“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” (1 John 1:5-6).

The apostle John has a particular way of writing. His style makes us see clear and definite contrasts. Throughout his New Testament letters, he wants us to see the polarity between light and darkness, truth and deception, Jesus and Satan, and love and unbelief.

One of the temptations we face is to be mentally lazy. We can become slothful in our thinking. ‘My decisions don’t make that much of a difference,’ we think. ‘It doesn’t really matter what I contemplate, say or do.’ But that’s simply not accurate.

Columbia researcher Sheena Iyengar found that the average person makes seventy conscious decisions per day. Over the course of a year that is 25,550 decisions.*

You sometimes hear it said that you are the sum total of your choices. Yes and no. God can certainly intervene in a situation and turn things around. Nevertheless, it is still true that our choices have ongoing consequences in our lives. With this in mind, the apostle John is inviting us to be very proactive about the choices we make. They matter. They make a difference—not only in your life, but in the lives of the people around you. 

When John makes these clear and definite contrasts, he is pushing back against the idea that life is mostly neutral and that most of your decisions probably don’t matter. Wrong. They do. If you don’t choose light, you will start to get flooded with darkness. If you don’t choose truth, you will get deceived with deception. If you don’t choose Jesus, you will get taken advantage of by Satan. If you don’t choose love, you will start to live as if God isn’t real.

Decisions matter. Little ones and big ones. Not only for today, but for the days beyond tomorrow. 

With our eyes on Christ, let’s choose wisely.

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Notes:

-“You can’t follow Jesus if you’re sitting on the fence.” Click here. Sermon.
-*As quoted in: John Ortberg, All the Places You Go (Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), 8
-Bible quotes are from the ESV.