From Darkness To Light Series

C. Be light in a dark world.

That’s how Paul continues: "For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light." Again it’s a case of living in a way that accurately reflects who you are. But notice he doesn’t talk of them coming into the light. Rather he speaks of them as being light. This is an important distinction. You see, too often we think of this as being enlightened. And we equate that with learning more of the truth. But that notion is so easily misused. Let me give you an example.

An interesting thing happened at the Lambeth Conference that’s just finished. When the issue of homosexuality arose, the lead in the debate was taken, not by the western bishops, but by those from the third world, particularly the African Bishops. It was quite a turn around. We’re so used to the western Churches being the leaders and third world churches following. But over this issue the opposite was true. The African bishops took the lead and the result was an affirmation of the place of Scripture in determining Christian behaviour, and in particular that the teaching of Scripture "upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union, and that abstinence is right for those who are not called to marriage." Now I don’t want to discuss that particular issue today, though I’m happy to later. I raise it because of the response that the motion aroused from its opponents. One of the most vocal opponents was Bishop Spong who described the Christianity of the Africans as "superstitious and coming from animism." In an article in the Church of England Newspaper he explained the Africans’ problem like this: "They’re yet to face the intellectual revolution of Copernicus and Einstein that we’ve had to face in the developed world: That is just not on their radar screen." What he seemed to be saying was that they’re still waiting for the enlightenment to catch up with them." They need to learn some of the lessons that we in the western world have learnt over the past 100 years. Then they’ll see the light. Now apart from the patronising tone of that sort of comment, can you see the fallacy of his suggestion? It’s that scientific research, and sociological study, and discussion by ethicists and philosophers can change our understanding of what God thinks is right. It might change what we think is OK but it won’t change God’s mind.

You see, Paul isn’t saying you’ve been enlightened in that sense. If that was what he meant then further research will lead to further enlightenment. Rather he’s saying you are light. Think about this for a moment. How does he describe the Christian back in ch1. What’s the phrase he uses over and over and over to describe the Christian? "In Christ". Now if we’re in Christ then we’re not just enlightened, we are light. Remember the description of the new Jerusalem in Rev 21: (Rev 21:23 NRSV) "And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb." Well, if we’re light because we’re in Christ what will that mean? Well, he says, (v9) the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. So the things we do will be good and right and true. But what are they? That’s the whole question isn’t it? Well then, "Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord." (v10) He says the same thing in v 17: "do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." How do you do that? How do you work out what God likes? A good place to start is to ask him, isn’t it? Well, we can’t ask him directly, but we can look at what he’s already told us in his Word. But that means we’ll have to become bible students. You see, you won’t find out what God likes by reading odd bits and pieces of the Bible. You’ll find out some of it, but probably not enough. You won’t even find out what God wants by coming to church every week and listening to sermons, although hopefully that’ll help you on your way. No, to know what God wants means knowing God’s mind, and the only way to learn that is to be a student of God’s word. To be reading it and asking questions of it, applying it to the various situations of life, so you can shed light on these difficult issues I’ve raised today. So you can work out which words are empty and which words are sound when you hear them said in the course of an argument about some ethical issue.