I remember as a kid it being a pretty big deal to see the sun come up. Based on how I remember it, I think I must have been a pretty good sleeper . . . it was a special happening, like getting an early start on family vacation, when mom or dad would get us kids up so early that we’d be conscious for sunrise. Now, most of my days start in the dark and I just take seeing the dawn for granted. But something I read in 1John this morning may change that . . .

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.    (1John 2:7-8 ESV)

John’s purpose in writing this letter is “so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1:3). The reality of communion with one another is founded on the reality of our communion with the Father and His Son. The Father having made full provision for such intimate fellowship between the Creator and His creation as “the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin” (1:7) . . . and “He is the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins” (2:2) . . . Jesus Christ the righteous not only making the way but bringing us into the way as the “Advocate with the Father” (2:1).

And the evidence of such relationship? “And this is how we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments” (2:3). Obedience is the not the basis for fellowship, it is the evidence. It’s not that I try to serve Jesus hoping it will put me in good stead with the Father . . . rather, because I am in good stead with the Father through the finished work of His Son, I love Jesus and desire to serve Him. And so the old commandments are given new power . . . the right stuff is still the right stuff but now I have the right enabling to do the right stuff . . . because I’m living at dawn.

The darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining . . .

In a very real sense I’m living at dawn . . . seeing, by the grace of God, the darkness of the old man giving way more and more to the light that has been placed within my heart, “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2Cor. 4:6). I’m not there yet . . . oh, so not there yet! But the darkness is passing away . . . and I’m living more and more in the reality of the marvelous light I have been called into (1Peter 2:9). I’m not there yet . . . but I’m also not where I once was . . . praise be to God alone!

I’m living at dawn . . . the light before me becoming more and more attractive than the darkness around me. The shadows dissipating as the glory on the horizon captures more and more of my attention and my interest. It’s the work that God has begun in me, the work He has promised to complete at the day Jesus returns (Php. 1:6) . . . to bring me more and more in line with the reality of my deliverance from the domain of darkness and my transfer to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Col. 1:13) . . . my walk being more in the light and less in the dark.

I don’t know how long this thought might stay with me, but I’m thinking it has the possibility of changing how I view sunrise . . . that each dawn becomes a reminder that just as the night gives way to the day, so too for the believer . . . for this believer . . . the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

O’ shine true Light . . . remove the shadows . . . fill the house . . . that the fellowship might be sweet . . . that our joy might be made complete (1John 1:4).

By Your grace . . . for Your glory!