In the gospel of John, the apostle's self-professed purpose in writing is "...that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (Jn. 20:31). The concept of life in His name runs throughout John's gospel as well as his epistles. The source of life in His name is the light which Jesus came to shed on this dark, dreary world. In John 1:4-5, we learn in Christ "...was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." In these verses we have a beautiful picture of God's glorious provision for our eternal needs in the life of Christ. Sadly, it is punctuated with humanity's stubborn resistence to God's attempts to save us from our sins. Those who should have known Him best were blinded by the light. It was not so much that they could not see His light as it was that they would not receive it (Jn. 1:10-11; 3:18-21).
The reception of His light is an exercise in learning. In Ephesians 4:17-19, Paul discussed the futile ways of the Gentiles with their "...understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them..." By way of contrast, Paul says in vs. 20, "But you have not so learned Christ..." Again in Colossians 1:9-14, Paul intertwines the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of Christ with being delivered from "...the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love..." (vs. 13). We may then confidently conclude the only way to come to the light and life of the Son is through gaining understanding of Him.
Learning is a difficult task, especially as it pertains to spiritual wisdom. It is often difficult to open our hearts and minds to understand and apply spiritual truths previously unknown to us. Loving Jesus is easy until He starts meddling in our business. We would do well to know what a challenge learning Jesus is lest we become the tower builders who failed to count the cost and were unable to finish (Lk. 14:28-30).
Plato's allegory of the cave is a great illustration of the difficulty of learning. In the story, a group of men have been chained to primitive chairs facing the wall of the cave their entire lives. A fire burns behind them all the time with people bustling about between the fire and the men in the chairs. All these men know of their world is the shadows which are cast on the walls from the people moving about behind them. For them, this is reality. However, one day one of the men is freed from his chair. As he turns to look behind himself, the light of the fire burns his eyes prompting him to swiftly look away. He was blinded by the light. Nonetheless, his new vision was too tantalizing to avoid. He finally fought past the pain of the light in his eyes and was eventually able to look at the fire.
In amazement, he was led by the hand to the mouth of the cave and out into the broad daylight. This new vision was completely overwhelming as he had never seen anything remotely close in brightness. He immediately turned and looked to the shadows to avoid the pain of the sun shining in his eyes. Once again, after a little while his eyes adjusted to the brightness of this new reality. His understanding was changed forever, and he could never be satisfied with life in the shadows again. Such is likewise true when we learn Christ and see His light. It is difficult to accept at first, but when we have embraced it, our previous vision (or lack thereof) will never satisfy again.
In the conclusion of Plato's allegory, the man rushed back into the cave and released the others from their chains in order to share his new found vision with them. They too were blinded by the light. Sadly, these men hated the light so badly they turned and attacked their liberator and rejected the light he brought to view. As we discover more of the light of the Son of God, may we be as the first man who, though he found the reception of the new light painful in the beginning, he could not bear to look away and pushed through the pain. The end result was his life was illuminated like never before. Whatever we do, we must not allow our hearts to be blinded by His light.
The reception of His light is an exercise in learning. In Ephesians 4:17-19, Paul discussed the futile ways of the Gentiles with their "...understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them..." By way of contrast, Paul says in vs. 20, "But you have not so learned Christ..." Again in Colossians 1:9-14, Paul intertwines the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of Christ with being delivered from "...the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love..." (vs. 13). We may then confidently conclude the only way to come to the light and life of the Son is through gaining understanding of Him.
Learning is a difficult task, especially as it pertains to spiritual wisdom. It is often difficult to open our hearts and minds to understand and apply spiritual truths previously unknown to us. Loving Jesus is easy until He starts meddling in our business. We would do well to know what a challenge learning Jesus is lest we become the tower builders who failed to count the cost and were unable to finish (Lk. 14:28-30).
Plato's allegory of the cave is a great illustration of the difficulty of learning. In the story, a group of men have been chained to primitive chairs facing the wall of the cave their entire lives. A fire burns behind them all the time with people bustling about between the fire and the men in the chairs. All these men know of their world is the shadows which are cast on the walls from the people moving about behind them. For them, this is reality. However, one day one of the men is freed from his chair. As he turns to look behind himself, the light of the fire burns his eyes prompting him to swiftly look away. He was blinded by the light. Nonetheless, his new vision was too tantalizing to avoid. He finally fought past the pain of the light in his eyes and was eventually able to look at the fire.
In amazement, he was led by the hand to the mouth of the cave and out into the broad daylight. This new vision was completely overwhelming as he had never seen anything remotely close in brightness. He immediately turned and looked to the shadows to avoid the pain of the sun shining in his eyes. Once again, after a little while his eyes adjusted to the brightness of this new reality. His understanding was changed forever, and he could never be satisfied with life in the shadows again. Such is likewise true when we learn Christ and see His light. It is difficult to accept at first, but when we have embraced it, our previous vision (or lack thereof) will never satisfy again.
In the conclusion of Plato's allegory, the man rushed back into the cave and released the others from their chains in order to share his new found vision with them. They too were blinded by the light. Sadly, these men hated the light so badly they turned and attacked their liberator and rejected the light he brought to view. As we discover more of the light of the Son of God, may we be as the first man who, though he found the reception of the new light painful in the beginning, he could not bear to look away and pushed through the pain. The end result was his life was illuminated like never before. Whatever we do, we must not allow our hearts to be blinded by His light.