The Evangelical Preacher 1 John 1:5-10 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.… I. WE LOOK AT THE TEXT AS AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE DIVINE CHARACTER. 1. Light is perhaps the nearest approach of anything with which we are acquainted to immateriality. It seems to fill all nature, to surround all worlds, and so to bear a fit resemblance to its glorious Maker, who says, "Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?" 2. Then, again, how fine an emblem is it of the Divine purity! 3. Does it not also portray to our minds His all-searching know ledge? 4. It is important also to observe that light is exhibited to us in the text as the emblem of the essential perfection of the Divine nature. II. OUR TEXT MAY NOW BE CONTEMPLATED AS CONTAINING AN INTIMATION OF WHAT GOD DOES FOR MAN. 1. Light is a revealer. 2. Light communicates enjoyment; for a "pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." 3. Light clothes all things with beauty. Dark providences brighten when God shines upon them, and the manifestation of His wisdom and love, His faithfulness and power, please our eyes and comfort our hearts. 4. Light purifies the atmosphere in which we live, which without it would be but ill adapted to sustain our existence in comfort. III. THE SUBJECT IS ADAPTED, TO FURNISH US WITH A FEW SERIOUS AND PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 1. How blind are men that do not see God in all things! The light of heaven shines all around them. 2. How great are our obligations to God for the light which He has given us! 3. How great the duty which rests upon us, to pity and endeavour to enlighten those who are sitting in darkness and the shadow of death! (The Evangelical Preacher.) Parallel Verses KJV: This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. |
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