“The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening [giving light to] the eyes.” Psalm 19:8
How often do you think about light?
By the grace of God, we have been given the sun with earth’s very predictable pattern of rotation around it. Because of this, our daily lives are generally divided by light. Daytime being when we are awake and live our lives, and nighttime being when we sleep and rest. Many cultures, such as ours, have the added blessing of being able to function even when we aren’t experiencing the light of the sun because of the very recent and modern convenience of electricity.
During the day, the light from the sun is everywhere. As a result of this, we can see what’s around us! I confess I am prone to take the light of the sun (and even electricity) for granted. But without it, our lives would be very different. When we stop and think about light (whether from the sun or electricity) and how critical it is to our daily lives, it’s very humbling. For those of us who have sight and trust our eyes, we are dependent upon light to function in the physical world.
What is true regarding the impact of light in the physical world, is an example of a spiritual truth that runs much deeper and has much wider ramifications: as we are dependent upon light to enable us to see and function in the physical realm, we are also completely dependent upon the Light of God to give us revelation into our spiritual AND physical conditions as we navigate life.
Jesus Himself said, “I am the Light of the world; He who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life.”1 If we desire to know the Light of life and follow Him we will need the word of God.
It is through the word of God that Jesus gives us the Light we need to navigate life so that we have the spiritual light we need2 to daily worship Him with our choices. His word is filled with exceedingly great and precious promises which give us light so we can honor Him3!
Each of those promises have been placed in the word of God with purpose and intent by God. For the unsaved, the purpose of the light of the word is to convict of sin and spiritual poverty and point to the Savior, Jesus! For each of us who have believed in Jesus, our risen Savoir, the word of God is priceless and our greatest treasure as it reveals to us the heart of God. We need to know how to walk in His light as we pursue sanctification and holiness4 in order that He would be seen in us.
God wants us to have the light we need, to understand and know Him in any and all circumstances. If we truly count it all loss for the sake of knowing Him more5 then we will need His word to enlighten us when our circumstances tempt us to believe something about God that isn’t true6. His word is given to us as that light.
We are told that His word is pure because we live in a dark world and we have an enemy who has as his goal to destroy us7. Add to that our own sinful nature8 that we won’t be able to completely cast off until heaven and you can see why we need a Savior who has a PURE word.
As we daily read the word in faith and receive its instruction, God’s instruction, light is given to us9, and we are able to see beyond what our physical eyes ever could. Not only will our eyes be enlightened, but we will be filled with His light10 and able to truly see.
Here are all the scriptures I referenced above, if you want to go deeper in the word!
1 – John 8:12
2 – Psalms 119:105
3 – 2 Peter 1: 3-4
4 – Hebrews 12:14
5 – Philippians 3:8
6 – James 1:21-25
7 – 1 Peter 5:8
8- Romans 6:16
9 – 1 John 1:5
10 – Matthew 7:22