While driving recently, I found myself captivated by the beautiful hues and clever designs of Christmas lights adorning various homes . I thought, this beautiful season of light comes once a year, but for the Christian, we are to reflect God’s light daily.
While Christmas lights are powered by electricity, the God-fearing man or woman does not produce their own light. Our illumination is only reflective of God’s brilliance.
I will say it again: the Christian’s illumination is only reflective of God’s brilliance. It doesn’t matter how good we think we are or the amount of virtue signaling we do.
Our light shines to the degree that we are in God, through faith in Jesus. Prayer, study and obedience power our radiance.
In other words, diligent study of the Bible, fervent prayer, unbreakable faith in Jesus, and obedience to God’s commandments means the brighter your light.
On the flip side, let’s look at how to reflect the world’s darkness.
Just use your Bible as a paperweight, place your faith in dubious scientific predictions of doom and modern philosophies that produce narcissism and division. You can also disparage biblical laws and proscriptions as patriarchal or outdated.
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.–Matthew 5:14-16 (NKJV)
Is anything coming between your reflection of God’s light to others? I can raise my hand to that. For instance, Jesus tells us to love our enemies and to pray for those who curse us.
Really?
We are to do good for those who hate us and those who spitefully use and persecute us.(Matt. 6:43-48) I have a tough time with those verses because, frankly, they are hard. I would love to see verses like “I will smite thine enemies”, or something along that line.
Just picture the face of the worst political or cultural figure you can think of. Now, ponder how much they hate and revile you because of your faith in God and /or political ideology.
Finally, think of the blatant injustice in the aftermath of a certain January protest , a two-tiered justice system, subversion of parental rights, gender chaos, the on-going normalization of pedophilia and other perversion.
Honestly, I have had a hatred toward the practitioners of all these cultural and spiritual assaults. Yet, God wants me to love my enemies?!
Yes.
We are to love them, because He first loved us. Oh man!
If God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to sacrifice Himself for our sin (John 3:16), that means He loved us while we were His enemies. What made us His enemies? Sin.
Oh, you say your sins were not as bad as these guys in power right now? Sorry, but that’s no excuse. All sin is a heinous capital offense in God’s eyes, worthy of the death penalty.
We’re only saved because of our faith in Jesus: God’s infinite grace allowed this. God calls us to love and forgive others for their trespasses( sins and offenses) against us as He mercifully does for us. This, so we may be sons and daughters of our Father in heaven. (Matt.5:44-45).
The season of light reminds us Jesus is the light of the world. It is only in Him, we can overcome the darkness in our hearts to love and pray for our enemies. Jesus set the standard when He asked the Lord to forgive those crucifying Him “for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34)“.
“Love is love” the world declares as if love just happens. Love isn’t love as the world tells us. It must have an origin, a source. God is the origin of love and Jesus is the source for us. His love was sincere and without hypocrisy, yet, He boldly called out evil.
Paul encapsulated this in Romans 12:9:
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. (NKJV)
Just because we are called to love our enemies does not mean we are to act as doormats. We do not excuse , rationalize or condone the evil committed by our persecutors. Abhor is another word for hate. Therefore, we are to hate evil and wickedness just as God does. “Cling to what is good,” means we cling to everything that honors and glorifies God. For instance, praying for our enemies.
So with Christmas and New Years approaching, another season of light will come to an end for the world. But as Christians , may we take this season to ponder how much we reflect God to that darkness-filled lost world.
Merry Christmas!!
