Connect #001

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"One day, he will
dr ag us into the
light, cr ack open
our hear ts like an
egg, and find either
the light of Jesus or
mor e dar kness."
- Lucas Sharley
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Can we actually know what God is like?
In my church, we have a special reading about knowing
God. It?s a set of verses that describe what God is like:
God is light, God is love, God is power. But, words
without understanding are just sounds. The reading
only means something to us if it is connected to ideas about God. In
this article, I?ll be giving summaries of what the words from the
reading say about God; beginning with light.
1 John 1:5 ? ?God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.?
What does John mean when he says God is light?
Images are useful for talking about God. They avoid narrow
meanings. John could have written, ?God is entirely good and is
never influenced by evil.? That sentence is precise. It can only mean
one thing. But, the image of light means many things. Goodness,
purity, sight, understanding, safety, and judgment. John?s use of
imagery lets him say a lot in a short letter.
If images mean many things all at once, how do we know which?
What stops us from twisting an image or taking it the wrong way?
The rest of the Bible stops us. We read every part of the Bible with
the rest of the Bible in the background. John describing God as light
isn?t a phrase sitting alone that we can capture and turn to our own
purposes. It is plugged into how the Bible uses the idea of light
everywhere else. I listed several meanings for God is light, and all of
them come from the Bible.
Genesis 1, for example. The first thing God says is ?Let there be
light,? and there is light. God sees that the light is good and
separates it from the darkness. Genesis teaches that light comes
from God, and it is good, and it is divided from darkness. Light and