Mensa Otabil - God Has No Darkness (10/30/2025)
John 1, verse 5: This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. In the introduction of First John, the Apostle John talked about their encounter with Christ, saying that which we have heard, that which we have seen, that which we have examined, and that which we have touched or handled. He is referring to the firsthand encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now he tells us that Jesus taught them a message, and that message was that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. This was a very important message that John wanted the Christians of his time and today to understand. We also have to understand God is light. Why was this important? Because at the time John was writing this, Christianity had spread beyond the Jewish community; it was now in the Greek community and Roman society. The idea of the Roman gods and the Greek gods was very different from what the Bible taught. The Greek gods were imperfect and had all kinds of mischievous activities. If you read about them, you will see that John is drawing a distinction between what the Greeks understood God to be and what Jesus presented God to be. He says God is light.
Three implications of this statement exist. First is that God is pure, and He has no imperfections. He is not like the Greek gods, who have imperfections, throw tantrums, and are very tempestuous in their activities. This is a God who does not have imperfections; He is pure in all His ways. His love is pure, His grace is pure, His power is pure; everything about God is perfection. We cannot project our imperfections onto God because He is a perfect God.
Secondly, God is light means He is the source of life because light is life, and God is life with no decay in Him. What does that mean? It means God does not deteriorate; He does not lose His energy, He does not lose His power, and He does not become less of who He is. Time does not change the nature of God. God does not deteriorate, and He is life that is constant. He is perfect at all times, and He is life at all times. That is the God we believe in. He is perfect, He is pure, He is life.
Thirdly, that God is light means He is truth. In the world at that time, light was the symbol of knowledge, and darkness was a symbol of ignorance. God is knowledge, pure truth, and there is no error in Him. There is nothing about God that says, «Oh, we believe God made a mistake last year,» or «God made a mistake in the Old Testament,» or «God made a mistake at this time.» God doesn’t make mistakes; He is light, He is pure, He is life, He doesn’t decay, and He is truth. There is no error in Him, and this is the God that we believe in, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian and you want to know God in truth, spirit, and worship Him, these are the fundamentals that we establish about God: God is light, and there is no darkness, no error, and no deficiency whatsoever in God.
Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, You are pure without imperfection; You are truth without error. Let me know You in Your fullness. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»