![]() John McEvilly writes that, "These words have the same object as the preceding, to stimulate the Apostles to shine as lights before the world, to enlighten the surrounding darkness, and impart to all the world the light of a holy, spotless life, and of pure teaching. Ĭornelius a Lapide commenting on this parable writes that allegorically, "saints Hilary, Ambrose, and Bede say, that it is here meant that the light of the Gospel was not to be shut up within the narrow confines of Judæa, but to be placed upon the height of Rome, that it might illuminate all the subject nations. He later denounces the saying in the next parable in Mark, which alludes to Joel 3:13 in assuring that God's judgment on the ruling powers will come and holds out revolutionary hope to those resigned to thinking that nothing will ever change. Jesus quotes a pessimistic proverb on how the rich get richer and the poor keep losing even the little they have. ![]() The key idea of the parable is that "Light is to be revealed, not concealed." The light here has been interpreted as referring to Jesus, or to His message, or to the believer's response to that message. But they can reign now in your heart if you will receive ‘the Light of the World’ as your Lord.- Mark 4:21-22, New American Bible Revised Edition Interpretation So, will light and love ever reign in this world as a whole? Not until all rebellion against God has been put down, evil of every kind removed, and Christ reigns in peace and righteousness (Isaiah 32:1). John writes about it: ‘we love because he first loved us’ (1 John 5:19). This too is a character trait only truly manifested in someone who has first-hand experience of the love of Christ. This is possible only for those whose lives are under the control of Christ, for they alone ‘have the light of life’ and can therefore become ‘luminaries ’ (Philippians 2:15, YLT).Īll believers in Christ are also called to exhibit love: ‘walk in love, as Christ loved us’ (Ephesians 5:2). Christ Himself warned of the persecution His followers would have to endure: ‘… the world hates you’ (John 15:19).Īgainst that backdrop, however, Christians are encouraged to ‘walk as children of light’ (Ephesians 5:8) – to live in a way that is transparent, with no fear of shame. Nor is the attitude of the world passive towards Christians. ![]() The world is still a dark place, where billions reject the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ and seek to find solutions to global problems through human wisdom, their minds ‘blinded’ to the ‘light of the glory of the gospel of Christ’ by the ‘god of this world ’ (2 Corinthians 4:4). They have been transferred ‘out of darkness into marvellous light’ (1 Peter 2:9) and ‘to the kingdom of His beloved Son’ (Colossians 1:13). True Christians are those who have turned from their sinful way of living and from their own efforts to please God, and have trusted in Christ for salvation, receiving Him into their lives to be their Lord. But, as He had predicted, the darkness failed to overcome the true light: on the third day Jesus rose again in triumph. #ALL THINGS DONE IN DARKNESS WILL COME TO LIGHT. FULL#More than that, hanging on the cross He was even willing to endure three hours of supernatural darkness, during which He bore the full force of God’s wrath against sin. As He said, ‘they hated Me without a cause’ (John 15:25). In His spotlessly holy life, Jesus showed Himself to be that true light, perfectly displaying true love, Indeed, in order to provide a way back to God for men and women who were otherwise doomed to eternal punishment, He was willing to experience causeless human hatred, being beaten, abused and unjustly condemned to an agonising death on a Roman cross. ![]() The darkness could not overcome this ‘true light’, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who said about Himself: John writes about Jesus: ‘this is the true light, that lights every man, coming into the world’ (John 1:9). Genesis 4 records that Adam’s elder son Cain hated his brother Abel and murdered him, ‘because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous’ (1 John 3:12). As a result, every member of the race is scarred from birth. The root cause of this is a problem traced back to the beginning of the Bible, when Adam, the father of the human race, rebelled against God and ‘sin came into the world through one man’ (Romans 5:12). When photographers Greg Girard and Ian Lambot spent five years attempting to capture life in Kowloon Walled City, the largely ungoverned, densely populated enclave within Hong Kong notorious for drugs, sexual depravity and crime, they called the book they published in 1993, City of Darkness. Jesus was stating that people’s love is misdirected – to ‘love darkness’ goes hand-in-hand with embracing ‘evil works’. The Bible answers these questions in a statement most likely made by Jesus Himself: ‘people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil’ (John 3:19). ![]()
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