Read: 1 John 5:13-21
We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. (v. 18)
On earth each day ends with “twilight.” The earth’s atmosphere allows the sun’s light to linger before all becomes darkness. There is no twilight on the moon because the moon has no atmosphere. It is either day or night, with nothing in between.
There is no twilight in John’s theology either. It is all light or darkness, righteousness or sin, faith or unbelief, God or the devil. What looks like twilight is actually light and darkness in mortal combat. Light will someday be the victor. John keeps reminding us that God is light, love, truth, and purity. In him there is no darkness, no falsehood, no impurity. In God there is no sin.
John warns us to take sin seriously, not only in our own lives but also in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ (v. 16). We can’t rescue others from sin, but we can pray for them. The “sin that leads to death” (v. 16), or mortal sin in some translations, probably refers to the utter obliteration of conscience, without remorse. But that should not keep us from urging our brothers and sisters to walk in the light.
We might be living with “gray areas” now. But it will not always be so. Someday it will be all light, or all darkness.
As you pray, ask God for the courage to walk in the light.
Jerry Sittser is a professor emeritus of theology and senior fellow at Whitworth University. He specializes in the history of Christianity, Christian spirituality, and religion in American public life. As an author, he has written nine books.
