God is Light

I Jn.1:5 - This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and DECLARE unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
Matt.5:16 - Let your light shine so shine before men, that they may SEE your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven

Everything we understand by sight, which is most of what we understand, is understood via light. In the scientific community we have come to define light as electro-magnetic waves that contain information and carry it to decoding collectors within the human brain. Every image, every picture, every imagination, every written word, and every object comes to us in the form of light. Without light we would be…uh…blind.

When astronomers gaze through a telescope they are looking through a machine so to speak that collects light and pieces it together for the human eye and digested by the human brain into understandable information. In essence light is a conduit for truth, transmitting an accurate likeness of the object or events being reflected, but in the final analysis only as truthful as is accurately interpreted by the human brain. Even when analyzed by computers the data must ultimately be seen, comprehended, and put into perspective via the light from the screen, through the retina, and dissected and communicated to the understanding, all beginning with light. So when the Spirit depicts God Himself as Light, He is attempting to help us understand the infinite through the lens of our finite human retina empowered by the infinite wisdom of the Spirit. In application, it is God who communicates truth and God who is Truth.

Light represents truth in the Scripture, and since God is complete truth, the Scriptures also declare that God is light. Just what is light and what are the qualities that define light? They must mean something or God would not have revealed Himself as light.

Light contains many colors within it, although light appears colorless.

And so is truth, pure and uncolored by the creations of the flesh or even the subjective perceptions that come with personal experience. Truth can only remain untarnished and pure when it is understood and communicated through an impartial interpreter that seeks only to present what has been given without subjective analysis. To break it down further, what God reveals to us can only be understood in its naked and uncontaminated essence when it is understood and communicated in the absolute, even if the absolute contains some variations in application. Any human subjectivism, no matter how well intentioned, compromise God’s truth and begin a process of deterioration that devalues the original intent and understanding.

So God communicated His pristine truth through the fallen writings of men while still preserving the core and immutable eternality of His truth and ultimately of His character. How could God accomplish this through fallen men and their imperfect methods of communication, namely writing? It is a magnificent mystery that gives all the glory to God and His Spirit and presents man as poor channels, mostly unaware, but used of the Spirit as the lips of Almighty God. The Word of Truth comes forth through the pen of liars and remains the truth of God. The process can only be understood by faith, surely not the microscope of the understanding of the flesh, sometimes referred to as science falsely so-called.

So everyone of us has imperfections and subjective perceptions that can be used to alter the perfect light of truth that has been communicated to our spirits by the Holy Spirit. Like a personal game of “gossip”, the Spirit speaks truth to us and after this truth has made the rounds within the subjectivity of our brains it can come forth as something much different than what God desired to communicate. Even when we self righteously rely on our good intentions we can be fooled by our own fallen heart and imperfect interpretive process.

Light that goes through a prism comes out changed.

When light was sent through a prism it was discovered that light could be dissected into different colors. These colors were inherent within the colorless beam but they were there nonetheless. And so are many corresponding truths and applications inherent within each separate precept of God’s truth. Every truth that comes from the Father is interconnected with the entirety of the Word, God’s unabridged truth. No truth can be culled out to stand alone and form a complete theology, every morsel of truth must be compared and pieced together with the entirety of God’s revealed truth in order to present and understand the accurate completeness of God Himself and His truth.

Now just as a prism divides the different colors within light, so often do the prisms of our personal prejudices divide the different colors of a certain truth, only to exhibit a section of that particular truth framed in the limited understanding that has been winnowed by our particular human experience. So many times we have been guilty of gleaning a particular facet of a truth and proclaimed that facet as the whole, while refusing to allow any further illumination because of fear and prideful intransigence. And perhaps no single human has ever seen all the colors of any particular truth and with God’s wisdom we all can benefit from the Spirit filled prisms of other believers. And so we run the risk of presenting the elephant as a trunk and resisting the rest of the multi-faceted animal.

This of course does not mean that we should receive every believer’s interpretation of God’s light and truth, on the contrary we must be circumspect in our approach. Remember, even the interpretations that emanate from the mind of others must again pass through your own prism. Every believer is responsible for his receiving and understanding of God’s revealed truth, and to rely on the prism of others is not only dangerous, it is rejecting an element of God’s truth itself.

We all must have the confidence that God’s Word is absolutely true but that no man can have any personal and exclusive interpretation. And our entire pursuit of the fullness of God’s truth must be saturated with humility and a constant recognition of our own fallibility. And even with the understanding that comes through the illumination of God’s Spirit, we must be gracious and humble conduits that neither shy away from speaking the truth nor drawing attention to us in any way.

Light that comes close to a large object is bent by gravity.

Einstein theorized that light would bend when passing by a strong gravitational field created by a large object. That was proven by observing the position of stars during a solar eclipse. The same can be said for the light that carries God’s truth. When that truth comes too close to the gravitational pull of the will of man, it will appear as truth but will in reality be altered. How often has God’s truth found itself being bent by man’s interpretation and being presented either incorrectly or incomplete? Are we not so prone to leap upon a truth, package it within our own understanding, and use it to confront others before actually fully reflecting it in our own lives? How effective would be our witness of God’s truth be if it was projected in conjunction with a living example?

Like the bending of light by a gravitational force, God’s truth can enter our spirits and appear modified when it is communicated by and through us due to the pull of our pride, flesh, and well intentioned subjectivity. And like a masterpiece being presented in a flawed frame, so can a communication of God’s truth become ineffective when framed in the flesh of man. Only to the degree the Spirit can eclipse our personal agendas can the Spirit use us as clear transmitters of His glorious truth. It sounds so easy and yet it takes a crucifixion of whatever is us dying to whatever is Him alone.

So God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. And the Lord Jesus Himself commanded us to remove the hindrance of our own individual baskets and let His light shine through us to a world in desperate need of seeing and understanding light, God’s illuminating truth. This world needs to hear and see God’s life changing truth spoken and lived through humble, earthen vessels that are constantly aware of who they are, Who He is, and the temptation to get in the way of the perfect light. Is it not noteworthy that there are millions of followers of God’s truth whose lives should be so incandescent that the darkness would be impacted before the eyes of even the doubters?

The world sees much too much of us and not nearly enough of Him. Let His light shine through us and in that…He is glorified.