FATHER OF LIGHTS

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the FATHER of LIGHTS...” – James 1:17a

Believers in Christ are children of Light, while God is the FATHER of LIGHTS: “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” (Jam.1:17). God is the Author of all that is good and the Finisher of every perfect gift. “GOD is LIGHT...” (1 Jh.1:5a). God is also the Creator of all that is called ‘Light’! His very first gift to the primeval earth, was the good gift of Light: “God said, let there be LIGHT: and there was LIGHT. And God saw the LIGHT, that it was GOOD” (Gen.1:3-4). Light could not exist without God. And without light, there could be no life on the earth.

Light represents what is holy and good; darkness, what is corrupt and evil. The term “Father of lights” infers that God created light and all ‘lights’ (Gen.1:3-5; 14-18). The Uncreated Light is the Source of all created lights and luminaries – the sun, moon, and stars (Psa.8:3; Isa. 45:12b). He is also the Father of all the Redeemed – His shining lights (Mt.5:14-16; Phil.2:15). The ‘Father of Lights’ also connotes God’s holy character. God reflects and sustains righteousness, holiness, purity, truth, and that’s good and right (1 Jh.1:5).

The Sun imperfectly represents God’s Holy Character (Rom.1:20). For, even at its brightest, it can only give a glimpse of His Glory. The sun has its daily variation; rising and setting at different times each day, and in the course of the year. It is sometimes clouded or eclipsed. God is immutable. The Father of Lights has “no variation or shadow due to change.” The sun shifts, mountains melt, oceans recede, the stars often wither from the vault of night; but God alone, remains ever the same; the Immortal, invisible, immutable, and Only-wise God!

God is the Unchanging Changer of circumstances, which are like shifting shadows before Him. God never changes in His Power, Justice, Knowledge or Decree. His Love is everlasting and without variation. Therefore, we should not be deceived or allow sin to “conceive” within us (vv.12-18). Rather, we should trust in and praise Him who “brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures” (vv.16-18). We’re called to demonstrate His righteousness and imitate Him, trusting that He who sustained all His luminaries throughout all generations will sustain us through every trial, so we can conceive, do, and sustain that which is very good (vv.21-27).

God the Son has revealed God the Father of lights to us (Jh.1:18). And now, it gladdens the Father’s Heart for us – the children of Light – to show forth His Glory, rise and shine as we walk in the light, live as light, and shine as lights piercing the darkness of the world.