A Different Kind of Light

I have written several times recently about light and darkness. Sometimes a topic just sticks with me because I find it interesting. Other times this happens because the Bible has so much to say about a given subject. I’m not sure which, if either, of those fits, but I found myself, again, thinking about light this week, but from a completely different angle.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
– 1 John 1:5, ESV

It has been argued, and with some merit, that light is the most fundamental form of energy. Neither we, nor our plants do well without it. In some cases, the end result of no light is death. Solar panels are visible nationwide collecting and storing power absorbed from the light of the sun. Fifteen miles from me, students at Western Washington University are competing for a $10 million purse in an international competition to build a solar powered automobile that appeals to the public.

Physical light has tremendous value. We can recognize objects in our environment as the light illuminates items around us, and we can feel it by the warmth it creates when it hits our bodies. But when John says, “God is light,” he seems to be saying something different. Yes, light is most obvious in its physical characteristics but, biblically, light reflects in the intellectual realm as well.

Indeed, when a person “figures it all out” we say they are an “enlightened” individual. We depict ideas graphically by drawing a light bulb over a person’s head. There is an intellectual, ethical, and moral character to light.

God’s Words Give Light

The unfolding of your words gives light;
    it imparts understanding to the simple.
– Psalm 119:130, ESV

God’s light opens minds. Sometimes those minds are not open because they do not possess the intellectual capacity to grasp subjects of great complexity – the simple. Other times, minds are not open because humanity tends toward stubbornness and self-will. God’s light open minds and give understanding to anyone willing to grasp it.

Satan’s Interference Gives Darkness

If the provision of God’s words gives light resulting in understanding for the simple, then the removal of God’s words will result in darkness, and chaos will reign. Just look around you today.

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
– 2 Corinthians 4:4, NIV-1978

Without the intellectual light of God’s message, the people stumble in darkness. John says that light shines in the darkness and the darkness can’t even comprehend the light.¹

It happened under the old covenant as well. Speaking to corrupt prophets, God had this terribly harsh word:

Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,
    and darkness to you, without divination.
The sun shall go down on the prophets,
    and the day shall be black over them;
– Micah 3:6, ESV

Night. Darkness. No word from God. The sun sets on the prophets and day is black. It’s depressing.

Light as a State of Being

Our tendency is to think of light as a position, a place to be, but scripture speaks of light and darkness as states of existence. Consider this statement from the apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus.

For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
– Ephesians 5:8, ESV

Don’t miss that Paul is not saying we were once in darkness and are now in the light. He says darkness is what we were but now we are light. And consider the opening verse affirming that God is light. Now Paul is saying we are light, and as such we ought to reflect the essence of our Creator.

Light and Life

There also seems to be a connection between light and life, not that light is necessary for life as we talked about above, but that light produces life, or is it that the life in Jesus produces light? With that, we return to the time that we were darkness, but now we are light, because life was in Jesus and we are in Christ.²

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
– John 1:4, ESV

John says it again in chapter eight, quoting Jesus.

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
– John 8:12, ESV

Not just any light, mind you. The “light of life!”

The Light of Fellowship

We have already seen that there is no darkness in God. We have seen that we are light, we are enlightened by light, that God’s words give light, and that life and light are connected. Now we learn that light binds us in fellowship and opens the way to cleansing.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
– 1 John 1:7, ESV

I remember a 1980s conversation I had with a student at Kansas University who was deeply troubled by a lack of growth in her spiritual life. We talked through it extensively. She was right in her assessment that she wasn’t growing. She was out of fellowship with the other believers who were noticeably growing. She was not walking in the light, but rather in the darkness of the world. She was not exposing herself to the light of God’s Word. She was not illuminating others as light, but rather enhancing the darkness.

It was a sad, but fascinating conversation, because she clearly recognized all these things to be true, but could not manage to see the direct cause==>effect relationship between her refusal of the light, and the emotional distress she suffered because of the darkness.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
– 2 Corinthians 4:6, ESV

1. John 1:5
2. Romans 8:1, Philippians 1:1, 1 Peter 5:14