This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
However, John had a practical reason behind this statement about God. "The apostle intended that his words should emphasize the difference between the light which God is and purely intellectual enlightenment, so-called,"[26] which was claimed by the philosophical pretenders who were disturbing the church, and which even today has by no means disappeared from the earth.