Tuesday

Related Verses
1 John 4:8, 16
8 He who does not love has not known God, because God is love.
16 And we know and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him.

1 John 1:5
5 And this is the message which we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

2 Pet. 1:4
4 Through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust.

Matt. 5:14, 48
14 You are the light of the world. It is impossible for a city situated upon a mountain to be hidden.
48 You therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matt. 19:17
17 And He said to him, Why do you ask Me concerning what is good? There is only One who is good. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.

Rom. 2:1
1 Therefore you are without excuse, O every man who judges, for in what you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.

Rom. 5:17-18
17 For if by the offense of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
18 So then as it was through one offense unto condemnation to all men, so also it was through one righteous act unto justification of life to all men.

Related Reading
Ephesians 5:1-21 presents a practical and fine aspect of Christ: the light with love for the believers’ walk. In the New Testament, light and love, like reality (truth) and grace, are a pair. Light is the source of reality, and love is the source of grace. Hence, light and love form a pair as the source of reality and grace; reality and grace form a pair as the issue of light and love. When light shines out, it becomes truth; when love is expressed, it becomes grace. 

The Gospel of John reveals that when Christ came, grace and reality came with Him (1:17); grace came from divine love, and reality came from divine light. The first Epistle of John goes on to reveal that when we receive Christ, fellowship with Him, and live by grace and reality, He brings us into the fellowship with the Father; in the Father’s presence we touch His love as the source of grace and His light as the source of truth. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 3439) 

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Love and light are actually God Himself; they are God’s being, His essence (1 John 4:8; 1:5). Grace and reality come out of God the Father, but love and light are God the Father. First, we believe in the Lord Jesus and receive grace and truth. Then by enjoying grace and truth, we are brought back to the source of grace and truth, God the Father as love and light. By staying in the fellowship with God as love and light, we become beloved children of God walking in love and light. We who seek Christ and love God should be children of light walking in love and light. Because both love and light are God, to be children of light walking in love and light is to be children of God walking in God. 

In Ephesians 4:17-32 we see Christ as the reality and grace for the living of the new man, whereas in 5:1-21 we see Christ as the light with love for the believers’ walk. Christ as the light shines on the believers, and the issue of this shining is the truth, the reality. The Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind because they do not have the shining of the light (4:17-18), but we the believers have the divine light, which is God Himself, shining over us and even making us light (5:8). 

In 5:13-14 we see that Christ is the light shining on the believers. “All things which are reproved are made manifest by the light; for everything that makes manifest is light. Therefore He says, Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” The Greek word rendered “reproved” in verse 13 may also be rendered “exposed” or “uncovered.” If we are being exposed or rebuked, we should simply receive the exposure, the rebuke. If we do this, we will be blessed. We will be aroused from sleep, and Christ will shine on us. Every rebuke is the shining of Christ. Whenever we are rebuked, we should say, “Lord, I worship You for Your shining. This rebuke is Your shining, and I receive it.” To receive a rebuke is to walk in light. This means that if we are not willing to accept a rebuke, we are walking in darkness. If we are truly walking in the light, we will be able to profit from any kind of rebuking. 

Christ is light to the believers; Christ shines upon them and enlightens them. According to verse 14, the sleeping one who needs the exposing mentioned in verse 13 is also a dead one. He needs to awake from sleep and arise from the dead. When we expose or reprove anyone who is sleeping and in the darkness of death, Christ will shine on him. Our exposing or reproving in light is Christ’s shining. 

Christ is the light making the believers light to walk as children of light in love. We the children of light should walk in love. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3439-3441) 

Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 342