Light – Life – Love
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ne
day when I had been assigned to give a Wednesday night devotional, I sat on the
patio to think about a subject pertaining to God. I began by considering the
question, “What are three words that
help describe the awesomeness of God?”
Almost immediately three words came into my mind—all three beginning
with the letter “L”! The words
were “LIGHT,” “LIFE,” and “LOVE.”
Then it occurred to me that these three words are important throughout the
Bible.
Therefore,
would you please study with me the importance of these three words as they
relate to God?
Almost
immediately the Bible begins with God and light. As Moses recorded the days of
creation, on the first day and the first thing that God made was light. “Then
God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). Then as we read further to the fourth
day of creation, we learn that God resumed the subject of light. “Then God
made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars
also” (Genesis 1:16). Therefore,
light is essential for all the other things in God’s creation.
However,
the Bible gives even a greater importance to light, because light is used to
describe God. Centuries later, the Holy Spirit guided the apostle John to
write, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you,
that God is light and in Him is no
darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
Before
Jesus made His appearance on this earth, Malachi, the last recorded Old
Testament prophet announced, “The Sun of
Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings” (Malachi 4:2). When
the apostle John introduced Jesus as the Word in his book, he wrote: “In Him was life, and the life was the light
of men” (John 1:4).
The
sinful world did not like this light from heaven exposing their darkness on
earth, but this did not stop Jesus from shining. He taught: “And this is the
condemnation, that the
light has come
into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil” (John 3:19).
All
through His ministry, Jesus showed the world the light of God. In fact, He
identified Himself as being the “light of the world,” John 8:12, and taught His disciples to
be reflectors of His light (Matthew 5:14-16). Christians are also commanded to
walk in the light of God so they can enjoy fellowship with one another and the
cleansing blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7). Without doubt, light is an essential
word to describe God!
After
God made light, He then used His power to make life.
From the smallest creature to the largest animals that roam the land and swim
in the sea, God gave all of them life. But God saved the best until the last.
On the sixth and last day of creation, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over
the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all
the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Genesis 1:26). Man would be more than the animals—he
would be in the image of God.
Therefore,
God followed the following procedure in making man. First of all, he made him a
physical body from the dust, and then gave him an eternal
Soul. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). Thus, the animals had only physical
life, but man had both physical and eternal life.
When
God made man and woman, He placed them in a beautiful, growing, watered, garden
that He had prepared for them. The garden had all kinds of trees, but the
center attraction of it was the tree of life.
In fact, there was only one tree that God declared to be off limits to this
first couple; it was the tree of death (Genesis 2:17). Therefore, they had a
choice between life and death.
Perhaps
the saddest thing recorded in the Bible is the fact that this first couple
chose death—they obeyed the serpent and disobeyed God. The important question
now is, “How will the God of light, life, and love
respond?”
Here is the answer, Adam and Eve, along with all
generations must face the certainty of physical death—”in Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22). This is the sad news! However,
there is also some good news. God also promised spiritual life through the seed
of woman (Genesis 3:15).
Why
didn’t God let Adam and Eve die? After all, they had chosen death! The only way
to answer this question is that He was motivated by love. “For God so
loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life” (John 3:16). But the
question might be asked, “Did the love of God overcome the fact that this first
couple had become sinners?” Yes, God’s love was demonstrated regardless of this
fact! “But God demonstrates His
own love toward us, in that while
we were still sinners, Christ died for us”
(Romans 5:8).
Always
keep in mind that God Himself IS LOVE! The apostle John verifies this truth:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does
not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love
of God was manifested
toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we
might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins”
(1 John 4:7-10).
As
Jesus went about teaching His message of salvation, He lived and taught love. Love your enemies, love your brethren, love the Father, and to His disciples, love one another. Among the things He wanted
to leave with His disciples was the importance of love. When the world saw
them, Jesus wanted them to be identified by love.
“A
new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know
that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34, 35). Love had existed in the Old Testament, but
Jesus exalted it to its greatest heights. He chose love as the badge for all
who followed Him to wear. In this sense, Jesus identified love as a new
commandment.
The apostle Paul taught the exalted kind of love that was lived and commanded by Jesus. Before expressing what love will do, Paul showed its importance and how love affects all the acts of Christianity:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but
have not love, I have become sounding brass or a
clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could
remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the
poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Therefore,
among the many words that can be used to describe the greatness of God, surely
the words LIGHT, LIFE,
and LOVE would describe Him best! —BBBristow