Living As Lights In A Crooked World

by Kevin Burton

   It took exactly three verses for the Bible to start talking about light.

   “Let there be light,” God said. And there was light.

   Read backward to Genesis 1:2 and you see that “the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”

   Now go forward to verse four and note that “God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”

   Light or the lack of light has been our human concern ever since, especially after sin entered the world. 

   In his Wednesday message Alistair Begg, speaker on the Truth For Life radio ministry, talked about light and its many purposes.  He pointed first to Phil. 2: 15: “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.”

   “We use lights for display. A Christian should so shine in his life that a person could not live with him a week without knowing the Gospel,” Begg wrote. “His conversation should be such that all who spend time with him would understand clearly to whom he belongs and who it is he serves and would see the image of Jesus displayed in his daily actions.”

   “Lights are intended for guidance. We are to help those around us who are in the dark. We are to declare to them the Word of life. We are to point sinners to the Savior and the weary to a divine resting place.”

   “Sometimes men read their Bibles and fail to understand them; we should be ready, like Philip, to instruct the inquirer in the meaning of God’s Word, the way of salvation and the life of Godliness.”

   Begg was referring to the story in Acts chapter 8. In the aftermath of state-endorsed persecution, Philip goes to Samaria and preaches the Gospel. Everyone listened and many were healed of demon possession. “And there was great joy in that city,” verse 8.

   Beginning in verse 26 we see Philip yielded to God, fully prepared to act as light.  

   ^“ Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is ^[desert. So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.”

   “Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go near and overtake this chariot.’”

   ^“So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. 

   The place in the Scripture which he read was this:

   “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter;
And as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
So He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away,
And who will declare His generation?
For His life is taken from the earth.”

   ^“So the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. 

    ^“Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?”

   ^“Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

   ^“So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.”

   You and I will not always have a happy ending like this one, but we are still responsible to God to be prepared to spread the gospel, even to people who don’t look like us.

   Remember, the eunuch was African, from Ethiopia. Philip was Jewish.

   Begg mentioned two more uses for light.  

   “Lights are also used for warning. On our rocks and sandbanks a lighthouse is sure to be erected,” Begg wrote. “Christians should know that there are many false lights everywhere in the world, and therefore the right light is needed.”

   “The wreckers of Satan are always abroad, tempting the ungodly to sin under the name of pleasure as they hoist the wrong light.”

   “It is our responsibility to set the true light upon every dangerous rock, to point out every sin and tell what it leads to, so that we may be clear of the blood of all men, shining as lights in the world.”

   “Lights also have a very cheering influence, and so have Christians. A Christian ought to be a comforter, with kind words on his lips and sympathy in his heart; he should carry sunshine wherever he goes and diffuse happiness around him.”