The Armour of Light

Paul contrasts the gospel and evil metaphorically as light and darkness in Rom 13.12. He calls his readers to "cast off the works of darkness"—obviously speaking of evil and wickedness, indeed in the next verse he helpfully categorizes some (but not all) of what he means: rioting, drunkenness, chambering, wantonness, strife, envying—and to put on the armour of light (KJV). I find that reference interesting. Light (acting righteously) acts as our armor.

Armor is meant for protection so in some way acting righteously protects us. Obviously Paul does not mean that acting righteously saves us for that would contradict what he has already written. He must mean that acting righteously inoculates us from the grip of evil which lurks in every dark corner waiting to devour us, even in corners that appear benign. This is the nature of evil.

The Necessity of Light

Light is weird stuff. Sometimes it behaves as if it is a wave; sometimes light behaves as if it is individual photons. We need light to live. Light, according to Isaiah 60.19, is necessary in the life to come, at least for followers of Christ. However, the light will come from God himself (he INVENTED light after all) so there will be no need for the sun or the moon.

This is not to say that God is nothing other than light. Perfect light is one of his characteristics, not the sum total of his being. However, it is about as close as we are going to get in this life to understand his being. "The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light."

How Great the Darkness

Reading in Matt 6.23 this morning, "But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness...how great is that darkness."

The eye is such a crucial organ, we walk by it, we depend on it in 100's of ways that we don't even realize (think of peripheral vision and how it is passive until we sense a threat, then the brain takes it active instantaneously with really no effort on our own part). If the eye is giving us bad information then we will act on bad information. If the eye is evil then we will act and live on evil. This causes, as Christ points out, great darkness in a moral sense. Christ is not speaking of the physical eye here, he is using the eye as a metaphorical representative of our moral life.

John Calvin: "The light is said to be turned into darkness, not only when men permit the wicked lusts of the flesh to overwhelm the judgment of their reason, but also when they give up their minds to wicked thoughts, and thus degenerate into beasts."

I Am the Light of the World

Reading in John 8.12 this morning where Christ makes the (now) familiar claim, I am the light of the world. In a day without electricity, where the world was lit only by fire and where darkness reigned half of the time, light was perhaps the key commodity one could have. It is a metaphor that would resonate with the people very strongly since light was not taken for granted so much as it is now.

Throughout Israel's history, light was associated with God as Johnson points out in his commentary at this verse. The people understood what his claim was. It is one of several statements in John that are breathtaking. What kind of person makes claims like this? Either one who is indeed the light of the world, or someone who is crazy or a liar. Christ's works, message, and resurrection attest that what he said was true.