“And this is the message we have heard from Him, and announce to you, that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (I Jn. 1:5,6).  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend (or overpower) it” (Jn. 1:1-5).  

     Light is the most fundamental and important form of energy, and energy includes every phenomenon in the physical universe. It is appropriate for John to affirm that “God is light,” because everything created must reflect the character of its Creator. God is the source of all light–physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual–and He doesn’t change.  James, in his epistle, wrote: “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow” (1:17).

     A friend and I went out hunting (“hiking with our guns”) a couple times recently. We drove through very dense fog to our hunting site and as we hiked up higher, we experienced brilliant sunshine and clear blue skies. The valley below  remained shrouded in fog.  Each of us is living in a valley of fog and darkness until we receive the One who is life and the light of men, Jesus Christ, God the Son.  “For God, who said, ‘light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (II Cor. 4:6).  Earlier in that chapter, Paul wrote: “…the god of this world (Satan…Jn. 12:31) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ…” (v. 4). 

     With all that is going on in the world–the war in Israel and in the Ukraine, economic uncertainty, unpredictable world leaders, rising global tensions, moral dyslexia where evil is called good (and even celebrated) and good is called evil (see Isa. 5:20,21), and with the added drama of the upcoming presidential election, many people are experiencing heightened levels of anxiety and fear and hopelessness. It seems “darkness” is creeping over the world and gaining new ground with each passing day. But, praise God, the darkness can never overcome light. It’s physically and spiritually impossible. In a pitch-black room, a single candle can shine brightly, and there is no way to somehow add more darkness to snuff out that light!  Light cannot and will not be overcome by darkness in this world either. 

     In the very beginning, when  “the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep…God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Gen. 1:2,3).  God pushed away the darkness and brought the promise of physical nourishment and life to an empty world. But soon after God created man, sin entered and plunged the world into spiritual darkness, separated from fellowship with the Creator (Gen. 2:17 cf Ro. 5:12).  The darkness grew greater until God judged the earth with a universal flood (Gen. 6,7).  But then God took the same light and wondrously split it into its parts, giving us the gift of His rainbow as a sign of His promise to never again destroy the earth with water (Gen. 9:11-17).

     But sin affected more than the physical world. The spiritual was also infected, and a flood could not wash it clean, nor could the sun give it life (spiritually).  Another light was needed–the same light that shone in the beginning before the sun, moon, and stars were put in their places. And that light was Jesus. Only Jesus could push away the darkness and destruction of sin. Only the “light of the world” (Jn. 8:12) could give the gift of life eternal.

     “A star will come out of Jacob (Israel),” God told us back in Numbers 24:17. God hung His brightest star in the sky to guide the wisemen to Bethlehem to worship the light of the world. While you and I look up to see rainbows and stars, God looks down remembering His promise of eternal life in His Son.  “And the witness is this that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (I Jn. 5:11,12).  

     This great theme, contrasting the darkness of the soul without Christ to the glorious light He brings when that soul receives Him by faith, is found often in Scripture. For example, we read in I Pet. 3:9: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.“  Since we have received the true light, we should henceforth live in the light of His truth. “For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8). “Let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Ro. 13:12).  As those who have received the “light of the world” into our lives, we are exhorted by Jesus to “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:16). 

      The world may be getting darker and darker, but it cannot overpower the light. Jesus said, “I will build my church, and (even) the gates of Hades shall not overpower it” (Mt. 16:18). Keep your light shining brightly!  The darker it gets, the more it will show up.

Forever His,

Pastor Dave