In 1:5 John says, “And this is the message which we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” In addition to the three main things in the preceding verses—life, fellowship, and joy—a further message, which the apostles have heard from the Lord, is to announce to the believers that God is light. First we have the divine life, and then out of this we have the fellowship of the divine life. Fellowship issues in joy. When we are in this joyful element of the fellowship, we are in the light of God. Therefore, the sequence is life, fellowship, joy, and light.
In the preceding verses, the Father and Son are mentioned with clear words, and the Spirit is implied in the fellowship of the eternal life. Here God is mentioned for the first time in this Epistle, and He is mentioned as the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This God, as revealed in the light of the gospel, is light.
The message that John and the other early disciples heard was, undoubtedly, the word spoken by the Lord Jesus in John 8:12 and 9:5 that He is the light. However, John says here that the message was that God is light. This indicates that the Lord Jesus is God and implies the essence of the Divine Trinity.
The expression, “God is light,” like “God is love” in 4:8 and 16, and “God is Spirit” in John 4:24, is used not in a metaphoric sense but in a predicative sense. These expressions denote and describe the nature of God. In His nature God is Spirit, love, and light. Spirit denotes the nature of God’s Person; love, the nature of God’s essence; and light, the nature of God’s expression. Both love and light are related to God as life, which life is of the Spirit (Rom. 8:2). God, Spirit, and life are actually one. God is Spirit, and Spirit is life. Within such a life are love and light. When this divine love appears to us, it becomes grace, and when this divine light shines upon us, it becomes truth. John’s Gospel reveals that the Lord Jesus has brought grace and truth to us (John 1:14, 17) that we may have the divine life (John 3:14-16), whereas his Epistle unveils that the fellowship of the divine life brings us to the very sources of grace and truth, which are the divine love and the divine light. His Epistle is the continuation of his Gospel. In his Gospel it was God in the Son coming to us as grace and truth that we may become His children (John 1:12-13). In his Epistle it is we, the children, in the fellowship of the Father’s life, coming to the Father to participate in His love and light. The former was God coming out to the outer court to meet our need at the altar (Lev. 4:28-31); the latter is we entering into the Holy of Holies to contact Him at the ark (Exo. 25:22). This is further and deeper in the experience of the divine life. After receiving the divine life in John’s Gospel by believing in the Son, we should go on to enjoy this life in his Epistle through the fellowship of this life. His entire Epistle discloses to us this one thing, that is, the enjoyment of the divine life by abiding in its fellowship.
God is Spirit. This refers to His Person. God is also love and light. Love refers to His essence, and light, to His expression. Both God’s love and light are related to His life. This life is actually God Himself. Life is also the Spirit.
When this life was manifested, it came with grace and truth. When we received the Lord Jesus, we received life, and we now enjoy grace and truth. This life brings us back to God. First, God came to us so that we may receive grace and truth. Now we go back to the Father and contact Him as the source of grace and truth, and this source is love and light. Going back to the Father, we may enjoy love as the source of grace and light as the source of truth. Therefore, in the fellowship of the divine life, we are being brought back to God to enjoy love as the source of grace and light as the source of truth.
This understanding of love and light is not derived from human reasoning; it comes from the divine revelation in the Word. In this revelation we have a number of items for our enjoyment, comparable to many courses of a feast. We have God, the Spirit as the nature of God’s person, love as the nature of God’s essence, light as the nature of God’s expression, the divine life, grace, and truth. When we have all these divine things, we are brought back to God the Father. When we are brought back to the Father, we meet Him and enjoy Him as love, which is the source of grace, and light, which is the source of truth. How marvelous that in the fellowship of the divine life we enjoy the divine light!