SHINING LIGHT TO A DARK WORLD
"Lights in the
world, holding forth the word of life" Phil. 2:15, 16
That is a very beautiful
figure of thy mission in the world of those who are "blameless and harmless, children of God
without blemish." The marginal reading substitutes the word "luminaries”
for "lights."
I do not think this helps us much, except as we remember that the word "luminaries" refers to the heavenly
bodies, and mainly to the sun and moon. The idea is not that of the lamp stand,
but of the light itself. The Greek word only occurs twice in the New Testament,
here and in Rev. 21:11, where,
speaking of the holy city, the seer declared: "Her light was like unto a stone most
precious!” There the reference was not to the light the city
diffused, except in a secondary sense. It was to the light she received and
reflected which is directly after described in the words: "The lamp thereof is the Lamb, and the
nations shall walk amidst the light thereof" (vs. 23, 24). What then, the Lamb is to
be; in FINAL GLORY, to the City of God, the children of God are to the world today.
This function of SHEDDING TRUE LIGHT upon the darkness of the world will be
fulfilled as the "Word
of life" is held forth in the life. To live by the Word, is to SHINE
and REFLECT THE WORD in such a way that those who are in darkness may have GUIDANCE
AND HELP. The conception fills us with a sense of our weakness, and that the
more, when we ponder the conditions already quoted, viz., that we are to be "blameless
and harmless, children of God without blemish." Yet, thank
God, these words follow the glorious declaration that it is ours to "work out
with fear and trembling" what God works WITHIN of His good
pleasure.
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