“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5: 14-16 KJV).
Light is in this world but not of this world. Physical light shines into our world from the sun. Spiritual light shines into our world from the Son of God (Jn. 8:12).
Man is not a nocturnal creature but a diurnal creature. He cannot see the physical world without physical light and cannot see the spiritual world without spiritual light from God’s Word. Man works in physical light, but unless he’s saved, he walks in spiritual darkness.
God gives us physical light from the sun to make our world habitable and give us physical life. God gives us spiritual light from Heaven to give us eternal life.
Light is for revealing things. Physical light reveals dirt on our hands. Spiritual light reveals sin in our hearts. Physical light removes the darkness so that we might see our way. Spiritual light removes ignorance so that we might understand our way and walk in God’s fellowship.
Light has only one law; it shines only where it is admitted. We can shut out physical light as well as spiritual light. Man’s condemnation comes from his rejecting the light from God because of his love for darkness and his sin (John 3:19).
The first division God made was dividing the light from the darkness (Gen. 1:4). Humanity as well is divided. We all are either lost and a child of darkness or saved and a child of the light (Eph. 5:8; 1 Thess. 5:5).
Just as light is in this world but not of this world, so are Christians. They, as “the light of the world,” are in this world but not of this world — “They are not of the world even as I (Jesus) am not of the world” (John 17:14, 16), for they have been born-again or born from above; of Heaven.
Light cannot be soiled. It can pass through the most polluted air and the dirtiest hand and never lose its purity. As the sunbeam passes through the foulest air and shines into the dirtiest puddle and is not defiled, even so must the Christian that is in this world but not of this world keep himself unspotted from this world (Jms. 1:27).
