— This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “The Light of God,” on 1 John 1:5-10 —

In sixth grade a few friends and I built a rather large fort in a forest near our neighborhood. With all the ignorant imagination of young men we decided one day to build a fire for our forest castle. (It’s an amazing grace of God we never set the entire forest ablaze.) Early on we were quite terrible at getting a fire going, but that all changed one day when a friend showed up with a large white can labeled, “Ignition Fluid.” And so if you every came to our fortress in the winter after that day you’d find a blazing furnace to warm your bones.

Just like certain substances have unusual power in accelerating the growth of a fire, some elements have special force in fueling the light of God in every church’s fellowship. 1 John 1:5-10 says a fellowship of light is a fellowship of holiness. Let’s simply meditate on the two fuels for holiness – the fire of God – I find in this text.

2 Fuels for the Light of Holiness

The fuel of humility. What we see throughout 1 John is that the false teachers were pursuing and perpetuating a spiritual elitism, and their pride was destroying the church. May God protect us from such inflated views of our personal holiness. False spirituality (“I’m a Christian, but I walk in constant unrepentant sin”; “I’m a Christian who doesn’t struggle with sin at all”) fractures congregations. It takes great humility to walk earnestly and joyfully with people of different perspectives and preferences. If we earnestly and eagerly situate ourselves in God’s light and gospel, we will be in the fertile soil for humility to grow in our midst – and the light of holiness to shine.

The fuel of honesty. This is clearly assumed within the culture of confession John advocates (cf. 1:9). God’s light reveals our sin; we cannot hide from Him. We reveal our honesty with Him by confessing our sin to Him. Honest confession to God and one another brings holy cleansing. A joyful fellowship is one free in the joy of Christ; free from the burdens and stains of sin. Oh, may Spirit-wrought honesty perpetuate our lives so that we may together live in the light of God’s glory and grace.

God is light and so His people must walk in the light. Humble and honesty are necessary for a church to shine.