1 John 1:5-6 “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.”

I try to eat healthy. And I take a few vitamins and supplements. My bottle of fish oil tablets has a little heart symbol on it with the words, “Promotes a healthy heart.” But there is an asterisk after the word heart. It leads you to a little box on the back of the label that reads, “This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”

Disclaimers are everywhere. Practically every invitation to invest your money comes with the reminder, “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.” The gas mileage ratings of your car are “based on EPA estimates. Actual mileage will vary.” An online sweepstakes: “Many will enter, few will win.” A call in radio show hosted by a lawyer: “Contents for entertainment purposes only. Does not constitute legal advice.”

Spiritually, people are tempted to claim more about their faith and morals than reality warrants. This is often due to the sinful assumption we must justify ourselves. If we are going to be accepted by God and others, then we will have to make a case for our own goodness and worth. We fudge our spiritual resumés as we try to promote our case. This is walking in darkness. This is living a lie.

God, we learn, is light. Light makes it possible to see. It makes reality clear. It reveals the truth and exposes what is false. Darkness hides and covers. It deceives the eye. It makes things look different than they really are, if you can see them at all. Look at the way people advertise used cars. Sometimes a seller takes the pictures at night. Even under lights, pictures taken at night tend to make the car look better than it really is. Bad paint and body damage are hard to see between the glare and the shadows. Daylight gives you a much better picture of what is going on.

God doesn’t just live in the light, John says. He IS light. With him nothing is hidden. Nothing can look different than it actually is. He reveals only fact and truth. No field of science can make such a claim. Over time one theory gives way to another. No man-made religion provides such clarity. People tend to refashion God the way they want him to be, not as he actually is, and they do the same things with right and wrong. No political or social movement provides such a beacon of truth. Dark human selfishness infects them all.

This light of God isn’t limited to what he lights up and exposes outside of us. He is more than the spiritual equivalent of headlights on your car making it possible to see the road ahead. When he leads us to know and believe in Jesus as our Savior, his light shines inside of us. This is part of what it means to have fellowship with God. We share this light. It shows our hearts what God is really like, convincing them of both his severe justice and his unconditional, undeserved love. The light may not reach every nook and cranny of our souls at once, but it is constantly driving back the darkness of sin, chasing out the shadows of doubt and skepticism, shining through the shade of biblical and spiritual ignorance.

No spiritual disclaimers are necessary when the light of God’s truth is shining on us, and in us. Our life and words will begin to match up with the light of Jesus’ life and words. John’s words urge us to come out of the darkness and walk in the light of God’s truth.

Acts 18:9-11 “One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.’ So Paul stayed for a year and half, teaching them the word of God.”

            It was helpful for the apostle to have people like Aquila and Priscilla, new friends he met when he moved to Corinth: Titius Justus and Crispus, new coverts when he began preaching in Corinth; and his old missionary colleagues Silas and Timothy once they arrived. But nothing was more encouraging than Jesus’ own promises to him: A promise of his presence and protection (I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you), and a promise of success for his work (I have many people in this city). With assurances like that, what was there left to fear?

            These promises were for that time and place. Later Paul told the elders of the church in Ephesus, “I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardship are facing me” (Acts 20:23). He soldiered on and kept on speaking about God’s grace either way.

            We don’t have special revelations for our work where we live, half-way round the world, two thousand years later. But Jesus hasn’t left us without promises. Remember the how the Great Commission ends? After, “Go and make disciples of all nations,” he promises: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” That has never been limited or retracted, and it applies to us no less than eleven men who first heard Jesus say it.

            We still have the promise that goes along with the “Ministry of the Keys.” After giving his disciples the power to offer or withhold forgiveness, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven,” Jesus promised: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:18, 20).

            In other words, Jesus hangs out with the people who are talking about his grace. He goes with those who take the message of sins forgiven and peace with God to others. He is present with those who have gathered to hear about sin and grace among themselves. We have every confidence to keep on speaking, because our Lord is with us and stands behind us whether we are worshiping him or evangelizing our neighbors.

Acts 18:7-8 “Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.”

Paul didn’t have to search all over the city for a new place to preach and worship. The door God opened up was literally right next door. Titius Justus was one of the new converts to Christian faith. His house could accommodate the little congregation. Now they could worship and learn and grow in peace, without everything Paul said about Jesus having to be a debate. It was better for the fledgling church not to have everything they had come to believe constantly questioned and attacked by people who didn’t want to believe what their own Scriptures were trying to tell them.

Doors were also opened with some of the other new converts who joined Paul’s congregation. As the synagogue ruler, Crispus was something like a combination of senior pastor and church president. He would have known the Bible well. He would have been a man with gifts for leadership and administration. He would have been a man with a mature faith. Now Paul had a place and he had the kind of people around whom he could build a stable ministry. God was opening doors for his work in this city, where Paul would stay and preach longer than any city except for Ephesus.

In my little church’s short history, we have been moved around for different reasons. When things didn’t work out so well at the hotel where we first met, God opened a new door at an event center belonging to a caterer. When that location didn’t suite our needs, he opened a new door for us in a strip mall. God willing, this is just a step to something bigger and more permanent, a place to worship we can call our own.

Several pastors have served my congregation in just over a decade. The first pastor served another congregation and preached only long enough to get things started. He was followed by another man who could serve only part time. Now I am the man God has called to preach and teach in this place, but the day will come when someone else is filling these shoes.

Few things are more certain than change. But when it comes, our Lord invites us not to fear it, not to try to hold on to the past at all cost, but to trust him to open new doors. He wants us to keep spreading his word even more than we do.