WHEN JOY IS FULL
1 John 1:4-9 NKJV
4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.
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. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
I know this is a longer passage than usual, but there are some insights here that correlate to our joy being full.
I love that the Lord wants our joy to be full. Not that we are always happy, happy, giddy. But that the Lord wants a sense of inner joy that impacts our minds and emotions.
The first thing that we see relating to joy is walking in the light. God is light. There is nothing dark or gloomy about Him. All light, all the time. And when we walk in the light, we have fellowship with Him. Fellowship is a sharing together. Fellowship involves giving and receiving. When we walk in darkness, we are not walking together with God. So, what constitutes walking in the light and walking in darkness? The Scriptures are the best place to find light. The psalmist said that when God’s Word enters our hearts, there is light. But it’s a big book? How do we walk in the light when we don’t know everything that the Bible says? Great question, and the Scriptures help us with the answer.
Whenever you see something in God’s Word, light enters your heart. And as you obey and follow what you have seen, you are walking in the light. The more you walk with the Lord and come to understand His word, the more light you have to walk in. It’s when you violate what you have light on that you walk in darkness. For example, if you have light on God’s Word concerning forgiveness and forgive a person who has done you wrong, you are walking in the light. If you refuse to forgive even though you know what God’s Word says, you have walked into the dark. And that’s what we don’t want to do.
Verse seven indicates that we are to walk in the light we have. And in the areas where we don’t have light, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. There are things that I do now that I did not do when I first came to the Lord. He covered me in my lack of knowledge, but now that I know, more is required of me. So if you are thinking that if you knew nothing, you would be better off, think again. It’s fellowship with the Lord that brings fullness of joy. Living in ignorance of God and His ways is living on a lower level.
So now whenever we miss it and violate the light we have, then we have sinned. There is no value in dancing around that subject. All of us have sinned since coming to the Lord. But thankfully, God has made a way for us to be forgiven and cleansed from our sins. Remember that this verse is written to believers. The sin of the world is in rejecting Jesus as Lord and Savior. For that sin, the remedy is receiving and confessing Jesus as Lord. But now that we are new creations and part of God’s family, the remedy for our sins is confessing them before the Lord and receiving His forgiveness. He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Our joy can be full knowing we are forgiven and God is not holding our sins against us.
Fullness of joy is walking in the light we have and having fellowship with the Lord. When we sin, we don’t have to live under the dark cloud of condemnation. We confess our sins and receive His forgiveness and cleansing. After receiving forgiveness, we go back to walking in the light. God’s plan is for us to have joy and have it to the full.
PRAYER
Thank You, Lord, for the light of Your word. Thank You that we can fellowship together. And thank You for making provision for me to live forgiven and cleansed. My joy is full because of You.