see some of the wrong things we do, which we may not recognise as wrong immediately.
The process of getting to see more and more of the things that we could not see in ourselves before, and getting cleansed from them is what sanctification is. Sanctification is to be set apart for God. But the extent to which we can be actually set apart for God is limited by how much we are aware of ourselves. God's plan is for us to show us more and more of us and lead us to victory over the things that we come to see that way. This is like going from light to more light just as the sun goes from dawn to noon (Prov.4:18). The more mature we become, the more we can see ourselves in the sight of God. Walking in the light does not mean that we have become perfect, without sin, but we are on the way towards perfection, completely open and walking without trying to hide anything from God.
The other aspect we have to address is about walking in the light before people. Some people think that we should confess all our sins publicly before all people so that there is nothing to be hidden in our life. But that is foolish. We must remember that God is the only one who understands us completely, and who can look at us with a perfect balance of righteousness and mercy. We all tend to err on either side. So, people may become judgmental towards us, look down upon us, not recognise that we have changed from what we used to be, gossip about us or spread scandals about us. So, we should confess our sins only to the people we have sinned against. If it is publicly known, only then do we need to be public about our confession. The level of our self-disclosure needs to be regulated by the level of their maturity and the level of our confidence in them.
There may be things in our past we are ashamed about. It is not good to make such things public. If we do that, it may serve to glorify the Devil rather than God. We can see even in some of the testimonies which people give, how they seem to boast about how they used to be, instead of feeling ashamed.
Some people misunderstand Jas.5:16 as if it is telling us to confess our sins to all people. But the context of this verse is where a sick man asks for an elder to pray for his healing. If he realises that his sickness is the result of some sin he has committed, the instruction here is for him to confess that sin so that the prayer for healing can be answered. In the light of our discussion above, we know that it is not wise to generalise this and confess our sins to everyone.
There are blessings that we can receive when we walk in the light. For example, it leads us to enjoy fellowship with God and others (1Jn.1:7). We can understand this will happen when we are open and not trying to hide things in darkness. We can also have boldness before God and people (1Jn.3:21). Once things are clear before God, we don't have to live in fear wondering when our darkness is going to be exposed. That will give us good sleep too! It is a great privilege to be able to walk in the light, knowing that all our sins have been forgiven, that God knows everything about us, and that we are completely open towards God.