#1120. God’s radiant light casts out darkness (13/8/24)

Welcome to the Come to Jesus Daily Devotional. Following on from yesterday as we looked at how God is light. Today let’s reflect on how those who come into His light have darkness increasingly cast out of their lives.

To watch this devotional, follow the link below:

https://youtu.be/zg8OtblnDd4

‘You are radiant with light, more majestic than mountains rich with game.’ (Psalm 76:4)

Psalms 76:4

It feels to me that holiness is an often overlooked topic for the church. Maybe in our desire to reach the world for Jesus, we feel that speaking of holiness may put them off. You may disagree, but it seems that we emphasise the mercy of God to such an extent that we dispense of His holiness and hatred of sin. The danger is that the church can become a mixed group who are no longer devoted to God’s Word and holiness. When serving the ‘lost’ gets raised above serving God and calling people to worship, we are failing even if we do have larger numbers!

Light speaks of God’s glory, power, truth, wisdom, holiness etc. We are to worship God with the understanding that He is light and contains no darkness; in fact, darkness is expelled from His holy presence. John challenges us to reflect God’s light with these challenging words:

‘This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.’ (1 John 1:5-6)

1 John 1:5–6

Darkness is, in this context, talking about sin of various kinds. When someone becomes a Christian, they enter into the light and so, inevitably, will pursue holiness as the light of God’s presence works in them. Throughout life, the light of God’s presence is at work in us to sanctify us and restore God’s image - who is light.

Jesus says these wonderful words about His identity and ministry of light:

‘When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”’ (John 8:12)

John 8:12

A Christian and a church - those who follow Jesus - ‘will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’ A church must seek to encourage holiness in her members. We must teach and encourage one another to recognise what darkness is and to turn from it and into the light of God’s Word and wisdom.

There’s much that can be said on this subject of God’s light, today I simply want us to see that God’s light casts out darkness from His people. A church that accepts sin is quenching the light of God in favour of darkness. In practice, of course, the church community must be radically accepting of all people who are seeking to find out about Jesus and the gospel. However, those who come among the church community must not only experience great love and grace, they must also experience the example of a holy people and be called to repentance. This double ministry of acceptance whilst calling for faith and repentance is not always easy to work out but let’s pray for God’s wisdom to be such people.

In terms of personal response, are you walking in the light of God? Are you regularly allowing the life-giving, sanctifying, joy-giving and darkness-expelling light to shine on you? In other words, how are you and I regularly meeting with Jesus?