1 John 1:6, 7

Walking in the light is a matter which affects our state; it comes home close to us, and searches all our motives within. Light makes everything manifest; there is nothing more searching than to walk and to serve under divine scrutiny, in the searching light of God Himself. It searches us through and through, disclosing all our motives, all that we are. That is where Christian fellowship is -- "in the light". "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another". This particularly bears on our assembly relations. In a general way, of course, in regard of the children of Israel, God looked to them to walk in the light they had of Himself. But the priests inside the holy place walked in the very direct light of the candlestick; they served in that wonderful light. Now, dear brethren, walking in the light would free us from all self-deception, all idea of a reputation. Walking in the light would mean that we are all just what we are, and this is really the basis of Christian fellowship -- that we are what we are, with no pretensions whatever. As after the flesh we are all sinners by nature and practice, and the light shows us that truth; at the same time, through grace we are born of God.

John, in the first chapter of his epistle, says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.... If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us". Now one feels for oneself how easily darkness comes in; how easily we can begin in the Spirit and then seek to be made perfect in flesh. I do not know of anything that mars the fellowship more than a kind of pretence to be a perfect Christian who can never do anything wrong or make a mistake. That spirit can come into assembly matters, and nothing is so deadening from an assembly point of view. I have sin in me and shall have as long as I am here. James, a prince among the saints, says, "we all often offend". To think that I do not offend is to make myself a better man than James, or Peter. We are called upon to walk together in all the blessed light of God, and the only

ground on which we can be in that unstained light is that "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin". It takes away all pretence, it brings us right down to rock-bottom, where we are all on one common ground, the ground of mercy. It makes us sympathetic, kind and forgiving towards one another; it is the great basis of fellowship -- walking in the light. "If we say that we have, fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not practise the truth". One way of walking in darkness is to deceive myself and seek to deceive other people as to my true state as in the flesh -- to be darkened by that most subtle notion that my very Christianity makes me perfect in the flesh. To keep up false pretences is to walk in darkness. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all". God has held nothing back; He is what He says He is, and He would have us to be the same.

In John 8 the Lord says, "I am the light of the world", and then, in answer to the question, "Who art thou?" He says, "altogether that which I also say to you". No darkness was there; He was Himself the light, and He was altogether what He said. Such transparency with us involves the admission of what we are by nature and of our need of the blood of Christ, and also a thankful recognition of God's own work in us that we have been born of God. We can take account of one another in that way; we walk in the light together and we have fellowship with one another. We thus become acquainted with God's glory, for if I am not prepared to admit what I am, how shall I ever learn the mercy of God? That ray of His glory will be unknown to me, and so will the glory of His grace. How shall I understand His righteousness? How shall I understand His holiness? It is only as we get down to rock-bottom that there is room for the divine glory to flood our souls. We own the truth, the light exposes the truth, it exposes things as they really are, and as we are prepared to own the truth which the light exposes, our hearts are filled with the light of His glory -- His mercy, His grace, His righteousness, and His holiness -- and we walk and serve in the light together. You can see how this bears on the heavenly city, the principle of transparency, for there is no part dark in it. I have no

doubt that everyone belonging to that city will give God all the glory; they will own their blessing as the fruit of "the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus". Thus God's glory shines out through that city -- she comes down having the glory of God. She is herself a glorious vessel, but it does not say she comes down having her own glory, but the glory of God. She is a living witness to what God is and to what He has done; a witness to His grace, His kindness, His righteousness, and His holiness.

Croydon, September 20th, 1941.

(From Words of Grace and Comfort 1943, page 110)