On occasion we will lose the power in our home. When this happens, it’s all fun and games until about the two-hour mark. At that point, all the fun games you can play in the dark have become exhausted, the house is either getting uncomfortably cold or hot (depending upon the season) and everyone starts reminiscing about the things that you can do only with electricity. I would say sin is a little similar to this. At first, it’s very enticing. There may be a lot of ‘fun’ to be had when we dabble in sin. But, eventually, we become trapped, or enslaved, to it and we want out. I must say here that when we want out that that desire is truly a gift from God. Otherwise, if God didn’t give us the desire to want out of sin, we would happily, or miserably, remain in sin as long as possible. But, should we be granted that gift to see our sin and hate it, we are able to get out of it because Jesus is the Light of the World.
I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
John 8: 12
Those words were spoken by Jesus in the above scripture verse. Do you know who He was speaking to?
A woman who was caught in the very act of adultery.
Jesus admonished the arrogant and pride-filled religious men who stood around her with their raised arms and curled fingers around stones. He told them that if they were without sin, then go ahead and throw the first stone. Jesus cast light upon their darkness. They had to walk away defeated.
Yet, while Jesus was speaking Truth to the religious, He also cared for the sinner. Note…He did not sympathize with her. “Oh, those hypocrites are so evil and hateful. Just ignore them. God loves you just as you are.”
He did not appeal to where she was in her sin. “Come worship with me. Don’t worry about your sin. I know it will take time to get out of that relationship. I know you probably love him. But, just hang out with me and my crowd and eventually we’ll deal with that sin issue.”
No…Jesus said:
…go and sin no more.
John 8: 11b
The Light of the World shines upon the sin and demolishes it. It is victorious to demolish it!
Jesus solves the sin issue by bringing it to light. Then, the Light of the World shines the way for us so that we know how to love Him, serve Him, obey Him.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalm 119: 105
We are exposed when the light is turned brightly on us. And in this, we are given direction and hope. Darkness promises nothing but eventual death. The light gives us hope and life.
Jesus shares this attribute of Himself with us too. In Matthew 5: 14, He tells us that we are the light of the world and a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. We don’t hide our light under a basket, but we set it out so that the whole house can be illuminated.
Christ is the promised hope for the world–saving us from sin, being freed from guilt, giving us the hope of genuine peace and eternity–and we can point to Him as this hope as we live in our world.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5: 16
Love, Wendy
