1 John 1:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Concerning the Son: “I am the light” (Jn 8:12), and: “I am in the Father and the Father in Me” (Jn 10:38). That the Son is light and the Sun of righteousness, the prophet cries out: “Arise, shine, Jerusalem, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you” (Is 60:1).

Concerning the Holy Spirit it is sung in the psalm: “With You is the fountain of life. In Your light we shall see light” (Ps 35:10). That is, “in the Son we shall see the Holy Spirit. This is the light by which we have been illumined, and to this day are illumined in our hearts.”

The Father is light because He is true God. The Son is light because He is the radiance of His light. The Holy Spirit is light as proceeding from the Father: “No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor 2:11). The Holy Spirit is true light, contemplated and understood in the true light.

If it is said somewhere, “He made darkness His covering” (Ps 17:12), it says that He made darkness, not that He is darkness, as it says that He is light. For the one who sets something in place and the thing set in place are not the same. Thus, here darkness means our ignorance concerning God because of His incomprehensibility. This ignorance is ours, not God’s. For something that is not in a thing is attributed to it, not on its own account, but on account of someone related to it.

That the apostle calls sin darkness is clear from his Gospel saying: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (Jn 1:5). There he calls our sinful nature darkness. Because of its inclination to fall, it yields to our envier, the devil, who draws it toward sin. Therefore the light, united to our nature, which is very easily caught, became wholly uncatchable by the tempter. For “He committed no sin” (Is 53:9).

Let us see. Without the fruit of instruction, the narrative of events, that Christ was born and that Christ suffered, is a diversion for the mind, not its strengthening. What great message do you hear? Look for the fruit for which you hear it. What did he wish to say and proclaim? Listen: “That God is light,” he says, “and in Him there is no darkness at all.”

For now, though he has spoken of light, his words are still dark. Would that this very light of which he spoke might illumine our hearts, so that we may see what he has said. This is what we proclaim: that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

Who would dare say that there is darkness in God? Or what does this light mean? Or what does this darkness mean? Let no one think that what is said refers to these eyes of ours. Someone may say, “God is light, but the sun is also light, and the moon is light, and a lamp is light.” Here there must be something far greater, far better, far more excellent.

As far as God surpasses creation, as far as the Creator surpasses the creature, as far as wisdom surpasses what has been wisely made, so far must this light surpass all things. Perhaps, when we know what this light is, we shall draw near to it and cleave to it, that it may illumine us. For in ourselves we are darkness. But if this light enlightens us, we can become light and no longer be confounded by it, because we are confounded by ourselves.

Who is confounded by himself? He who knows that he is a sinner. Who is not confounded by the light? He whom this light enlightens. What does it mean to be enlightened by this light? Whoever already sees that he is in the darkness of sins, and wishes to be enlightened by the light, approaches it. Therefore the psalm says, “Draw near to Him and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be ashamed” (cf. Ps 33:6).

But this light will keep you from shame only if by it you see how foul you are, and your foulness becomes displeasing to you, and you begin to perceive its beauty. This is what John wishes to teach us. Perhaps we are too hasty in our words. But he himself speaks of this quite plainly afterward.

Remember the beginning of our discourse: this Epistle praises love. “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” And what did he say earlier? “That you may have communion with us, and our communion may be with God the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (verse 3).

Further, if God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all, and we must be in communion with Him, then darkness must be driven away, so that light may be in us. For darkness can have no communion with light. See, then, what follows: “If we say that we have communion with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie” (verse 6).

God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. But He is the light of purified minds, not of our bodily eyes. Therefore the mind that sees this light will then be as it should be, which is not yet the case now.

Or rather: the Light is God the Father, abiding in the Light, that is, in the Son and the Holy Spirit. He exists not as one Light, another Light, and another Light, but as one and the same according to essence, while in mode of existence He shines triply.

By light the apostle means either the rules of the law, or faith, or teaching. By darkness he means what is opposed to them. There are not two ways of life, but one, in accordance with the divine commandments. For unity is the work of God, while duality and whatever exists apart from unity come from the corruption of life.

As the idea of light is joined with the idea of something most pure, subtle, and perfect, so with the idea of God, the Father of lights (Jas 1:17), we must join the thought of the most perfect Being. In the moral sense, God is the most holy and most true Being. He gives men true knowledge. Therefore those who have truly known Him walk in light, in truth, and in holiness. They shun falsehood and sin.

The apostle Paul likewise exhorts: “Walk as children of light,” for “you are all sons of light and sons of the day” (Eph 5:8; 1 Thess 5:5). The apostle John writes against the Gnostics, who boast of knowledge of God, yet lie and sin. True knowledge of God, or walking in the light, is manifested in communion with one another, that is, in love for neighbors. This is a new sign by whose absence heretics are known, since they most often reveal hatred for neighbors.

When verse 5 is considered, the words “God is light,” by their closest connection with what precedes, “And this is the promise which we have heard from Him and declare to you,” appear to be taken from the Savior’s own words. Yet such words are not found literally in the Gospel. They may be considered a summary of the Savior’s words about Himself as light (Jn 8:12; Jn 9:5, and others).

“And in Him there is no darkness at all.” The apostle very often expresses one and the same thought from both the positive and negative sides. So also here. Having called God light, the apostle strengthens his expression by pointing to the absence in Him of any darkness whatever. This means the absence not only of sin, falsehood, and impurity, but also of any defect or imperfection. Thus this expression is equivalent to the words of the apostle James (Jas 1:17), who says that with the Father of lights there is no variation or shadow of turning.

Yet it may also be that this saying is a characteristic summary of several similar sayings of Christ, expressed briefly by John himself on the basis of those words. Something similar can be seen in John’s Gospel (Jn 12:44 and following; see the note). The point is not the form and letter of the saying, but the meaning of its content.

“God is light,” and so forth. Both God the Father and Christ, the Son of God, are called light, as light from light. Applied to the One and the Other, this concept is figurative. Of all the concepts by which They are designated, the concept of light is the fullest and purest. Light is the most perfect image and concept of the all-perfect being of God.

In the visible world, light is the most excellent and beneficent substance. Extending to all without exception, it reveals everything in its true form. It illumines, warms, gives life, preserves, makes grow, and gladdens all things. So also God is light. He loves all equally, illumines, gives life, enlightens, blesses, and grants joy, happiness, and peace. Light is the fullness of all divine perfections: goodness, omniscience, wisdom, holiness, and the other highest attributes. It seems that in human language there is no better word or expression to portray the concept of God.

In the visible world, light is the most excellent and beneficent substance. Extending to all without exception, it reveals everything in its true form. It illumines, warms, gives life, preserves, makes grow, and gladdens all things. So also God is light. He loves all equally, illumines, gives life, enlightens, blesses, and grants joy, happiness, and peace. Light is the fullness of all divine perfections: goodness, omniscience, wisdom, holiness, and the other highest attributes. It seems that in human language there is no better word or expression to portray the concept of God.

“And in Him there is no darkness at all.” That is, in the all-perfect God there is no imperfection at all. In visible nature, darkness is the absence of light. In a figurative sense, darkness means a lack of perfection. More particularly, darkness means ignorance, sin, and falsehood. In God there is no darkness at all, that is, no moral impurity, ignorance, sin, or falsehood. He is all-holy and all-perfect (see the notes on Jn 1:4-9; Jn 8:12; Jn 12:46 and parallels).

“Therefore He is light, and there is no darkness in Him, but spiritual light. It draws the eyes of the soul to the vision of Him, turns them away from everything material, and awakens longing for Him alone with the strongest love. By darkness he means either ignorance or sin. In God there is neither ignorance nor sin, because ignorance and sin have place only in matter and in our disposition. That the Apostle calls sin darkness is clear from his Gospel saying: ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’ (Jn 1:5). There he calls our sinful nature darkness. Because of its tendency to fall, it yields to our envier, the devil, who draws it into sin. Thus the light, united to our nature, which is very easily caught, became entirely uncatchable for the tempter. For ‘He committed no sin,’ and so forth (Is 53:9)” (Theophylact).

God is called light by comparison with the light of the sun. The sun, as a self-luminous body, always shines unchanged. It does not know the darkness of night. Upon it there is eternal day. This is an image of God and of His perfections, which always and eternally belong to Him and are darkened by nothing. This is especially true of His moral perfections, without the slightest admixture of sinful darkness.

To what should conviction in this truth dispose us? To this: if we desire to have true communion with God, we must take care to walk in light and avoid sinful darkness. We must remember Christ’s commandment: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). Only under this condition is communion with God possible. Otherwise, confidence in communion with God is a sign of self-deception, as is clear from the following verse.