LIGHT — the ordinary word for light, and one of the great Johannine images; the root of 'photograph' and 'phosphorus'. ⚠ 1 John 1:5 makes it the letter's first declaration about God: 'God is LIGHT, and in him is no darkness at all' — one of three 'God is' statements in the Johannine writings (with 'God is spirit', John 4:24, and 'God is love', 1 John 4:8). It is not 'God is a light' but light itself, absolute, reinforced by a piled double negative (ouk… oudemia, 'darkness in him there is not, none'). And the light is moral before it is metaphysical: it means holiness and truth, so that to 'walk in the light' (1:7) is to live truthfully and openly, and the test of fellowship with God becomes conduct, not claim. The Gospel had already made the Word 'the light of men' that 'shines in the darkness' (John 1:4-5), and Jesus 'the light of the world' (John 8:12). Its opposite here is skotia, darkness — error, falsehood, and the hidden life. → first discussed at 1 John 1:5