LIGHTS IN THE WORLD (2)

“For you were once darkness, but now YOU ARE LIGHT in the LORD. Walk as children of LIGHT” – Ephesians 5:8

God transforms people who were once darkness into His LIGHTS in the WORLD: “For you were once darkness, but now YOU ARE LIGHT in the LORD. Walk as children of LIGHT” (Eph.5:8). This contrast of dark and light is commonly associated with evil versus good. Darkness speaks of things that are evil or against God. Light signifies things that are good: Truth, Holiness, and Righteousness. God Himself is Light: “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that GOD is LIGHT and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 Jh.1:5). Before knowing Christ, all human beings wallow in the darkness of sin.

The imageries of Light and Darkness connote one’s spiritual state. Walking in darkness implies living in sin and gratifying sinful desires. Walking in the Light is walking in Grace, Love, and Mercy. Darkness is disorientating, crippling, limiting, and terrifying. When darkness falls navigation is nearly impossible. In contrast, Light gives vision, direction, and perspective, and it brings liberation. Most importantly, Light overcomes darkness. Paul instructed the Christians in Ephesus to “live as children of light” instead of getting tangled up in the darkness of the sins that once limited them. Believers should live as people who have the Light of God and are mandated to be Lights in the world. 

We not only walk in the Light, our souls have been transformed by the Light of Jesus, to become lights of Jesus in our world. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, we possess Christ’s Light and are able to walk in the new life that He gives. We are no longer trapped by darkness but walk in righteousness. Salvation enables us to lay down the old life and take hold of the new life we have in Christ. Living in the light produces goodness, righteousness, and is pleasing to God (v.9).

That God calls us Light does not mean that we have become sinlessly perfect, manifesting absolute holiness, truth, and righteousness. God calls us Light because He lives with and in us. He has sent His Holy Spirit to live in our hearts. And because God Himself is Light, we too are people of the Light, enabled by our new nature, to overcome darkness through His Spirit. We can and must live in a way that attests to the reality that we’re children of the Light, shining to the world around us.

Practically, it is by reading, studying, and meditating in God’s Word that we know how God wants us to live. The Bible has been given to us as Light to guide our path: “YOUR WORD is a LAMP to my feet, and a LIGHT to my path” (Psa.119:105). The Light of the Word transforms us into Lights in the World. By the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we can live as children of God – children of the Light.