11/03/2021
💡LIGHT OF THE WORLD🌎
14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
-Matthew 5:14-16, NKJV
We know that Jesus is the Light of the world, for not only did He create light, but God the Father is known as the Father of lights (James 1:17).
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
James 1:17, NKJV
What does this mean to the believer? Paul, in Colossians 1, answers this more articulately than we can answer it:
9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:9-14, NKJV
Jesus said, that because we are followers of Him, we, too, are the lights in the world. What kind of light do we portray to those around us. Do those in darkness, who do not know the Lord of light, see Christ shining forth from us?
According to Paul's words, we understand that because we are God's children, we have been qualified, by God the Father, to be partaker of the inheritance of the saints in the lights. We have been delivered from the power of darkness, for we now have received redemption through the blood of Christ attaining the forgiveness of our sins. Do we, then, walk worthy of the Lord by being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God?
How concerned are we for those around us who still walk in darkness? When we see headlines such as those coming out of Egypt where the people are marching in defiance of Christians, are we on our knees praying that God would open the eyes of those who hate God?
It is easy for us to become so entrenched in our own lives that we really do not have all that great of a concern for the lost. It is also easy to become complacent, believing that those who do not know the Lord will always walk in darkness for they have no desire to come to the Light of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. Could it be that they walk in darkness for they have never truly seen God's light manifest in the lives of anyone they know?
Let us, as those are the light of the world, walk in that light. Let us pray that the light of the Gospel will shine forth brightly through our words and actions that others may truly see Christ in us. Let us take the time to leave our comfortable chairs, and take the Gospel to those who have never heard.
This is our calling in life. This is why the Lord Jesus Christ saved us. Let us, then, walk as those who are truly the Light of the Word!
