We Must Know What Darkness is to Embrace and Embody Light

Summer Word Refresh WEEK 2: Darkness

In hindsight, maybe I should have started with darkness and ended with the good news of the light of Jesus, but here we are. Perhaps you’ll find that discovering more about darkness helps you to appreciate the light more.

I know I said I would keep these word studies simpler for the Summer, only focusing on the words from the book of John and just one version of the word for each week, but let’s be honest. The Bible is not simple, and, simplifying these for the sake of easier or more accessible reading would be a disservice to the Word of God and ourselves.

We do need to jump around a bit to fully grasp the concept of darkness, but we’re sticking with the same author! John wrote the gospel of John and the epistles: 1 John, 2 John, 3 John. He grapples with this concept of light and darkness in both his gospel and 1 John.

Last week, we discussed the concept of Jesus saying “I am the light of the world” and John’s declaration that the light shines in the darkness, and darkness has not overcome it. To understand and appreciate light, you have to know darkness.

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I’ll be honest, when I read or have read verses about light and darkness before, I tend to think of darkness as pain, suffering, or the afterlife without Jesus. What you’ll soon discover is that it’s likely John didn’t mean any of that in his writing about light and darkness. We’re going to start again with the same verse we looked at last week, John 1:5.

“And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John 1:5

• Just a side note with that word “comprehend”. We tend to think of this word as being used with language or meaning—as in, to not comprehend the meaning of what someone says. The actual word means to grasp, and the original Greek word that’s translated to comprehend here is more like “take over” or “seize”.

  • The 2020 New American Standard Bible translation renders this word as “grasp” instead of “comprehend” so it reads: And the light shine in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it.”

Because of Jesus—the light of the world who came to us at our greatest time of need—darkness has no hold on us or this world.

Let me rephrase that.

Because Jesus manifested in our world as the embodied God and revealed truth and knowledge for all, sin and our sinful nature no longer grasp or seize our souls.

While I do believe that John was riffing on the idea of darkness being a world of pain and depravity because that’s what we tend to think of with the darkness we experience here on earth, looking at the original language focuses on this concept of sin. This makes sense when you consider that pain, suffering, and depravity are a result of the fall, the original sin and now sinful nature within all of us.

Darkness | stokia
Strong’s G4653

• metaphorically, ignorance of divine things

• associated wickedness, as in moral darkness

• obscurity of reality or morality

• emblematic of sin

• moral or spiritual depravity¹

A key factor in doing keyword studies through biblical texts (Hebrew and Greek languages) is to allow the context to assist in understanding. As an aside, it’s interesting how some people push back against this idea of looking to the context for understanding, but I won’t get into that here. We do this daily as we interact with the world, especially in the English language where we use one word in multiple ways, so it’s only fair to approach the Bible with the same respect.

In looking through more usage of this specific word in the New Testament, it comes up in one of John’s epistles, and it is a beautiful passage that needs to be read as we consider how John discusses light and darkness.

1 John 2:1-12

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever follows His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says that he remains in Him ought, himself also, walk just as He walked.

Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. The one who says that he is in the Light and yet hates his brother or sister is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother and sister remains in the Light, and there is nothing in him to cause stumbling. But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you on account of His name.

Throughout this passage, we see contrasts between sin and obedience to God, truth and lies, darkness and light, love and hatred, sin and forgiveness.

I saw an IG post the other day that said “The problem with Christians these days is that we pretend to know everything, but we love no one.”

Light is not just truth and knowledge, though that is a part of it. Light is love because Jesus is love, and the light he offered was the truth of His saving grace to ALL through the sacrifice of his life in our place which is the most loving act of all.

I find it potent that John emphasizes the things in which darkness presides:

• lying

• sin

• hatred of others (lack of love)

We might define hatred as something far stronger than just a lack of love, but John uses hatred as the direct opposite of love in the passage we just read from 1 John 2:9-11 that says:

The one who says that he is in the Light and yet hates his brother or sister is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother and sister remains in the Light, and there is nothing in him to cause stumbling. But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

So, what does your life look like if you are walking in darkness? It doesn’t mean you are murderous or adulterous or some of the more heinous sins.

• It can simply mean you are forcing the truth on someone without loving them first.

• It can mean you are withholding helpful information from someone out of shame, fear, or selfishness.

• It can mean you are rejecting the commands of God because it’s easier to live the way you want to live rather than submit your life to Christ’s way.

Simply put: darkness is our sinful nature and light is the love and truth of Jesus that gives us a new hope and way out of sin.

For the sake of clarity here, let’s define sin². In simple terms, sin is a violation of moral or religious law. In other words, sin is any action or words that go against God’s created order or design for humanity and nature. This includes explicit commands from Scripture and implicit commands as you understand the character of God and His heart for His creation—sin is the very thing that disrespects and disrupts God’s created work. Sin can be done to God, to others, and to yourself, but ultimately all sin dishonors God.

Fear not, friends. Because you no longer have to strive and worry about darkness overtaking your life and keeping you down, away from the holiness of our Creator God.

Jesus came as the light to conquer darkness once and fall. While darkness is still a temptation for us here on earth, the Holy Spirit gives us the light of God to shine a path through and find strength to overcome those desires. We then get to embody light for others living in darkness and shine the truth AND love of Christ to all who will listen.

And on the other side, we’ll never see sin again when we are seated with Jesus in Heaven.

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1. These definitions are from Vine’s Expository Dictionary, The Outline of Biblical Usage, and Strong’s definitions, derived from Blue Letter Bible.

2. Another great look in depth at what sin is: https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/what-exactly-is-sin.html