Children of Light

 John 9:1-7,24,35-41; Ephesians 5:8-14

 

Our John passage tells about a man who was blind from birth who Jesus heals. The sad part of the story is the reluctance of the Pharisees to believe that Jesus who healed him is truly the Messiah. Before he heals the man, Jesus says I am the light of the world. This passage has a double message of Jesus bringing light out of darkness to the physically blind man, while the Pharisees remain spiritually in darkness since they don’t believe. They call Christ a sinner, but I love the blind man’s response, “I don’t know if he is a sinner, but what I do know is once I was blind but now I see.” At the end of the account the blind man believes in Christ, but the Pharisees are spiritually blind to him.

In Ephesians, Paul talks about how before salvation we were in darkness but due to the Lord we now live in the light. We can be children of the light if we produce the good fruits of what is good, right, and true. We are to find out what is pleasing to the Lord and do it. In this way we take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. Instead, we are to expose– like Christ did to the Pharisees – those who live in darkness. All secrets exposed by the light will become visible. Paul exhorts us by saying, “Wake up, rise from the dead (darkness) and Christ will shine on you.”

A popular expression is: “Nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors.” But Christ does. Neighbors living next to folks committing terrible crimes are surprised since on the outside they seemed like nice people.

By doing what is pleasing to the Lord we are living in the light Christ has given us as children of the light. By going back to our sinful ways, we are living again in darkness. We will be exposed of this by Christ and his children of light who will shine a light on you.

Is there a spirit of darkness in your life – not living as pleasing to the Lord? Let us pray for Christ’s light to bring light to it so that we can confess it and move into the light by being a true child of light. Amen

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