Dark and Light

Luke 11:33-36

³³“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. ³⁴Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. ³⁵Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. ³⁶If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”

My husband has called me a mole. Yup – a mole. It’s because I prefer to be in an unlit room most of the time. There just doesn’t seem to be a reason to turn on the lights. I can navigate my entire home without turning on a light in the darkest of nights. But every now and then, I get a surprise when something is out of place or not left the way I expected. When I was a kid, I broke 3 toes on 3 different occasions because I was wandering around in the dark. You would think I would learn;  apparently not. But wandering the physical dark is nothing like wandering in spiritual darkness. The consequences are far greater than a few broken toes.

Jesus is on the scene, preaching the pure Gospel. He is the fulfillment of everything the people have been waiting for and they need to hear Him clearly and see Him in truth. The concept of light versus darkness runs through the Bible, especially the New Testament when the Light of the World has arrived. When Jesus says, ”If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light” He speaks the reality of the whole  Christian life. 1 Peter takes up the same idea.

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

The Scriptures are clear. If you do not embrace the forgiveness of sins found in Jesus Christ alone, you are going through life in the dark. The work of the Holy Spirit is to bring us out of that darkness by bringing us to faith in the only true source of light, Jesus Christ. It’s a pretty simple but utterly huge concept. Of course, since we all sin, we tend to turn toward the darkness and away from the Light. But this is not a permanent state for the believer as the Spirit draws us back through repentance and into Christ’s arms. So while I may prefer to walk around my house in the dark, I am overjoyed by the Light of Jesus Christ in my heart, my mind, and my spirit. His light is all that I need to see everything that is important.