1 John 1:5-7 (CB)

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Goodness is a part of God’s character, it is His character. It is His natural being. It is who He is, as with all of His attributes. This metaphor of God as light is primarily a moral evaluation. Darkness is equated with sin and lies, and light with truth and purity. It’s a picture of God as perfectly free from sin in His very nature. It is a description of sin as that which is foreign to God’s nature. We are obligated to see God’s nature as the standard and the model of goodness and rightness. We are compelled to condemn as sinful, evil and wrong those things that oppose His nature. God’s nature is the standard of right and wrong, and His divine actions always demonstrate His standard of morality. There are many complexities, but when Jesus returns in glory, God’s displeasure with unethical living will be made fully evident, and His approval of ethical living will be made utterly clear. Christian ethics is an essential aspect of all theology and all Christian’s living. Theology can be defined as the application of the Word of God to all of life. (2 Timothy 3:16-17).