Saturday, June 21, 2008

Communion walking in the light (1 John 1)

Walking in the light, espoused in 1 John 1 as vital to fellowship with God and with each other, is understood in several ways.

Living according to orthodox belief, including the commands of God revealed through Scripture. (Incidentally, this is a point brought out in the GAFCON 'conference' book, now available electronically here).

Living transparently - hiding nothing about the truth of who we are.

Openly, publicly, and readily confessing sins - a feature, so I understand, of the East African revival.

In its own curious way the current controversy in the Communion is about 'walking in the light'. The first understanding above urges the Communion to refuse to bless same sex partnerships; the second understanding urges the Communion to refuse to keep, or return homosexual lifestyle to a hidden 'dark' state. 'Coming out' in a sense is about coming out 'into the light'. Conservatives wrestling with these matters perhaps should be - I should be - considering this feature more carefully.

In short (and a hat-tip to a correspondent) is there a moral difference between living a life of sexual subterfuge and living a life of sexual transparency (which, at the least, is what any marriage or declared/registered/blessed same sex partnership is)?

No comments: