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Light is the Greek word phos, and is found 70 times in the New Testament. It is used of physical light, but most often is used of spiritual light. Spiritual light does not mean physical light which comes from God. This spiritual light is defined thusly:
Ephesians 5:13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light; for whatsoever does make manifest is light.
To reprove – to hold a thing up to the light of truth in order to reveal its true nature. To make manifest – to reveal, make apparent, visible.
And also:
John 1:4 In it (the Word of God) was life, and the life was the light of men.
When situations, relationships, feelings and other influences come into the sphere of spiritual light, their true nature is revealed and become “visibly” apparent (to the spiritual eye). This is an astounding ability (dunamis – power) of the Holy Spirit of God, to make hidden things clear.
Matthew 6:22 The light of the body is the (spiritual) eye. If therefore your eye be single (focused on truth), your whole body shall be full of light. But if your (spiritual) eye be evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light which is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness!
In the verses above, “light” can be understood as “spiritual understanding.”
An associated Greek word is saphes, meaning clear. It is from this word that both sophos and sophia developed, translated wise and wisdom. (Philosophy means “the love of wisdom”). A wise person is one who sees things clearly, thus being able to make decisions and determinations that make sense and get good results. This wisdom comes from seeing things in a true light.
The opposite of light is darkness. As light reveals the true nature of a thing, so darkness conceals the true nature of a thing.
Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus responded and said, I thank You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes.
This first usage of sophos in the New Testament indicates that the fleshly mind, which deals with the world, does not have the capacity to receive the clarity which comes from God. Thus, theologians and philosophers, who exalt the understanding which comes from fleshly logic and understanding, are laboring at a distinct spiritual disadvantage. Rather, true spiritual clarity is provided freely by God to many people decidedly lacking in such exalted worldly abilities.
Throughout the ages it has been so. The seeking of worldly success only hinders one from seeing things clearly. We have been called to something much greater than worldly success.
Matthew 5:14a You are the light of the world.
Now wait just a darn minute! I thought Jesus was the light of the world! And he is!
John 8:12 Then spoke Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
What made Jesus the light of the world, and what makes anyone else the light of the world, is something which resides within them. The life of God, which is the Holy Spirit of God, also known as Christ in you.
John 1:4, 5, 9 In him (it – the logos) was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended (to lay hold of with the mind) it not. This was the true light, which lights every man who comes into the world.
Specifically, the light of the world is the life of God which resides in the word of God. This word of God should not be confused with a Bible or some preaching. The word logos means that self-communication of a thing which brings understanding. This word logos is seen in our words like “geology” (the study or understanding of that which the earth communicates of itself).
A little aside here: Geology, by its very definition, is the study or understanding of that which the earth communicates of itself (the same is true for any scientific discipline). There is no contradiction between true science and God. The problem is with scientists, who hypothesize on things which are not communicated by the thing studied, and then put the full weight of their faith in the unproven “truth” of their hypothesis.
Genesis 1:3 And God said, “let there be light,” and there was light.
The first thing God spoke into being, according to the creation story, was light. Not physical light, or the things which provide physical light, for that was done on day 4. Before God created physical light, He created the ability to understand the true nature of things. And the greatest thing which we will ever understand is God Himself.
The word of God is simply that which God communicates of Himself. Jesus Christ was the embodiment of God communicating Himself. He was literally, the word of God in the flesh.
Words on a page do not….cannot….communicate God. However, the spirit behind those words can communicate God, and do. It is the same with Jesus, who always, always gave the credit for his ability to communicate God ….. to God Himself.
When a man or woman receives the spiritual understanding which comes from God’s communicating of Himself, light is the result!
Psalm 119:130 The entrance of Your word gives light; it gives understanding unto the simple (the naive…like the “babes” of Matthew 11:25).
The reason that Jesus Christ is the light of the world, and that we are the light of the world, is that we both have been birthed by God’s communication of Himself, brought to life by the power of that Spirit. Jesus at birth (hence, the only begotten son of God), and we after our birth, at the time we believe on Jesus Christ (hence, adopted sons of God).
II Corinthians 4:6, 7 (this is a rendering of these verses based on the Greek) For God, who spoke (as by command), “The light shall shine out from darkness,” (as per Genesis 1:3) has shined in our hearts, for the purpose of the emitting of light which comes from the knowing of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not from out of ourselves.
We are not lights simply because the light dwells within us, but even more so because the light shines out from us! God has given us the ability to enlighten all others, yet this ability to spread light is provided by the light itself, and is never ours to will into being. Always, the only responsibility we have as children, is to walk as children….which begins and continues with our being enlightened as to the qualities and characteristics, the rights and responsibilities of our childhood!
Ephesians 1:17-19a That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom (clarity) and revelation (revealing) in the intimate knowing of him; The eyes of your understanding being en-light-ened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe….
Ephesians 5:8-14 For you were once darkness, but now are you light in the Lord: walk as children of light; (For the fruit of the light (phos is incorrecctly translated “Spirit” in the King James) is in all goodness and righteousness and truth); Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. (For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret). But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light; for whatsoever does make manifest is light. Wherefore he (it…..the word) says, Awake you that sleep, and arise from the dead (lifelessness), and Christ shall give you light.
God has determined that each of us should enjoy a huge portion of His light and of His life.
Colossians 1:12, 13 Giving thanks unto the Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, Who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and has transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved son.
Take hold of your rightful portion. Dwell in the light of the life of God, which is communicated unto us by the living word of God, Jesus Christ. And you too will be the light of the world.
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Excellent! I have never heard this summed up so beautifully.