Read 1 John 5:16–21
We are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is
the true God and eternal life.
1 John 5:20
The world boasts of enlightenment, but Christians walk in the real light
because “God is light” (1:5). The world talks about love, but it knows
nothing of the real love Christians experience because “God is love”
(4:8, 16). The world displays its wisdom and learning, but Christians
live in truth because the Spirit is truth (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13). God
is light, love, and truth; and these together make a life that is real.
“But it makes no difference what people believe so long as they
are sincere!”
This popular excuse hardly needs refutation. Does it make any
difference what the pharmacist believes, or the surgeon, or the chemist? It makes all the difference in the world.
Shed a tear for Jimmy Brown; Poor Jimmy is no more. For what he
thought was H2
O was H2
SO4
. (H2
O is water. H2
SO4
is sulfuric acid.)
Christians have “turned to God from idols to serve the living and
true God” (1 Thess. 1:9). Idols are dead, but Christ is the living God.
Idols are false, but Christ is the true God. This is the secret of the life
that is real!
John’s admonition can be paraphrased, “Watch out for the imitation and the artificial and be real!”
Something to Ponder
What is some evidence from your own life that God is light? Love? Truth?