Walk in the Light
The heavens are Yours, the earth is also Yours; the world and all it contains, You have founded them; Tabor and Hermon shout for joy at Your name. You have a strong arm; Your hand is mighty, Your right hand is exalted. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You. How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! O Lord, they walk in the light of Your countenance. In Your name they rejoice all the day, and by Your righteousness they are exalted. For You are the glory of their strength, and by Your favor our horn is exalted. For our shield belongs to the Lord, and our king to the Holy One of Israel. (Psalm 89:11-18)
It’s a choice! How we do our lives is a choice that we make. We decide what to do and how to do it. We may be persuaded by others, but unless we’ve got a gun to our heads we make a choice; and even that’s a choice…we choose to do what’s forced on us or we choose to die. Christians in America have the choice to live as they please. We have a lot of freedom in that regard. There are laws that we have to abide by, but most of the basic ones are found in the Bible anyway. So there you go…we’re free to do what the Bible says. Yay! But here’s one that isn’t a law, per say, but is arguably essential to engaging the Christian path of life.
This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:5-7)
Notice that “walking in the Light” isn’t just being in a place that’s illuminated, allowing us to see where we’re going. It’s an “environment of being”…with God and with each other. His Light determines who and what we are! And, it’s a choice…we’re called to make a choice! But the choice isn’t just to decide if the Gospel is true, prompting us to acknowledge that Jesus died for our sins, it’s a choice to walk in His Light. It’s choosing fellowship with our Savior that defines and establishes who and what we are! Think about that! It’s a posture that defines our essential existence, allowing us to fulfil the call to holiness, and enabling us to represent Him in a lost and dying world. It’s good for us and good for those around us whether they like it or not!
This is not simply training people to act like Christians. That can be done, and is done in various ways and for various reasons. People are taught a catechism that they learn to “live” by. They may be given a liturgy that guides their worship. They acknowledge God’s existence in the process and develop habits that reflect features of godliness. Nothing wrong with that…but it doesn’t get to the central feature of the Gospel; knowing the Lord! To know Him is to love Him, and to love Him is to be like Him in a substantial manner. What I’m saying is that our call is not just to agree with Him concerning the features and habits of human existence. 
Our call is to reflect His Light as we go. That involves a sustained fellowship with Him in all that we do…and in all that we are. This is Christian maturity that I’m talking about here. What we know from the Bible guides us to Who we know from the Bible; but it’s our fellowship with the God of the Bible that establishes us as mature Christians who are changed in His Light. Yet this transforming encounter with God is fluid. We don’t just arrive at an acknowledgement of the Lord that converts us once and for all. Our repentance prompts the inauguration of a relationship with God that can transform us into a new creature. As Christian “converts” we’re challenged to resist being
…conformed to this world, but [instead to] be transformed by the renewing of [our minds], so that [we] may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well-pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:2)
Our relationship with God is a relationship that must be maintained. It’s about walking in His Light; not just to see where we’re going, but to maintain who we are as “creatures” of the Light. Right standing with God is derived from a choice that we make to believe and affirm the basic Gospel message of the Christ’s death on our behalf. We can approach the Lord because of it! But the further call is to become Christians who reflect Him in all that we’re about. Not just for show, but substantially. That takes informed discipline, not just a discipline that follows the rules. The call is to reflect Him in our substance, and it’s a call that isn’t achieved once and for all; it’s a posture that must be developed and maintained. “Repentance from dead works and faith toward God” is the initiation of new life in Christ. (Hebrews 6:1) But, arguably, even that initiation is fluid. While it’s debated whether a convert can really backslide, it’s certain that we can get distracted or misled or lazy; which means that the call to walk in the Light requires discipline and diligence. It’s the way to go but you’ve got to want it, establish it, and maintain it!
The world, with all its bells and whistles, provides alternatives to this call to maturity, and in this culture access to those alternatives are everywhere. Through the phone and the internet the world is presented in all its “glory,” as being there for the taking. It’s mesmerizing to those who aren’t alert. But the “Light” of the Gospel—who is God Himself—is also available to those who get off their own throne and step into the Light of His sovereignty. But this isn’t a once and for all decision, it’s possible to go back and forth, to vacillate between the Light and the darkness. Avoiding such vacillation requires watchfulness and the effort to make choices that are stimulated by awareness; it’s an ongoing discipline to walk in the Light by being cognizant of our surroundings. The picture that I get is someone walking through an area with a lot of foliage: high bushy trees and dense leafy plants that press into the path being followed by someone on a sunny day. As the person walks along the path sunlight shines from above, but the light is also interrupted by shadow because of the foliage. As they walk along the path their features fluctuate; sometimes they’re clearly visible, sometimes the shadow is so dark that they seem to disappear. Sometimes the path is visible to the person; sometimes they can’t see the ground. Life as a Christian can be like that if we’re not vigilant to maintain our posture before the Lord…if we don’t walk in His Light!
For too many of us, meandering may be the norm. We’re serious and focused on the Lord when we’re engaged with the activities of the Church, but when we’re away from Church we become overly affected by what the world has to offer. Another way of saying it is that the Lord is someone we visit when we’re doing Christian things like praying, reading the Bible, or participating in Church. When we’re away from those things our path is speckled with Light and darkness. Sometimes we’re “shining in the Light of His glory” other times we act as creatures of the darkness. The call is for us to walk in His Light consistently. (As I’m writing this I’m speaking to myself as well as to you!). We need to be consistent in our walk, always in a posture that’s informed by His Light. That means giving up our sovereignty and embracing and relishing His sovereignty. And the means for that to take place is Love which is God Himself. God is Love and God is Light. Instead of reflecting a vacillating countenance informed by both darkness and light, we’re able to present a consistent rendition of God as Love, because our love of God is consistent, dispelling our love of this world. Not easy; not easy at all! Some people seem to be capable of doing this “naturally” to a certain extent, but for most of us, focusing on self is too often the norm. And even those who seem to reflect the Light can be motivated by selfish ambitions such as being “holier than thou.” What Scripture is telling us is that real Love and true Light only comes from God, which is then reflected on us through our love for Him. We give up self-indulgence; repenting in order to obtain the superior gift of the Love of God.
The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who abides in Him ought to walk in the same manner as He walked. (1 John 2:3-6)
The call isn’t just to keep His commandments. We can try to do that on our own, but nobody can be consistent in that attempt, and it doesn’t really establish what the Lord desires, which is for us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Deuteronomy 6:5) Rather the call is for us to abide in His presence which is informed by our love of God. However, our love of God doesn’t allow for competitors. We may be called to “love our neighbor” as our self, but that can only be done rightly if we love our Lord above all others. It’s by abiding in the Lord that the fruits of the Spirit such as love, peace and kindness are acquired and exhibited. And Jesus plainly said that bearing such fruit is impossible if we’re not abiding in Him. (Galatians 5; John 15)
The meandering that we too often exhibit is the result of our vacillating and compromised love for the Lord. This results in inconsistencies in our behavior. Outbursts of anger, inappropriate use of money, succumbing to temptations, all are the result of a compromised love of God. He is a jealous God in that respect, and He longs for faithful and consistent love for Him because He knows that’s what is best for us.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
What Jesus did for us was to open the door for us to have fellowship with God. But the call isn’t just to believe that the Lord did this for us, it’s a call to establish and maintain fellowship with Him; to be informed by, and to reflect, our love of Him. The challenge I’m making here is for all of us to stop the meandering and take full advantage of what the Lord has provided; to lay aside—or reevaluate—those things in our lives that can distract us and dilute our love for our Lord. We need to be consistent Christians, and that consistency comes from a love of God that’s not distracted by anything else.
Praise the Lord!