Live As Children Of Light

Paul started the chapter saying that the goal of the Christian life is perfect imitation of God. Paul is exhorting the believers in Jesus Christ to "Live as children of light." (Ephesians 5:8) because God is light. The apostle John said that one day, “we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2). Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." and continued by saying, "You are the light of the world."

When we were children we were all afraid of the dark. We wanted the hallway light to be left on, or a night-light to glow in a corner to keep back the all embracing darkness. Total darkness is a fascinating experience as long as it is controlled and temporary. There's an intimate connection between light and life, it's essential to all food, to the entire food chain. Everything starts with light. Here, I speak of the marvel of photosynthesis. I'm not going to say much about it, except that the word just means ‘manufacture or create from light.’ or the manufacturing of things using light. We are surrounded every day by the marvels of biology, the marvels of life. And how God in a very mysterious way uses light, at every moment to create chemical processes in plants that produce ultimately fruit, and all life comes from that process. Now, I don't know how and it happens nor I do not know how to explain it. But somehow the light shines on the leaves and as the roots absorb nutrients and water from the soil, something happens within the leaves that makes its food by the process of light. So when you keep a plant in the dark, it dies. Light is essential to life.

There's an intimate connection between light and life, it's essential to all food, to the entire food chain. Everything starts with light. Here, I speak of the marvel of photosynthesis. The word just means ‘manufacture or create from light.’ We are surrounded every day by the marvels of biology, the marvels of life. And how God in a very mysterious way uses light, at every moment to create chemical processes in plants that produce ultimately fruit, and all life comes from that process.

Light is just as necessary in our spiritual life as it is in our physical life. In the spiritual realm, darkness means whatever is contrary to the God. Down through Scripture, in passages too numerous to fully reproduce here, darkness consistently symbolized that which was contrary to God, to order and law. The theme echoed in the Ninth Plague of Exodus: there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived (Ex 10:22-23). It echoes in the prophets. Through Ezekiel God spoke tenderly of his people saying I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark (Ez 34:12). All through the scripture it is clear that God is the source of light who can bring brightness in times of darkness.

The Darkness of our time

We use darkness as a symbol of ignorance, of primitive times, of the pre-scientific superstitious ages ‘the dark ages.’ It is also a picture of hell – ‘outer darkness,’ and the devil is called the prince of darkness. And in St. John’s Gospel the battle between light and darkness is described. The prologue says "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:5); yet still, in the third chapter of John, Jesus laments: "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19). The darkness reaches its pinnacle when Judas goes out to betray the Lord. John says simply, it was night (Johnn 13:30).

The darkness of our time is obvious to everyone. People are worried about contracting the virus, anxious about their own health and that of others, intimidated and saddened by the requirements (legitimate as they certainly are!) of social distancing, and deeply concerned about an economic collapse and the grave consequences such a collapse would bring. There is a lot of darkness right now. No one disputes it. Before saying anything about the light of today’s situation, perhaps a word about the contrast between light and darkness is in order. When we hear the word light, we are reminded of the darkness. It is because light is significant only when there is darkness.

Darkness of the past

The Bible talks about light as the opposite of darkness over 230 times. The Book of Job, the oldest written book in the Bible has the most references to light. The first words the Bible records as coming from the mouth of God are, “Let there be light.” The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep (Gen 1:2). But, Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light (Gen 1:3) and thus order began to be introduced. The First chapter of the Book of Genesis has reference to light seven times. Darkness was the condition of the universe before God acted and said, “Let there be light.” “Darkness was over the surface of the deep” (Gen. 1:2). Immediately there was light, and God declared it good. It is worth noting that from the very beginning, wherever God was, wherever God is, there is light. And then also from the beginning of the Gospel of John, we have that same imagery, coming over from Genesis 1 where it says, "In the beginning was the Word [Jesus Christ] and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning through Him all things were made and without Him [Jesus Christ] nothing was made that has been made and in Him [in Christ] was life and that life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not understood it.”