1 John 1:5,6 - God is light

1:5

The message from Christ Himself is that God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. Light and darkness are used as metaphors on almost every culture and religion. The gnostics delighted in hidden knowledge, and this led to dark lifestyles, as will become apparent in succeeding sections of the letter. God is light, and light reveals things, it enables things to be seen.

1:6

John then gives three counters to the gnostic teaching (1:6,8,10). The gnostics claimed to have divine knowledge, to know God. But if God is light, then if we do indeed know God we will walk in the light. If we claim to know Him yet still walk in darkness, then our claim is shown to be utterly bogus and without foundation. We are to live out the truth. The gnostic teaching could either lead to asceticism, or to immoral behaviour. The latter is clearly in view in most of this letter. The gnostics argued that the body could have nothing to do with the divine. It is a vital feature of Christianity that the body is seen as good. God gave us bodies, His Son came as fully human with a fully human body. When raised He had a resurrection body, a real body. The gnostics then argued that since the body could have nothing to do with the divine they could do what they liked, it would not affect the real them. This of course is nonsense, and is just an excuse to sin. Gnosticism is not much in evidence today, at least in name, but we still see this repeated use of so-called spiritual arguments to justify sin. Currently, all those who argue in favour of full acceptance of LGBT lifestyles are merely seeking to justify sin. They are not LGBT affirming, rather they are sin affirming.