“You are the light of the world..”
Matthew 5:14
Darkness, in the scriptures, is often referred the work of the devil, sin, or demons.
I’d be hard-pressed to find someone who wouldn’t describe the world as “dark”. I think of all the sickness, the wars, the diseases, the orphans, the forced prostitutions, the drunkenness, etc and I think that the world is dark.
Yes, the world does have many problems indeed. But when I thought about the corruption of the world, and how “dark” it is, the Holy Spirit reminded me something about darkness that really shook me.
Darkness doesn’t exist.
Darkness…is merely the absence of light; it’s not an entity in itself. For this reason does light “drive out the darkness” so readily. The abolishment of darkness happens simply when light invades it.
And so are the problems in our world, merely spaces waiting for light to invade it. Merely places which are absence of all the glory and goodness of God’s kingdom which need to be invaded with God’s kingdom.
And so we are as Christians–the light to the world. We are the band-aid.
But as Jesus highlights later, the only way the darkness remains is when Christians hide their light. It is when they put it under a bowl. When they stay to themselves. When they are… afraid of the darkness. And so Satan’s strategy is to mainly get Christians to be afraid and not shine their light.
He wants us to operate in a spirit of fear so that we won’t shine. He wants us to think that there are consequences for living dangerous for God’s work. He wants us to be comfortable and to stay at home.
But that is not what we are called to do, and that is not who are! We need to shake off the spirit of fear and step our courageously as God’s people and be light.
And if you are a Christian, let me just say this… Shine your light!!
