God Is Light

The dark place you've been hiding is exactly where the Risen Lord wants to bring His healing Light?

May 08, 2026

Christ is risen!

We, humans, like to see where we are going. We are not big fans of being in the dark.

That’s not a complicated notion at all, is it? No one likes to hit their shin on the corner of the coffee table in the middle of the night.

“God is light and in him is no darkness at all.”

If that’s true of my physical life, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that this is even more true in my spiritual life. Stumbling into confused spiritual darkness has even more serious complications and consequences than the dangers of physical darkness.

Today is Friday of the Fourth Week after Pascha. Today, we take a break from our reading in Acts to hear from St. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, now an old man writing to his churches, encouraging them to embrace the Light revealed in the Risen Christ.

Today’s Lesson: 1 John 1:1-7

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life - the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us - that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing this that our joy may be complete.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

This is St. John writing in his old age. He had laid his head on the Lord’s chest at the Last Supper. He had stood at the foot of the Cross. He agreed to take the Theotokos into his own home. He had seen the empty tomb. He had encountered the Risen Lord. Decades later, with all that experience pressed into his soul, he writes to his beloved churches with a single, piercing message.

God is light. In Him is no darkness at all.

What Can We Take From This?

First, the Light comes from a real encounter, not from religious theory.

Notice how John begins. He doesn’t open with abstract theology. He opens with his actual, lived experience.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands.”

This is the testimony of someone who actually met Jesus. Heard His voice. Saw His face. Touched His resurrected body. The Light John proclaims is not a philosophical concept. It is a Person he knew personally.

This matters profoundly for our own life of faith. When we reduce Christianity to ideas and propositions, we miss what John is offering us. The Faith is an encounter with a Person who is Himself the Light. We cannot escape the reality of relationships. We are created in the image of the God Who knows Himself as Persons in Communion.

When the prayers feel dry, and you wonder if any of this is real. When the theological questions get complicated, and you feel lost in the abstractions and online debates. When the disciplines start feeling like obligations rather than relationships.

Return to the simple truth that John insists upon. There is a Person at the center of all of this. He is the Light. And He has made Himself accessible to us through His Body, the Church, in the Eucharist, in the Scriptures, in the Saints, in our brothers and sisters in Christ.

The Light is not an idea you have to figure out, defend, or debate. The Light is a Person you can come to know and love.

Next, walking in darkness while claiming fellowship with God is the lie we tell ourselves.

John’s diagnosis is sharp.

“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth.”

Notice who we are lying to. Not God. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Not the people around us. They can usually tell when something is off in us. The person we are lying to is ourselves.

This is the most insidious form of spiritual darkness. We can attend Liturgy faithfully, keep our fasts, say our prayers, and still be quietly walking in darkness in some corner of our heart we have refused to bring into the Light.

The grudge we have rationalized. The relationship we have neglected. The compromise we have made peace with. The truth we have refused to face about ourselves. These are the dark places that are not transformed simply by religious activity.

John offers no shortcut. The only path is to walk in the Light. To bring everything, including the parts we want to hide, into the presence of the One who is Light Himself.

When you sense yourself rationalizing something you know is wrong, that is the moment of choice. You can keep the rationalization and walk further into the dark, or you can name it honestly before God and let His Light begin its healing work.

Finally, the Light creates real communion with both God and one another.

Here is the beautiful promise John gives us.

“If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

The Greek word here is koinonia. It means deep, real, mutual participation. Not surface-level acquaintance. Not a religious performance. Genuine sharing of life with God and with one another.

Notice that the Light creates communion in two directions at once. Vertical fellowship with God produces horizontal fellowship with others. We cannot separate these two. People who claim deep love for God but have no real, honest, vulnerable connection with their brothers and sisters in Christ have not yet learned to walk in the Light.

This is why the parish matters. This is why being known by your spiritual father matters. This is why Coffee Hour, that humble Orthodox tradition of gathering after Liturgy, is more important than we often realize. The Light creates a community where we can be honest with one another because we are all being honest with the same Lord.

When the parish hall conversations stay safely on the surface, when we never let anyone see our struggles, when we keep our spiritual life entirely private, we are walking in a kind of darkness that prevents the koinonia John is describing.

The Light wants to draw us out of isolation and into real communion. Both vertical and horizontal. Both with God and with His people.

The Synaxis of St. John the Apostle, Evangelist, and Theologian

Today we celebrate the great Synaxis of St. John the Apostle, the disciple whom Jesus loved. He was one of the inner three who witnessed the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, the agony in Gethsemane, and the raising of Jairus’s daughter. He stood at the foot of the Cross when others fled. He was the first to enter the empty tomb on Pascha morning and the first to recognize the Risen Lord on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias.

After Pentecost, John cared for the Theotokos until her Dormition. He preached extensively and was eventually exiled to the island of Patmos, where he received the visions recorded in the Book of Revelation. He returned to Ephesus in his old age and wrote his Gospel, three Epistles, and his apocalyptic vision. He is traditionally believed to be the only apostle who did not die a martyr’s death, falling asleep peacefully at a very advanced age.

St. John teaches us that a life spent walking in the Light produces an old age that radiates the Light to others. His final words to his beloved disciples were reportedly simple: “Little children, love one another.” Decades of communion with the Light had distilled his entire ministry into that one essential truth.

Your Response Today

Here is one practice for today. Find a quiet moment, perhaps before you go to sleep, and pray this simple prayer of self-examination:

“Lord Jesus Christ, You are Light. Show me where I am still walking in darkness. Bring everything in me into Your healing Light.”

Then sit in silence for a few minutes. Don’t rush. Let the Lord show you what He wants to show you. Don’t defend yourself. Don’t explain. Just receive what He reveals.

The Light will not condemn you. The Light will heal you. But the healing only begins when we stop hiding the dark places and bring them into His presence.

Being Orthodox on Purpose means walking honestly in the Light who is Christ Himself, so that real communion with God and with one another can flourish in your life!

A brief note from Fr. Barnabas: Over the coming weeks, I’ll be refining the format of this daily devotional to better serve your spiritual growth. The new format will launch Monday, May 11th. Look for small changes that make each devotional easier to carry with you throughout your day. Your feedback will help shape these improvements. Let me know what you think.

Our New Video Project still needs your help.

“The Journey Continues…” Project: creating a teaching series on how to practice your Faith after you convert to Orthodoxy. Topics will include going to confession, wise fasting practices, setting up your prayer corner at home, and more!

Would you consider a Special Gift to Faith Encouraged for this Project?

Every gift is doubled up to $25,000

Your Tax-deductible gift can be made here - https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/QFKQ4GL6MQBBQ

Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouragedTV

Refer a friend

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?