LIGHT OF MEN … THE TRUE LIGHT

It is one of John’s favourite themes that God is light, 1 John 1. 5. His character knows no shadows or variations - perfectly flawless and even, Jas. 1. 17. He is the true Light, v. 9. He is also dazzling, unapproachable light, 1 Tim. 6.16. In John’s first epistle we see light is connected with fellowship and love, 1. 7; 2. 8-10. The more we know the light, the more we will long for fellowship with others who know the light. It is the natural result of God’s life in me that I love my fellow believers.

At the beginning of creation when all was dark physically, He spoke light into that creation, Gen. 1. 3. Similarly, at the beginning of the new creation when all was dark spiritually, He spoke the Word, Christ coming as the Light, John 1. 1, 9. This was the light of His Gospel and it is connected with the knowledge of Christ, 2 Cor. 4. 6. It is the light of ‘men’, because He shows Himself without restriction to Jew and Gentile.

Christ often presented Himself as the Light, according to John’s record. The purpose of His life was to shine truth on people in the darkness of sin’s ignorance, John 12. 46. The example of His life led the way for His followers to walk in truth, John 8. 12, much like a man with a lantern leads the way on a path in the night. Christ would be that example for the woman caught in adultery, whom He had just freed. He also spoke of the time limit on His life, ‘as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world’, John 9. 5; cf. 12. 35-36. There is a sense in which the light of God’s truth shines on everyone, Rom. 1. 19-20. The word ‘manifest’ is phaneroo, the word to lighten or shine, James Strong. But that is very general - in Christ the light was personal. And now God’s light should personally be reflected in us, as it was in Moses, 2 Cor. 3.13,18.

God’s light is also seen in the New Jerusalem, God’s great city, the Lamb’s wife, Rev. 21. It is linked with glory, since God and Christ are the enlightening power of the city, v. 23. We are also told the light is like a clear jasper stone, v. 11, the majestic stone used to describe God’s appearance, Rev. 4. 3. of all the attractive things about our future home, surely this must be the chiefest: ‘having the glory of God’.