Light in the Darkness

“In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him” (John 1:1-3, NLT)

If the Gospel according to Matthew starts Jesus’ genealogies from Abraham and Luke traced him back from Adam, John however starts before the world was created. Jesus was there before time existed. John calls Jesus “The Word” and he uses the Greek word logo’. In both the Jewish and the Greek concept of the word logos was associated with beginnings. Thus, John was (is) saying that Jesus as the Beginning, who has always existed.

Then John continues, “The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness can never extinguish it” (1:4-5). Now, he was saying that the Word was also the Light (and the Life). What does it mean by saying that Jesus is the Light? How does it apply to us today?

The Light helps us see what is Good and what is Bad

When God said, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3), He meant for it to allow us to see the created world with our eyes. When God sent the Light, Jesus Christ, He did it so we could see God Himself with our hearts and souls. With the Light we can also see what is good and is bad in our world and in our lives because “the light shines in the darkness”.

The Light overcomes the Darkness

“The darkness can never extinguish it.”  This means no matter what Satan and the world try to do, we can’t be defeated if we’re on Jesus’ side. The Light is so evident that no matter how dark the world is, no matter how much anybody tries to hide in sin, the Light exposes the bad and always overcomes the dark parts of our lives.

Darkness can’t understand the Light

When we live apart from God, we don’t see we’re living in sin. We don’t understand what is wrong and evil. We go about our lives wanting nothing to do with the Light because we have adjusted our eyes to the darkness and think it’s normal. We like the darkness because it gives us more places to hide. We can’t understand why anybody would want to follow Jesus. (So we thought). But when the Light takes over and invades our hearts, however, we see everything clearly. Now our mindset and heart changed. Now we say, “I can’t understand how I once lived without Him.” Indeed, we can’t live without Him. Amen.

God sent his Son, Jesus, to be the light in the world

and the light shining in our lives

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Reference:
The Complete New Testament Resource for Youth Workers Volume 1.
Copyright 2009 by Livingstone Corporation.