CHILDREN OF LIGHT (1)

“You are all SONS of LIGHT and sons of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:5

The Scriptures describe Believers in Christ as Sons or CHILDREN of LIGHT: “You are all SONS of LIGHT and sons of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness” (1The.5:5). The King James and New International Versions of the Bible use the word ‘children’ in place of ‘sons.’ Sons, children or Offspring of Light are those who have been born of God and of His Word – which is Light – and have chosen to walk in the light, away from every representation and manifestation of darkness or evil.

First Thessalonians 5: 1-11 informs Believers about the day of the Lord, which includes the moment of the rapture and other related events. In describing the nature of “the rapture” – that moment in the future when Christ will retrieve Believers from the earth in a sudden, instantaneous action – this section of scripture distinguishes between children of darkness and children of light (vv.1-5). Children of light can look forward to the rapture with hope, but children of darkness must look forward hopelessly to the day of the Lord. Paul identified himself and the Thessalonian Christians as “children of light, children of the day." They were “not of the night or of darkness.”

The Thessalonian Christians were once in the dark about spiritual matters, but the Holy Spirit shone the light of the gospel into their hearts and they believed in Jesus, the Light of the world (Jh.8:12; 2Cor.4:6). The passage assures us that the day of the Lord will commence unexpectedly, like the arrival of a thief at night. It would be a time of darkness with dreadful consequences. Unbelievers, identified as those who belong to the night, will be overtaken by destruction. But Believers in Christ are, symbolically, of the day not the night; hence, not the objects of God's wrath. In view of their exemption from the Great Tribulation, Believers ought to encourage and edify one another.

The world is so often a dark place; full of evil. When we honestly face the facts about the world, we can see that there’s so much darkness. There is envy, jealousy, hatred, exploitation, greed, broken relationships, lust, drunkenness, pain, abuse, and worse. But in Jesus Christ, we are light. It’s not because we are good in ourselves. It’s because we have been forgiven through the Bood of Christ. We have been raised with Christ and so given assurance now and hope for the future. This means that we have been changed by God from darkness into light. We’ve not only changed location from being in darkness to being in light (Col.1:12-13). Rather, we’ve changed in terms of WHO we are, in Christ. This is a change of identity. We were once darkness, but now we are light.

On the basis of this radical transformation of identity, as “children of light”, we are to “walk in the light”!