Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
"This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).
"If you meet God who is Light, come out of darkness, and abide in Light, everything will prosper with you and you will be able to resolve all kinds of problems in your life."
No matter how pitch dark it is at night, the darkness is gone when the sun rises. In the same manner, if you dwell in Light, just as the sunlight drives away darkness, your problems will be resolved, and God's answers and blessing will come upon you. Moreover, you can lead other people to Light.
Let's now delve into what 'Light' and 'darkness' spiritually refer to and how we can cast off darkness and dwell in Light.
1. God, the Origin of Light
God created the heavens, the earth, and all things in them. Nothing is impossible for Him. He can heal any kind of disease and solve any kind of problem in your businesses or family. Thus, meeting God is the most definite way to solving all your problems. On top of that, it is the way to gain eternal life. If you believe this, all among you must be eager to meet Him.
Since He is Light, any of you can meet Him as long as you follow the Light. Here, the 'Light' spiritually refers to God who is eternal and perfect with no darkness at all. James 1:17 says there is no variation or even shifting shadow with Him.
Once again, 'Light' spiritually refers to God Himself and it is also the word that represents the very best perfectness. In fact, it is impossible to describe God with a mere word, but for mankind to understand Him better, a word is necessary, and the word is the 'Light.'
2. Relationships among Faith, Goodness, Righteousness, and Spirit
You may have learned about faith first when you started your believing life. It is because only when you have faith in Jesus Christ and are forgiven of your sins can you gain eternal life and heaven. It is just as John 3:16 reads, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
But faith is categorized into two types. They are fleshly faith and spiritual faith. The former is faith as knowledge with which you just know the contents of the Bible. But this faith is not accompanied by works of faith, so it is actually considered faith that is dead. In contrast, spiritual faith enables you to believe the creation of things from nothing. It is living faith and true faith that is followed by works.
What, then, is the purpose of possessing this spiritual faith? We need spiritual faith to recover the image of God that mankind lost after the transgression of the first man Adam. With this faith we should resemble God who is goodness Himself. That is, we must cast away every form of evil and achieve 'goodness'.
Here, the standard to tell how much goodness we have achieved is 'righteousness.' 'Righteousness' refers to the act of casting off sins, keeping the Word of God, and obeying Him with faith. It is following the truth only with "Amen" even when it does not agree with one's thoughts, experiences, and knowledge. God's children must unchangingly practice righteousness. However, what is the reality you can see?
Someone is impressed by the Word telling him to forgive others. He may forgive at first, but he cannot when things do not agree with his own thoughts and benefits. It is because he has changing mind which belongs to the flesh. That is why he cannot keep accomplishing righteousness. We must continue to forgive others until the end as Jesus said we should forgive up to seventy times seven times. This attribute of 'unchangingness' is that of spirit.
But in order to achieve 'spirit', we must have love. The act of righteousness that Jesus showed by being crucified to redeem all mankind from sin was possible because He had love (Romans 5:18).
In other words, righteousness comes out through love, and the end result is 'spirit.' When you enter spirit, you will be able to unchangingly believe and obey God and do His will. When you achieve spirit in all aspects of your life, you can achieve whole spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23). At the level of whole spirit, everything you do will come out as 'light.' You will be able to reveal God's glory everywhere you go and be followed by the works that show God is with you. While 'spirit' refers to internal traits, 'light' involves external traits that come out from the internal traits.
We call the star at the center of our Solar System 'the sun.' In fact, we do not see the sun, but we see the sunlight. Similarly, God is spirit (John 4:24) and He is also Light. It means that God is perfect spirit with no changing at all, and the external traits of spirit we can see is Light.
But it does not mean that we can give out light only when we enter the level of whole spirit. Even though you are a novice believer, you can give out light that corresponds with the level of your faith.
Ephesians 5:9 reads, "For the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth." That is, the fruit of the Light is composed of goodness, righteousness that is the standard of goodness, and truth that means unchanging trait of spirit. Therefore, we can bear the fruit of the Light when we show goodness and the acts of righteousness in a spiritual way which is unchanging.
Let's suppose a person has not reached the level of spirit. Goodness that he has cultivated in his heart may be revealed as an act of righteousness. But it could change according to situations to the extent that he has flesh. Therefore, though people say they all believe God, they have different degrees of goodness, righteousness, spirit, and light. It also results in different amount of God's love and grace that comes upon each of them. But if you enter spirit, you will have enough goodness to move others' hearts and can unchangingly show it in acts of righteousness. If you enter whole spirit, you can practice the righteousness of faith, obedience, and action with the heart of the best goodness and without changing.
Abraham, the father of faith, is the example. God told him to offer his only son Isaac as a burnt offering. It was the final test of his faith. He completely obeyed the Word and offered him since he considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead.
He wholeheartedly trusted and obeyed God this way, so he was regarded as righteous by God. And his perfect goodness was also recognized so he was even called the friend of God who is goodness Himself. God finally set him as the father of faith and his acts shine as light on all of us who believe God.
3. Things of Darkness against Light
While there are things of Light, there are also things of darkness that stand against Light. In a nutshell, darkness covers all things that belong to sin. It includes works of flesh, things of flesh, and things that are deemed righteous in your own sight but evil in the sight of God.
For example, there are the things of the flesh such as unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, envy, murder, and strife and the deeds of the flesh such as immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, and enmities. They sound evidently like darkness when we just hear the words. But there are some attributes that you may look upon as righteous but God regards as evil. In this case, you may not think of them as darkness. But when light shines, darkness must be uncovered.
In the Bible, Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem as the appointed time came and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed. Now Peter said to Him, "God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You." But He rebuked him, saying to him, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me" (Matthew 16:21-23).
Peter thought that it was for Jesus that he dissuaded Him from going to Jerusalem. But in the sight of God, he set his mind on man's interest and it was darkness. That is why Jesus said in John 12:46, "I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness." Thus, when you come to Jesus and follow the truth that He taught such as Spiritual Love, the Beatitudes, and the Fruits of the Holy Spirit, anyone of you will not remain in darkness and come to the Light.
4. The Reason People Cannot Come to Light
First of all, it is because they like darkness and hate light (John 3:19-20). They like better the worldly pleasure and money and prefer to live for their own benefits, so they hate the Word of Light telling them to follow the truth and goodness. They also misunderstand the truth in their own thoughts. They may say, "I am doing good. Isn't it enough? Why do you say there is salvation only in churches?" They may acknowledge God but they do not know why they are sinners and why they have to accept the Lord. That is why they do not come to church.
Next, some believers may stumble because of other believers. They may make excuses of not going to church saying that some believers look dishonest and hypocritical. But they should know not all people in the churches believe in the Lord.
Matthew 7:21 reads, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter." Only those who listen to and keep the Word of God have true faith. If one says he believes God but he acts in the same way the worldly people do, he has nothing to do with God and there is no salvation for him.
If people see such churchgoers, close the doors of their hearts, and lose salvation and eternal life, how foolish they are! I hope that you will see people of Light who set a good example of faith and come to God wisely.
5. Blessings for Walking in Light
God clearly gave a promise. Mark 11:24 says, "Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you." Matthew 9:29 reads, "It shall be done to you according to your faith."
But some believers seem to come to God who is Light and diligently lead their Christian lives, but they still suffer from diseases, or problems in businesses or families. What is the reason? It is because they think they abide in Light but they actually do not.
There is a difference between coming to Light and abiding in Light. Even if people come to Light once, it does not necessarily mean that they abide in Light. They may go back to darkness. If then, they can never say they are in Light.
Let's say you hated someone but received much grace from God and stopped hating him. But you come to hate him again later. Then, you cannot say you are in Light. Even if you are abiding in Light, you must come closer and closer to Light until you reach the perfect level of Light. When you come to abide perfectly in Light, you can have confidence before God and receive whatever you ask for as read in 1 John 3:21-22.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if you meet God who is Light, come out of darkness, and abide in Light, everything will prosper with you and you will be able to resolve all kinds of problems in your life.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will walk as children of God who is Light, bear the fruit of the Light, and thereby glorify God.
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