Walking in the Light | 1 John 1:5-2:2

Have you ever fought against demons? You say, “I’ve been to Walmart. Does that count?”In the late fourth century AD, a young intellectual named Evagrius Ponticus went into the desert of Egypt to fight the devil. Which is what you do. He read the story of Jesus going out into the desert to face the devil head on and intended to follow Jesus’ example. Word spread that there was a monk out in the middle of nowhere at war with the devil. The rumor was that he was winning. He became a sought-after spiritual guide and people from all over would brave the dangers of the elements to locate him and learn his ways.Before he died, one of his followers, asked him to write down his strategy for overcoming the devil. So, he wrote a short book called,“Talking Back: A Monastic Handbook for Combating Demons.”In his book, his best strategy for fighting demonic temptation was to fight with “thoughts” or “beliefs.” You must fight evil thoughts with godly truth. The premise of the book is that “our fight with the devil is first and foremost a fight to take back control of our minds from their captivity to lies and liberate them with the weapon of truth.” Most of us aren’t living in the desert fighting demons, but every one of us are fighting against something:  addiction, opioids, alcohol, food, work, self-harm, gambling, porn, sex, social media, and gaming. What we fighting isn’t so much a person, a habit or an addiction as it is a lie that we have been believing and that lie is robbing your life of joy. The way to true joy is breaking free from the lie. 

1 John is written so that believers would have joy in their blessed assurance. (1:4). Joy comes from having a right relationship with God through Jesus. The thief of joy is sin. Just because you are a Christian does not mean you don’t struggle with sin. The most miserable person is not the unbeliever, but the believer who is not in a right relationship with God. John says he is writing this book so that you can learn not to live in the bondage of sin (2:1) because Jesus came to this earth to destroy the works of the devil and the power of sin over our lives (3:18). Jesus came to set us free from the power of sin. True joy is found when we stop hiding in the darkness and walk in the light of Jesus.