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.
Magritte's pipe is an image of the medium transcending the message. Might it be that John is involved in something similar, here? The "him" that John speaks of is, after all, Jesus, the logic for everything; Jesus the reason, the word. He has a message. He transmits to us. He guides our thoughts, which is what communication is. But is the medium not more than the message?
So what was Jesus' message if His very life was the medium? The goodness of God was the message. To know Jesus, what he did, and why he did it, consider this goodness of God. The way Jesus lived was consonant with this truth - that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. This God is - alone - worth praising.
It is true that John's letter is all about love, and fellowship and truth, and all the other good things made possible for God's family through the cleansing from sin offered by Jesus. But the reason that anyone would want it is this: God is good. God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. God is the gospel.
Nobody who nitty-grittys the business of studying the bible, or serving in the church, or who begins to pursue prayer or fasting, or who takes deliberate "alone-time" with God, or who pursues any other spiritual development programme gets very far with it, unless he has an idea of God's goodness. Only if God is good and really good in your soul, will you want to pursue Him with your mind, body and time. Has He given you the grace to know of His forgiveness and His goodness? The fact that you know of His goodness may be taken as a sign that He is reaching out to you. Indeed, He has spread His arms wide, and had them nailed expansively open. The grace that initiates you into His presence, keeps you there.
Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
Psalm 112: 4
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